[31] This shell was brought home by Bruce, and is still preserved.
[32] A lady in England to whom Bruce was very deeply attached.
[33] Still doubts have been expressed whether the fountains discovered by Bruce are the most distant source of the Bahr el Azrek or Blue river, Mr. English, an American, who was in the service of Ishmael Pasha, in his narrative of an expedition to Dongola and Sennaar, expresses an opinion that "the Nile of Bruce has not its principal fountain in Abyssinia, but rather in the lofty range assigned for its origin by the people of Sennaar. On viewing the mass of water downward while he was in the kingdom now mentioned, even before the flood had attained two thirds of the usual magnitude it acquires during the rainy season, he thought it very improbable that the main source of such a river was not distant more than three hundred miles."—See History, &c., of Nubia and Abyssinia, Harpers' Family Library.—Am. Ed.
CHAPTER XIV.
Bruce returns to Gondar.—His Residence there.—Accompanies the King in the Battles of Serbraxos.—Revolution at Gondar.—Defeat and Overthrow of Ras Michael.—Bruce returns to Gondar, and succeeds in obtaining Permission to leave Abyssinia.
On the 10th of November, 1770, Bruce left Geesh to return to Gondar, and on the evening of the 11th he reached the house of Shakala Welled Amlac, to whom he had been addressed by Fasil. This singular character was from home; but his wife, mother, and sisters received Bruce kindly, knowing him by report; and, without waiting for Amlac, a cow was instantly slaughtered.
The venerable mistress of this worthy family, Welled Amlac's mother, was a very stout, cheerful woman, and bore no signs of infirmity or old age: "but his wife," says Bruce, "was, on the contrary, as arrant a hag as ever acted the part on the stage; very active, however, and civil, and speaking very tolerable Amharic." His two sisters, about sixteen or seventeen, were really handsome; but Fasil's wife, who was there, was the most beautiful and graceful of them all: she seemed to be scarcely eighteen, tall, thin, and of a very agreeable carriage and manners. At first sight, a cast of melancholy seemed to hang upon her countenance, but this soon vanished, and she became very courteous, cheerful, and conversible.
"Fasil's two sisters," says Bruce, "had been out, helping my servants in disposing the baggage; but when they had pitched my tent, and were about to lay the mattress for sleeping on, the eldest of these interrupted them, and, not being able to make herself understood by the Greeks, she took it up and threw it out of the tent door, while no abuse or opprobrious names were spared by my servants; one of whom came to tell me her impudence, and that they believed we were got into a house of thieves and murderers. To this I answered by a sharp reproof, desiring them to conform to everything the family ordered them.
"Immediately after this Welled Amlac arrived, and brought the disagreeable news that it was impossible to proceed to the ford of the Abay, as two of the neighbouring shums were at variance about their respective districts, and in a day or two would decide their dispute by blows."