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."

Satisfied that Bruce understood him, Amlac put on the most cheerful countenance. Another cow was killed, great plenty of hydromel produced, and he prepared to regale his guests as sumptuously as possible, after the manner of the country. "We were there," says Bruce, "as often before, obliged to overcome our repugnance to eating raw flesh. Shakala Welled Amlac set us the example, entertained us with the stories of his hunting elephants, and feats in the last wars, mostly roguish ones. The room where we were (which was indeed large, and contained himself, mother, wife, sisters, his horses, mules, and servants, night and day) was all hung round with the trunks of these elephants, which he had brought from the neighbouring Kolla, near Guesgue, and killed with his own hands; for he was one of the boldest and best horsemen in Abyssinia, and perfectly master of his arms.

"This Polyphemus feast being finished, the horn of hydromel went briskly about. Welled Amlac's eldest sister, whose name was Melectanea, took a particular charge of me, and I began to find the necessity of retiring and going to bed while I was able."

The next day Bruce observed that Fasil's wife still appeared in low spirits; he therefore conversed with her. She said her husband was at Gondar; that it was the custom of the country that the conqueror should marry the wives of his enemies, and in grief she added, "Fasil will be married, therefore, to Michael's wife, Ozoro Esther." Bruce started at this declaration, remembering that he was losing his time, forgetful of a promise he had made that he would return as soon as possible to Gondar. He therefore resolved to depart at once. "In the afternoon," he says, "we distributed our presents among the ladies. Fasil's wife was not forgot; and his sister, the beautiful Melectanea, was covered with beads, handkerchiefs, and ribands of all colours. Fasil's wife, on my first request, gave me a lock of her fine hair from the root, which has ever since, and at this day does, suspend a plummet of an ounce and a half at the index of my three-feet quadrant."

Accounts being thus settled, Bruce resumed his journey, crossed the Nile at Delakus, and proceeded till three quarters past seven, when he alighted at Googue, a considerable village, and, as he had already several times mistaken his way in the dark, he resolved to go no farther. "We found the people of Googue," says Bruce, "the most savage and inhospitable we had yet met with. Upon no account would they suffer us to enter their houses, and we were obliged to remain without the greatest part of the night. At last they carried us to a house of good appearance, but refused absolutely to give us meat for ourselves or horses; and, as we had not force, we were obliged to be content. It had rained violently in the evening, and we were all wet. We contented ourselves with lighting a large fire in the middle of the house, which we kept burning all night, as well for guard as for drying ourselves, though we little knew at the time that it was probably the only means of saving our lives; for, in the morning, we found the whole village sick of the fever, and two families had died out of the house where these people had put us." This fever prevails in Abyssinia in all low grounds and plains, in the neighbourhood of all rivers which run in valleys: it is not in all places equally dangerous; but on the banks and neighbourhood of the TacazzÉ it is particularly fatal, the valley where that river runs being very low and sultry, and also being full of large trees. It does not prevail on the high grounds, or mountains, or in places much exposed to the air.

On the 14th, at three quarters past seven in the morning, Bruce left the inhospitable village of Googue; and for four days, under a burning sun, continued his journey towards Gondar, where his servants arrived on the 17th of November. "Two things," he says, "chiefly occupied my mind, and prevented me from accompanying my servants and baggage into Gondar. The first was my desire of instantly knowing the state of Ozoro Esther's health: the second was to avoid Fasil till I knew a little more about Ras Michael and the king." Bruce proceeded, therefore, to Koscam, and went straight to the iteghe's apartment, but was not admitted, as she was at her devotions. In crossing one of the courts, however, he met a slave of Ozoro Esther, who, instead of answering the question he put to her, gave a loud shriek, and ran to inform her mistress. Bruce hastened to Ozoro Esther; he found her considerably recovered, her anxiety about Fasil having ceased.

During Bruce's absence a great revolution had been effected at Gondar.

The reader must be reminded, that just before Bruce landed at Masuah, Ras Michael had caused one king to be assassinated and his successor to be poisoned. From these facts, and from the whole tenour of his conduct, the ras was universally hated and feared; and King Tecla Haimanout suffering from the unpopularity of his minister, his throne, during Bruce's visit to Geesh, had been usurped by Socinios, who immediately appointed Fasil to be ras, giving him the command of every post of importance in the government of Abyssinia.

Still the people loved King Tecla Haimanout as much as they secretly detested Socinios; and Fasil, sensible of this feeling, and dreading the displeasure of Ras Michael, at last declared his intention of restoring Tecla Haimanout to the throne; and, encamping within two miles of Gondar, he invited all who wished to escape the vengeance of Michael to join his standard. Socinios fled; but he was taken by some soldiers, who, after stripping him naked, gave him a good horse, and dismissed him, like Mazeppa, to seek his own fortune.

As the servant of Ozoro Esther, Bruce proceeded to join the king's army; and, on arriving at Mariam Ohha, where it was encamped, he waited on Ras Michael, who admitted him as soon as he was announced. On presenting himself, Bruce kissed the ground, though Michael did everything in his power to prevent it; many compliments passed, and the ras recommended Bruce, before all his attendants, to go at once to the king. "I had been," says Bruce, "jostled and almost squeezed to death attempting to enter, but large room was made me for retiring. The reception I had met with was the infallible rule according to which the courtiers were to speak to me from that time forward. Man is the same creature everywhere, although different in colour; the court of London and that of Abyssinia are, in their principles, one."

The king was surrounded by thousands of people; for the inhabitants of Gondar and all the neighbouring towns had assembled, fearing lest Ras Michael should consider their absence as a proof of adherence to the usurper Socinios. Bruce was very kindly received by his majesty, who had always expressed towards him feelings of esteem and regard. He kissed his hand, and, says Bruce, "as I took leave of him, I could not help reflecting as I went, that of the vast multitude then in my sight, I was perhaps the only one destitute of hope or fear."

The hill before him was actually covered with people, and from the white cotton garments in which they were dressed, it appeared like snow. It was in the month of December, which, in Abyssinia, is the most agreeable time of the year. The sun and the rains were in the southern tropic, and the whole scene had the appearance of a party of pleasure assembled to convoy the king to his capital. The priests from all the neighbouring convents, dressed in yellow or white cotton, and holding crosses in their hands, gave variety to the picture.

Ras Michael had brought with him about twenty thousand men from TigrÉ, the best soldiers in the empire; about six thousand were armed with muskets, about twelve thousand had lances and shields, and the rest were mounted on horses, and had been employed in scouring the country, to collect such unhappy people as were destined for public example.

On the morning of the 23d of December, the ras ordered the signal to be given for striking the tents; when the whole army was instantly in motion, and at night it encamped on the banks of the river just below Gondar. In consequence of this movement, a report was spread that the king and Ras Michael had determined to burn the town, and put all the inhabitants to the sword, which occasioned the utmost consternation, and caused many to fly to Fasil.

"As for me," says Bruce, "the king's behaviour showed me plainly all was not right, and an accident in the way confirmed it. He had desired me to ride before him, and show him the horse I had got from Fasil, which was then in great beauty and order, and which I had kept purposely for him. It happened that, crossing a deep bed of a brook, a plant of the kantuffa hung across it. I had upon my shoulders a white goat-skin, of which it did not take hold; but the king, who was dressed in the habit of peace, his long hair floating all around his face, wrapped up in his mantle or thin cotton cloak so that nothing but his eyes could be seen, was paying more attention to the horse than to the branch of kantuffa beside him; it took first hold of his hair, and the fold of the cloak that covered his head, then spread itself over his whole shoulder in such a manner that, notwithstanding all the help that could be given him, and that I had, at first seeing it, cut the principal bough asunder with my knife, no remedy remained but he must throw off the upper garment, and appear in the under one or waistcoat, with his head and face bare before all the spectators.

"This is accounted great disgrace to a king, who always appears covered in public. However, he did not seem to be ruffled, nor was there anything particular in his countenance more than before; but with great composure, and in rather a low voice, he called twice, 'Who is the shum of this district?' Unhappily, he was not far off. A thin old man of sixty, and his son about thirty, came trotting, as their custom is, naked to their girdle, and stood before the king, who was by this time quite clothed again. What had struck the old man's fancy I know not, but he passed my horse laughing, and seemingly wonderfully content with himself. I could not help considering him as a type of mankind in general, never more confident and careless than when on the brink of destruction. The king asked if he was shum of that place. He answered in the affirmative, and added, which was not asked him, that the other was his son.

"There is always near the king when he marches an officer called Kanitz Kitzera, the executioner of the camp; he has upon the tore of his saddle a quantity of thongs made of bull hide, rolled up very artificially; this is called the tarade. The king made a sign with his head and another with his hand, without speaking; and two loops of the tarade were instantly thrown round the shum and his son's neck, and they were both hoisted upon the same tree, the tarade cut, and the end made fast to a branch. They were both left hanging, but I thought so awkwardly that they would not die for some minutes, and might surely have been saved had any one dared to cut them down; but fear had fallen upon every person who had not attended the king to TigrÉ."[34] This was but an omen of the executions which were immediately to follow.

In the evening of the 23d came Sanuda, the person who had made Socinios king, and who had been a ras under him: he was received with great marks of favour, in reward for the treacherous part he had acted. He brought with him, as prisoners, Guebra Denghel, the ras's son-in-law, one of the best and most amiable men in Abyssinia, but who had unfortunately embraced the wrong side of the question; and with him Sebaat Laab and Kefla Mariam, both men of great importance in TigrÉ. These were, one after the other, thrown violently on their faces before the king.

About two hours later came Ayto Aylo, whom the king had named governor of Begemder: he brought with him Chremation, brother to Socinios, and Abba Salama, Bruce's constant enemy, and who had even thrice endeavoured to have him assassinated. While they were untying Abba Salama, Bruce went into the presence-chamber and stood behind the king's chair. Very soon afterward Aylo's men brought in their prisoners, and, as is usual, threw them down violently with their faces to the ground; and, their hands being bound behind them, they had a very rude fall.

"Abba Salama rose in a violent passion; he struggled to loosen his hands, to perform the act of denouncing excommunication, which is by lifting the right hand and extending the forefinger; finding that impossible, he cried out, 'Unloose my hands, or you are all excommunicated.' It was with difficulty he could be prevailed upon to hear the king, who, with great courage and composure, or rather indifference, said to him, 'You are the first ecclesiastical officer in my household; you are the third in the whole kingdom; but I have not yet learned you ever had power to curse your sovereign or exhort his subjects to murder him. You are to be tried for this crime by the judges to-morrow; so prepare to show in your defence upon what precepts of Christ or his apostles, or upon what part of the general councils, you found your title to do this.'

"'Let my hands be unloosed,' cried the churchman, violently; 'I am a priest, a servant of God; and they have power, said David, to put kings in chains and nobles in irons. And did not Samuel hew king Agag to pieces before the Lord! I excommunicate you, Tecla Haimanout!' He was proceeding in this wild strain, when Tecla Mariam, son of the king's secretary, a young man, striking him so violently on the face that his mouth gushed out with blood, said, 'What! this in the king's presence?' Upon which both Chremation and Abba Salama were hurried out of the tent without being able to say more; indeed, the blow seemed so much to have disconcerted the latter that it deprived him of the power of speaking.

"In Abyssinia it is death at the time to strike, or lift the hand to strike, before the king; but in this case the provocation was considered so great, so sudden and unexpected, that a slight reproof was ordered to be given to young Tecla Mariam; but he lost no favour for what he had done either with the king, Michael, or the people.

"When the two prisoners were carried before the ras, he refused to see them, but loaded them with irons, and committed them to close custody." On the 24th the drum beat, and the army was on its march by dawn of day; they halted a little after passing the rough ground, and then doubled their ranks, and formed into close order of battle, the king leading the centre; a few of his black horse were in two lines immediately before him, their spears pointed upward, his officers and nobility on each side, and behind him the rest of the cavalry distributed in two wings. Prince George and Ayto Confu, son of Ras Michael, commanded two small bodies, not exceeding a hundred, who scoured the country, sometimes in front and sometimes on the flank; they marched close and in great order, and every one trembled for the fate of Gondar. They passed the Mohammedan town and encamped upon the river Kahha, in front of the market-place.

There were at Gondar a set of mummers, a mixture of buffoons and ballad-singers. Upon all public occasions, these people run about the streets; and while the poor wretches, men and women, to the number of thirty or upward, were now in a song celebrating Michael's return to Gondar, the SirÉ horse, on a signal made by the ras, turned short round, fell upon them, and cut them to pieces. In less than two minutes they were all laid dead upon the field, excepting one young man, who, though mortally wounded, had strength enough to reach within twenty yards of the king's horse, where he fell lifeless without speaking a word.

It was about nine o'clock in the morning when Bruce entered Gondar, and every person he met in the street wore the countenance of a condemned malefactor. The ras went immediately to the palace with the king, who retired, as usual, to a kind of cage or lattice window, where he always sits unseen when in council. Bruce proceeded to the council chamber, where four of the judges were seated. Abba Salama was brought to the foot of the table without irons, at perfect liberty. The accuser for the king opened the charge against him with great force and eloquence. He stated, one by one, the crimes which he had committed at different periods; concluding the catalogue with an accusation of high treason, or cursing the king, and absolving his subjects from their allegiance, which he declared to be the greatest crime that human nature was capable of, involving in its consequences all other crimes. Abba Salama did not often interrupt him, but to every new charge he roughly pleaded not guilty, by exclaiming, "You lie." "It is a lie."

"Being desired to answer in his own defence, he commenced with great dignity, and with an air of superiority very different from his behaviour in the king's tent the day before. He smiled, and made extremely light of the charges made against him respecting women, which he said he would neither confess nor deny; but would only observe, that these might be crimes among the Franks (looking at Bruce), but were not so among the Christians of that country, who lived under a double dispensation, the law of Moses and the law of Christ. He went roundly into the murder of King Joas, and of his two brothers, Adigo and Aylo, on the mountain of Wechne, and he openly charged Michael with that crime, as also with poisoning the late king, Hatze Hannes, father of the present king."

The old ras pretended not to hear this, by sometimes speaking to people standing behind him, and sometimes by reading a paper; but he asked Bruce, who was standing immediately behind his chair, in a low voice, "What is the punishment in your country for such a crime?" Bruce replied, "High treason is punished with death in all the countries I have ever known." "This," says Bruce, "I owed to Abba Salama, and it was not long before I had my return."

Abba Salama, pointing to Bruce, then accused the iteghe of living with Catholics; and he added, that it was against the law of the country that Bruce should be suffered to remain; that he was accursed, and ought to be stoned as an enemy to the Virgin Mary. Here the ras interrupted him, by saying "Confine yourself to your own defence; clear yourself first, and then accuse any one you please."

When Abba Salama had concluded, the king's secretary sent up to the window the substance of his defence; the criminal, in the mean time, was carried at some distance to the other end of the room, and the judges deliberated while the king was reading. Very few words were said among the rest; the ras himself was all the time speaking to different people. After he had concluded his conversation with the by-standers, he called upon the youngest judge to give his opinion, which he did as follows: "He is guilty, and should die;" the same said all the officers, and after them the judges.

The following sentence was therefore pronounced upon him by the king: "He is guilty, and shall die the death. The hangman shall hang him upon a tree to-day." The unfortunate Acab Saat was immediately hurried away by the guards to the place of execution, which is a large tree before the king's gate; where, uttering, to the very last moment, curses against Ras Michael, the king, and the abuna, he was hanged in the very robes in which he used to sit before the king, without one badge of his civil or sacerdotal pre-eminence having been taken off from him. In going to the tree, he recollected that he had four hundred cows, which he bequeathed to priests who were to say prayers for his soul; but the old ras ordered them to be brought to Gondar and distributed among the soldiers.

Socinios's brother was next called; and, half dead with fear, he also was sentenced to be hanged. "I went home," says Bruce, "and my house being but a few yards from the palace, I passed the two unfortunate people hanging upon the same branch."

The next morning came on the trials of Guebra Denghel, Sebaat Laab, and Kefla Mariam: the ras claimed his right of trying these three at his own house, as they were all subjects of his government of TigrÉ. Guebra Denghel behaved with great unconcern, declaring that his only reason for taking up arms against the king was, that he saw no other way of getting rid of Michael's tyranny, and his insatiable thirst of money and power. He wished the king to know that this was his sole motive for rebellion; and declared that, unless it had been to make this declaration, he would not have opened his mouth before so partial and unjust a judge as Michael.

Welleta Selasse, his only daughter, hearing the danger her father was in, broke suddenly out of Ozoro Esther's apartment, which was contiguous, and rushing into the council-room at the instant he was condemned to die, she threw herself at the ras's feet in an attitude and with an expression of the utmost distress; but the old tyrant spurned her away with his foot, and then ordered her father to be instantly hanged. Welleta Selasse fell speechless to the ground. The father, forgetful of his own situation, flew to his daughter's assistance, and they were both dragged out at separate doors—the one to death, the other to after sufferings more dreadful than death itself; for, though not seventeen, the ras, who was her grandfather, after having deprived her of her parent, so alarmed her by his brutality, that, in despair and agony of mind, she swallowed poison! "I saw her," says Bruce, "in her last moments, but too late to give her any assistance; and she had told her women-servants and slaves that she had taken arsenic, having no other way of escaping from the persecution of the murderer of her father."

The next to be tried were Kefla Mariam and Sebaat Laab, who were condemned by the ras to lose their eyes—a very common punishment in Abyssinia to this day.

To avoid shocking the reader with any farther details of these horrid cruelties, it will only be observed, that blood continued to be spilt as water, day after day, till the Epiphany; priests, laymen, young men and old, noble and vile, daily found their end by the knife or the cord, while their bodies were hewn to pieces and scattered about the streets. "I was almost driven to despair," says Bruce, "at seeing my hunting dogs, twice let loose by the carelessness of my servants, bringing into the courtyard the heads and arms of slaughtered men, and which I could no way prevent but by the destruction of the dogs themselves; the quantity of carrion, and the stench of it, brought down the hyÆnas in hundreds from the neighbouring mountains; and, as few people in Gondar go out after it is dark, they enjoyed the streets by themselves, and seemed ready to dispute the possession of the city with the inhabitants. Often, when I went home late from the palace (and it was this time the king chose chiefly for conversation), though I had but to pass the corner of the market-place before the palace, had lanterns with me, and was surrounded with armed men, I heard them grunting by twos and threes, so near me as to be afraid they would take some opportunity of seizing me by the leg; a pistol would have frightened them, and made them speedily run, and I constantly carried two loaded at my girdle; but the discharging a pistol in the night would have alarmed every one that heard it in the town, and it was not now the time to add anything to people's fears. I at last scarcely ever went out, and nothing occupied my thoughts but how to escape from this bloody country by the way of Sennaar, and how I could best exert my power and influence over my faithful friend Yasine, at Ras el Feel, to pave my way, by assisting me to pass the desert into Atbara."

The king, missing Bruce for some days at the palace, and hearing he had been at Ras Michael's, began to inquire who had been with him. Ayto Confu soon found Yasine, who informed him of the whole matter; upon which Bruce was sent for to the palace, where he found the king, with no one about him but menial servants. He immediately remarked to Bruce that he looked very ill, which was indeed the case, as he had scarcely ate or slept since the king saw him last, or even for some days before. The king asked him, in a condoling tone, "What ailed him?" observing that, "besides looking sick, he seemed as if something had ruffled him, and put him out of humour." Bruce replied, that what he observed was true: that, coming across the market-place, he had seen Za Mariam, the ras's doorkeeper, with three men bound, one of whom he hacked to pieces in his presence; that, as he was running across the place with his hand to his nose, Mariam called to him to stop till he should despatch the other two, as he wanted to speak to him; that the soldiers immediately fell upon the two men, whose cries, he said, were still remaining in his ears; that the hyÆnas at night would scarcely suffer him to pass in the streets as he returned from the palace; and that the dogs fled into his house to eat pieces of human flesh at leisure.

"Although," says Bruce, "the king's intention was to look grave, I saw it was all he could do to stifle a laugh at grievances he thought very little of." "The men you saw with Za Mariam just now," says he, "are rebels, sent by Kefla Yasous for examples: he has forced a junction with Tecla and Welleta Michael in Samen, and a road is now open through Woggora, and plenty established in Gondar. The men you saw suffer were those that cut off the provisions from coming into the city; they have occasioned the death of many poor people: as for the hyÆna, he never meddles with living people; he seeks carrion, and will soon clear the streets of these encumbrances that so much offend you. People say they are the Falasha of the mountains, who take that shape of the hyÆna, and come down into the town to eat Christian flesh in the night." "If they depend upon Christian flesh, and eat no other," said Bruce, "perhaps the hyÆnas of Gondar will be the worst fed of any in the world!" "True," said the king, bursting out into loud laughter, "that may be; few of those that die by the knife anywhere are Christians, or have any religion at all; why then should you mind what they suffer?" "Sir," said Bruce, "that is not my sentiment; if you were to order a dog to be tortured to death before me every morning, I could not bear it. The carcasses of Abba, Salama, Guebra Denghel, and the rest, are still hanging where they were upon the tree; you smell the stench of them at the palace gate, and will soon, I apprehend, in the palace itself. This cannot be pleasant, and I do assure you it must be very pernicious to your health, if there was nothing else in it. At the battle of Fagitta, though you had no intention to retreat, yet you went half a day backward, to higher ground and purer air, to avoid the stench of the field; but here in the city you heap up carrion about your houses, where is your continual residence." "The ras has given orders," said the king, gravely, "to remove all the dead bodies before the Epiphany, when we go down to keep that festival, and wash away all this pollution in the clear-running water of the Kahha; but tell me, Yagoube, is it really possible that you can take such things as these so much to heart? You are a brave man: we all know you are, and have seen it: we have all blamed you, stranger as you are in this country, for the little care you take of yourself; and yet about these things you are as much affected as the most cowardly woman, girl, or child could be."

"Sir," said Bruce, "I do not know if I am brave or not; but if to see men tortured or murdered, or to live among dead bodies without concern, be courage, I have it not, nor desire to have it."

In the eager expression of these manly sentiments, which sparkle in the moral darkness amid which they appear, Bruce was interrupted by the arrival of a young nobleman, who, according to custom, threw himself on his face before the king.

Ras Michael was now announced, and Bruce made haste to get away. In the antechamber he passed the ras, attended by a great many people, and endeavoured to slide by him in the crowd; but he noticed him, and called him before him. Bruce kissed his hands, and the ras kept hold of one of them, saying, "My son is ill; Ozoro Esther has just sent to me, and complains you visit her now no more. Go see the boy, and don't neglect Ozoro Esther; she is one of your best friends." Bruce inquired if she was at Gondar, and was answered, "No; she is at Koscam." He therefore went home to plan his route to Sennaar, and to prepare letters for Hagi Belal, a merchant there, to whom he was recommended from Arabia Felix.

On the 31st of December, 1770, the last day of a year which, in the history of Bruce's life, had been so eventful, he went to Koscam. The next night, the 1st of January, 1771, Bruce was desired to wait on the king; and, after a very long discussion, he at last succeeded in obtaining permission to send letters to Sennaar, arranging his departure from Abyssinia, under a solemn engagement, that, as soon as he should recover his health in England, he would return with as many of his brethren and family as possible, with horses, muskets, and bayonets. "This permission," says Bruce, "greatly composed my mind at the time, as I now no longer considered myself as involved in that ancient and general rule of the country—never to allow a stranger to quit Abyssinia."

While the king was keeping the festival of the Epiphany, he received a visit from the son of the governor of Shoa, who came to offer personal service, a present of five hundred ounces of gold, and one thousand horsemen, ready equipped. This person had heard from some priests in his country that there was a very strange white man in favour with the king at Gondar, who could do everything but raise the dead: he accordingly requested to be made acquainted with Bruce, who, by the king's orders, waited upon him every morning; and, availing himself of this favourable opportunity, Bruce managed to obtain from him the history of the Abyssinian kings who had reigned in Shoa, which curious document he afterward brought with him to Europe. The Moor Yasine now returned from Sennaar, and informed Bruce that, by the inquiries he had been able to make, it appeared that he would be probably well received if he could get to Sennaar; but that he would have very great difficulty in passing from Ras el Feel to the banks of the Dender. Bruce would most willingly have commenced his journey at once, being naturally most anxious to escape from the horrors of civil war: the time, however, had not yet arrived; for, having embarked on the political stream, he was against his will still carried along by it.

For many months the rebels, in immense numbers, under the command of Gusho and Powussen, were committing every sort of violence, burning houses, barns, and villages. At last the cries of the people, who came flying to him for projection, determined Ras Michael to risk a battle. He accordingly marched out of Gondar, taking with him the king, the abuna, as head of the church, Ozoro Esther, and other principal people.

The king's army was composed of about thirty-two thousand men, of whom about seven thousand five hundred were mounted. In this army were a number of excellent officers, who had spent their lives in war. The whole was commanded by Ras Michael in person, who, being now seventy-four years of age, had passed half a century in a succession of victories.

The force of the enemy amounted to about thirty thousand. The king's army (if it may be so termed) was in a most undisciplined state. "All our officers," says Bruce, "had left their command, and were crowding about Ras Michael and the king; women bearing provisions, horns of liquor, and mills for grinding corn upon their backs; idle women of all sorts, half dead with fear, crying and roaring, mounted upon mules; and men driving mules loaded with baggage, mingled with the troops, and passing through in all directions, presented such a tumultuous appearance, that it surpassed all description. There were above ten thousand women accompanying the army: the ras had about fifty loaded with bouza, and the king, I suppose, near as many.

"The sight threw me for a moment into low spirits. I know not if the king saw it. I was perfectly silent when he cried, 'Well, what do you say to us now, Yagoube?' I answered, 'Is this the order in which your majesty means to engage?' He laughed, and said, 'Ay, why not? you will see.' 'If that is so,' I replied, 'I only hope it is the enemy's custom, as well as your majesty's, to be in no better order.' A partial engagement ensued, which lasted about an hour: in it Confu, son of Ozoro Esther, was severely wounded. Ras Michael, notwithstanding the natural hardness of his heart, showed great sensibility, and came to see him. Ozoro Esther also, in the deepest concern, attended her son, and both she and the ras earnestly entreated Bruce to see him safe to Gondar. 'Go! go! for God's sake, go!' said the ras; 'Ozoro Esther has been here almost out of her senses!'"

Bruce, therefore, consented to accompany both Confu and Ozoro Esther to Koscam; and, having done this, he then returned to the army.

Ras Michael now ordered the tents to be struck, and his whole army proceeded towards Begemder. He had scarcely taken up his position on the hill of Serbraxos when he was attacked by Powussen; a severe battle ensued, distinguished on both sides by feats of wild, undisciplined valour; however, the king's troops prevailed, and Powussen retreated, having lost about nine hundred of his best men. Everybody seemed to agree that Ras Michael had shown the most astonishing intrepidity and military skill.

The day after the battle, messengers arrived from Gusho and Powussen, offering allegiance to King Tecla Haimanout, on condition that Ras Michael should be sent, never to return, to his government of TigrÉ; but fear or gratitude induced the king to refuse their demands.

On the 19th of May, intelligence was received that the whole rebel host was again in motion. The king's army instantly descended into the valley, and the troops were ready, with lighted matches in their hands, when a most violent storm of thunder, lightning, and rain ensued.

The army, therefore, fell back, and, the storm subsiding, the evening was passed in pleasure and festivity.

All the young nobility were, as usual, at Ozoro Esther's. "It was with infinite pity," says Bruce, "I heard them thoughtlessly praying for a warm and fair day to-morrow, the evening of which many of them were never to see."

The next morning the troops returned to the plain and took up their old position. In about half an hour the enemy's army was in motion. The ras first perceived it, and immediately ordered the drums to be beat and the trumpets to be sounded. The army advanced, covered with dust from the excessive dryness of the ground.

"In the middle of this great cloud," says Bruce, "we began to perceive, indistinctly, part of the horsemen, then a much greater number, and the figure of the horses more accurately defined, which came moving majestically upon us, sometimes partially seen, at other times concealed by being wrapped up in clouds and darkness; the whole made a most extraordinary, but truly picturesque appearance."

The whole of Powussen's army now appeared; they advanced, riding forward and backward with great violence, and appeared to be diverting themselves rather than attacking their enemy.

After a most desperate battle, the king's troops fell back under the hill of Serbraxos; but on the right the rebel forces were obliged to retire. Near three thousand men perished on the king's side, and among them nearly one hundred and eighty young men of the best families in the kingdom. The enemy's loss amounted to about nine thousand.

The king now received the compliments of his troops, and a most barbarous ceremony, which is still customary in Abyssinia, ensued. Each man who had killed an enemy appeared with a certain part of the man he had slain hanging upon the wrist of his right hand, and, after making a speech, in which he extolled himself as the greatest of heroes, he threw down his barbarous trophy before his chief.

The account which Bruce gave of this ceremony was disbelieved; the reason, as usual, being, that it was a savage custom which had not been described before; but Pearce, the English sailor, left in Abyssinia by Lord Valentia, confirms it. He says, in his letter published by the Literary Society of Bombay in 1817, "I saw and counted eighteen hundred and sixty-five of these inhuman trophies brought before the ras after not more than seven hours' fight."

Mr. Coffin, Lord Valentia's valet, and who remained in Abyssinia from the time of Lord V.'s departure until the year 1827, has verbally informed us that he has himself seen upward of two thousand of these trophies heaped before the ras.

"For my own part," says Bruce, "tired to death, low in spirits, and execrating the hour that brought me to such a country, I almost regretted that I had not died that day in the field of Serbraxos. I went to bed, refusing to go to Ozoro Esther, who had sent for me. I could not help lamenting how well my apprehensions had been verified, that some of our companions at last night's supper, so anxious for the appearance of morning, should never see its evening. Four of them, all young men and of great hopes, were then lying dead and mangled on the field; two others, besides Engedan, had been also wounded. I had, however, a sound and refreshing sleep. I think madness would have been the consequence if this necessary refreshment had failed me; such was the horror I had conceived of my present situation."

About eleven o'clock next morning Bruce received an order from the ras to attend him, and he was introduced to the king, who put a large chain of massive gold round his neck; the secretary, at the same time, saying, "Yagoube, the king does you this honour, not as payment for past services, but as a pledge that he will reward them if you will put it in his power."

The chain consisted of one hundred and eighty-four links, each of them weighing 3 and 1-12th dwts. of fine gold. "It was with the utmost reluctance," says Bruce, "that, being in want of everything, I sold great part of this honourable distinction at Sennaar, in my return home; the remaining part is still in my possession. It is hoped my successors will never have the same excuse I had for farther diminishing this honourable monument which I have left them."

A third battle was fought at Serbraxos, which, though obstinately contested, was not attended on either side with much loss; and soon after secret intelligence reached Tecla Haimanout and Ras Michael, which made them instantly resolve to decamp by night and fall back upon Gondar. The confusion of this march in the dark was beyond all description; men, horses, and mules were rolling promiscuously over each other. Ras Michael's mule fell, and threw him on his face in a puddle of water; but he was instantly lifted up unhurt, and again mounted. Proceeding onward, the creature again fell, and threw the ras a second time into the dirt; on which a general murmur and groan was heard from his attendants, who superstitiously interpreted these repeated falls as an omen that his power and fortune were gone from him for ever. On reaching Gondar, the king went to the palace, and the ras to his own house. The palace was quite deserted; even the king's slaves, of both sexes, had hidden themselves with the monks and in the houses of private friends, so that the king was left with very few attendants. The following morning Gondar was completely invested by Gusho and the confederate army; and towards it were now flocking in every direction all those people of family and property who, from fear of Ras Michael, had fled to Fasil. The capital was soon filled with men and arms; and Gusho, who had been born and bred in Gondar, was looked up to as the father of his country; he raised all Waggora in arms against Michael, so that not a man could pass between TigrÉ and Gondar.

These steps having been taken, a proclamation was now issued, "that all soldiers of the province of TigrÉ, or who had borne arms under Ras Michael, should, on the morrow, before midday, bring their arms, offensive and defensive, and deliver them up, on a spot fixed upon near the church of Ledata, to commissaries appointed for the purpose of receiving them;" with farther intimation to the inhabitants of Gondar, "that any arms found in any house in that town after noon of the day of proclamation, should subject the owner of such house and arms to death, and the house or houses to be razed to their foundation." Six thousand of the TigrÉ troops belonging to the ras's province at once laid down their arms; all the rest of the principal officers followed, and even the king's arms were surrendered.

The ras, too brave to fear and too infirm to escape, resolutely continued in the house belonging to his office. He ate, drank, and slept as usual; rose, and, talking of the event with equanimity and apparent indifference, dressed himself as richly as possible in gold stuff; and then, with the utmost composure, awaited his death. Once only, when he heard that his disarmed troops had been treated with indignity by the populace, did he for a moment give vent to his feelings: he then burst into tears, exclaiming, "Before this, I could have died happy!"

The king also behaved with no little firmness and composure: he had eaten nothing during the first day but some wheaten bread, which he divided with the few servants that remained about him. A body of lawless Galla troops, entering Gondar unobserved, rushed into the palace and into the presence of the king, before whom Bruce and two attendants were seated on the floor. The room, in the days of the luxury and splendour of the Abyssinian court, had been magnificently hung with mirrors, which had been brought at great expense from Venice. The largest of these was immediately smashed by the Galla; and they would probably have proceeded to murder the king and Bruce, had not two hundred young men of Gondar, hearing that these savages had got into the palace, rushed forward to defend their king, and obliged them to retire.

On the 1st of June Gusho and Powussen came to the house of Ras Michael, to interrogate him as to his past conduct. They found him clothed in white serge, with a priest's cowl of the same material on his head; and the old ras, seeing that his power was gone, and that ferocity and high personal courage could no longer avail him, resolved to save himself by hypocrisy now that he could no longer do it by force: he therefore declared that "he had ended his political career," and should devote the remainder of his days to peace, penitence, meditation, and prayer. Gusho and Powussen listened to him in sullen silence, and then proceeded to the king's palace, where it was determined that Gusho should be ras.

On the 4th of June Powussen marched into Gondar with a thousand horse, and, without farther ceremony, ordered Ras Michael to be placed on a mule, and to be led away to Begemder. Gusho now took possession of his house; the king's officers and servants returned to the palace, the troops decamped, and Gondar was once more quiet.

Meanwhile, as Bruce's health had been daily declining, he had spent a considerable part of his time with the iteghe and Ozoro Esther at Koscam. Here he had received intelligence from Sennaar that the whole of that country was in arms; that for a white man to come hither from Ras el Feel would be almost impossible, since, besides the natural difficulties of the country, and the excessive heat of the climate, he would be in the utmost danger from the soldiery and slaves, who were in a complete state of insubordination. He was therefore conjured to abandon his intention, and either remain in Abyssinia, or return, as he came, through TigrÉ: "But," says Bruce, "besides that I was determined to attempt completing my journey through Sennaar and the desert, I by no means liked the risk of passing again through Masuah, to experience a second time the brutal manners of the naybe and garrison of that place. I therefore resolved to complete my journey to Syene, the frontier of Egypt, by Sennaar and Nubia, or perish in the attempt.

"It is here," says Bruce, "a proper period to finish the History of Abyssinia, as I was no farther present at, or informed of, the public transactions which followed. My whole attention was now taken up in preparations for my return through the kingdom of Sennaar and the desert. Neither shall I take up the reader's time with a long narrative of leave-taking, or what passed between me and those illustrious personages with whom I had lived so long in the most perfect and cordial friendship. Men of little and envious minds would perhaps think I was composing a panegyric upon myself, from which, therefore, I most willingly refrain. But the several marks of goodness, friendship, and esteem which I received at parting, are confined within my own breast, where they never shall be effaced, but continue to furnish me with the most agreeable reflections, since they were the fruit alone of personal merit, and of honest, steady, and upright behaviour. All who had attempted the same journey hitherto had met with disappointment, disgrace, or death: for my part, although I underwent every sort of toil, danger, and all manner of hardship, yet these were not confined to myself. I suffered always honourably, and in common with the rest of the state; and when sunshiny days happened (for sunshiny days there were, and many brilliant ones too), of these I was permitted freely to partake; and the most distinguished characters, both at court and in the army, were always ready to contribute, as far as possible, to promote what they thought or saw was the object of my pursuits or entertainment."

As Bruce's residence in Abyssinia is now rapidly drawing to a close, one may pause to observe of what honest materials his character seems to have been composed. Personal courage, that gem of the human breast, which, however roughly set, is brilliant even in the rude conduct of the savage, shines with unusual lustre in Bruce's life; while his gratitude to Captain Price, his friendship for those with whom he lived, his loyalty to his king, his attachment to Scotland, his native country, his respect for his ancestors, and other similar sentiments which we have seen constantly escape from him, prove him to have been eminently a sound-hearted man.

Two days previous to his departure, our traveller called to take leave of the iteghe, and found there Tensa Christos, one of the chief priests of Gondar. Bruce replied with great dignity and firmness to several impertinent questions put to him concerning his religion by this man. "And now, holy father," he said, "I have one last favour to ask of you, which is your forgiveness, if I have at any time offended you; your blessing, now that I am immediately to depart, if I have it not; and your prayers while on my long and dangerous journey through countries of infidels and pagans."

A hum of applause sounded throughout the room. Tensa Christos was apparently surprised at Bruce's humility, and cried out, with tears in his eyes, "Is it possible, Yagoube, that you believe my prayers can do you any good?" "I should not be a Christian, as I profess to be, father," replied Bruce, "if I had any doubt of the effect of good men's prayers." So saying, Bruce stooped to kiss the hand of Christos, who laid a small iron cross upon his head, and, to his great surprise, instead of a benediction, repeated the Lord's prayer. After which Bruce made his obeisance to the iteghe, and immediately withdrew, it not being the custom at a public audience to salute any one in the presence of the sovereign.

"Twenty greasy monks," says Bruce, "however, had placed themselves in my way as I went out, that they might have the credit of giving me their blessing likewise after Tensa Christos. As I had very little faith in the prayers of these drones, so I had some reluctance to kiss their greasy hands and sleeves; however, in running this disagreeable gauntlet, I thus gave them my blessing in English: Lord send you all a halter, as he did to Abba Salama (meaning the Acab Saat). But they, thinking I was recommending them to the patriarch Abba Salama, pronounced at random, with great seeming devotion, 'Amen! so be it.'"

This serio-comical valedictory malediction, which Bruce bequeaths to "twenty greasy monks of Koscam," abruptly closes his history of Abyssinia, and upon the distant sources of the Nile the curtain now drops! More than half a century has elapsed, and no one has raised the veil which Bruce lifted up; no one has penetrated the mist through which he found his way, or encountered the dangers which he overcame.

Yet by far the most arduous and dangerous undertaking in the history of Bruce's life remains to be related; for, whatever may have been his difficulties in Abyssinia, however roughly he may have been treated there, he had warm and powerful friends, and was in a country professedly Christian; but his homeward journey is now to be undertaken, through the centre of some of the most savage, burning, steril regions in the world; and if the reader but reflects on the many distinguished individuals who, full of health and enthusiasm, have left Cairo to ascend the Nile, and have yet very early found it impossible to proceed, he will feel for poor Bruce, while with a broken and exhausted constitution he is about to enter on this painful and perilous journey.

When Mr. Salt visited Abyssinia, nearly forty years after Bruce had left it, he was informed that Ras Michael, who was even then talked of as "the old lion," died in 1780, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. The beautiful Ozoro Esther, too, was dead; and, indeed, nearly all Bruce's friends had gone to their long home.

"Yusuph," says Salt, "spoke of him (Bruce) with much regret. He, and every one with whom I have conversed, confirmed the character of Ras Michael as given by Bruce." "He left," said Dofter Esther, a learned Abyssinian, "a great name behind him."