The Life and Adventures of Bruce, the African Traveller

by Sir Francis Bond Head

"At half past eight o'clock," says Bruce, "we encamped at a place called Tubbo, where the mountains are very steep, and broken very abruptly into cliffs and precipices. Tubbo was by much the most agreeable station we had seen; the trees were thick, full of leaves, and gave us abundance of very dark shade. There was a number of many different kinds, so closely planted that they seemed to be intended for natural arbours. Every tree was full of birds, variegated with an infinity of colours, but destitute of song; others, of a more homely and more European appearance, diverted us with a variety of wild notes, in a style of music still distinct and peculiar to Africa; as different in the composition from our linnet and goldfinch as our English language is to that of Abyssinia. Yet, from very attentive and frequent observation, I found that the skylark at Masuah sang the same notes as in England. It was observable, that the greatest part of the beautiful painted birds were of the jay or magpie kind. Nature seemed, by the fineness of their dress, to have marked them for children of noise and impertinence, but never to have intended them for pleasure or meditation."

Leaving Tubbo, they proceeded on their journey and at night encamped by the side of a rivulet, in a narrow valley full of trees and brushwood: a number of antelopes were running about in all directions; but as the Hazorta tribes were supposed to be in the neighbourhood, Bruce was advised not to fire until he reached the mountain of Tarenta, at the foot of which he arrived on the following morning. In the cool of the evening they began to ascend the mountain by a path of great steepness, and full of holes and gullies made by the torrents. With extreme difficulty Bruce and his party crawled along, each man carrying his knapsack and arms; but it seemed quite impossible to carry the baggage and the instruments.

The quadrant had hitherto been carried by eight men, four of whom relieved the others; but they now gave up the undertaking after proceeding a few hundred yards. Various expedients, such as dragging it along the ground, etc., were then proposed. "At last," says Bruce, "as I was incomparably the strongest of the company, as well as the most interested, I and the Moor Yasine (the man who had behaved so gallantly when Bruce's vessel was aground in the Red Sea) carried the head of it for about four hundred yards, over the more difficult and steepest part of the mountain, which before had been considered as impracticable by all. We carried it steadily up the steep, eased the case gently over the big stones on which, from time to time, we rested it, and, to the wonder of them all, placed the head of the three-foot quadrant, with its double case, in safety, far above the stony parts of the mountain. At Yasine's request, we then undertook the next difficult task, which was to carry the iron foot of the quadrant." Bruce and Yasine suffered much in this exertion; "their hands and feet were cut and mangled with sliding down and clambering over the sharp points of the rocks, and their clothes were torn to pieces." However, at last, after infinite toil, and with as much pleasure, they succeeded in placing all their instruments and baggage about half way up this terrible mountain of Tarenta.

There were five asses, which were quite as difficult to get up the mountain as the baggage. The greater part of their burdens had been carried by the party up to the instruments; and it was then proposed, as a thing very easy to be done, to make the unladen beasts follow the baggage; but they no sooner found themselves at liberty, and that it was required of them to ascend a steep mountain, than they began to kick and bite each other violently; and finally, with one consent, away they ran, braying down the hill, until at length they stopped to eat some bushes.

The hyænas, which were lurking about, had probably been seen or smelt by these animals, as they all collected in a body; and in this defensive position they were found by their masters, who proceeded again to drive them up the mountain. The hyænas, however, followed them step by step, until the men began to be quite as much afraid for themselves as for the asses. At last the wild beasts became so bold that one of them seized a donkey and pulled him down. A general engagement would probably have ensued, had not Yasine's man fired his gun, the report of which made the enemy retire, leaving the asses and the ass-drivers to pursue their way; but it was nearly midnight before these jaded long and short eared stragglers joined their masters.

Bruce having encouraged his people by good words, increase of wages, and promises of reward, early the next morning they started to encounter the other half of the mountain. The baggage now moved on briskly. The upper part of the mountain was steeper, more craggy, rugged, and slippery than the lower, but not as much embarrassed by large stones and holes. "Our knees and hands," says Bruce, "were cut to pieces by frequent falls, and our faces torn by the multitude of thorny bushes. I twenty times now thought of what Achmet had told me at parting, that I should curse him for the bad road shown to me over Tarenta." However, with great difficulty they at last reached the summit, upon which they found a small village, chiefly inhabited by very poor people, who tend the flocks belonging to the town of Dixan.

Salt sneers, as usual, at Bruce's description of the difficulties he encountered in ascending Tarenta. He says, "We did not meet with a single hyæna or troglodytical cave, and, luckily, 'had not our hands and knees cut by frequent falls, or our faces torn by thorny bushes,' which last, indeed, appears scarcely possible in so open and frequented a path." Now Bruce never said that the hyænas of Tarenta would find Mr. Salt, or that Mr. Salt would find the caves which Bruce says he went out of his path to see: yet, if Mr. Salt had ever read the following extract from the account of a journey made into Ethiopia (by Father Remedio of Bohemia, Martino of Bohemia, and Antonio of Aleppo, of the order of Reformed Minorites of St. Francis, missionaries for the propagation of the Christian faith), he would, perhaps, have hesitated before he ventured to accuse Bruce of exaggeration, more especially in regard to "the thorns and briers of Tarenta."

"Our way" (from Masuah), says one of those fathers, "lay over high mountains, deep valleys, and through impenetrable woods, in passing which we encountered many dangers and grievous hardships. More than once we were obliged to climb the tops of the mountains on our hands and feet, which were sorely rent and torn with brambles and thorny bushes. No house nor inn being found here, everybody is obliged to lay in the open air, exposed to the depredations of robbers, and liable every moment to become the prey of wolves, lions, tigers, and beasts of a similar description, which are almost continually met with, of all which I shall cease to speak, from the horror and dread with which the very thought of them still afflicts me."

It has already been stated that Lord Valentia published "Voyages and Travels to Abyssinia," etc., although he had merely landed at the port of Masuah, which does not belong to Abyssinia; his evidence, therefore, cannot carry with it much weight, and still with his own secretary he may be allowed to dispute. "The night," says his lordship, "was cooler, and I was not so restless; in the morning I had no fever, and at dinner some appetite. I viewed from my window the island of Valentia, distant about five leagues; Ras Gidden, and the chain of mountains that lines the coast of the Red Sea from this place to the plains of Egypt. Behind these the summit of Tarenta peeps out, and gives credit, by its height, to Mr. Bruce's account of the difficulty he had in ascending it."