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TRAVELS

TO DISCOVER THE

SOURCE OF THE NILE.

BOOK VIII.

MR. BRUCE RETURNS BY SENNAAR THROUGH NUBIA AND THE GREAT DESERT-ARRIVES AT ALEXANDRIA,

ON

AND AFTERWARDS AT MARSEILLES.

N the 26th of December, 1771, at one o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Bruce left Gondar. He had purposed to fet out early in the morning, but was detained by the importunity of his friends. The king had delayed his setting out, by several orders fent him in the evening each day; and he plainly faw there was fome meaning in this, and that he was wifhing to throw difficulties in the way, till fome accident, or fudden emergency (never wanting in that country) fhould make it abfolutely impoffible for him to leave Abyffinia. When therefore the last message came to Kofcam on the 27th, at night, Mr. Bruce returned his refpe&ful duty to his majesty, put him in mind of his promise, and somewhat peev-. ishly, he believes, intreated him to leave him to his fortune; that his fervants were already gone, and he was refolved to fet out next morning.

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The next morning early, Mr. Bruce was furprised at the arrival of a young nobleman, lately made one of his bedchamber, with fifty light horfe. As he was fatisfied, that leaving Abyffinia, without parade, as privately as poffible,

was

was the only way to pafs through Sennaar, he therefore infifted upon none of his friends accompanying him, and he begged to decline this escort. At one o'clock, Mr. Bruce set out by the weft fide of Debra Tzai, having the mountain on their right hand. From the top of that afcent, they faw the plain and flat country below, black, and, in its appearance, one thick wood, which fome authors have called lately, the Shumeta, or Nubian forest.

All the difafters which Mr. Bruce had been threatened with in the course of the journey, which he had thus begun, now presented themselves to his mind, and made, for a moment, a ftrong impreffion upon his spirits. But it was too late to draw back, the dye was cast, for life or for death; home was before him, however diftant; and if, through the protection of Providence, he fhould be fortunate enough to arrive there, he promised himself both ease and the applause of his country, and of all unprejudiced men of sense and learning in Europe, for having, by his own private efforts alone, completed a difcovery, which had, from early ages, defied the address, industry, and courage of all the world.

Having rather hardened, than comforted his heart by these reflections, he now advanced down the fteep fide of the mountain, through very strong and rugged ground, torn up by the torrents that fall on every fide from above. This is called the Defcent of Moura; and though both they and their beasts were in great health and spirits, they could not, with their utmost endeavours, advance much more than one mile an hour. Two Greeks, one of whom only was his fervant, and a third, nearly blind, flying from poverty and want; an old janiffary, who had come to Abyffinia with the Abuna, and Copht who left then at Sennaar; these and fome common men who took charge of the beasts, and were to go no further than Tcherkin, were his only companions in this long and weary journey.

On the 28th they entered a thick wood, winding round a hill, in a fouth east direction, to get into the plain below, where they were furrounded by a great multitude of men, armed with lances, fhields, flings and large clubs or flicks,

who

who rained a fhower of ftones towards them: but they were at fuch a distance, that all of them fell greatly fhort of them. Whether this was owing to fear, or not, they did not know; but supposing that it was, they thought it their interest to keep it up as much as poffible. Mr. Bruce therefore ordered two fhots to be fired over their heads; not with any intention to hurt them, but to let them hear, by the balls whiftling among the leaves of the trees, that their guns carried farther than any of their flings; and that, diftant as they then were, they were not in fafety, if they had a difpofition to do harm. They seemed to understand their meaning, by gliding through among the bushes, and appearing at the top of a hill farther off, where they continued hooping, and crying, and making figns, which our travellers could not, neither did they endeavour to understand.

While refting on the banks of the river Mogetch, they had been overtaken by two men, and two women, who were driving two loaded affes, and were going to Tcherkin; they had defired leave to keep company with our travellers, for fear of danger on the road. Mr. Bruce had two Abyffinian fervants, but they were not yet come up, attending one of the baggage mules that was lame. They were obliged then to have recourse to one of these stranger women, who underftood the language of Tigré, and undertook readily to carry their meffage to a stranger, who was ftill very busy making figns from behind a tree, without coming one step

nearer.

Mr. Bruce's meffage to them was, that if they fhewed the smallest appearance of further infolence, either by approaching the tent, or flinging stones that night, the next morning, when the horse he expected were come up, he would burn their town, and put every man of them to the fword. A very fubmiffive answer was fent back, with a heap of lies in excufe of what they called their mistake. His two fervants coming foon after, both of whom hereafter, were to be in the service of Ayto Confu, went boldly one to each village, to bring two goats, fome jars of bouza, and to prepare fifty loaves of bread for next morning. The goats were dispatched in

Ee 2

ftantly,

ftantly, fo was the bouza; but when the morning came, the people had all fled from their houses, without preparing any bread. These villages were called Gimbaar. They were three in number; each fituated upon the top of a pointed hill, in a direction from east to west, and made a very beautiful appearance from the plain below.

On the 29th, they left the inhospitable villages of Gimbaar, not without entertaining fome apprehenfions of meeting the inhabitants again in the courfe of the day. But though they took every precaution against being furprised, that prudence could dictate, their fears of the encounter did not rife to any great height. Mr. Bruce got, indeed, on horfeback, leaving his mule, and, putting on his coat of mail, leaving the fire-arms under the command of Hagi Ifmael the old Turk he rode always about a quarter of a mile before the baggage, that they might not come fuddenly upon them, as they had done the night before. However, they met with no oppofition, but proceeded on to Waalia, and at half past four in the afternoon encamped in the market place.

Waalia is a collection of villages, each placed upon the top of a hill, and inclosing, as in a circle, an extensive flat piece of ground about three miles over, on which a very well frequented market is kept, The name is given it from a species of fmall pigeons, with yellow breafts and variegated back, the fatest and best of all the pigeon kind. Waalia lies due N. W. from Gondar.

On the 30th, they fet out from Waalia, and proceeded along the Mai Lumi, or the river of Lemons. A prodigious quantity of fruit loaded the branches of these trees even likely to break them; and these were in all stages of ripenefs. Multitudes of bloffoms covered the oppofite part of the tree, and fent forth the most delicious odour poffible. They provided themselves amply with this fruit. The natives make no ufe of it, but our travellers found it a great refreshment to them, both mixed with their water, and as fauce to their meat, of which they had now no great variety fince their onions had failed them, and a supply of them was no longer to be procured.

They

They foon after reached the pass of Dav-Dohha, a very narrow defile, full of strata of rocks, like fteps of stairs, but fo high, that, without leaping, or being pulled up, no horse or `mule can ascend. Befides, the defcent, though fhort, is very fteep, and almost choaked up by huge ftones, which the torrents, after washing the earth from about them, had rooled down from the mountain above. Both fides of the defile are covered thick with wood and bushes, especially that deteftable thorn the kantuffa, so justly reprobated in Abyffinia, Having extricated themselves fuccefsfully from this pass, their fpirits were fo elated, that they began to think their journey now at an end, not reflecting how many paffes, full of real danger, were still before them.

On the morning of the ad of January 1772, Mr. Bruce having dreffed his hair, perfumed it according to the custom of the country, and put on clean clothes, with no other arms but his knife, and a pair of piftols at his girdle, came out of his tent to mount the mule for Tcherkin. He now faw Confu's fervant, whofe name was Welleta Yafous, pulling the Guninea-fowls and pigeons out of the pannier, where his fervants had put them, and scattering them upon the ground, faying to those who interrupted him, "Throw away this carrion; you fhall have a better breakfast and dinner to-day ;" and, turning to Mr. Bruce, more than ordinarily pleased at seeing him dreffed, and that he continued to use the Abyffinian habit, he jumped upon his mule, and appeared in great spirits. They all fet out at a brifker pace than ufual, by the affistance of the two fresh mules.

They paffed through the midst of several small villages, and at laft Mr. Bruce pitched his tent in the market place at Tcherkin, which seemed a beautiful lawn laid out for pleafure, shaded with fine old trees, of an enormous height and fize, and watered by a small but very limpid brook, running over beds of pebbles as white as fnow.

The impatient Welleta Yafous would only give Mr. Bruce time to fee his quadrant and other instruments safely flowed, but hurried him through a very narrow and crooked path up the fide of the mountain, at every turn of which was placed a

great

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