Book: A Voyage to Abyssinia

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I crossed the Nile the first time in my journey to the kingdom of
Damote; my passage brought into my mind all that I had read either
in ancient or modern writers of this celebrated river; I recollected
the great expenses at which some Emperors had endeavoured to gratify
their curiosity of knowing the sources of this mighty stream, which
nothing but their little acquaintance with the Abyssins made so
difficult to be found. I passed the river within two days' journey
of its head, near a wide plain, which is entirely laid under water
when it begins to overflow the banks. Its channel is even here so
wide, that a ball-shot from a musket can scarce reach the farther
bank. Here is neither boat nor bridge, and the river is so full of
hippopotami, or river-horses, and crocodiles, that it is impossible
to swim over without danger of being devoured. The only way of
passing it is upon floats, which they guide as well as they can with
long poles. Nor is even this way without danger, for these
destructive animals overturn the floats, and tear the passengers in
pieces. The river horse, which lives only on grass and branches of
trees, is satisfied with killing the men, but the crocodile being
more voracious, feeds upon the carcases.

But since I am arrived at the banks of this renowned river, which I
have passed and repassed so many times; and since all that I have
read of the nature of its waters, and the causes of its overflowing,
is full of fables, the reader may not be displeased to find here an
account of what I saw myself, or was told by the inhabitants.



Chapter X



A description of the Nile.


The Nile, which the natives call Abavi, that is, the Father of
Waters, rises first in Sacala, a province of the kingdom of Goiama,
which is one of the most fruitful and agreeable of all the
Abyssinian dominions. This province is inhabited by a nation of the
Agaus, who call, but only call, themselves Christians, for by daily
intermarriages they have allied themselves to the Pagan Agaus, and
adopted all their customs and ceremonies. These two nations are
very numerous, fierce, and unconquerable, inhabiting a country full
of mountains, which are covered with woods, and hollowed by nature
into vast caverns, many of which are capable of containing several
numerous families, and hundreds of cows. To these recesses the
Agaus betake themselves when they are driven out of the plain, where
it is almost impossible to find them, and certain ruin to pursue
them. This people increases extremely, every man being allowed so
many wives as he hath hundreds of cows, and it is seldom that the
hundreds are required to be complete.

In the eastern part of this kingdom, on the declivity of a mountain,
whose descent is so easy that it seems a beautiful plain, is that
source of the Nile which has been sought after at so much expense of
labour, and about which such variety of conjectures hath been formed
without success. This spring, or rather these two springs, are two
holes, each about two feet diameter, a stone's cast distant from
each other; the one is but about five feet and a half in depth--at
least we could not get our plummet farther, perhaps because it was
stopped by roots, for the whole place is full of trees; of the
other, which is somewhat less, with a line of ten feet we could find
no bottom, and were assured by the inhabitants that none ever had
been found. It is believed here that these springs are the vents of
a great subterraneous lake, and they have this circumstance to
favour their opinion, that the ground is always moist and so soft
that the water boils up under foot as one walks upon it. This is
more visible after rains, for then the ground yields and sinks so
much, that I believe it is chiefly supported by the roots of trees
that are interwoven one with another; such is the ground round about
these fountains. At a little distance to the south is a village
named Guix, through which the way lies to the top of the mountain,
from whence the traveller discovers a vast extent of land, which
appears like a deep valley, though the mountain rises so
imperceptibly that those who go up or down it are scarce sensible of
any declivity.

On the top of this mountain is a little hill which the idolatrous
Agaus have in great veneration; their priest calls them together at
this place once a year, and having sacrificed a cow, throws the head
into one of the springs of the Nile; after which ceremony, every one
sacrifices a cow or more, according to their different degrees of
wealth or devotion. The bones of these cows have already formed two
mountains of considerable height, which afford a sufficient proof
that these nations have always paid their adorations to this famous
river. They eat these sacrifices with great devotion, as flesh
consecrated to their deity. Then the priest anoints himself with
the grease and tallow of the cows, and sits down on a heap of straw,
on the top and in the middle of a pile which is prepared; they set
fire to it, and the whole heap is consumed without any injury to the
priest, who while the fire continues harangues the standers by, and
confirms them in their present ignorance and superstition. When the
pile is burnt, and the discourse at an end, every one makes a large
present to the priest, which is the grand design of this religious
mockery.

To return to the course of the Nile: its waters, after the first
rise, run to the eastward for about a musket-shot, then turning to
the north, continue hidden in the grass and weeds for about a
quarter of a league, and discover themselves for the first time
among some rocks--a sight not to be enjoyed without some pleasure by
those who have read the fabulous accounts of this stream delivered
by the ancients, and the vain conjectures and reasonings which have
been formed upon its original, the nature of its water, its
cataracts, and its inundations, all which we are now entirely
acquainted with and eye-witnesses of.

Many interpreters of the Holy Scriptures pretend that Gihon,
mentioned in Genesis, is no other than the Nile, which encompasseth
all Aethiopia; but as the Gihon had its source from the terrestrial
paradise, and we know that the Nile rises in the country of the
Agaus, it will be found, I believe, no small difficulty to conceive
how the same river could arise from two sources so distant from each
other, or how a river from so low a source should spring up and
appear in a place perhaps the highest in the world: for if we
consider that Arabia and Palestine are in their situation almost
level with Egypt; that Egypt is as low, if compared with the kingdom
of Dambia, as the deepest valley in regard of the highest mountain;
that the province of Sacala is yet more elevated than Dambia; that
the waters of the Nile must either pass under the Red Sea, or take a
great compass about, we shall find it hard to conceive such an
attractive power in the earth as may be able to make the waters rise
through the obstruction of so much sand from places so low to the
most lofty region of Aethiopia.

But leaving these difficulties, let us go on to describe the course
of the Nile. It rolls away from its source with so inconsiderable a
current, that it appears unlikely to escape being dried up by the
hot season, but soon receiving an increase from the Gemma, the
Keltu, the Bransu, and other less rivers, it is of such a breadth in
the plain of Boad, which is not above three days' journey from its
source, that a ball shot from a musket will scarce fly from one bank
to the other. Here it begins to run northwards, deflecting,
however, a little towards the east, for the space of nine or ten
leagues, and then enters the so much talked of Lake of Dambia,
called by the natives Bahar Sena, the Resemblance of the Sea, or
Bahar Dambia, the Sea of Dambia. It crosses this lake only at one
end with so violent a rapidity, that the waters of the Nile may be
distinguished through all the passage, which is six leagues. Here
begins the greatness of the Nile. Fifteen miles farther, in the
land of Alata, it rushes precipitately from the top of a high rock,
and forms one of the most beautiful water-falls in the world: I
passed under it without being wet; and resting myself there, for the
sake of the coolness, was charmed with a thousand delightful
rainbows, which the sunbeams painted on the water in all their
shining and lively colours. The fall of this mighty stream from so
great a height makes a noise that may be heard to a considerable
distance; but I could not observe that the neighbouring inhabitants
were at all deaf. I conversed with several, and was as easily heard
by them as I heard them. The mist that rises from this fall of
water may be seen much farther than the noise can be heard. After
this cataract the Nile again collects its scattered stream among the
rocks, which seem to be disjoined in this place only to afford it a
passage. They are so near each other that, in my time, a bridge of
beams, on which the whole Imperial army passed, was laid over them.
Sultan Segued hath since built here a bridge of one arch in the same
place, for which purpose he procured masons from India. This
bridge, which is the first the Abyssins have seen on the Nile, very
much facilitates a communication between the provinces, and
encourages commerce among the inhabitants of his empire.

Here the river alters its course, and passes through many various
kingdoms; on the east it leaves Begmeder, or the Land of Sheep, so
called from great numbers that are bred there, beg, in that
language, signifying sheep, and meder, a country. It then waters
the kingdoms of Amhara, Olaca, Choaa, and Damot, which lie on the
left side, and the kingdom of Goiama, which it bounds on the right,
forming by its windings a kind of peninsula. Then entering Bezamo,
a province of the kingdom of Damot, and Gamarchausa, part of Goiama,
it returns within a short day's journey of its spring; though to
pursue it through all its mazes, and accompany it round the kingdom
of Goiama, is a journey of twenty-nine days. So far, and a few
days' journey farther, this river confines itself to Abyssinia, and
then passes into the bordering countries of Fazulo and Ombarca.

These vast regions we have little knowledge of: they are inhabited
by nations entirely different from the Abyssins; their hair is like
that of the other blacks, short and curled. In the year 1615,
Rassela Christos, lieutenant-general to Sultan Segued, entered those
kingdoms with his army in a hostile manner; but being able to get no
intelligence of the condition of the people, and astonished at their
unbounded extent, he returned, without daring to attempt anything.

As the empire of the Abyssins terminates at these deserts, and as I
have followed the course of the Nile no farther, I here leave it to
range over barbarous kingdoms, and convey wealth and plenty into
Egypt, which owes to the annual inundations of this river its envied
fertility. I know not anything of the rest of its passage, but that
it receives great increases from many other rivers; that it has
several cataracts like the first already described, and that few
fish are to be found in it, which scarcity, doubtless, is to be
attributed to the river-horses and crocodiles, which destroy the
weaker inhabitants of these waters, and something may be allowed to
the cataracts, it being difficult for fish to fall so far without
being killed.

Although some who have travelled in Asia and Africa have given the
world their descriptions of crocodiles and hippopotamus, or river-
horse, yet as the Nile has at least as great numbers of each as any
river in the world, I cannot but think my account of it would be
imperfect without some particular mention of these animals.

The crocodile is very ugly, having no proportion between his length
and thickness; he hath short feet, a wide mouth, with two rows of
sharp teeth, standing wide from each other, a brown skin so
fortified with scales, even to his nose, that a musket-ball cannot
penetrate it. His sight is extremely quick, and at a great
distance. In the water he is daring and fierce, and will seize on
any that are so unfortunate as to be found by him bathing, who, if
they escape with life, are almost sure to leave some limb in his
mouth. Neither I, nor any with whom I have conversed about the
crocodile, have ever seen him weep, and therefore I take the liberty
of ranking all that hath been told us of his tears amongst the
fables which are only proper to amuse children.

The hippopotamus, or river-horse, grazes upon the land and browses
on the shrubs, yet is no less dangerous than the crocodile. He is
the size of an ox, of a brown colour without any hair, his tail is
short, his neck long, and his head of an enormous bigness; his eyes
are small, his mouth wide, with teeth half a foot long; he hath two
tusks like those of a wild boar, but larger; his legs are short, and
his feet part into four toes. It is easy to observe from this
description that he hath no resemblance of a horse, and indeed
nothing could give occasion to the name but some likeness in his
ears, and his neighing and snorting like a horse when he is provoked
or raises his head out of water. His hide is so hard that a musket
fired close to him can only make a slight impression, and the best
tempered lances pushed forcibly against him are either blunted or
shivered, unless the assailant has the skill to make his thrust at
certain parts which are more tender. There is great danger in
meeting him, and the best way is, upon such an accident, to step
aside and let him pass by. The flesh of this animal doth not differ
from that of a cow, except that it is blacker and harder to digest.

The ignorance which we have hitherto been in of the original of the
Nile hath given many authors an opportunity of presenting us very
gravely with their various systems and conjectures about the nature
of its waters, and the reason of its overflows.

It is easy to observe how many empty hypotheses and idle reasonings
the phenomena of this river have put mankind to the expense of. Yet
there are people so bigoted to antiquity, as not to pay any regard
to the relation of travellers who have been upon the spot, and by
the evidence of their eyes can confute all that the ancients have
written. It was difficult, it was even impossible, to arrive at the
source of the Nile by tracing its channel from the mouth; and all
who ever attempted it, having been stopped by the cataracts, and
imagining none that followed them could pass farther, have taken the
liberty of entertaining us with their own fictions.

It is to be remembered likewise that neither the Greeks nor Romans,
from whom we have received all our information, ever carried their
arms into this part of the world, or ever heard of multitudes of
nations that dwell upon the banks of this vast river; that the
countries where the Nile rises, and those through which it runs,
have no inhabitants but what are savage and uncivilised; that before
they could arrive at its head, they must surmount the insuperable
obstacles of impassable forests, inaccessible cliffs, and deserts
crowded with beasts of prey, fierce by nature, and raging for want
of sustenance. Yet if they who endeavoured with so much ardour to
discover the spring of this river had landed at Mazna on the coast
of the Red Sea, and marched a little more to the south than the
south-west, they might perhaps have gratified their curiosity at
less expense, and in about twenty days might have enjoyed the
desired sight of the sources of the Nile.

But this discovery was reserved for the invincible bravery of our
noble countrymen, who, not discouraged by the dangers of a
navigation in seas never explored before, have subdued kingdoms and
empires where the Greek and Roman greatness, where the names of
Caesar and Alexander, were never heard of; who have demolished the
airy fabrics of renowned hypotheses, and detected those fables which
the ancients rather chose to invent of the sources of the Nile than
to confess their ignorance. I cannot help suspending my narration
to reflect a little on the ridiculous speculations of those swelling
philosophers, whose arrogance would prescribe laws to nature, and
subject those astonishing effects, which we behold daily, to their
idle reasonings and chimerical rules. Presumptuous imagination!
that has given being to such numbers of books, and patrons to so
many various opinions about the overflows of the Nile. Some of
these theorists have been pleased to declare it as their favourite
notion that this inundation is caused by high winds which stop the
current, and so force the water to rise above its banks, and spread
over all Egypt. Others pretend a subterraneous communication
between the ocean and the Nile, and that the sea being violently
agitated swells the river. Many have imagined themselves blessed
with the discovery when they have told us that this mighty flood
proceeds from the melting of snow on the mountains of Aethiopia,
without reflecting that this opinion is contrary to the received
notion of all the ancients, who believed that the heat was so
excessive between the tropics that no inhabitant could live there.
So much snow and so great heat are never met with in the same
region; and indeed I never saw snow in Abyssinia, except on Mount
Semen in the kingdom of Tigre, very remote from the Nile, and on
Namera, which is indeed not far distant, but where there never falls
snow sufficient to wet the foot of the mountain when it is melted.

To the immense labours and fatigues of the Portuguese mankind is
indebted for the knowledge of the real cause of these inundations so
great and so regular. Their observations inform us that Abyssinia,
where the Nile rises and waters vast tracts of land, is full of
mountains, and in its natural situation much higher than Egypt; that
all the winter, from June to September, no day is without rain; that
the Nile receives in its course all the rivers, brooks, and torrents
which fall from those mountains; these necessarily swell it above
the banks, and fill the plains of Egypt with the inundation. This
comes regularly about the month of July, or three weeks after the
beginning of a rainy season in Aethiopia. The different degrees of
this flood are such certain indications of the fruitfulness or
sterility of the ensuing year, that it is publicly proclaimed in
Cairo how much the water hath gained each night. This is all I have
to inform the reader of concerning the Nile, which the Egyptians
adored as the deity, in whose choice it was to bless them with
abundance, or deprive them of the necessaries of life.



Chapter XI



The author discovers a passage over the Nile. Is sent into the
province of Ligonus, which he gives a description of. His success
in his mission. The stratagem of the monks to encourage the
soldiers. The author narrowly escapes being burned.


When I was to cross this river at Boad, I durst not venture myself
on the floats I have already spoken of, but went up higher in hopes
of finding a more commodious passage. I had with me three or four
men that were reduced to the same difficulty with myself. In one
part seeing people on the other side, and remarking that the water
was shallow, and that the rocks and trees which grew very thick
there contributed to facilitate the attempt, I leaped from one rock
to another, till I reached the opposite bank, to the great amazement
of the natives themselves, who never had tried that way; my four
companions followed me with the same success: and it hath been
called since the passage of Father Jerome.

That province of the kingdom of Damot, which I was assigned to by my
superior, is called Ligonus, and is perhaps one of the most
beautiful and agreeable places in the world; the air is healthful
and temperate, and all the mountains, which are not very high,
shaded with cedars. They sow and reap here in every season, the
ground is always producing, and the fruits ripen throughout the
year; so great, so charming is the variety, that the whole region
seems a garden laid out and cultivated only to please. I doubt
whether even the imagination of a painter has yet conceived a
landscape as beautiful as I have seen. The forests have nothing
uncouth or savage, and seem only planted for shade and coolness.
Among a prodigious number of trees which fill them, there is one
kind which I have seen in no other place, and to which we have none
that bears any resemblance. This tree, which the natives call
ensete, is wonderfully useful; its leaves, which are so large as to
cover a man, make hangings for rooms, and serve the inhabitants
instead of linen for their tables and carpets. They grind the
branches and the thick parts of the leaves, and when they are
mingled with milk, find them a delicious food. The trunk and the
roots are even more nourishing than the leaves or branches, and the
meaner people, when they go a journey, make no provision of any
other victuals. The word ensete signifies the tree against hunger,
or the poor's tree, though the most wealthy often eat of it. If it
be cut down within half a foot of the ground and several incisions
made in the stump, each will put out a new sprout, which, if
transplanted, will take root and grow to a tree. The Abyssins
report that this tree when it is cut down groans like a man, and, on
this account, call cutting down an ensete killing it. On the top
grows a bunch of five or six figs, of a taste not very agreeable,
which they set in the ground to produce more trees.

I stayed two months in the province of Ligonus, and during that time
procured a church to be built of hewn stone, roofed and wainscoted
with cedar, which is the most considerable in the whole country. My
continual employment was the duties of the mission, which I was
always practising in some part of the province, not indeed with any
extraordinary success at first, for I found the people inflexibly
obstinate in their opinions, even to so great a degree, that when I
first published the Emperor's edict requiring all his subjects to
renounce their errors, and unite themselves to the Roman Church,
there were some monks who, to the number of sixty, chose rather to
die by throwing themselves headlong from a precipice than obey their
sovereign's commands: and in a battle fought between these people
that adhered to the religion of their ancestors, and the troops of
Sultan Segued, six hundred religious, placing themselves at the head
of their men, marched towards the Catholic army with the stones of
the altars upon their heads, assuring their credulous followers that
the Emperor's troops would immediately at the sight of those stones
fall into disorder and turn their backs; but, as they were some of
the first that fell, their death had a great influence upon the
people to undeceive them, and make them return to the truth. Many
were converted after the battle, and when they had embraced the
Catholic faith, adhered to that with the same constancy and firmness
with which they had before persisted in their errors.

The Emperor had sent a viceroy into this province, whose firm
attachment to the Roman Church, as well as great abilities in
military affairs, made him a person very capable of executing the
orders of the Emperor, and of suppressing any insurrection that
might be raised, to prevent those alterations in religion which they
were designed to promote: a farther view in the choice of so
warlike a deputy was that a stop might be put to the inroads of the
Galles, who had killed one viceroy, and in a little time after
killed this.

It was our custom to meet together every year about Christmas, not
only that we might comfort and entertain each other, but likewise
that we might relate the progress and success of our missions, and
concert all measures that might farther the conversion of the
inhabitants. This year our place of meeting was the Emperor's camp,
where the patriarch and superior of the missions were. I left the
place of my abode, and took in my way four fathers, that resided at
the distance of two days' journey, so that the company, without
reckoning our attendants, was five. There happened nothing
remarkable to us till the last night of our journey, when taking up
our lodging at a place belonging to the Empress, a declared enemy to
all Catholics, and in particular to the missionaries, we met with a
kind reception in appearance, and were lodged in a large stone house
covered with wood and straw, which had stood uninhabited so long,
that great numbers of red ants had taken possession of it; these, as
soon as we were laid down, attacked us on all sides, and tormented
us so incessantly that we were obliged to call up our domestics.
Having burnt a prodigious number of these troublesome animals, we
tried to compose ourselves again, but had scarce closed our eyes
before we were awakened by the fire that had seized our lodging.
Our servants, who were fortunately not all gone to bed, perceived
the fire as soon as it began, and informed me, who lay nearest the
door. I immediately alarmed all the rest, and nothing was thought
of but how to save ourselves and the little goods we had, when, to
our great astonishment, we found one of the doors barricaded in such
a manner that we could not open it. Nothing now could have
prevented our perishing in the flames had not those who kindled them
omitted to fasten that door near which I was lodged. We were no
longer in doubt that the inhabitants of the town had laid a train,
and set fire to a neighbouring house, in order to consume us; their
measures were so well laid, that the house was in ashes in an
instant, and three of our beds were burnt which the violence of the
flame would not allow us to carry away. We spent the rest of the
night in the most dismal apprehensions, and found next morning that
we had justly charged the inhabitants with the design of destroying
us, for the place was entirely abandoned, and those that were
conscious of the crime had fled from the punishment. We continued
our journey, and came to Gorgora, where we found the fathers met,
and the Emperor with them.

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