A priest of the Propaganda, a native of Egypt, and consequently possessing every advantage of language and local knowlege, during my absence to the Southward, had endeavoured to penetrate into Abyssinia. Having reached Sennaar, he was dissuaded by the people of that city from attempting to proceed. Unmindful of their representations he prosecuted his journey, but was assassinated between Sennaar and Teawa.
The Propagandists had a single missionary, a native of Habbesh, at Gondar, and styled Bishop of Adel, but concealing himself under the exterior of a physician. In 1796, the order at Kahira told me that they had received no authentic intelligence concerning him during several years preceding.
At Suez, March 1793, I met an Armenian merchant, who had formerly traded to Abyssinia, and seemed a man of intelligence. He told me that he was at Gondâr while Bruce was there, and that Yakûb was universally talked of with praise. This merchant narrated of his own accord the story of shooting a wax-candle through seven shields; but when I asked him if Bruce had been at the Abyssinian source of the Nile, he affirmed that he never was there. He observed that Bruce had been appointed governor of Râs-el-Fîl, a province in which Arabic is spoken. My informer added, that the Abyssins were a gross ignorant people, and often ate raw flesh.
In Dar-Fûr a Bergoo merchant, named Hadji Hamâd, who had long resided in Sennaar, and was in Bruce’s party from Gondar to Sennaar, said that Yakûb had been highly favoured in the Abyssinian court, and lived splendidly. He was often observing the stars, &c. Both my informers agreed that he had been governor of Râs-el-Fîl; and both, that he had never visited the Abyssinian source of the Nile, esteemed the real one in that ignorant country.
An Englishman under the name of Robarts came to Alexandria in 1788, and after a short stay proceeded to Kahira. His intention was, it is said, to have penetrated into Abyssinia by way of Massuah. While at Kahira he applied repeatedly to the Coptic Patriarch for a letter from him to the head of the Abyssin church; with which the latter, under various pretences, constantly refused to furnish him. He continued at Kahira several months, and afterwards found his way to Moccha. Repeated attempts were made by him to execute his projected voyage to the opposite territory, but all without success. The persons from whom I received this information, and who, as would seem, derived it from his own authority, assured me that he had encountered almost insurmountable obstacles, and been obliged to submit even to personal indignities. They allowed too that this gentleman was far from being unqualified for the enterprize, in judgment, experience, or physical force. The same persons acquainted me that he had afterwards advanced to the Mogul peninsula, and had accompanied the British troops, during two campaigns, against the usurper of Mysore, in various parts of the peninsula. He even returned to Alexandria after the treaty of Seringapatam; and at that place, being attacked by an acute disease, breathed his last in the Franciscan convent there established. More authentic and interesting materials respecting this traveller, may possibly have reached this country. Yet I thought it not improper to mention these few particulars, which may tend to illustrate the nature of a voyage to Abyssinia.
The errors in African geography are numerous, and proceed from various causes. Among those causes, however, are particularly to be enumerated,
That the same province has often one name in the language of that province, and another in Arabic. Of the places called indiscriminately Fertît by the Arabs, each little district has an appropriate name.
Again, the name of a small province is occasionally taken for a large one, and vice versâ. Bahr is applied to a great lake, as well as to a river. Dar is a kingdom, and is sometimes applied to a village, and often to a district.
Fûr seems to be an Arabic name, signifying in that tongue a Deer; and, it may be conjectured, has been applied to that people in the same sense as Towshân, a hare, is by the Turks to the natives of the Greek islands—from the rapidity of their flight before the Mohammedan conquerors.
Nothing can well be more vague than the use of the word Soudan or Sûdan. Among the Egyptians and Arabs Ber-es-Soudan is the place where the caravans arrive, when they reach the first habitable part of Dar-Fûr: but that country seems its eastern extremity; for I never heard it applied to Kordofân or Sennaar. It is used equally in Dar-Fûr to express the country to the West; but on the whole seems ordinarily applied to signify that part of the land of the blacks nearest Egypt.