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TRAVELS

TO DISCOVER THE

SOURCE OF THE NILE,

In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773.

IN FIVE VOLUMES.

BY JAMES BRUCE OF KINNAIRD, ESQ. F.R.S.

[Illustration: _Heath Sc_]

VOL. III.

  _Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem_,
  _Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet._----
                          OVID. Metam.

  EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY J. RUTHVEN, FOR G. G. J. AND J. ROBINSON,
  PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

  M.DCC.XC.




  CONTENTS

  OF THE

  THIRD VOLUME.


  BOOK V.

  ACCOUNT OF MY JOURNEY FROM MASUAH TO GONDAR--TRANSACTIONS
  THERE--MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF
  THE ABYSSINIANS.


  CHAP. I.

  _Transactions at Masuah and Arkeeko_,                              1


  CHAP. II.

  _Directions to Travellers for preserving Health--Diseases
      of the Country--Music--Trade_, &c. _of Masuah--Conferences
      with the Naybe_,                                              31


  CHAP. III.

  _Journey from Arkeeko over the Mountain Taranta, to Dixan_,       64


  CHAP. IV.

  _Journey from Dixan to Adowa, Capital of Tigré_,                  93


  CHAP. V.

  _Arrive at Adowa--Reception there--Visit Fremona--And Ruins
      of Axum--Arrive at Siré_,                                    118


  CHAP. VI.

  _Journey from Siré to Addergey, and Transactions there_,         152


  CHAP. VII.

  _Journey over Lamalmon to Gondar_,                               172


  CHAP. VIII.

  _Reception at Gondar--Triumphal Entry of the King--The
      Author’s first Audience_,                                    197


  CHAP. IX.

  _Transactions at Gondar_,                                        233


  CHAP. X.

  _Geographical Division of Abyssinia into Provinces_,             248


  CHAP. XI.

  _Various Customs in Abyssinia, similar to those in Persia_,
      &c.--_A bloody Banquet described_, &c.                       262


  CHAP. XII.

  _State of Religion--Circumcision--Excision_, &c.                 313


  BOOK VI.

  FIRST ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER THE SOURCE OF THE NILE
  FRUSTRATED--A SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY THITHER, WITH
  A FULL ACCOUNT OF EVERY THING RELATING TO THAT
  CELEBRATED RIVER.


  CHAP. I.

  _The Author made Governor of Ras el Feel_,                       359


  CHAP. II.

  _Battle of Banja--Conspiracy against Michael--The Author
      retires to Emfras--Description of Gondar, Emfras, and
      Lake Tzana_,                                                 373


  CHAP. III.

  _The King encamps at Lamgué--Transactions there--Passes
      the Nile, and encamps at Derdera--The Author follows
      the King_,                                                   389


  CHAP. IV.

  _Pass the River Gomara--Remarkable Accident there--Arrive at
      Dara--Visit the Great Cataract of Alata--Leave Dara, and
      resume our Journey_,                                         405

  CHAP. V.

  _Pass the Nile, and encamp at Tsoomwa--Arrive
      at Derdera--Alarm on approaching the Army--Join
      the King at Karcagna_,                                       432

  CHAP. VI.

  _King’s Army retreats towards Gondar--Memorable Passage of
      the Nile--Dangerous Situation of the Army--Retreat of
      Kefla Yasous--Battle of Limjour--Unexpected Peace with
      Fasil--Arrival at Gondar_,                                   446

  CHAP. VII.

  _King and Army retreat to Tigrè--Interesting Events following
      that Retreat--The Body of Joas is found--Socinios, a new
      King, proclaimed at Gondar_,                                 470

  CHAP. VIII.

  _Second Journey to discover the Source of the Nile--Favourable
      turn of the King’s Affairs in Tigrè--We fall in with
      Fasil’s Army at Bamba_,                                      495

  CHAP. IX.

  _Interview with Fasil--Transactions in the Camp_,                509

  CHAP. X.

  _Leave Bamba, and continue our Journey Southward--Fall in
      with Fasil’s Pagan Galla--Encamp on the Kelti_,              532

  CHAP. XI.

  _Continue our Journey--Fall in with a Party of Galla--Prove
      our Friends--Pass the Nile--Arrive at Goutto, and visit
      the first Cataract_,                                         550

  CHAP. XII.

  _Leave Goutto--Mountains of the Moon--Roguery of Woldo our
      Guide--Arrive at the Source of the Nile_,                    577

  CHAP. XIII.

  _Attempts of the Ancients to discover the Source of the
      Nile--No discovery made in latter Times--No Evidence
      of the Jesuits having arrived there--Kircher’s Account
      fabulous--Discovery completely made by the Author_,          603

  CHAP. XIV.

  _Description of the Sources of the Nile--Of Geesh--Accounts
      of its several Cataracts--Course from its Rise to the
      Mediterranean_,                                              632

  CHAP. XV.

  _Various names of this River--Ancient Opinion concerning
      the Cause of its Inundation--Real Manner by which it
      is effected--Remarkable Disposition of the Peninsula
      of Africa_,                                                  654

  CHAP. XVI.

  _Egypt not the Gift of the Nile--Ancient Opinion
      refuted--Modern Opinion contrary to Proof and Experience_,   672

  CHAP. XVII.

  _The same Subject continued--Nilometer what--How divided
      and measured_,                                               689

  CHAP. XVIII.

  _Inquiry about the Possibility of changing the Course of
      the Nile--Cause of the Nucta_,                               712

  CHAP. XIX.

  _Kind reception among the Agows--Their Number, Trade,
      Character_, &c.                                              726

[Illustration: _PLAN_

_of_

The Island

_and_

Harbour

_of_

MASUAH]




TRAVELS

TO DISCOVER

THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.




BOOK V.

ACCOUNT OF MY JOURNEY FROM MASUAH TO GONDAR--TRANSACTIONS
THERE--MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ABYSSINIANS.




CHAP. I.

_Transactions at Masuah and Arkeeko._


Masuah, which means the port or harbour of the Shepherds, is a small
island immediately on the Abyssinian shore, having an excellent
harbour, and water deep enough for ships of any size to the very edge
of the island: here they may ride in the utmost security, from whatever
point, or with whatever degree of strength, the wind blows. As it takes
its modern, so it received its ancient name from its harbour. It was
called by the Greeks _Sebasticum Os_, from the capacity of its port,
which is distributed into three divisions. The island itself is very
small, scarce three quarters of a mile in length, and about half that
in breadth, one-third occupied, by houses, one by cisterns to receive
the rain-water, and the last is reserved for burying the dead.

Masuah, as we have already observed, was one of those towns on the
west of the Red Sea that followed the conquest of Arabia Felix by
Sinan Basha, under Selim emperor of Constantinople. At that time it
was a place of great commerce, possessing a share of the Indian trade
in common with the other ports of the Red Sea near the mouth of the
Indian Ocean. It had a considerable quantity of exports brought to it
from a great tract of mountainous country behind it, in all ages very
unhospitable, and almost inaccessible to strangers. Gold and ivory,
elephants and buffaloes hides, and, above all, slaves, of much greater
value, as being more sought after for their personal qualities than any
other sort, who had the misfortune to be reduced to that condition,
made the principal articles of exportation from this port. Pearls,
considerable for size, water, or colour, were found all along its
coast. The great convenience of commodious riding for vessels, joined
to these valuable articles of trade, had overcome the inconvenience of
want of water, the principal necessary of life, to which it had been
subjected from its creation.

Masuah continued a place of much resort as long as commerce flourished,
but it fell into obscurity very suddenly under the oppression of the
Turks, who put the finishing-hand to the ruin of the India trade in the
Red Sea, begun some years before by the discovery of the Cape of Good
Hope, and the settlements made by the Portuguese on the continent of
India.

The first government of Masuah under the Turks was by a basha sent from
Constantinople, and from thence, for a time, the conquest of Abyssinia
was attempted, always with great confidence, though never with any
degree of success; so that, losing its value as a garrison, and, at the
same time, as a place of trade, it was thought no longer worth while to
keep up so expensive an establishment as that of a bashalik.

The principal auxiliary, when the Turks conquered the place, was a
tribe of Mahometans called Belowee, shepherds inhabiting the coast of
the Red Sea under the mountains of the Habab, about lat. 14°. In reward
for this assistance, the Turks gave their chief the civil government of
Masuah and its territory, under the title of Naybe of Masuah; and, upon
the basha’s being withdrawn, this officer remained in fact sovereign of
the place, though, to save appearances, he held it of the grand signior
for an annual tribute, upon receiving a firman from the Ottoman Porte.

The body of Janizaries, once established there in garrison, were left
in the island, and their pay continued to them from Constantinople.
These marrying the women of the country, their children succeeded
them in their place and pay as Janizaries; but being now, by their
intermarriages, Moors, and natives of Masuah, they became of course
relations to each other, and always subject to the influence of the
Naybe.

The Naybe finding the great distance he was from his protectors, the
Turks in Arabia, on the other side of the Red Sea, whose garrisons
were every day decaying in strength, and for the most part reduced;
sensible, too, how much he was in the power of the Abyssinians, his
enemies and nearest neighbours, began to think that it was better to
secure himself at home, by making some advances to those in whose
power he was. Accordingly it was agreed between them, that one half of
the customs should be paid by him to the king of Abyssinia, who was
to suffer him to enjoy his government unmolested; for Masuah, as I
have before said, is absolutely destitute of water; neither can it be
supplied with any sort of provisions but from the mountainous country
of Abyssinia.

The same may be said of Arkeeko, a large town on the bottom of the bay
of Masuah, which has indeed water, but labours under the same scarcity
of provisions; for the tract of flat land behind both, called Samhar,
is a perfect desert, and only inhabited from the month of November to
April, by a variety of wandering tribes called Tora, Hazorta, Shiho,
and Doba, and these carry all their cattle to the Abyssinian side of
the mountains when the rains fall there, which is the opposite six
months. When the season is thus reversed, they and their cattle are no
longer in Samhar, or the dominion of the Naybe, but in the hands of
the Abyssinians, especially the governor of Tigré and Baharnagash, who
thereby, without being at the expence and trouble of marching against
Masuah with an army, can make a line round it, and starve all at
Arkeeko and Masuah, by prohibiting any sort of provisions to be carried
thither from their side. In the course of this history we have seen
this practised with great success more than once, especially against
the Naybe Musa in the reign of Yasous I.

The friendship of Abyssinia once secured, and the power of the Turks
declining daily in Arabia, the Naybe began by degrees to withdraw
himself from paying tribute at all to the basha of Jidda, to whose
government his had been annexed by the porte. He therefore received the
firman as a mere form, and returned trifling presents, but no tribute;
and in troublesome times, or a weak government happening in Tigrè, he
withdrew himself equally from paying any consideration, either to the
basha in name of tribute, or to the king of Abyssinia, as share of the
customs. This was precisely his situation when I arrived in Abyssinia.
A great revolution, as we have already seen, had happened in that
kingdom, of which Michael had been the principal author. When he was
called to Gondar and made minister there, Tigré remained drained of
troops, and without a governor.

Nor was the new king, Hatzè Hannes, whom Michael had placed upon the
throne after the murder of Joas his predecessor, a man likely to
infuse vigour into the new government. Hannes was past seventy at his
accession, and Michael his minister lame, so as scarcely to be able
to stand, and within a few years of eighty. The Naybe, a man of about
forty-eight, judged of the debility of the Abyssinian government by
those circumstances, but in this he was mistaken.

Already Michael had intimated to him, that, the next campaign, he would
lay waste Arkeeko and Masuah, till they should be as desert as the
wilds of Samhar; and as he had been all his life very remarkable for
keeping his promises of this kind, the stranger merchants had many
of them fled to Arabia, and others to Dobarwa[1], a large town in the
territories of the Baharnagash. Notwithstanding this, the Naybe had not
shewn any public mark of fear, nor sent one penny either to the king of
Abyssinia or the basha of Jidda.

On the other hand, the basha was not indifferent to his own interest;
and, to bring about the payment, he had made an agreement with an
officer of great credit with the Sherriffe of Mecca. This man was
originally an Abyssinian slave, his name Metical Aga, who by his
address had raised himself to the post of Selictar, or _sword-bearer_,
to the Sherriffe; and, in fact, he was absolute in all his dominions.
He was, moreover, a great friend of Michael governor of Tigré, and had
supplied him with large stores of arms and ammunition for his last
campaign against the king at Gondar.

The basha had employed Metical Aga to inform Michael of the treatment
he had received from the Naybe, desiring his assistance to force him
to pay the tribute, and at the same time intimated to the Naybe, that
he not only had done so, but the very next year would give orders
throughout Arabia to arrest the goods and persons of such Mahometan
merchants as should come to Arabia, either from motives of religion or
trade. With this message he had sent the firman from Constantinople,
desiring the return both of tribute and presents.

Mahomet Gibberti, Metical Aga’s servant, had come in the boat with
me; but Abdelcader, who carried the message and firman, and who was
governor of the island of Dahalac, had sailed at same time with me, and
had been spectator of the honour which was paid my ship when she left
the harbour of Jidda.

Running straight over to Masuah, Abdelcader had proclaimed what he had
seen with great exaggeration, according to the custom of his country;
and reported that a prince was coming, a very near relation to the king
of England, who was no trader, but came only to visit countries and
people.

It was many times, and oft agitated (as we knew afterwards) between
the Naybe and his counsellors, what was to be done with this prince.
Some were for the most expeditious, and what has long been the most
customary method of treating strangers in Masuah, to put them to death,
and divide every thing they had among the garrison. Others insisted,
that they should stay and see what letters I had from Arabia to
Abyssinia, lest this might prove an addition to the storm just ready to
break upon them on the part of Metical Aga and Michael Suhul.

But Achmet, the Naybe’s nephew, said, it was folly to doubt but that a
man, under the description I was, would have protections of every kind;
but whether I had or not, that my very rank should protect me in every
place where there was any government whatever; it might do even among
banditti and thieves inhabiting woods and mountains; that a sufficient
quantity of strangers blood had been already shed at Masuah, for the
purpose of rapine, and he believed a curse and poverty had followed
it; that it was impossible for those who had heard the firing of those
ships to conjecture whether I had letters to Abyssinia or not; that
it would be better to consider whether I was held in esteem by the
captains of those ships, as half of the guns they fired in compliment
to me, was sufficient to destroy them all, and lay Arkeeko and Masuah
as desolate as Michael Suhul had threatened to do; nor could that
vengeance cost any of the ships, coming next year to Jidda, a day’s
sailing out of their way; and there being plenty of water when they
reached Arkeeko at the south-west of the bay, all this destruction
might be effected in one afternoon, and repeated once a-year without
difficulty, danger, or expence, while they were watering.

Achmet, therefore, declared it was his resolution that I should be
received with marks of consideration, till upon inspecting my letters,
and conversing with me, they might see what sort of man I was, and upon
what errand I was come; but even if I was a trader, and no priest or
Frank, such as came to disturb the peace of the country, he would not
then consent to any personal injury being done me; if I was indeed a
priest, or one of those Franks, _Gehennim_, they might send me to hell
if they chose; but he, for his part, would not, even then have any
thing to do with it.

Before our vessel appeared, they came to these conclusions; and though
I have supposed that hoisting the colours and saluting me with guns had
brought me into this danger, on the other hand it may be said, perhaps
with greater reason, they were the means Providence kindly used to
save my life in that slaughter-house of strangers.

Achmet’s father had been Naybe before, and, of course, the sovereignty,
upon the present incumbent’s death, was to devolve on him. And what
made this less invidious, the sons of the present Naybe had all been
swept away by the small-pox; so that Achmet was really, at any rate,
to be considered as his son and successor. Add to this, the Naybe had
received a stroke of the palsy, which deprived him of the use of one of
his sides, and greatly impeded his activity, unless in his schemes of
doing ill; but I could not perceive, when intending mischief, that he
laboured under any infirmity. All this gave Achmet sovereign influence,
and it was therefore agreed the rest should be only spectators, and
that my fate should be left to him.

Achmet was about twenty-five years of age, or perhaps younger; his
stature near five-feet four; he was feebly made, a little bent forward
or stooping, thin, long-faced, long-necked; small, but tolerably
well-limbed, agile and active enough in his motions, though of a
figure by no means athletic; he had a broad forehead, thick black
eye-brows, black eyes, an aquiline nose, thin lips, and fine teeth;
and, what is very rare in that country, and much desired, a thick
curled beard. This man was known to be very brave in his person, but
exceedingly prone to anger. A near relation to the Baharnagash having
said something impertinent to him while he was altering the pin of his
tent, which his servant had not placed to his mind, in a passion he
struck the Abyssinian with a wooden mallet, and killed him on the spot
and although this was in the Abyssinian territory, by getting nimbly
on horseback, he arrived at Arkeeko without being intercepted, though
closely pursued almost to the town.

It was the 19th of September 1769 when we arrived at Masuah, very much
tired of the sea, and desirous to land. But, as it was evening, I
thought it adviseable to sleep on board all night, that we might have
a whole day (as the first is always a busy one) before us, and receive
in the night any intelligence from friends, who might not choose to
venture to come openly to see us in the day, at least before the
determination of the Naybe had been heard concerning us.

Mahomet Gibberti, a man whom we had perfectly secured, and who was
fully instructed in our suspicions as to the Naybe, and the manner we
had resolved to behave to him, went ashore that evening; and, being
himself an Abyssinian, having connections in Masuah, dispatched that
same night to Adowa, capital of Tigrè, those letters which I knew were
to be of the greatest importance; giving our friend Janni (a Greek,
confidential servant of Michael, governor of Tigrè) advice that we
were arrived, had letters of Metical Aga to the Naybe and Ras Michael;
as also Greek letters to him from the Greek patriarch of Cairo, a
duplicate of which I sent by the bearer. We wrote likewise to him in
Greek, that we were afraid of the Naybe, and begged him to send to us
instantly some man of confidence, who might protect us, or at least be
a spectator of what should befal us. We, besides, instructed him to
advise the court of Abyssinia, that we were friends of Metical Aga, had
letters from him to the king and the Ras, and distrusted the Naybe of
Masuah.

Mahomet Gibberti executed this commission in the instant, with all the
punctuality of an honest man, who was faithful to the instructions of
his master, and was independent of every person else. He applied to
Mahomet Adulai, (a person kept by Ras Michael as a spy upon the Naybe,
and in the same character by Metical Aga); and Adulai, that very night,
dispatched a trusty messenger, with many of whom he was constantly
provided. This runner, charged with our dispatches, having a friend and
correspondent of his own among the Shiho, passed, by ways best known to
himself, and was safely escorted by his own friends till the fifth day,
when he arrived at the customhouse of Adowa, and there delivered our
dispatches to our friend Janni.

At Cairo, as I have already mentioned, I met with my friend father
Christopher, who introduced me to the Greek patriarch, Mark. This
patriarch had told me, that there were of his communion, to the number
of about twenty, then in Abyssinia; some of them were good men and