The Project Gutenberg EBook of Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile,
Volume I, by James Bruce

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Title: Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume I
       In the years 1769, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773

Author: James Bruce

Release Date: February 17, 2017 [EBook #54180]

Language: English

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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]

  VOL. I.

  _Opus aggredior opimum casibus, atrox prœliis, discors seditionibus,
  Ipsâ etiam pace sœvum._                         TACIT. Lib. iv. Ann.


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

  M.DCC.XC.




[Illustration]

TO THE

KING.


SIR,

The study and knowledge of the Globe, for very natural and obvious
reasons, seem, in all ages, to have been the principal and favourite
pursuit of great Princes; perhaps they were, at certain periods, the
very sources of that greatness.

But as Pride, Ambition, and an immoderate thirst of Conquest, were the
motives of these researches, no real advantage could possibly accrue to
mankind in general, from inquiries proceeding upon such deformed and
noxious principles.

In later times, which have been accounted more enlightened, still a
worse motive succeeded to that of ambition; Avarice led the way in
all expeditions, cruelty and oppression followed: to discover and
to destroy seemed to mean the same thing; and, what was still more
extraordinary, the innocent sufferer was stiled the Barbarian; while
the bloody, lawless invader, flattered himself with the name of
Christian.

With Your MAJESTY‘s reign, which, on many accounts, will for ever be
a glorious æra in the annals of Britain, began the emancipation of
discovery from the imputation of cruelty and crimes.

It was a golden age, which united humanity and science, exempted
men of liberal minds and education, employed in the noblest of all
occupations, that of exploring the distant parts of the Globe, from
being any longer degraded, and rated as little better than the
Buccaneer, or pirate, because they had, till then, in manners been
nearly similar.

It is well known, that an uncertainty had still remained concerning the
form, quantity, and consistence of the earth; and this, in spite of
all their abilities and improvement, met philosophers in many material
investigations and delicate calculations. Universal benevolence, a
distinguishing quality of Your MAJESTY, led You to take upon Yourself
the direction of the mode, and furnishing the means of removing these
doubts and difficulties for the common benefit of mankind, who were all
alike interested in them.

By Your MAJESTY‘s command, for these great purposes, Your fleets
penetrated into unknown seas, fraught with subjects, equal, if not
superior, in courage, science, and preparation, to any that ever before
had navigated the ocean.

But they possessed other advantages, in which, beyond all comparison,
they excelled former discoverers. In place of hearts confused with
fantastic notions of honour and emulation, which constantly led to
bloodshed, theirs were filled with the most beneficent principles, with
that noble persuasion, the foundation of all charity, not that all men
are equal, but that they are all brethren; and that being superior to
the savage in every acquirement, it was for that very reason their duty
to set the example of mildness, compassion, and long-suffering to a
fellow-creature, because the weakest, and, by no fault of his own, the
least instructed, and always perfectly in their power.

Thus, without the usual, and most unwarrantable excesses, the
overturning ancient, hereditary kingdoms, without bloodshed, or
trampling under foot the laws of society and hospitality, Your
MAJESTY‘s subjects, braver, more powerful and instructed than those
destroyers of old, but far more just, generous, and humane, erected in
the hearts of an unknown people, while making these discoveries, an
empire founded on peace and love of the subject, perfectly consistent
with those principles by which Your MAJESTY has always professed to
govern; more firm and durable than those established by bolts and
chains, and all those black devices of tyrants not even known by name,
in Your happy and united, powerful and flourishing kingdoms.

While these great objects were steadily conducting to the end which the
capacity of those employed, the justness of the measures on which they
were planned, and the constant care and support of the Public promised,
there still remained an expedition to be undertaken which had been long
called for, by philosophers of all nations, in vain.

Fleets and armies were useless; even the power of Britain, with the
utmost exertion, could afford no protection there, the place was so
unhappily cut off from the rest of mankind, that even Your MAJESTY‘s
name and virtues had never yet been known or heard of there.

The situation of the country was barely known, no more: placed
under the most inclement skies, in part surrounded by impenetrable
forests, where, from the beginning, the beasts had established a
sovereignty uninterrupted by man, in part by vast deserts of moving
sands, where nothing was to be found that had the breath of life,
these terrible barriers inclosed men more bloody and ferocious than
the beasts themselves, and more fatal to travellers than the sands
that encompassed them; and thus shut up, they had been long growing
every day more barbarous, and defied, by rendering it dangerous, the
curiosity of travellers of every nation.

Although the least considerable of your MAJESTY‘s subjects, yet not
the least desirous of proving my duty by promoting your MAJESTY‘s
declared plan of discovery as much as the weak endeavours of a single
person could, unprotected, forlorn, and alone, or at times associated
to beggars and banditti, as they offered, I undertook this desperate
journey, and did not turn an ell out of my proposed way till I had
completed it: It was the first discovery attempted in Your MAJESTY‘s
reign. From Egypt I penetrated into this country, through Arabia on one
side, passing through melancholy and dreary deserts, ventilated with
poisonous winds, and glowing with eternal sun-beams, whose names are as
unknown in geography as are those of the antediluvian world. In the six
years employed in this survey I described a circumference whose greater
axis comprehended twenty-two degrees of the meridian, in which dreadful
circle was contained all that is terrible to the feelings, prejudicial
to the health, or fatal to the life of man.

In laying the account of these Travels at Your MAJESTY‘s feet, I humbly
hope I have shewn to the world of what value the efforts of every
individual of Your MAJESTY‘s subjects may be; that numbers are not
always necessary to the performance of great and brilliant actions,
and that no difficulties or dangers are unsurmountable to a heart warm
with affection and duty to his Sovereign, jealous of the honour of
his master, and devoted to the glory of his country, now, under Your
MAJESTY‘s wise, merciful, and just reign, deservedly looked up to as
Queen, of Nations. I am,

  SIR,

    YOUR MAJESTY’s

      Most faithful Subject,

        And most dutiful Servant,

          JAMES BRUCE.




INTRODUCTION.


However little the reader may be conversant with ancient histories,
in all probability he will know, or have heard this much in general,
that the attempt to reach the Source of the Nile, the principal
subject of this publication, from very early ages interested all
scientific nations: Nor was this great object _feebly_ prosecuted,
as men, the first for wisdom, for learning, and spirit (a most
necessary qualification in this undertaking) very earnestly interested
themselves about the discovery of the sources of this famous river,
till disappointment followed disappointment so fast, and consequences
produced other consequences so fatal, that the design was entirely
given over, as having, upon the fairest trials, appeared impracticable.
Even conquerors at the head of immense armies, who had first discovered
and then subdued great part of the world, were forced to lower their
tone here, and dared scarcely to extend their advances toward this
discovery, beyond the limits of bare wishes. At length, if it was
not forgot, it was however totally abandoned from the causes above
mentioned, and with it all further topographical inquiries in that
quarter.

Upon the revival of learning and of the arts, the curiosity of mankind
had returned with unabated vigour towards this object, but all
attempts had met with the same difficulties as before, till, in the
beginning of his Majesty’s reign, the unconquerable spirit raised in
this nation by a long and glorious war, did very naturally resolve
itself into a spirit of adventure and inquiry at the return of peace,
one of the first-fruits of which was the discovery of these coy
fountains[1], till now concealed from the world in general.

The great danger and difficulties of this journey were well known,
but it was likewise known that it had been completely performed
without disappointment or misfortune, that it had been attended with
an apparatus of books and instruments, which seldom accompanies the
travels of an individual; yet sixteen years had elapsed without any
account appearing, which seemed to mark an unusual self-denial, or an
absolute indifference towards the wishes of the public.

Men, according to their different genius and dispositions, attempted
by different ways to penetrate the cause of this silence. The candid,
the learned, that species of men, in fine, for whom only it is worth
while to travel or to write, supposing (perhaps with some degree of
truth) that an undeserved and unexpected neglect and want of patronage
had been at least part of the cause, adopted a manner, which, being
the most liberal, they thought likely to succeed: They endeavoured to
entice me by holding out a prospect of a more generous disposition in
the minds of future ministers, when I should shew the claim I had upon
them by having promoted the glory of the nation. Others, whom I mention
only for the sake of comparison, below all notice on any other ground,
attempted to succeed in this by anonymous letters and paragraphs in the
newspapers; and thereby absurdly endeavoured to oblige me to publish
an account of those travels, which they affected at the same time to
believe I had never performed.

But it is with very great pleasure and readiness I do now declare,
that no fantastical or deformed motive, no peevish disregard, much
less contempt of the judgment of the world, had any part in the delay
which has happened to this publication. I look upon their impatience
to see this work as an earnest of their approbation of it, and a
very great honour done to me; and if I had still any motive to defer
submitting these observations to their judgment, it could only be that
I might employ that interval in polishing and making them more worthy
of their perusal. The candid and instructed public, the impartial and
unprejudiced foreigner, are tribunals merit should naturally appeal to;
it is there it always has found sure protection against the influence
of cabals, and the virulent strokes of malice, envy, and ignorance.

It is with a view to give every possible information to my reader,
that in this introduction I lay before him the motives upon which
these travels were undertaken, the order and manner in which they were
executed, and some account of the work itself, as well of the matter as
the distribution of it.

Every one will remember that period, so glorious to Britain, the
latter end of the ministry of the late Earl of Chatham. I was then
returned from a tour through the greatest part of Europe, particularly
through the whole of Spain and Portugal, between whom there then was
an appearance of approaching war. I was about to retire to a small
patrimony I had received from my ancestors, in order to embrace a life
of study and reflection, nothing more active appearing then within my
power, when chance threw me unexpectedly into a very short and very
desultory conversation with Lord Chatham.

It was a few days after this that Mr Wood, then under-secretary of
state, my very zealous and sincere friend, informed me that Lord
Chatham intended to employ me upon a particular service; that,
however, I might go down for a few weeks to my own country to settle
my affairs, but by all means to be ready upon a call. Nothing could be
more flattering to me than such an offer; when so young, to be thought
worthy by Lord Chatham of any employment, was doubly a preferment. No
time was lost on my side; but, just after my receiving orders to return
to London, his Lordship had gone to Bath, and resigned his office.

This disappointment, which was the more sensible to me, that it was
the first I had met in public life, was promised to be made up to
me by Lord Egremont and Mr George Grenville. The former had been
long my friend, but unhappily he was then far gone in a lethargic
indisposition, which threatened, and did very soon put a period to his
existence. With Lord Egremont’s death my expectations vanished. Further
particulars are unnecessary, but I hope that at least, in part, they
remain in that breast where they naturally ought to be, and where I
shall ever think, not to be forgotten, is to be rewarded.

Seven or eight months were past in an expensive and fruitless
attendance in London, when Lord Halifax was pleased, not only to
propose, but to plan for me a journey of considerable importance,
and which was to take up several years. His Lordship said, that
nothing could be more ignoble, than that, at such a time of life,
at the height of my reading, health, and activity, I should, as it
were, turn peasant, and voluntarily bury myself in obscurity and
idleness; that though war was now drawing fast to an end, full as
honourable a competition remained among men of spirit, which should
acquit themselves best in the dangerous line of useful adventure and
discovery. “He observed, that the coast of Barbary, which might be said
to be just at our door, was as yet but partially explored by Dr Shaw,
who had only illustrated (very judiciously indeed) the geographical
labours of Sanson[2]; that neither Dr Shaw nor Sanson had been, or
had pretended to be, capable of giving the public any detail of the
large and magnificent remains of ruined architecture which they both
vouch to have seen in great quantities, and of exquisite elegance and
perfection, all over the country. Such had not been their study, yet
such was really the taste that was required in the present times. He
wished therefore that I should be the first, in the reign just now
beginning, to set an example of making large additions to the royal
collection, and he pledged himself to be my supporter and patron, and
to make good to me, upon this additional merit, the promises which had
been held forth to me by former ministers for other services.”

The discovery of the Source of the Nile was also a subject of these
conversations, but it was always mentioned to me with a kind of
diffidence, as if to be expected from a more experienced traveller.
Whether this was but another way of exciting me to the attempt I shall
not say; but my heart in that instant did me justice to suggest, that
this, too, was either to be atchieved by me, or to remain, as it had
done for these last two thousand years, a defiance to all travellers,
and an opprobrium to geography.

Fortune seemed to enter into this scheme. At the very instant, Mr
Aspinwall, very cruelly and ignominiously treated by the Dey of
Algiers, had resigned his consulship, and Mr Ford, a merchant, formerly
the Dey’s acquaintance, was named in his place. Mr Ford was appointed,
and dying a few days after, the consulship became vacant. Lord Halifax
pressed me to accept of this, as containing all sort of conveniencies
for making the proposed expedition.

This favourable event finally determined me. I had all my life
applied unweariedly, perhaps with more love than talent, to drawing,
the practice of mathematics, and especially that part necessary to
astronomy. The transit of Venus was at hand. It was certainly known
that it would be visible once at Algiers, and there was great reason to
expect it might be twice. I had furnished myself with a large apparatus
of instruments, the completest of their kind for the observation. In
the choice of these I had been assisted by my friend Admiral Campbell,
and Mr Russel secretary to the Turkey Company; every other necessary
had been provided in proportion. It was a pleasure now to know that
it was not from a rock or a wood, but from my own house at Algiers, I
could deliberately take measures to place myself in the list of men of
science of all nations, who were then preparing for the same scientific
purpose.

Thus prepared, I set out for Italy, through France; and though it
was in time of war, and some strong objections had been made to
particular passports solicited by our government from the French
secretary of state, Monsieur de Choiseul most obligingly waved all
such exceptions with regard to me, and most politely assured me, in a
letter accompanying my passport, that those difficulties did not in any
shape regard me, but that I was perfectly at liberty to pass through,
or remain in France, with those that accompanied me, without limiting
their number, as short or as long a time as should be agreeable to me.

On my arrival at Rome I received orders to proceed to Naples, there to
await his Majesty’s further commands. Sir Charles Saunders, then with
a fleet before Cadiz, had orders to visit Malta before he returned to
England. It was said, that the grand-master of that Order had behaved
so improperly to Mr Hervey (afterwards Lord Bristol) in the beginning
of the war, and so partially and unjustly between the two nations
during the course of it, that an explanation on our part was become
necessary. The grand-master no sooner heard of my arrival at Naples,
than guessing the errand, he sent off Cavalier Mazzini to London, where
he at once made his peace and his compliments to his Majesty upon his
accession to the throne.

Nothing remained now but to take possession of my consulship. I
returned without loss of time to Rome, and thence to Leghorn, where,
having embarked on board the Montreal man of war, I proceeded to
Algiers.

While at Naples, I received from slaves, redeemed from the province
of Constantina, accounts of magnificent ruins they had seen while
traversing that country in the camp with their master the Bey. I saw
the absolute necessity there was for assistance, without which it was
impossible for any one man, however diligent and qualified, to do any
thing but bewilder himself. All my endeavours, however, had hitherto
been unsuccessful to persuade any Italian to put himself wilfully into
the hands of a people constantly looked upon by them in no better light
than pirates.

While I was providing myself with instruments at London, I thought
of one, which, though in a very small form and imperfect state, had
been of great entertainment and use to me in former travels; this is
called a Camera Obscura, the idea of which I had first taken from the
Spectacle de la Nature of the Abbé Vertot. But the present one was
constructed upon my own principles; I intrusted the execution of the
glasses to Messrs Nairne and Blunt, Mathematical instrument-makers
opposite to the Exchange, whom I had usually employed upon such
occasions, and with whose capacity and fidelity I had, after frequent
trials, the greatest reason to be satisfied.

This, when finished, became a large and expensive instrument; but being
separated into two pieces, the top and bottom, and folding compactly
with hinges, was neither heavy, cumbersome, nor inconvenient, and the
charge incurred by the additions and alterations was considerably more
than compensated by the advantages which accrued from them. Its body
was an hexagon of six-feet diameter, with a conical top; in this, as in
a summer-house, the draughtsman sat unseen, and performed his drawing.
There is now, I see, one carried as a show about the streets, of nearly
the same dimensions, called a Delineator, made on the same principles,
and seems to be an exact imitation of mine.

By means of this instrument, a person of but a moderate skill in
drawing, but habituated to the effect of it, could do more work, and in
a better taste, whilst executing views of ruined architecture, in one
hour, than the readiest draughtsman, so unassisted, could do in seven;
for, with proper care, patience, and attention, not only the elevation,
and every part of it, is taken with the utmost truth and justest
proportion, but the light and shade, the actual breaches as they stand,
vignettes, or little ornamental shrubs, which generally hang from and
adorn the projections and edges of the several members, are finely
expressed, and beautiful lessons given, how to transport them with
effect to any part where they appear to be wanting.

Another greater and inestimable advantage is, that all landscapes, and
views of the country, which constitute the background of the picture,
are real, and in the reality shew, very strikingly indeed, in such a
country as Africa, abounding in picturesque scenes, how much nature
is superior to the creation of the warmest genius or imagination.
Momentary masses of clouds, especially the heavier ones, of stormy
skies, will be fixed by two or three unstudied strokes of a pencil; and
figures and dress, in the most agreeable attitudes and folds, leave
traces that a very ordinary hand might speedily make his own, or, what
is still better, enable him with these elements to use the assistance
of the best artist he can find in every line of painting, and, by the
help of these, give to each the utmost possible perfection; a practice
which I have constantly preferred and followed with success.

It is true, this instrument has a fundamental defect in the laws of
optics; but this is obvious, and known unavoidably to exist; and he
must be a very ordinary genius indeed, and very lame, both in theory
and practice, that cannot apply the necessary correction, with little
trouble, and in a very short time.

I was so well pleased with the first trial of this instrument at
Julia Cæsarea, now Shershell, about 60 miles from Algiers, that I
commissioned a smaller one from Italy, which, though negligently and
ignorantly made, did me this good service, that it enabled me to
save my larger and more perfect one, in my unfortunate shipwreck at
Bengazi[3], the ancient Berenice, on the shore of Cyrenaicum; and this
was of infinite service to me in my journey to Palmyra.

Thus far a great part of my wants were well supplied, at least such as
could be foreseen, but I still laboured under many. Besides that single
province of ruined architecture, there remained several others of equal
importance to the public. The natural history of the country, the
manners and languages of the inhabitants, the history of the heavens,
by a constant observation of, and attention to which, a useful and
intelligible map of the country could be obtained, were objects of the
utmost consequence.

Packing and repacking, mounting and rectifying these instruments alone,
besides the attention and time necessary in using them, required
what would have occupied one man, if they had been continual, which
they luckily were not, and he sufficiently instructed. I therefore
endeavoured to procure such a number of assistants, that should each
bear his share in these several departments; not one only, but three
or four if possible. I was now engaged, and part of my pride was to
shew, how easy a thing it was to disappoint the idle prophecies of the
ignorant, that this expedition would be spent in pleasure, without
any profit to the public. I wrote to several correspondents, Mr
Lumisden, Mr Strange, Mr Byers, and others in different parts of Italy,
acquainting them of my situation, and begging their assistance. These
gentlemen kindly used their utmost endeavours, but in vain.

It is true, Mr Chalgrin, a young French student in architecture,
accepted the proposal, and sent a neat specimen of rectilineal
architecture. Even this gentleman might have been of some use, but his
heart failed him; he would have wished the credit of the undertaking,
without the fatigues of the journey. At last Mr Lumisden, by accident,
heard of a young man who was then studying architecture at Rome, a
native of Bologna, whose name was Luigi Balugani. I can appeal to Mr
Lumisden, now in England, as to the extent of this person’s practice
and knowledge, and that he knew very little when first sent to me.
In the twenty months which he staid with me at Algiers, by assiduous
application to proper subjects under my instruction, he became a very
considerable help to me, and was the only one that ever I made use of,
or that attended me for a moment, or ever touched one representation
of architecture in any part of my journey. He contracted an incurable
distemper in Palestine, and died after a long sickness, soon after I
entered Ethiopia, after having suffered constant ill-health from the
time he left Sidon.

While travelling in Spain, it was a thought which frequently suggested
itself to me, how little informed the world yet was in the history of
that kingdom and monarchy. The Moorish part in particular, when it was
most celebrated for riches and for science, was scarcely known but from
some romances or novels. It seemed an undertaking worthy of a man of
letters to rescue this period from the oblivion or neglect under which
it laboured. Materials were not wanting for this, as a considerable
number of books remained in a neglected and almost unknown language,
the Arabic. I endeavoured to find access to some of those Arabian
manuscripts, an immense collection of which were every day perishing in
the dust of the escurial, and was indulged with several conversations
of Mr Wall, then minister, every one of which convinced me, that the
objections to what I wished were founded so strongly in prejudice, that
it was not even in his power to remove them.

All my success in Europe terminated in the acquisition of those few
printed Arabic books that I had found in Holland, and these were
rather biographers than general historians, and contained little in
point of general information. The study of these, however, and of
Maracci’s Koran, had made me a very tolerable Arab; a great field was
opening before me in Africa to complete a collection of manuscripts, an
opportunity which I did not neglect.

After a year spent at Algiers, constant conversation with the natives
whilst abroad, and with my manuscripts within doors, had qualified
me to appear in any part of the continent without the help of an
interpreter. Ludolf[4] had assured his readers, that the knowledge of
any oriental language would soon enable them to acquire the Ethiopic,
and I needed only the same number of books to have made my knowledge
of that language go hand in hand with my attainments in the Arabic. My
immediate prospect of setting out on my journey to the inland parts
of Africa, had made me double my diligence; night and day there was
no relaxation from these studies, although the acquiring any single
language had never been with me either an object of time or difficulty.

At this instant, instead of obtaining the liberty I had solicited to
depart, orders arrived from the king to expect his further commands at
Algiers, and not to think of stirring from thence, till a dispute about
passports was settled, in which I certainly had no concern, further
than as it regarded me as his Majesty’s actual servant, for it had
originated entirely from the neglect of the former consul’s letters
directed to the secretary of state at home, before my coming to Algiers.

The island of Minorca had been taken by the French; and when the fort
of St Philip surrendered by an article common to all capitulations,
it was stipulated, that all papers found in the fort were to be
delivered to the captors. It happened that among these was a number
of blank Mediterranean passes, which fell therefore into the hands of
the French, and the blanks were filled up by the French governor and
secretary, who very naturally wished to embroil us with the Barbary
states, it being then the time of war with France. They were sold to
Spaniards, Neapolitans, and other enemies of the Barbary regencies.
The check[5] (the only proof that these pirates have of the vessels
being a friend) agreed perfectly with the passport filled up by the
French governor, but the captor seeing that the crew of these vessels
were dark-coloured, wore mustachoes, and spoke no English, carried the
vessel to Algiers, where the British consul detected the fraud, and
was under the disagreeable necessity of surrendering so many Christians
into slavery in the hands of their enemies.

One or two successful discoveries of this kind made the hungry pirates
believe that the passport of every vessel they met with, even those
of Gibraltar, were false in themselves, and issued to protect their
enemies. Violent commotions were excited amongst the soldiery, abetted
under hand by several of the neutral consuls there. By every occasion
I had wrote home, but in vain, and the Dey could never be persuaded
of this, as no answer arrived. Government was occupied with winding
up matters at the end of a war, and this neglect of my letters often
brought me into great danger. At last a temporary remedy was found,
whether it originated from home, or whether it was invented by the
governor of Mahon and Gibraltar, was never communicated to me, but
a surer and more effectual way of having all the nation at Algiers
massacred could certainly not have been hit upon.

Square pieces of common paper, about the size of a quarter-sheet, were
sealed with the arms of the governor of Mahon, sometimes with red,
sometimes with black wax, as the family circumstances of that officer
required. These were signed by his signature, countersigned by that
of his secretary, and contained nothing more than a bare and simple
declaration, that the vessel, the bearer of it, was British property.
These papers were called _Passavants_. The cruiser, uninstructed in
this when he boarded a vessel, asked for his Mediterranean pass. The
mailer answered, He had none, he had only a passavant, and shewed the
paper, which having no check, the cruiser brought him and his vessel
as a good prize into Algiers. Upon my claiming them, as was my duty,
I was immediately called before the Dey and divan, and had it not
been from personal regard the Turks always shewed me, I should not
have escaped the insults of the soldiery in my way to the palace. The
Dey asked me, upon my word as a Christian and an Englishman, whether
these written passes were according to treaty, or whether the word
_passavant_ was to be found in any of our treaties with the Moorish
regencies? All equivocation was useless. I answered, That these passes
were not according to treaty; that the word _passavant_ was not in
any treaty I knew of with any of the Barbary states; that it was a
measure necessity had created, by Minorca’s falling into the hands of
the French, which had never before been the case, but that the remedy
would be found as soon as the greater business of settling the general
peace gave the British ministry time to breathe. Upon this the Dey,
holding several _passavants_ in his hand, answered, with great emotion,
in these memorable terms, “The British government know that we can
neither read nor write, no not even our own language; we are ignorant
soldiers and sailors, robbers if you will, though we do not wish to rob
you; but war is our trade, and we live by that only. Tell me how my
cruisers are to know that all these different writings and seals are
Governor Mostyn’s, or Governor Johnston’s, and not the Duke of Medina
Sidonia’s, or Barcelot’s, captain of the king of Spain’s cruisers?” It
was impossible to answer a question so simple and so direct. I touched
then the instant of being cut to pieces by the soldiery, or of having
the whole British Mediterranean trade carried into the Barbary ports.
The candid and open manner in which I had spoken, the regard and esteem
the Dey always had shewed me, and some other common methods with the
members of the regency, staved off the dangerous moment, and were the
means of procuring time. Admiralty passes at last came out, and the
matter was happily adjusted; but it was an affair the least pleasing
and the least profitable, and one of the most dangerous in which I was
ever engaged.

All this disagreeable interval I had given to study, and making myself
familiar with every thing that could be necessary to me in my intended
journey. The king’s surgeon at Algiers, Mr Ball, a man of considerable
merit in his profession, and who lived in my family, had obtained leave
to return home. Before I was deprived of this assistance, I had made
a point of drawing from it all the advantages possible for my future
travels. Mr Ball did not grudge his time or pains in the instruction he
gave me. I had made myself master of the art of bleeding, which I found
consisted only in a little attention, and in overcoming that diffidence
which the ignorance how the parts lie occasions. Mr Ball had shewn me
the manner of applying several sorts of bandages, and gave me an idea
of dressing some kinds of sores and wounds. Frequent and very useful
lessons, which I also received from my friend Doctor Russel at Aleppo,
contributed greatly to improve me afterwards in the knowledge of physic
and surgery. I had a small chest of the most efficacious medicines, a
dispensary to teach me to compound others that were needful, and some
short treatises upon the acute diseases of several countries within
the tropics. Thus instructed, I flatter myself, no offence I hope, I
did not occasion a greater mortality among the Mahometans and Pagans
abroad, than may be attributed to some of my brother physicians among
their fellow Christians at home.

The rev. Mr Tonyn, the king’s chaplain at Algiers, was absent upon
leave before I arrived in that regency. The Protestant shipmasters who
came into the port, and had need of spiritual assistance, found here
a blank that was not easily filled up; I should therefore have been
obliged to take upon myself the disagreeable office of burying the
dead, and the more chearful, though more troublesome one, of marrying
and baptizing the living; matters that were entirely out of my way, but
to which the Roman Catholic clergy would contribute no assistance.

There was a Greek priest, a native of Cyprus, a very venerable man,
past seventy years of age, who had attached himself to me from my first
arrival in Algiers. This man was of a very social and chearful temper,
and had, besides, a more than ordinary knowledge of his own language.
I had taken him to my house as my chaplain, read Greek with him
daily, and spoke it at times when I could receive his correction and
instruction. It was not that I, at this time of day, needed to learn
Greek, I had long understood that language perfectly; what I wanted
was the pronunciation, and reading by accent, of which the generality
of English scholars are perfectly ignorant, and to which it is owing
that they apprehend the Greek spoken and written in the Archipelago is
materially different from that language which we read in books, and
which a few weeks conversation in the islands will teach them it is
not. I had in this, at that time, no other view than mere convenience
during my passage through the Archipelago, which I intended to visit,
without any design of continuing or studying there: But the reader will
afterwards see of what very material service this acquaintance was to
me, so very essential, indeed, that it contributed more to the success
of my views in Abyssinia than any other help that I obtained throughout
the whole of it. This man’s name was Padre Christophoro, or Father
Christopher. At my leaving Algiers, finding himself less conveniently
situated, he went to Egypt, to Cairo, where he was promoted to be
second in rank under Mark, patriarch of Alexandria, where I afterwards
found him.

Business of a private nature had at this time obliged me to
present myself at Mahon, a gentleman having promised to meet me
there; I therefore sailed from Algiers, having taken leave of the
Dey, who furnished me with every letter that I asked, with strong
and peremptory orders to all the officers of his own dominions,
pressing recommendatory ones to the Bey of Tunis and Tripoli, states
independent, indeed, of the Dey of Algiers, but over which the
circumstances of the times had given him a considerable influence.

The violent disputes about the passports had rather raised than lowered
me in his esteem. The letters were given with the best grace possible,
and the orders contained in them were executed most exactly in all
points during my whole stay in Barbary. Being disappointed in the
meeting I looked for at Mahon, I remained three days in Quarantine
Island, though General Townsend, then deputy-governor, by every
civility and attention in his power, strove to induce me to come on
shore, that he might have an opportunity of shewing me still more
attention and politeness.

My mind being now full of more agreeable ideas than what had for some
time past occupied it, I sailed in a small vessel from Port Mahon,
and, having a fair wind, in a short time made the coast of Africa, at
a cape, or headland, called Ras el Hamra[6], and landed at Bona, a
considerable town, the ancient Aphrodisium[7], built from the ruins of
Hippo Regius[8], from which it is only two miles distant. It stands
on a large plain, part of which seems to have been once overflowed by
the sea. Its trade consists now in the exportation of wheat, when, in
plentiful years, that trade is permitted by the government of Algiers.
I had a delightful voyage close down the coast, and passed the small
island Tabarca[9], lately a fortification of the Genoese, now in the
hands of the regency of Tunis, who took it by surprise, and made all
the inhabitants slaves. The island is famous for a coral fishery, and
along the coast are immense forests of large beautiful oaks, more than
sufficient to supply the necessities of all the maritime powers in the
Levant, if the quality of the wood be but equal to the size and beauty
of the tree.

From Tabarca I sailed and anchored at Biserta, the Hippozaritus[10] of
antiquity, and thence went to pay a visit to Utica, out of respect to
the memory of Cato, without having sanguine expectations of meeting any
thing remarkable there, and accordingly I found nothing memorable but
the name. It may be said nothing remains of Utica but a heap of rubbish
and of small stones; without the city the trenches and approaches of
the ancient besiegers are still very perfect.

After doubling Cape Carthage I anchored before the fortress of the
Goletta, a place now of no strength, notwithstanding the figure it
made at the time of the expedition of Charles V. Rowing along the
bay, between the Cape and this anchorage, I saw several buildings
and columns still standing under water, by which it appeared that
old Carthage had owed part of its destruction to the sea, and hence
likewise may be inferred the absurdity of any attempt to represent the
site of ancient Carthage upon paper. It has been, besides, at least ten
times destroyed, so that the stations, where its first citizens fell
fighting for their liberty, are covered deep in rubbish, far from being
trodden upon by those unworthy slaves who now are its masters.

Tunis[11] is twelve miles distant from this: It is a large and
flourishing city. The people are more civilized than in Algiers, and
the government milder, but the climate is very far from being so good.
Tunis is low, hot, and damp, and destitute of good water, with which
Algiers is supplied from a thousand springs.

I delivered my letters from the Bey, and obtained permission to visit
the country in whatever direction I should please. I took with me a
French renegado, of the name of Osman, recommended to me by Monsieur
Bartheleny de Saizieux, consul of France to that state; a gentleman
whose conversation and friendship furnish me still with some of the
most agreeable reflections that result from my travels. With Osman
I took ten spahi, or horse-soldiers, well armed with firelocks, and
pistols, excellent horsemen, and, as far as I could ever discern upon
the few occasions that presented, as eminent for cowardice, at least,
as they were for horsemanship. This was not the case with Osman, who
was very brave, but he needed a sharp look-out, that he did not often
embroil us where there was access to women or to wine.

One of the most agreeable favours I received was from a lady of the
Bey, who furnished me with a two-wheeled covered cart, exactly like
those of the bakers in England. In this I secured my quadrant and
telescope from the weather, and at times put likewise some of the
feeblest of my attendants. Besides these I had ten servants, two of
whom were Irish, who having deserted from the Spanish regiments in
Oran, and being British born, though slaves, as being Spanish soldiers,
were given to me at parting by the Dey of Algiers.

The coast along which I had sailed was part of Numidia and Africa
Proper, and there I met with no ruins. I resolved now to distribute my
inland journey through the kingdom of Algiers and Tunis. In order to
comprehend the whole, I first set out along the river Majerda, through
a country perfectly cultivated and inhabited by people under the
controul of government, this river was the ancient Bagrada[12].

After passing a triumphal arch of bad taste at Basil-bab, I came the
next day to Thugga[13], perhaps more properly called Tucca, and by the
inhabitants Dugga. The reader in this part should have Doctor Shaw’s
Work before him, my map of the journey not being yet published; and,
indeed, after Shaw’s, it is scarcely necessary to those who need only
an itinerary, as, besides his own observations, he had for basis those
of Sanson.

I found at Dugga a large scene of ruins, among which one building was
easily distinguishable. It was a large temple of the Corinthian order,
all of Parian marble, the columns fluted, the cornice highly ornamented
in the very best style of sculpture. In the tympanum is an eagle flying
to heaven, with a human figure upon his back, which, by the many
inscriptions that are still remaining, seems to be intended for that
of Trajan, and the apotheosis of that emperor to be the subject, the
temple having been erected by Adrian to that prince, his benefactor and
predecessor. I spent fifteen days upon the architecture of this temple
without feeling the smallest disgust, or forming a wish to finish it;
it is, with all its parts, still unpublished in my collection. These
beautiful and magnificent remains of ancient taste and greatness, so
easily reached in perfect safety, by a ride along the Bagrada, full as
pleasant and as safe as along the Thames between London and Oxford,
were at Tunis totally unknown. Doctor Shaw has given the situation of
the place, without saying one word about any thing curious it contains.

From Dugga I continued the upper road to Keff[14], formerly called
Sicca Venerea, or Venerea ad Siccam, through the pleasant plains
inhabited by the Welled Yagoube. I then proceeded to Hydra, the
Thunodrunum[15] of the ancients. This is a frontier place between the
two kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, as Keff is also. It is inhabited by
a tribe of Arabs, whose chief is a marabout, or saint; they are called
Welled Sidi Boogannim, the “sons of the father of flocks.”

These Arabs are immensely rich, paying no tribute either to Tunis or
Algiers. The pretence for this exemption is a very singular one. By
the institution of their founder, they are obliged to live upon lions
flesh for their daily food, as far as they can procure it; with this
they strictly comply, and, in consideration of the utility of this
their vow, they are not taxed, like the other Arabs, with payments to
the state. The consequence of this life is, that they are excellent
and well-armed horsemen, exceedingly bold and undaunted hunters. It
is generally imagined, indeed, that these considerations, and that of
their situation on the frontier, have as much influence in procuring
them exemption from taxes, as the utility of their vow.

There is at Thunodrunum a triumphal arch, which Dr Shaw thinks is more
remarkable for its size than for its taste or execution; but the size
is not extraordinary; on the other hand, both taste and execution are
admirable. It is, with all its parts, in the King’s collection, and,
taking the whole together, is one of the most beautiful landscapes in
black and white now existing. The distance, as well as the fore-ground,
are both from nature, and exceedingly well calculated for such
representation.

Before Dr Shaw’s travels first acquired the celebrity they have
maintained ever since, there was a circumstance that very nearly ruined
their credit. He had ventured to say in conversation, that these
Welled Sidi Boogannim were eaters of lions, and this was considered
at Oxford, the university where he had studied, as a traveller’s
license on the part of the Doctor. They took it as a subversion of the
natural order of things, that a man should eat a lion, when it had
long passed as almost the peculiar province of the lion to eat man.
The Doctor flinched under the sagacity and severity of this criticism;
he could not deny that the Welled Sidi Boogannim did eat lions, as he
had repeatedly said; but he had not yet published his travels, and
therefore left it out of his narrative, and only hinted at it after in
his appendix.

With all submission to that learned university, I will not dispute
the lion’s title to eating men; but, since it is not founded upon
patent, no consideration will make me stifle the merit of Welled
Sidi Boogannim, who have turned the chace upon the enemy. It is an
historical fact; and I will not suffer the public to be misled by a
misrepresentation of it; on the contrary, I do aver, in the face of
these fantastic prejudices, that I have ate the flesh of lions, that
is, part of three lions, in the tents of Welled Sidi Boogannim. The
first was a he-lion, lean, tough, smelling violently of musk, and had
the taste which, I imagine, old horse-flesh would have. The second
was a lioness, which they said had that year been barren. She had a
considerable quantity of fat within her; and, had it not been for the
musky smell that the flesh had, though in a lesser degree than the
former, and for our foolish prejudices against it, the meat, when
broiled, would not have been very bad. The third was a lion’s whelp,
six or seven months old; it tasted, upon the whole, the worst of the
three. I confess I have no desire of being again served with such a
morsel; but the Arabs, a brutish and ignorant folk, will, I fear,
notwithstanding the disbelief of the university of Oxford, continue to
eat lions as long as they exist.

From Hydra I passed to the ancient Tipasa[16], another Roman colony,
going by the same name to this day. Here is a most extensive scene of
ruins. There is a large temple, and a four-faced triumphal arch of the
Corinthian order, in the very best taste; both of which are now in the
collection of the King.

I here crossed the river Myskianah, which falls into the Bagrada,
and continuing through one of the most beautiful and best-cultivated
countries in the world, I entered the eastern province of Algiers,
now called Constantina, anciently the Mauritania Cæsariensis,
whose capital, Constantina, is the ancient metropolis of Syphax.
It was called Cirta[17], and, after Julius Cæsar’s conquest, Cirta
Sittianorum, from Caius Sittius who first took it. It is situated
upon a high, gloomy, tremendous precipice. Part only of its aqueduct
remains: the water, which once was carried into the town, now spills
itself from the top of the cliff into a chasm, or narrow valley, above
four hundred feet below. The view of it is in the King’s collection;
a band of robbers, the figures which adorn it, is a composition from
imagination; all the rest is perfectly real.

The Bey was at this time in his camp, as he was making war with the
Hanneishah, the most powerful tribe of Arabs in that province. After
having refreshed myself in the Bey’s palace I set out to Seteef, the
Sitifi[18] of antiquity, the capital of Mauritania Sitifensis, at
some distance from which I joined the Bey’s army, consisting of about
12,000 men, with four pieces of cannon. After staying a few days with
the Bey, and obtaining his letters of recommendation, I proceeded to
Taggou-zainah, anciently Diana Veteranorum[19], as we learn by an
inscription on a triumphal arch of the Corinthian order which I found
there.

From Taggou-zainah I continued my journey nearly straight S. E.
and arrived at Medrashem, a superb pile of building, the sepulchre
of Syphax, and the other kings of Numidia, and where, as the Arabs
believe, were also deposited the treasures of those kings. A drawing
of this monument is still unpublished in my collection. Advancing still
to the S. E. through broken ground and some very barren valleys, which
produced nothing but game, I came to Jibbel Aurez, the Aurasius Mons of
the middle age. This is not one mountain, but an assemblage of many of
the most craggy steeps in Africa.

Here I met, to my great astonishment, a tribe, who, if I cannot say
they were fair like English, were of a shade lighter than that of the
inhabitants of any country to the southward of Britain. Their hair
also was red, and their eyes blue. They are a savage and independent
people; it required address to approach them with safety, which,
however, I accomplished, (the particulars would take too much room for
this place), was well received, and at perfect liberty to do whatever
I pleased. This tribe is called Neardie. Each of the tribe, in the
middle between their eyes, has a Greek cross marked with antimony. They
are Kabyles. Though living in tribes, they have among the mountains
huts, built with mud and straw, which they call Dashkras, whereas the
Arabs live in tents on the plains. I imagine these to be a remnant of
Vandals. Procopius[20] mentions a defeat of an army of this nation
here, after a desperate resistance, a remnant of which may be supposed
to have maintained themselves in these mountains. They with great
pleasure confessed their ancestors had been Christians, and seemed to
rejoice much more in that relation than in any connection with the
Moors, with whom they live in perpetual war: they pay no taxes to the
Bey, but live in constant defiance of him.

As this is the Mons Audus of Ptolemy, here too must be fixed his
Lambesa[21], or Lambesentium Colonia, which, by a hundred Latin
inscriptions remaining on the spot, it is attested to have been. It
is now called Tezzoute: the ruins of the city are very extensive.
There are seven of the gates still standing, and great pieces of the
walls solidly built with square masonry without lime. The buildings
remaining are of very different ages, from Adrian to Aurelian, nay even
to Maximin. One building only, supported by columns of the Corinthian
order, was in good taste; what its use was I know not. The drawing of
this is in the King’s collection. It was certainly designed for some
military purpose, by the size of the gates; I should suspect a stable
for elephants, or a repository for catapulta, or other large military
machines, though there are no traces left upon the walls indicating
either. Upon the key-stone of the arch of the principal gate there is a
basso-relievo of the standard of a legion, and upon it an inscription,
Legio tertia Augusta, which legion, we know from history, was quartered
here. Dr Shaw[22] says, that there is here a neat, round, Corinthian
temple, called Cubb el Arrousah, the Cupola or Dome of the Bride or
Spouse. Such a building does exist, but it is by no means of a good
taste, nor of the Corinthian order; but of a long disproportioned
Doric, of the time of Aurelian, and does not merit the attention of any
architect. Dr Shaw never was so far south as Jibbel Aurez, so could
only say this from report.

From Jibbel Aurez nothing occurred in the style of architecture that
was material. Hydra remained on the left hand. I came to Cassareen,
the ancient Colonia Scillitana[23], where I suffered something both
from hunger and from fear. The country was more rugged and broken than
any we had yet seen, and withal less fruitful and inhabited. The Moors
of these parts are a rebellious tribe, called Nememshah, who had fled
from their ordinary obligation of attending the Bey, and had declared
themselves on the part of the rebel-moors, the Henneishah.

My intentions now were to reach Feriana, the Thala[24] of the ancients,
where I expected considerable subjects for study; but in this I was
disappointed, and being on the frontier, and in dangerous times, when
several armies were in the field, I thought it better to steer my
course eastward, and avoid the theatre of war.

Journeying east, I came to Spaitla[25], and again got into the
kingdom of Tunis. Spaitla is a corruption of Suffetula[26], which was
probably its ancient name before it became a Roman colony; so called
from Suffetes, a magistrature in all the countries dependent upon
Carthage. Spaitla has many inscriptions, and very extensive and elegant
remains. There are three temples, two of them Corinthian, and one of
the Composite order; a great part of them is entire. A beautiful and
perfect capital of the Composite order, the only perfect one that now
exists, is designed, in all its parts, in a very large size; and, with
the detail of the rest of the ruin, is a precious monument of what that
order was, now in the collection of the King.

Doctor Shaw, struck with the magnificence of Spaitla, has attempted
something like the three temples, in a stile much like what one would
expect from an ordinary carpenter, or mason. I hope I have done them
more justice, and I recommend the study of the Composite capital, as
of the Corinthian capital at Dugga, to those who really wish to know
the taste with which these two orders were executed in the time of the
Antonines.

The Welled Omran, a lawless, plundering tribe, inquieted me much in the
eight days I staid at Spaitla. It was a fair match between coward and
coward. With my company, I was inclosed in a square in which the three
temples stood, where there yet remained a precinct of high walls. These
plunderers would have come in to me, but were afraid of my fire-arms;
and I would have run away from them, had I not been afraid of meeting
their horse in the plain. I was almost starved to death, when I was
relieved by the arrival of Welled Hassan, and a friendly tribe of
Dreeda, that came to my assistance, and brought me, at once, both
safety and provision.

From Spaitla I went to Gilma, or Oppidum Chilmanense. There is here
a large extent of rubbish and stones, but no distinct trace of any
building whatever.

From Gilma I passed to Muchtar, corruptly now so called. Its ancient
name is Tucca Terebinthina[27]. Dr Shaw[28] says its modern name is
Sbeeba, but no such name is known here. I might have passed more
directly from Spaitla southward, but a large chain of mountains, to
whose inhabitants I had no recommendation, made me prefer the safer and
plainer road by Gilma. At Tucca Terebinthina are two triumphal arches,
the largest of which I suppose equal in taste, execution, and mass, to
any thing now existing in the world. The lesser is more simple, but
very elegant. They are both, with all the particulars of their parts,
not yet engraved, but still in my collection.

From Muchtar, or Tucca Terebinthina, we came to Kisser[29], which Dr
Shaw conjectures to have been the Colonia Assuras of the ancients, by
this it should seem he had not been there; for there is an inscription
upon a triumphal arch of very good taste, now standing, and many others
to be met with up and down, which confirms beyond doubt his conjecture
to be a just one. There is, besides this, a small square temple, upon
which are carved several instruments of sacrifice, which are very
curious, but the execution of these is much inferior to the design.
It stands on the declivity of a hill, above a large fertile plain,
still called the Plain of Surse, which is probably a corruption of its
ancient name Assuras.

From Kisser I came to Musti, where there is a triumphal arch of very
good taste, but perfectly in ruins; the merit of its several parts
only could be collected from the fragments which lie strewed upon the
ground.

From Musti[30] I proceeded north-eastward to Tubersoke, thence again to
Dugga, and down the Bagrada to Tunis.

My third, or, which may be called my middle journey through Tunis, was
by Zowan, a high mountain, where is a large aqueduct which formerly
carried its water to Carthage. Thence I came to Jelloula, a village
lying below high mountains on the west; these are the Montes Vassaleti
of Ptolemy[31], as the town itself is the Oppidum Usalitanum of Pliny.
I fell here again into the ancient road at Gilma; and, not satisfied
with what I had seen of the beauties of Spaitla, I passed there five
days more, correcting and revising what I had already committed to
paper. Independent of the treasure I found in the elegance of its
buildings, the town itself is situated in the most beautiful spot in
Barbary, surrounded thick with juniper-trees, and watered by a pleasant
stream that sinks there under the earth, and appears no more.

Here I left my former road at Cassareen, and proceeding directly S. E.
came to Feriana, the road that I had abandoned before from prudential
motives, Feriana, as has been before observed, is the ancient
Thala, taken and destroyed by Metellus in his pursuit of Jugurtha.
I had formed, I know not from what reason, sanguine expectations of
elegant remains here, but in this I was disappointed; I found nothing
remarkable but the baths of very warm water[32] without the town; in
these there was a number of fish, above four inches in length, not
unlike gudgeons. Upon trying the heat by the thermometer, I remember to
have been much surprised that they could have existed, or even not been
boiled, by continuing long in the heat of this medium. As I marked the
degrees with a pencil while I was myself naked in the water, the leaf
was wetted accidentally, so that I missed the precise degree I meant to
have recorded, and do not pretend to supply it from memory. The bath is
at the head of the fountain, and the stream runs off to a considerable
distance. I think there were about five or six dozen of these fish in
the pool. I was told likewise, that they went down into the stream to a
certain distance in the day, and returned to the pool, or warmest and
deepest water, at night.

From Feriana I proceeded S. E. to Gafsa, the ancient Capsa[33], and
thence to Tozer, formerly Tisurus[34]. I then turned nearly N. E. and
entered a large lake of water called the Lake of Marks, because in the
passage of it there is a row of large trunks of palm-trees set up to
guide travellers in the road which crosses it. Doctor Shaw has settled
very distinctly the geography of this place, and those about it. It
is the Palus Tritonidis[35], as he justly observes; this was the most
barren and unpleasant part of my journey in Africa; barren not only
from the nature of its soil, but by its having no remains of antiquity
in the whole course of it.

From this I came to Gabs, or Tacape[36], after passing El Hammah, the
baths which were the Aquas Tacapitanas of antiquity, where the small
river Triton, by the moisture which it furnishes, most agreeably and
suddenly changes the desert scene, and covers the adjacent fields with
all kinds of flowers and verdure.

I was now arrived upon the lesser Syrtis, and continued along the
sea-coast northward to Inshilla, without having made any addition to
my observations. I turned again to the N. W. and came to El Gemme[37],
where there is a very large and spacious amphitheatre, perfect as to
the desolation of time, had not Mahomet Bey blown up four arches of it
from the foundation, that it might not serve as a fortress to the rebel
Arabs. The sections, elevations, and plans, with the whole detail of
its parts, are in the King’s collection.

I have still remaining, but not finished, the lower or subterraneous
plan of the building, an entrance to which I forced open in my journey
along the coast to Tripoli. This was made so as to be filled with water
by means of a sluice and aqueduct, which are still entire. The water
rose up in the arena, through a large square-hole faced with hewn-stone
in the middle, when there was occasion for water-games or naumachia.
Doctor Shaw[38] imagines this was intended to contain the pillar that
supported the velum, which covered the spectators from the influence of
the sun. It might have served for both purposes, but it seems to be too
large for the latter, though I confess the more I have considered the
size and construction of these amphitheatres, the less I have been able
to form an idea concerning this velum, or the manner in which it served
the people, how it was secured, and how it was removed. This was the
last ancient building I visited in the kingdom of Tunis, and I believe
I may confidently say, there is not, either in the territories of
Algiers or Tunis, a fragment of good taste of which I have not brought
a drawing to Britain.

I continued along the coast to Susa, through a fine country planted
with olive trees, and came again to Tunis, not only without
disagreeable accident, but without any interruption from sickness
or other cause. I then took leave of the Bey, and, with the
acknowledgments usual on such occasions, again set out from Tunis, on a
very serious journey indeed, over the desert to Tripoli, the first part
of which to Gabs was the same road by which I had so lately returned.
From Gabs I proceeded to the island of Gerba, the Meninx[39] Insula, or
Island of the Lotophagi.

Doctor Shaw says, the fruit he calls the Lotus is very frequent all
over that coast. I wish he had said what was this Lotus. To say it is
the fruit the most common on that coast is no description, for there is
there no sort of fruit whatever; no bush, no tree, nor verdure of any
kind, excepting the short grass that borders these countries before you
enter the moving sands of the desert. Doctor Shaw never was at Gerba,
and has taken this particular from some unfaithful story-teller. The
Wargumma and Noile, two great tribes of Arabs, are masters of these
deserts. Sidi Ismain, whose grandfather, the Bey of Tunis, had been
dethroned and strangled by the Algerines, and who was himself then
prisoner at Algiers, in great repute for valour, and in great intimacy
with me, did often use to say, that he accounted his having passed that
desert on horseback as the hardiest of all his undertakings.

About four days journey from Tripoli I met the Emir Hadje conducting
the caravan of pilgrims from Fez and Sus in Morocco, all across Africa
to Mecca, that is, from the Western Ocean, to the western banks of the
Red Sea in the kingdom of Sennaar. He was a middle-aged man, uncle to
the present emperor, of a very uncomely, stupid kind of countenance.
His caravan consisted of about 3000 men, and, as his people said, from
12,000 to 14,000 camels, part loaded with merchandise, part with skins
of water, flour, and other kinds of food, for the maintenance of the
hadjees; they were a scurvy, disorderly, unarmed pack, and when my
horsemen, tho’ but fifteen in number, came up with them in the grey of
the morning, they shewed great signs of trepidation, and were already
flying in confusion. When informed who they were, their fears ceased,
and, after the usual manner of cowards, they became extremely insolent.

At Tripoli I met the Hon. Mr Frazer of Lovat, his Majesty’s consul in
that station, from whom I received every sort of kindness, comfort, and
assistance, which I very much needed after so rude a journey, made with
such diligence that two of my horses died some days after.

I had hopes of finding something at Lebeda, formerly Leptis Magna[40],
three days journey from Tripoli, where are indeed a great number of
buildings, many of which are covered by the sands; but they are of a
bad taste, mostly ill-proportioned Dorics of the time of Aurelian.
Seven large columns of granite were shipped from this for France, in
the reign of Louis XIV. destined for one of the palaces he was then
building. The eighth was broken on the way, and lies now upon the
shore. Though I was disappointed at Lebeda, ample amends were made me
at Tripoli on my return.

From Tripoli I sent an English servant to Smyrna with my books,
drawings, and supernumerary instruments, retaining only extracts from
such authors as might be necessary for me in the Pentapolis, or other
parts of the Cyrenaicum. I then crossed the Gulf of Sidra, formerly
known by the name of the Syrtis Major, and arrived at Bengazi, the
ancient Berenice[41], built by Ptolemy Philadelphus.

The brother of the Bey of Tripoli commanded here, a young man, as weak
in understanding as he was in health. All the province was in extreme
confusion. Two tribes of Arabs, occupying the territory to the west of
the town, who in ordinary years, and in time of peace, were the sources
of its wealth and plenty, had, by the mismanagement of the Bey, entered
into deadly quarrel. The tribe that lived most to the westward, and
which was reputed the weakest, had beat the most numerous that was
nearest the town, called Welled Abid, and driven them within its walls.
The inhabitants of Bengazi had for a year before been labouring under
a severe famine, and by this accident about four thousand persons, of
all ages and sexes, were forced in upon them, when perfectly destitute
of every necessary. Ten or twelve people were found dead every night
in the streets, and life was said in many to be supported by food that
human nature shudders at the thoughts of. Impatient to fly from these
Thyestean feasts, I prevailed upon the Bey to send me out some distance
to the southward, among the Arabs where famine had been less felt.

I encompassed a great part of the Pentapolis, visited the ruins of
Arsinoe, and, though I was much more feebly recommended than usual, I
happily received neither insult nor injury. Finding nothing at Arsinoe
nor Barca, I continued my journey to Ras Sem, the petrified city,
concerning which so many monstrous lies were told by the Tripoline
ambassador, Cassem Aga, at the beginning of this century, and all
believed in England, though they carried falsehood upon the very face
of them[42]. It was not then the age of incredulity, we were fast
advancing to the celebrated epoch of the man in the pint-bottle, and
from that time to be as absurdly incredulous as we were then the
reverse, and with the same degree of reason.

Ras Sem is five long days journey south from Bengazi; it has no water,
except a spring very disagreeable to the taste, that appears to be
impregnated with alum, and this has given it the name it bears of Ras
Sem, or the Fountain of Poison, from its bitterness. The whole remains
here consist in the ruins of a tower or fortification, that seems to
be a work full as late as the time of the Vandals. How or what use
they made of this water I cannot possibly guess; they had no other
at the distance of two days journey. I was not fortunate enough to
discover the petrified men and horses, the women at the churn, the
little children, the cats, the dogs, and the mice, which his Barbarian
excellency assured Sir Hans Sloane existed there: Yet, in vindication
of his Excellency, I must say, that though he propagated, yet he did
not invent this falsehood; the Arabs who conducted me maintained the
same stories to be true, till I was within two hours of the place,
where I found them to be false. I saw indeed mice[43], as they are
called, of a very extraordinary kind, having nothing of petrifaction
about them, but agile and active, so to partake as much of the bird as
the beast.

Approaching now the sea-coast I came to Ptolometa, the ancient
Ptolemais[44], the work of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the walls and gates
of which city are still entire. There is a prodigious number of Greek
inscriptions, but there remain only a few columns of the portico, and
an Ionic temple, in the first manner of executing that order; and
therefore, slight as the remains are, they are treasures in the history
of architecture which are worthy to be preserved. These are in the
King’s collection, with all the parts that could be recovered.

Here I met a small Greek junk belonging to Lampedosa, a little island
near Crete, which had been unloading corn, and was now ready to sail.
At the same time the Arabs of Ptolometa told me, that the Welled Ali,
a powerful tribe that occupy the whole country between that place and
Alexandria, were at war among themselves, and had plundered the caravan
of Morocco, of which I have already spoken, and that the pilgrims
composing it had mostly perished, having been scattered in the desert
without water; that a great famine had been at Derna, the neighbouring
town, to which I intended to go; that a plague had followed, and the
town, which is divided into upper and lower, was engaged in a civil
war. This torrent of ill news was irresistible, and was of a kind I did
not propose to wrestle with; besides, there was nothing, as far as I
knew, that merited the risk. I resolved, therefore, to fly from this
inhospitable coast, and save to the public, at least, that knowledge
and entertainment I had acquired for them.

I embarked on board the Greek vessel, very ill accoutred, as we
afterwards found, and, though it had plenty of sail, it had not an
ounce of ballast. A number of people, men, women, and children,
flying from the calamities which attend famine, crowded in unknown
to me; but the passage was short, the vessel light, and the master,
as we supposed, well accustomed to these seas. The contrary of this,
however, was the truth, as we learned afterwards, when too late, for
he was an absolute landsman; proprietor indeed of the vessel, but this
had been his first voyage. We sailed at dawn of day in as favourable
and pleasant weather as ever I saw at sea. It was the beginning of
September, and a light and steady breeze, though not properly fair,
promised a short and agreeable voyage; but it was not long before it
turned fresh and cold; we then had a violent shower of hail, and the
clouds were gathering as if for thunder. I observed that we gained no
offing, and hoped, if the weather turned bad, to persuade the Captain
to put into Bengazi, for one inconvenience he presently discovered,
that they had not provision on board for one day.

However, the wind became contrary, and blew a violent storm, seeming
to menace both thunder and rain. The vessel being in her trim with
large latine sails, fell violently to leeward, and they scarce would
have weathered the Cape that makes the entrance into the harbour of
Bengazi, which is a very bad one, when all at once it struck upon
a sunken rock, and seemed to be set down upon it. The wind at that
instant seemed providentially to calm; but I no sooner observed the
ship had struck than I began to think of my own situation. We were
not far from shore, but there was an exceeding great swell at sea.
Two boats were still towed astern of them, and had not been hoisted
in. Roger M‘Cormack, my Irish servant, had been a sailor on board the
Monarch before he deserted to the Spanish service. He and the other,
who had likewise been a sailor, presently unlashed the largest boat,
and all three got down into her, followed by a multitude of people whom
we could not hinder, and there was, indeed, something that bordered
on cruelty, in preventing poor people from using the same means that
we had done for preserving their lives; yet, unless we had killed
them, the prevention was impossible, and, had we been inclined to that
measure, we dared not, as we were upon a Moorish coast. The most that
could be done was, to get loose from the ship as soon as possible, and
two oars were prepared to row the boat ashore. I had stript myself to
a short under-waistcoat and linen drawers; a silk sash, or girdle, was
wrapt round me; a pencil, small pocket-book, and watch, were in the
breast-pocket of my waistcoat; two Moorish and two English servants
followed me; the rest, more wise, remained on board.

We were not twice the length of the boat from the vessel before a wave
very nearly filled the boat. A howl of despair from those that were
in her shewed their helpless state, and that they were conscious of a
danger they could not shun. I saw the fate of all was to be decided
by the very next wave that was rolling in; and apprehensive that some
woman, child, or helpless man would lay hold of me, and entangle my
arms or legs and weigh me down, I cried to my servants, both in Arabic
and English, We are all lost; if you can swim, follow me; I then let
myself down in the face of the wave. Whether that, or the next, filled
the boat, I know not, as I went to leeward to make my distance as great
as possible. I was a good, strong, and practised swimmer, in the flower
of life, full of health, trained to exercise and fatigue of every kind.
All this, however, which might have availed much in deep water, was
not sufficient when I came to the surf. I received a violent blow upon
my breast from the eddy wave and reflux, which seemed as given me by a
large branch of a tree, thick cord, or some elastic weapon. It threw me
upon my back, made me swallow a considerable quantity of water, and had
then almost suffocated me.

I avoided the next wave, by dipping my head and letting it pass over,
but found myself breathless, exceedingly weary and exhausted. The
land, however, was before me, and close at hand. A large wave floated
me up. I had the prospect of escape still nearer, and endeavoured to
prevent myself from going back into the surf. My heart was strong, but
strength was apparently failing, by being involuntarily twisted about,
and struck on the face and breast by the violence of the ebbing wave:
it now seemed as if nothing remained but to give up the struggle, and
resign to my destiny. Before I did this I sunk to sound if I could
touch the ground, and found that I reached the sand with my feet,
though the water was still rather deeper than my mouth. The success of
this experiment infused into me the strength of ten men, and I strove
manfully, taking advantage of floating only with the influx of the
wave, and preserving my strength for the struggle against the ebb,
which, by sinking and touching the ground, I now made more easy. At
last, finding my hands and knees upon the sands, I fixed my nails into
it, and obstinately resisted being carried back at all, crawling a few
feet when the sea had retired. I had perfectly lost my recollection
and understanding, and after creeping so far as to be out of the reach
of the sea, I suppose I fainted, for from that time I was totally
insensible of any thing that passed around me.

In the mean time the Arabs, who live two short miles from the shore,
came down in crowds to plunder the vessel. One of the boats was thrown
ashore, and they had belonging to them some others; there was one
yet with the wreck, which scarcely appeared with its gunnel above
water. All the people were now taken on shore, and those only lost who
perished in the boat. What first wakened me from this semblance of
death was a blow with the butt-end of a lance, shod with iron, upon
the juncture of the neck with the back-bone. This produced a violent
sensation of pain; but it was a mere accident the blow was not with the
point, for the small, short waistcoat, which had been made at Algiers,
the sash and drawers, all in the Turkish fashion, made the Arabs
believe that I was a Turk; and after many blows, kicks, and curses,
they stript me of the little cloathing I had, and left me naked. They
used the rest in the same manner, then went to their boats to look for
the bodies of those that were drowned.

After the discipline I had received, I had walked, or crawled up among
some white, sandy hillocks, where I sat down and concealed myself as
much as possible. The weather was then warm, but the evening promised
to be cooler, and it was fast drawing on; there was great danger to be
apprehended if I approached the tents where the women were while I was
naked, for in this case it was very probable I would receive another
bastinado something worse than the first. Still I was so confused that
I had not recollected I could speak to them in their own language, and
it now only came into my mind, that by the gibberish, in imitation
of Turkish, which the Arab had uttered to me while he was beating and
stripping me, he took me for a Turk, and to this in all probability the
ill-usage was owing.

An old man and a number of young Arabs came up to me where I was
sitting. I gave them the salute _Salam Alicum!_ which was only returned
by one young man, in a tone as if he wondered at my impudence. The old
man then asked me, Whether I was a Turk, and what I had to do there? I
replied, I was no Turk, but a poor Christian physician, a Dervish that
went about the world seeking to do good for God’s sake, was then flying
from famine, and going to Greece to get bread. He then asked me if I
was a Cretan? I said, I had never been in Crete, but came from Tunis,
and was returning to that town, having lost every thing I had in the
shipwreck of that vessel. I said this in so despairing a tone, that
there was no doubt left with the Arab that the fact was true. A ragged,
dirty baracan was immediately thrown over me, and I was ordered up to a
tent, in the end of which stood a long spear thrust through it, a mark
of sovereignty.

I there saw the Shekh of the tribe, who being in peace with the Bey of
Bengazi, and also with the Shekh of Ptolometa, after many questions
ordered me a plentiful supper, of which all my servants partook, none
of them having perished. A multitude of consultations followed on
their complaints, of which I freed myself in the best manner I could,
alledging the loss of all my medicines, in order to induce some of them
to seek for the sextant at least, but all to no purpose, so that,
after staying two days among them, the Shekh restored to us all that
had been taken from us, and mounting us upon camels, and giving us a
conductor, he forwarded us to Bengazi, where we arrived the second day
in the evening. Thence I sent a compliment to the Shekh, and with it
a man from the Bey, intreating that he would use all possible means
to fish up some of my cases, for which I assured him he should not
miss a handsome reward. Promises and thanks were returned, but I never
heard further of my instruments; all I recovered was a silver watch
of Ellicot, the work of which had been taken out and broken, some
pencils, and a small port-folio, in which were sketches of Ptolemeta;
my pocket-book too was found, but my pencil was lost, being in a common
silver case, and with them all the astronomical observations which I
had made in Barbary. I there lost a sextant, a parallactic instrument,
a time-piece, a reflecting telescope, an achromatic one, with many
drawings, a copy of M. de la Caille’s ephemerides down to the year
1775, much to be regretted, as being full of manuscript marginal notes;
a small camera obscura, some guns, pistols, a blunderbuss, and several
other articles.

I found at Bengazi a small French sloop, the master of which had been
often at Algiers when I was consul there. I had even, as the master
remembered, done him some little service, for which, contrary to the
custom of that sort of people, he was very grateful. He had come there
laden with corn, and was going up the Archipelago, or towards the
Morea, for more. The cargo he had brought was but a mite compared to
the necessities of the place; it only relieved the soldiers for a
time, and many people of all ages and sexes were still dying every day.

The harbour of Bengazi is full of fish, and my company caught a great
quantity with a small net; we likewise procured a multitude with the
line, enough to have maintained a larger number of persons than the
family consisted of; we got vinegar, pepper, and some store of onions;
we had little bread it is true, but still our industry kept us very
far from starving. We endeavoured to instruct these wretches, gave
them pack-thread, and some coarse hooks, by which they might have
subsisted with the smallest attention and trouble; but they would
rather starve in multitudes, striving to pick up single grains of corn,
that were scattered upon the beach by the bursting of the sacks, or the
inattention of the mariners, than take the pains to watch one hour at
the flowing of the tide for excellent fish, where, after taking one,
they were sure of being masters of multitudes till it was high water.

The Captain of the small vessel lost no time. He had done his business
well, and though he was returning for another cargo, yet he offered
me what part of his funds I should need with great frankness. We now
sailed with a fair wind, and in four or five days easy weather landed
at Canea, a considerable fortified place at the west end of the island
of Crete. Here I was taken dangerously ill, occasioned by the bathing
and extraordinary exertions in the sea of Ptolometa, nor was I in the
least the better from the beating I had received, signs of which I bore
very long afterwards.

From Canea I sailed for Rhodes, and there met my books; I then
proceeded to Castelrosso, on the coast of Caramania, and was there
credibly informed that there were very magnificent remains of ancient
buildings a short way from the shore, on the opposite continent.
Caramania is a part of Asia Minor yet unexplored. But my illness
increasing, it was impossible to execute, or take any measures to
secure protection, or do the business safely, and I was forced to
relinquish this discovery to some more fortunate traveller.

Mr Peyssonel, French consul at Smyrna, a man not more distinguished for
his amiable manners than for his polite taste in literature, of which
he has given several elegant specimens, furnished me with letters for
that part of Caramania, or Asia Minor, and there is no doubt but they
would have been very efficacious. What increased the obligation for
this kind attention shewn, was, that I had never seen Mr Peyssonel; and
I am truly mortified, that, since my arrival in England, I have had no
opportunity to return my grateful thanks for this kindness, which I
therefore beg that he will now accept, together with a copy of these
travels, which I have ordered my French bookseller to forward to him.

From Castelrosso I continued, without any thing remarkable, till I
came to Cyprus; I staid there but half a day, and arrived at Sidon,
where I was most kindly received by Mr Clerambaut, brother-in-law to
Mr Peyssonel, and French consul at this place; a man in politeness,
humanity, and every social quality of the mind, inferior to none I
have ever known. With him, and a very flourishing, well-informed, and
industrious nation, I continued for some time, then in a weak state
of health, but still making partial excursions from time to time into
the continent of Syria, through Libanus, and Anti Libanus; but as I
made these without instruments, and passed pretty much in the way of
the travellers who have described these countries before, I leave
the history to those gentlemen, without swelling, by entering into
particular narratives, this Introduction, already too long.

While at Canea I wrote by way of France, and again while at Rhodes
by way of Smyrna, to particular friends both in London and France,
informing them of my disastrous situation, and desiring them to send me
a moveable quadrant or sextant, as near as possible to two feet radius,
more or less, a time-keeper, stop-watch, a reflecting telescope, and
one of Dolland’s achromatic ones, as near as possible to three-feet
reflectors, with several other articles which I then wanted.

I received from Paris and London much about the same time, and as
if it had been dictated by the same person, nearly the same answer,
which was this, That everybody was employed in making instruments for
Danish, Swedish, and other foreign astronomers; that all those which
were completed had been bought up, and without waiting a considerable,
indefinite time, nothing could be had that could be depended upon. At
the same time I was told, to my great mortification, that no accounts
of me had arrived from Africa, unless from several idle letters, which
had been industriously wrote by a gentleman whole name I abstain from
mentioning, first, because he is dead, and next, out of respect to his
truly great and worthy relations.

In these letters it was announced, that I was gone with a Russian
caravan through the Curdistan, where I was to observe the transit of
Venus in a place where it was not visible, and that I was to proceed to
China, and return by the way of the East Indies:--a story which some of
his correspondents, as profligate as himself, industriously circulated
at the time, and which others, perhaps weaker than wicked, though
wicked enough, have affected to believe to this day.

I conceived a violent indignation at this, and finding myself so
treated in return for so complete a journey as I had then actually
terminated, thought it below me to sacrifice the best years of my life
to daily pain and danger, when the impression it made in the breasts of
my countrymen seemed to be so weak, so infinitely unworthy of them or
me. One thing only detained me from returning home; it was my desire
of fulfilling my promise to my Sovereign, and of adding the ruins of
Palmyra to those of Africa, already secured and out of danger.

In my anger I renounced all thoughts of the attempt to discover the
sources of the Nile, and I repeated my orders no more for either
quadrant, telescope, or time-keeper. I had pencils and paper; and
luckily my large camera obscura, which had escaped the catastrophe
of Ptolometa, was arrived from Smyrna, and then standing before me.
I therefore began to cast about, with my usual care and anxiety, for
the means of obtaining feasible and safe methods of repeating the
famous journey to Palmyra. I found it was necessary to advance nearer
the scene of action. Mr Abbot, British consul for Tripoli in Syria,
kindly invited me, and after him Mr Vernon, his successor, a very
excellent man, to take up my residence there. From Tripoli there is a
trade in kelp carried on to the salt marshes near Palmyra. The Shekh of
Cariateen, a town just upon the edge of the desert, had a contract with
the basha of Tripoli for a quantity of this herb for the use of the
soap-works. I lost no time in making a friendship with this man, but
his return amounted to no more than to endeavour to lead me rashly into
real danger, where he knew he had not consequence enough to give me a
moment’s protection.

There are two tribes almost equally powerful who inhabit the deserts
round Palmyra; the one is the Annecy, remarkable for the finest breed
of horses in the world; the other is the Mowalli, much better soldiers,
but fewer in number, and very little inferior in the excellence of
their horses. The Annecy possess the country towards the S. W. at the
back of Libanus, about Bozra down the Hawran, and southward towards
the borders of Arabia Petrea and Mount Horeb. The Mowalli inhabit the
plains east of Damascus to the Euphrates, and north to near Aleppo.

These two tribes were not at war, nor were they at peace; they were
upon what is called ill-terms with each other, which is the most
dangerous time for strangers to have any dealings with either. I
learned this as a certainty from a friend at Hassia, where a Shekh
lives, to whom I was recommended by a letter, as a friend of the basha
of Damascus. This man maintains his influence, not by a number of
forces, but by constantly marrying a relation of one or both of these
tribes of Arabs, who for that reason assist him in maintaining the
security of his road, and he has the care of that part of it by which
the couriers pass from Constantinople into Egypt, belonging to both
these tribes, who were then at a distance from each other, and roved in
flying squadrons all round Palmyra, by way of maintaining their right
of pasture in places that neither of them chose at that time to occupy.
These, I suppose, are what the English writers call Wild Arabs, for
otherwise, though they are all wild enough, I do not know one wilder
than another. This is very certain, these young men, composing the
flying parties I speak of, are truly wild while at a distance from
their camp and government; and the stranger that falls in unawares with
them, and escapes with his life, may set himself down as a fortunate
traveller.

Returning from Hassia I would have gone southward to Baalbec, but it
was then besieged by Emir Yousef prince of the Druses, a Pagan nation,
living upon mount Libanus. Upon that I returned to Tripoli, in Syria,
and after some time set out for Aleppo, travelling northward along the
plain of Jeune betwixt mount Lebanon and the sea.

I visited the ancient Byblus, and bathed with pleasure in the river
Adonis. All here is classic ground. I saw several considerable ruins of
Grecian architecture all very much defaced. These are already published
by Mr Drummond, and therefore I left them, being never desirous of
interfering with the works of others.

I passed Latikea, formerly Laodicea ad Mare, and then came to Antioch,
and afterwards to Aleppo. The fever and ague, which I had first
caught in my cold bath at Bengazi, had returned upon me with great
violence, after passing one night encamped in the mulberry gardens
behind Sidon. It had returned in very slight paroxysms several times,
but laid hold of me with more than ordinary violence on my arrival at
Aleppo, where I came just in time to the house of Mr Belville, a French
merchant, to whom I was addressed for my credit. Never was a more lucky
address, never was there a soul so congenial to my own as was that of
Mr Belville: to say more after this would be praising myself. To him
was immediately added Doctor Patrick Russel, physician to the British
factory there. Without the attention and friendship of the one, and the
skill and anxiety of the other of these gentlemen, it is probable my
travels would have ended at Aleppo. I recovered slowly. By the report
of these two gentlemen, though I had yet seen nobody, I became a public
care, nor did I ever pass more agreeable hours than with Mr Thomas the
French consul, his family, and the merchants established there. From
Doctor Russel I was supplied with what I wanted, some books, and much
instruction. Nobody knew the diseases of the East so well; and perhaps
my escaping the fever at Aleppo was not the only time in which I owed
him my life.

Being now restored to health, my first object was the journey to
Palmyra. The Mowalli were encamped at no great distance from Aleppo.
It was without difficulty I found a sure way to explain my wishes,
and to secure the assistance of Mahomet Kerfan, the Shekh, but from
him I learned, in a manner that I could not doubt, that the way I
intended to go down to Palmyra from the north was tedious, troublesome,
uncertain, and expensive, and that he did not wish me to undertake it
at that time. It is quite superfluous in these cases to press for
particular information; an Arab conductor, who proceeds with caution,
surely means you well. He told me that he would leave a friend in the
house of a certain Arab at Hamath[45], about half-way to Palmyra, and
if in something more than a month I came there, and found that Arab, I
might rely upon him without fear, and he would conduct me in safety to
Palmyra.

I returned to Tripoli, and at the time appointed set out for Hamath,
found my conductor, and proceeded to Hassia. Coming from Aleppo,
I had not passed the lower way again by Antioch. The river which
passes through the plains where they cultivate their best tobacco,
is the Orontes; it was so swollen with rain, which had fallen in
the mountains, that the ford was no longer visible. Stopping at two
miserable huts inhabited by a base set called Turcomans, I asked the
master of one of them to shew me the ford, which he very readily
undertook to do, and I went, for the length of some yards, on rough,
but very hard and solid ground. The current before me was, however,
so violent, that I had more than once a desire to turn back, but, not
suspecting any thing, I continued, when on a sudden man and horse fell
out of their depth into the river.

I had a rifled gun flung across my shoulder, with a buff belt and
swivel. As long as that held, it so embarrassed my hands and legs that
I could not swim, and must have sunk; but luckily the swivel gave
way, the gun fell to the bottom of the river, and was pickt up in dry
weather by order of the basha, at the desire of the French merchants,
who kept it for a relict. I and my horse swam separately ashore; at a
small distance from thence was a caphar[46], or turnpike, to which,
when I came to dry myself, the man told me, that the place where I
had crossed was the remains of a stone bridge now entirely carried
away; where I had first entered was one of the wings of the bridge,
from which I had fallen into the space the first arch occupied, one of
the deepest parts of the river; that the people who had misguided me
were an infamous set of banditti, and that I might be thankful on many
accounts that I had made such an escape from them, and was now on the
opposite side. I then prevailed on the caphar-man to shew my servants
the right ford.

From Hassia we proceeded with our conductor to Cariateen, where there
is an immense spring of fine water, which overflows into a large
pool. Here, to our great surprise, we found about two thousand of the
Annecy encamped, who were quarrelling with Hassan our old friend, the
kelp-merchant. This was nothing to us; the quarrel between the Mowalli
and Annecy had it seems been made up; for an old man from each tribe on
horseback accompanied us to Palmyra: the tribes gave us camels for more
commodious travelling, and we passed the desert between Cariateen and
Palmyra in a day and two nights, going constantly without sleeping.

Just before we came in sight of the ruins, we ascended a hill of
white gritty stone, in a very narrow-winding road, such as we call a
pass, and, when arrived at the top, there opened before us the most
astonishing, stupendous sight that perhaps ever appeared to mortal
eyes. The whole plain below, which was very extensive, was covered so
thick with magnificent buildings as that the one seemed to touch the
other, all of fine proportions, all of agreeable forms, all composed
of white stones, which at that distance appeared like marble. At the
end of it stood the palace of the sun, a building worthy to close so
magnificent a scene.

It was impossible for two persons to think of designing ornaments, or
taking measures, and there seemed the less occasion for this as Mr Wood
had done this part already. I had no intention to publish any thing
concerning Palmyra; besides, it would have been a violation of my first
principle not to interfere with the labours of others; and if this was
a rule I inviolably observed as to strangers, every sentiment of reason
and gratitude obliged me to pay the same respect to the labours of Mr
Wood my friend.

I divided Palmyra into six angular views, always bringing forward
to the first ground an edifice, or principal group of columns, that
deserved it. The state of the buildings are particularly favourable for
this purpose. The columns are all uncovered to the very bases, the soil
upon which the town is built being hard and fixed ground. These views
are all upon large paper; the columns in some of them are a foot long;
the figures in the fore-ground of the temple of the sun are some of
them near four inches.

Before our departure from Palmyra I observed its latitude with a
Hadley’s quadrant from reflection. The instrument had probably warped
in carriage, as the index went unpleasantly, and as it were by starts,
so that I will not pretend to give this for an exact observation; yet,
after all the care I could take, I only apprehended that 33° 58´ for
the latitude of Palmyra, would be nearer the truth than any other.
Again, that the distance from the coast in a straight line being 160
miles, and that remarkable mountainous cape on the coast of Syria,
between Byblus and Tripoli, known by the name of Theoprosopon, being
nearly due west, or under the same parallel with Palmyra, I conceive
the longitude of that city to be nearly 37° 9´ from the observatory of
Greenwich.

From Palmyra I proceeded to Baalbec, distant about 130 miles, and
arrived the same day that Emir Yousef had reduced the town and settled
the government, and was decamping from it on his return home. This was
the luckiest moment possible for me, as I was the Emir’s friend, and
I obtained liberty to do there what I pleased, and to this indulgence
was added the great convenience of the Emir’s absence, so that I was
not troubled by the observance of any court-ceremony or attendance, or
teazed with impertinent questions.

Baalbec is pleasantly situated in a plain on the west of Anti Libanus,
is finely watered, and abounds in gardens. It is about fifty miles
from Hassia, and about thirty from the nearest sea-coast, which is
the situation of the ancient Byblus. The interior of the great temple
of Baalbec, supposed to be that of the sun, surpasses any thing
at Palmyra, indeed any sculpture I ever remember to have seen in
stone. All these views of Palmyra and Baalbec are now in the King’s
collection. They are the most magnificent offering in their line that
ever was made by one subject to his sovereign.

Passing by Tyre, from curiosity only, I came to be a mournful witness
of the truth of that prophecy, That Tyre, the queen of nations, should
be a rock for fishers to dry their nets on[47]. Two wretched fishermen,
with miserable nets, having just given over their occupation with very
little success, I engaged them, at the expence of their nets, to drag
in those places where they said shell-fish might be caught, in hopes to
have brought out one of the famous purple-fish. I did not succeed, but
in this I was, I believe, as lucky as the old fishers had ever been.
The purple fish at Tyre seems to have been only a concealment of their
knowledge of cochineal, as, had they depended upon the fish for their
dye, if the whole city of Tyre applied to nothing else but fishing,
they would not have coloured twenty yards of cloth in a year. Much
fatigued, but satisfied beyond measure with what I had seen, I arrived
in perfect health, and in the gayest humour possible, at the hospitable
mansion of M. Clerambaut at Sidon.

I found there letters from Europe, which were in a very different style
from the last. From London, my friend Mr Russel acquainted me, that he
had sent me an excellent reflecting telescope of two feet focal length,
moved by rack-work, and the last Mr Short ever made, which proved a
very excellent instrument; also an achromatic telescope by Dolland,
nearly equal to a three-feet reflector, with a foot, or stand, very
artificially composed of rulers fixed together by screws. I think this
instrument might be improved by shortening the three principal legs
of it. If the legs of its stand were about six inches shorter, this,
without inconvenience, would take away the little shake it has when
used in the outer air. Perhaps this defect is not in all telescopes of
this construction. It is a pleasant instrument, and for its size takes
very little packing, and is very manageable.

I have brought home both these instruments after performing the
whole journey, and they are now standing in my library, in the most
perfect order; which is rather to be wondered at from the accounts
in which most travellers seem to agree, that metal speculums, within
the tropics, spot and rust so much as to be useless after a few
observations made at or near the zenith. The fear of this, and the
fragility of glass of achromatic telescopes, were the occasion of a
considerable expence to me; but from experience I found, that, if a
little care be taken, one reflector would be sufficient for a very long
voyage.

From Paris I received a time-piece and a stop-watch made by M.
Lepeaute, dearer than Ellicot’s, and resembling his in nothing else
but the price. The clock was a very neat, portable instrument, made
upon very ingenious, simple principles, but some of the parts were so
grossly neglected in the execution, and so unequally finished, that it
was not difficult for the meanest novice in the trade to point out the
cause of its irregularity. It remains with me in statu quo. It has been
of very little use to me, and never will be of much more to any person
else. The price is, I am sure, ten times more than it ought to be in
any light I can consider it.

All these letters still left me in absolute despair about obtaining
a quadrant, and consequently gave me very little satisfaction, but
in some measure confirmed me in my resolution already taken, to go
from Sidon to Egypt; as I had then seen the greatest part of the good
architecture in the world, in all its degrees of perfection down to its
decline, I wished now only to see it in its origin, and for this it was
necessary to go to Egypt.

Norden, Pococke, and many others, had given very ingenious accounts of
Egyptian architecture in general, of the disposition and size of their
temples, magnificence of their materials, their hieroglyphics, and the
various kinds of them, of their gilding, of their painting, and their
present state of preservation. I thought something more might be learnt
as to the first proportions of their columns, and the construction of
their plans. Dendera, the ancient Tentyra, seemed by their accounts to
offer a fair field for this.

I had already collected together a great many observations on the
progress of Greek and Roman architecture in different ages, drawn not
from books or connected with system, but from the models themselves,
which I myself had measured. I had been long of the opinion, in which
I am still further confirmed, that taste for ancient architecture,
founded upon the examples that Italy alone can furnish, was not
giving ancient architects fair play. What was to be learned from
the first proportions of their plans and elevations seemed to have
remained untouched in Egypt; after having considered these, I proposed
to live in retirement on my native patrimony, with a fair stock of
unexceptionable materials upon this subject, to serve for a pleasant
and useful amusement in my old age. I hope still these will not be lost
to the public, unless the encouragement be in proportion to what my
labours have already had.

I now received, however, a letter very unexpectedly by way of
Alexandria, which, if it did not overturn, at least shook these
resolutions. The Comte de Buffon Mons. Guys of Marseilles, and several
others well known in the literary world, had ventured to state to
the minister, and through him to the king of France, Louis XV. how
very much it was to be lamented, that after a man had been found who
was likely to succeed in removing that opprobrium of travellers and
geographers, by discovering the sources of the Nile, one most unlucky
accident, at a most unlucky time, should frustrate the most promising
endeavours. That prince, distinguished for every good quality of the
heart, for benevolence, beneficence, and a desire of promoting and
protecting learning, ordered a moveable quadrant of his own military
academy at Marseilles, as the nearest and most convenient port of
embarkation, to be taken down and sent to me at Alexandria.

With this I received a letter from Mr Russel, which informed me
that astronomers had begun to cool in the sanguine expectations of
discovering the precise quantity of the sun’s parallax by observation
of the transit of Venus, from some apprehension that errors of the
observers would probably be more than the quantity of the equation
sought, and that they now ardently wished for a journey into Abyssinia,
rather than an attempt to settle a nicety for which the learned had now
begun to think the accuracy of our instruments was not sufficient. A
letter from my correspondent at Alexandria also acquainted me, that the
quadrant, and all other instruments, were in that city.

What followed is the voyage itself, the subject of the present
publication. I am happy, by communicating every previous circumstance
that occurred to me, to have done all in my power to remove the
greatest part of the reasonable doubts and difficulties which might
have perplexed the reader’s mind, or biassed his judgment in the
perusal of the narrative of the journey, and in this I hope I have
succeeded.

I have now one remaining part of my promise to fulfil, to account
for the delay in the publication. It will not be thought surprising
to any that shall reflect on the distant, dreary, and desert ways by
which all letters were necessarily to pass, or the civil wars then
raging in Abyssinia, the robberies and violences inseparable from a
total dissolution of government, such as happened in my time, that
no accounts for many years, one excepted, ever arrived in Europe.
One letter, accompanied by a bill for a sum borrowed from a Greek at
Gondar, found its way to Cairo; all the rest had miscarried: my friends
at home gave me up for dead; and, as my death must have happened in
circumstances difficult to have been proved, my property became as
it were an _hereditas jacens_, without an owner, abandoned in common
to those whose original title extended no further than temporary
possession.

A number of law-suits were the inevitable consequence of this upon my
return. One carried on with a very expensive obstinacy for the space
of ten years, by a very opulent and active company, was determined
finally in the House of Peers, in the compass of a very few hours, by
the well-known sagacity and penetration of a noble Lord, who, happily
for the subjects of both countries, holds the first office in the law;
and so judicious was the sentence, that harmony, mutual confidence,
and good neighbourhood has ever since been the consequence of that
determination.

Other suits still remained, which unfortunately were not arrived to the
degree of maturity to be so cut off; they are yet depending; patience
and attention, it is hoped, may bring them to an issue at some future
time. No imputation of rashness can possibly fall upon the decree,
since the action has depended above thirty years.

To these disagreeable avocations, which took up much time, were added
others still more unfortunate. The relentless ague caught at Bengazi
maintained its ground at times for a space of more than sixteen years,
though every remedy had been used, but in vain; and, what was worst of
all, a lingering distemper had seriously threatened the life of a most
near relation, which, after nine years constant alarm, where every duty
bound me to attention and attendance, conducted her at last, in very
early life, to her grave[48].

The love of solitude is the constant follower of affliction; this again
naturally turns an instructed mind to study. My friends unanimously
assailed me in the part most accessible when the spirits are weak,
which is vanity. They represented to me how ignoble it was, after all
my dangers and difficulties were over, to be conquered by a misfortune
incident to all men, the indulging of which was unreasonable in
itself, fruitless in its consequences, and so unlike the expectation
I had given my country, by the firmness and intrepidity of my former
character and behaviour. Among these, the principal and most urgent
was a gentleman well known to the literary world, in which he holds a
rank nearly as distinguished as that to which his virtues entitle him
in civil life; this was the Hon. Daines Barrington, whose friendship,
valuable on every account, had this additional merit, that it had
existed uninterrupted since the days we were at school. It is to this
gentleman’s persuasions, assistance, protection, and friendship, that
the world owes this publication, if indeed there is any merit in it;
at least, they are certainly indebted to him for the opportunity of
judging whether there is any merit in it or not.

No great time has passed since the work was in hand. The materials
collected upon the spot were very full, and seldom deferred to be set
down beyond the day wherein the events described happened, but oftner,
when speeches and arguments were to be mentioned, they were noted the
instant afterwards; for, contrary I believe to what is often the case,
I can assure the reader these speeches and conversations are absolutely
real, and not the fabrication of after-hours.

It will perhaps be said, this work hath faults; nay, perhaps, great
ones too, and this I readily confess. But I must likewise beg leave to
say, that I know no books of the kind that have not nearly as many,
and as great, though perhaps not of the same kind with mine. To see
distinctly and accurately, to describe plainly, dispassionately and
truly, is all that ought to be expected from one in my situation,
constantly surrounded with every sort of difficulty and danger.

It may be said, too, there are faults in the language; more pains
should have been taken. Perhaps it may be so; yet there has not been
wanting a considerable degree of attention even to this. I have not
indeed confined myself to a painful and slavish nicety that would have
produced nothing but a disagreeable stiffness in the narrative. It will
be remembered likewise, that one of the motives of my writing is my own
amusement, and I would much rather renounce the subject altogether than
walk in fetters of my own forging. The language is, like the subject,
rude and manly. My paths have not been flowery ones, nor would it have
added any credit to the work, or entertainment to the reader, to employ
in it a stile proper only to works of imagination and pleasure. These
trifling faults I willingly leave as food to the malice of critics,
who perhaps, were it not for these blemishes, would find no other
enjoyment in the perusal of the work.

It has been said that parties have been formed against this work.
Whether this is really the case I cannot say, nor have I ever been
very anxious in the inquiry. They have been harmless adversaries at
least, for no bad effects, as far as I know, have ever as yet been
the consequences; neither is it a disquisition that I shall ever
enter into, whether this is owing to the want of will or of power. I
rather believe it is to the former, the want of will, for no one is so
perfectly inconsiderable, as to want the power of doing mischief.

Having now fulfilled my promise to the reader, in giving him the motive
and order of my travels, and the reason why the publication has been
delayed, I shall proceed to the last article promised, the giving some
account of the work itself. The book is a large one, and expensive
by the number of engravings; this was not at first intended, but the
journey has proved a long one, and matter has increased as it were
insensibly under my hands. It is now come to fill a great chasm in the
history of the universe. It is not intended to resemble the generality
of modern travels, the agreeable and rational amusement of one vacant
day, it is calculated to employ a greater space of time.

Those that are the best acquainted with Diodorus, Herodotus, and some
other Greek historians, will find some very considerable difficulties
removed; and they that are unacquainted with these authors, and receive
from this work the first information of the geography, climate, and
manners of these countries, which are little altered, will have no
great occasion to regret they have not searched for information in
more ancient sources.

The work begins with my voyage from Sidon to Alexandria, and up the
Nile to the first cataract. The reader will not expect that I should
dwell long upon the particular history of Egypt; every other year has
furnished us with some account of it, good or bad; and the two last
publications of M. Savary and Volney seem to have left the subject
thread-bare. This, however, is not the only reason.

After Mr Wood and Mr Dawkins had published their Ruins of Palmyra,
the late king of Denmark, at his own expence, sent out a number of
men, eminent in their several professions, to make discoveries in the
east, of every kind, with these very flattering instructions, that
though they might, and ought, to visit both Baalbec and Palmyra for
their own studies and improvement, yet he prohibited them to so far
interfere with what the English travellers had done, as to form any
plan of another work similar to theirs. This compliment was gratefully
received; and, as I was directly to follow this mission, Mr Wood
desired me to return it, and to abstain as much as possible from
writing on the same subjects chosen by M. Niebuhr, at least to abstain
either from criticising or differing from him on such subjects. I have
therefore passed slightly over Egypt and Arabia; perhaps, indeed, I
have said enough of both: if any shall be of another opinion, they may
have recourse to M. Niebuhr’s more copious work; he was the only person
of six who lived to come home, the rest having died in different parts
of Arabia, without having been able to enter Abyssinia, one of the
objects of their mission.

My leaving Egypt is followed by my survey of the Arabian gulf as far as
the Indian Ocean--Arrival at Masuah--Some account of the first peopling
of Atbara and Abyssinia--Conjectures concerning language--First ages of
the Indian trade--Foundation of the Abyssinian monarchy, and various
revolutions till the Jewish usurpation about the year 900. These
compose the first volume.

The second begins with the restoration of the line of Solomon, compiled
from their own annals, now first translated from the Ethiopic; the
original of which has been lodged in the British Museum, to satisfy the
curiosity of the public.

The third comprehends my journey from Masuah to Gondar, and the manners
and customs of the Abyssinians, also two attempts to arrive at the
fountains of the Nile--Description of these sources, and of every thing
relating to that river and its inundation.

The fourth contains my return from the source of the Nile to
Gondar--The campaign of Serbraxos, and revolution that followed--My
return through Sennaar and Beja, or the Nubian desert, and my arrival
at Marseilles.

In overlooking the work I have found one circumstance, and I think no
more, which is not sufficiently clear, and may create a momentary doubt
in the reader’s mind, although to those who have been sufficiently
attentive to the narrative, I can scarce think it will do this. The
difficulty is, How did you procure funds to support yourself, and
ten men, so long, and so easily, as to enable you to undervalue the
useful character of a physician, and seek neither to draw money nor
protection from it? And how came it, that, contrary to the usage of
other travellers, at Gondar you maintained a character of independence
and equality, especially at court; instead of crouching, living out
of sight as much as possible, in continual fear of priests, under the
patronage, or rather as servant to some men of power.

To this sensible and well-founded doubt I answer with great pleasure
and readiness, as I would do to all others of the same kind, if I could
possibly divine them:--It is not at all extraordinary that a stranger
like me, and a parcel of vagabonds like those that were with me, should
get themselves maintained, and find at Gondar a precarious livelihood
for a limited time. A mind ever so little polished and instructed has
infinite superiority over Barbarians, and it is in circumstances like
these that a man sees the great advantages of education. All the Greeks
in Gondar were originally criminals and vagabonds; they neither had,
nor pretended to any profession, except Petros the king’s chamberlain,
who had been a shoemaker at Rhodes, which profession at his arrival
he carefully concealed. Yet these were not only maintained, but by
degrees, and without pretending to be physicians, obtained property,
commands, and places.

Hospitality is the virtue of Barbarians, who are hospitable in the
ratio that they are barbarous, and for obvious reasons this virtue
subsides among polished nations in the same proportion. If on my
arrival in Abyssinia I assumed a spirit of independence, it was
from policy and reflection. I had often thought that the misfortunes
which had befallen other travellers in Abyssinia arose from the base
estimation the people in general entertained of their rank, and the
value of their persons. From this idea I resolved to adopt a contrary
behaviour. I was going to a court where there was a _king of kings_,
whose throne was surrounded by a number of high-minded, proud,
hereditary, punctilious nobility. It was impossible, therefore, too
much lowliness and humility could please there.

Mr Murray, the ambassador at Constantinople, in the firman obtained
from the grand signior, had qualified me with the distinction of
Bey-Adzè, which means, not an English nobleman (a peer) but a noble
Englishman, and he had added likewise, that I was a servant of the king
of Great Britain. All the letters of recommendation, very many and
powerful, from Cairo and Jidda, had constantly echoed this to every
part to which they were addressed. They announced that I was not a man,
such as ordinarily came to them, to live upon their charity, but had
ample means of my own, and each professed himself guarantee of that
fact, and that they themselves on all occasions were ready to provide
for me, by answering my demands.

The only request of these letters was safety and protection to my
person. It was mentioned that I was a physician, to introduce a
conciliatory circumstance, that I was above practising for gain.
That all I did was from the fear of God, from charity, and the love
of mankind. I was a physician in the city, a soldier in the field,
a courtier every where, demeaning myself, as conscious that I was
not unworthy of being a companion to the first of their nobility,
and the king’s stranger and guest, which is there a character, as
it was with eastern nations of old, to which a certain sort of
consideration is due. It was in vain to compare myself with them in
any kind of learning, as they have none; music they have as little;
in eating and drinking they were indeed infinitely my superiors; but
in one accomplishment that came naturally into comparison, which was
horsemanship, I studiously established my superiority.

My long residence among the Arabs had given me more than ordinary
facility in managing the horse; I had brought my own saddle and
bridle with me, and, as the reader will find, bought my horse of
the Baharnagash in the first days of my journey, such a one as was
necessary to carry me, and him I trained carefully, and studied from
the beginning. The Abyssinians, as the reader will hereafter see,
are the worst horsemen in the world. Their horses are bad, not equal
to our Welsh or our Scotch galloways. Their furniture is worse. They
know not the use of fire-arms on horseback; they had never seen a
double-barrelled gun, nor did they know that its effect was limited to
two discharges, but that it might have been fired on to infinity. All
this gave me an evident superiority.

To this I may add, that, being in the prime of life, of no ungracious
figure, having an accidental knack, which is not a trifle, of putting
on the dress, and speaking the language easily and gracefully, I
cultivated with the utmost assiduity the friendship of the fair sex, by
the most modest, respectful distant attendance, and obsequiousness in
public, abating just as much of that in private as suited their humour
and inclinations. I soon acquired a great support from these at court;
jealousy is not a passion of the Abyssinians, who are in the contrary
extreme, even to indifference.

Besides the money I had with me, I had a credit of L.400 upon Yousef
Cabil, governor of Jidda. I had another upon a Turkish merchant there.
I had strong and general recommendations, if I should want supplies,
upon Metical Aga, first minister to the sherriffe of Mecca. This,
well managed, was enough; but when I met my countrymen, the captains
of the English ships from India, they added additional strength to my
finances; they would have poured gold upon me to facilitate a journey
they so much desired upon several accounts. Captain Thornhill of
the Bengal Merchant, and Captain Thomas Price of the Lion, took the
conduct of my money-affairs under their direction. Their Saraf, or
broker, had in his hands all the commerce that produced the revenues
of Abyssinia, together with great part of the correspondence of the
east; and, by a lucky accident for me, Captain Price staid all winter
with the Lion at Jidda; nay, so kind and anxious was he as to send
over a servant from Jidda on purpose, upon a report having been raised
that I was slain by the usurper Socinios, though it was only one of my
servants, and the servant of Metical Aga, who were murdered by that
monster, as is said, with his own hand. Twice he sent over silver to me
when I had plenty of gold, and wanted that metal only to apply it in
furniture and workmanship. I do not pretend to say but sometimes these
supplies failed me, often by my negligence in not applying in proper
time, sometimes by the absence of merchants, who were all Mahometans,
constantly engaged in business and in journies, and more especially on
the king’s retiring to Tigré, after the battle of Limjour, when I was
abandoned during the usurpation of the unworthy Socinios. It was then I
had recourse to Petros and the Greeks, but more for their convenience
than my own, and very seldom from necessity. This opulence enabled me
to treat upon equal footing, to do favours as well as to receive them.

Every mountebank-trick was a great accomplishment there, such as making
squibs, crackers, and rockets. There was no station in the country
to which by these accomplishments I might not have pretended, had I
been mad enough to have ever directed my thoughts that way; and I am
certain, that in vain I might have solicited leave to return, had not a
melancholy despondency, the _amor patriæ_, seized me, and my health so
far declined as apparently to threaten death; but I was not even then
permitted to leave Abyssinia till under a very solemn oath I promised
to return.

This manner of conducting myself had likewise its disadvantages. The
reader will see the times, without their being pointed out to him,
in the course of the narrative. It had very near occasioned me to be
murdered at Masuah, but it was the means of preserving me at Gondar,
by putting me above being insulted or questioned by priests, the fatal
rock upon which all other European travellers had split: it would
have occasioned my death at Sennaar, had I not been so prudent as to
disguise and lay aside the independent carriage in time. Why should
I not now speak as I really think, or why be guilty of ingratitude
which my heart disclaims. I escaped by the providence and protection
of heaven; and so little store do I set upon the advantage of my own
experience, that I am satisfied, were I to attempt the same journey
again, it would not avail me a straw, or hinder me from perishing
miserably, as others have done, though perhaps a different way.

I have only to add, that were it probable, as in my decayed state
of health it is not, that I should live to see a second edition of
this work, all well-founded, judicious remarks suggested should be
gratefully and carefully attended to; but I do solemnly declare to
the public in general, that I never will refute or answer any cavils,
captious, or idle objections, such as every new publication seems
unavoidably to give birth to, nor ever reply to those witticisms and
criticisms that appear in newspapers and periodical writings. What
I have written I have written. My readers have before them, in the
present volumes, all that I shall ever say, directly or indirectly,
upon the subject; and I do, without one moment’s anxiety, trust my
defence to an impartial, well-informed, and judicious public.




CONTENTS

OF THE

FIRST VOLUME.


  DEDICATION.

  INTRODUCTION,                                                 Page i


  BOOK I.

  THE AUTHOR’S JOURNEY AND VOYAGE FROM SIDON TILL HIS
  ARRIVAL AT MASUAH.


  CHAP. I.

  _The Author sails from Sidon--Touches at Cyprus--Arrives at
  Alexandria--Sets out for Rosetto--Embarks on the Nile, and
  arrives at Cairo_,                                                 1


  CHAP. II.

  _Author’s Reception at Cairo--Procures Letters from the Bey and
  the Greek Patriarch--Visits the Pyramids--Observations on their
  Construction_,                                                    24


  CHAP. III.

  _Leaves Cairo--Embarks on the Nile for Upper Egypt--Visits
  Metrahenny and Mohannan--Reasons for supposing this the
  Situation of Memphis_,                                            43


  CHAP. IV.

  _Leaves Metrahenny--Comes to the Island Halouon--False
  Pyramid--These Buildings end--Sugar Canes--Ruins of
  Antinopolis--Reception there_,                                    69


  CHAP. V.

  _Voyage to Upper Egypt continued--Ashmounein, Ruins there--Gawe
  Kibeer Ruins--Mr Norden mistaken--Achmim--Convent of
  Catholics--Denaera--Magnificent Ruins--Adventure with a Saint
  there_,                                                           91


  CHAP VI.

  _Arrives at Furshout--Adventure of Friar Christopher--Visits
  Thebes--Luxor and Carnac--Large Ruins at Edfu and Esné--Proceeds
  on his Voyage_,                                                  114.


  CHAP. VII.

  _Arrives at Syene--Goes to see the Cataract--Remarkable
  Tombs--The Situation of Syene--The Aga proposes a visit to
  Deir and Ibrim--The Author returns to Kenné_,                    150


  CHAP. VIII.

  _The Author sets out from Kenné--Crosses the Desert of the
  Thebaid--Visits the Marble Mountains--Arrives at Cosseir
  on the Red Sea--Transactions there_,                             169


  CHAP. IX.

  _Voyage to Jibbel Zumrud--Returns to Cosseir--Sails from
  Cosseir--Jassateen Islands--Arrives at Tor_,                     204


  CHAP. X.

  _Sails from Tor--Passes the Elanitic Gulf--Sees Raddua--Arrives
  at Yambo--Incidents there--Arrives at Jidda_,                     239


  CHAP. XI.

  _Occurrences at Jidda--Visit of the Vizir--Alarm of the Factory--Great
  Civility of the English trading from India--Polygamy--Opinion
  of Dr Arbuthnot ill-founded--Contrary to Reason and
  Experience--Leaves Jidda_,                                       265


  CHAP. XII.

  _Sails from Jidda--Konsodah--Ras Heli, Boundary of Arabia Felix--Arrives
  at Loheia--Proceeds to the Straits of the Indian Ocean--Arrives
  there--Returns by Azab to Loheia_,                               294


  CHAP. XIII.

  _Sails for Masuah--Passes a Volcano--Comes to Dahalac--Troubled
  with a Ghost--Arrives at Masuah_,                                327


  BOOK II.

    ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST AGES OF THE INDIAN AND AFRICAN TRADE--THE
    FIRST PEOPLING OF ABYSSINIA AND ATBARA--SOME CONJECTURES
    CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE THERE.


  CHAP. I.

  _Of the Indian Trade in its earliest Ages--Settlement of
  Ethiopia--Troglodytes--Building of the first Cities_,            365


  CHAP. II.

  _Saba and the South of Africa peopled--Shepherds, their particular
  Employment and Circumstances--Abyssinia occupied by seven Stranger
  Nations--Specimens of their several Languages--Conjectures
  concerning them_,                                                381


  CHAP. III.

  _Origin of Characters or Letters--Ethiopic the first Language--How
  and why the Hebrew Letter was formed_,                           411


  CHAP. IV.

  _Some Account of the Trade-Winds and Monsoons--Application of this
  to the Voyage to Ophir and Tarshish_,                            427


  CHAP. V.

  _Fluctuating State of the India Trade--Hurt by military Expeditions
  of the Persians--Revives under the Ptolemies--Falls to Decay
  under the Romans_,                                               447


  CHAP. VI.

  _Queen of Saba visits Jerusalem--Abyssinian Tradition concerning
  Her--Supposed Founder of that Monarchy--Abyssinia embraces the
  Jewish Religion--Jewish Hierarchy still retained by the Fatasha--Some
  Conjectures concerning their Copy of the Old Testament_,         471


  CHAP. VII.

  _Books in use in Abyssinia--Enoch--Abyssinia not converted
  by the Apostles--Conversion from Judaism to Christianity by
  Frumentius_,                                                     493


  CHAP. VIII.

  _War of the Elephant--First Appearance of the Small-Pox--Jews
  persecute the Christians in Arabia--Defeated by the Abyssinians--Mahomet
  pretends a Divine Mission--Opinion concerning the Koran--Revolution
  under Judith--Restoration of the Line of Solomon
  from Shoa_,                                                      510




TRAVELS

TO DISCOVER

THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.




BOOK I.

THE AUTHOR’S TRAVELS IN EGYPT--VOYAGE IN THE RED SEA, TILL HIS ARRIVAL
AT MASUAH.




CHAP. I.


    _The Author sails from Sidon--Touches at Cyprus--Arrives at
    Alexandria--Sets out for Rosetto--Embarks on the Nile--and
    arrives at Cairo._


It was on Saturday the 15th of June, 1768, I sailed in a French vessel
from Sidon, once the richest and most powerful city in the world,
though now there is not remaining a shadow of its ancient grandeur. We
were bound for the island of Cyprus; the weather clear and exceedingly
hot, the wind favourable.

This island is not in our course for Alexandria, but lies to the
northward of it; nor had I, for my own part, any curiosity to see it.
My mind was intent upon more uncommon, more distant, and more painful
voyages. But the master of the vessel had business of his own which led
him thither; with this I the more readily complied, as we had not yet
got certain advice that the plague had ceased in Egypt, and it still
wanted some days to the Festival of St John, which is supposed to put a
period to that cruel distemper[49].

We observed a number of thin, white clouds, moving with great rapidity
from south to north, in direct opposition to the course of the Etesian
winds; these were immensely high. It was evident they came from the
mountains of Abyssinia, where, having discharged their weight of
rain, and being pressed by the lower current of heavier air from the
northward, they had mounted to possess the vacuum, and returned to
restore the equilibrium to the northward, whence they were to come
back, loaded with vapour from Mount Taurus, to occasion the overflowing
of the Nile, by breaking against the high and rugged mountains of the
south.

Nothing could be more agreeable to me than that sight, and the
reasoning upon it. I already, with pleasure, anticipated the time in
which I should be a spectator first, afterwards historian, of this
phænomenon, hitherto a mystery through all ages. I exulted in the
measures I had taken, which I flattered myself, from having been
digested with greater confederation than those adopted by others,
would secure me from the melancholy catastrophes that had terminated
these hitherto-unsuccessful attempts.

On the 16th, at dawn of day, I saw a high hill, which, from its
particular form, described by Strabo[50], I took for Mount Olympus[51].
Soon after, the rest of the island, which seemed low, appeared in view.
We scarce saw Lernica till we anchored before it. It is built of white
clay, of the same colour as the ground, precisely as is the case with
Damascus, so that you cannot, till close to it, distinguish the houses
from the earth they stand upon.

It is very remarkable that Cyprus was so long undiscovered[52]; ships
had been used in the Mediterranean 1700 years before Christ; yet,
though only a day’s sailing from the continent of Asia on the north
and east, and little more from that of Africa on the south, it was not
known at the building of Tyre, a little before the Trojan war, that is
500 years after ships had been passing to and fro in the seas around it.

It was, at its discovery, thick covered with wood; and what leads me
to believe it was not well known, even so late as the building of
Solomon’s Temple, is, that we do not find that Hiram king of Tyre, just
in its neighbourhood, ever had recourse to it for wood, though surely
the carriage would have been easier than to have brought it down from
the top of Mount Libanus.

That there was great abundance in it, we know from Eratosthenes[53],
who tells us it was so overgrown that it could not be tilled; so that
they first cut down the timber to be used in the furnaces for melting
silver and copper; that after this they built fleets with it, and when
they could not even destroy it this way, they gave liberty to all
strangers to cut it down for whatever use they pleased; and not only
so, but they gave them the property of the ground they cleared.

Things are sadly changed now. Wood is one of the wants of most parts of
the island, which has not become more healthy by being cleared, as is
ordinarily the case.

At [54]Cacamo (Acamas) on the west side of the island, the wood remains
thick and impervious as at the first discovery. Large stags, and wild
boars of a monstrous size, shelter themselves unmolested in these their
native woods; and it depended only upon the portion of credulity that I
was endowed with, that I did not believe that an elephant had, not many
years ago, been seen alive there. Several families of Greeks declared
it to me upon oath; nor were there wanting persons of that nation at
Alexandria, who laboured to confirm the assertion. Had skeletons of
that animal been there, I should have thought them antediluvian ones.
I know none could have been at Cyprus, unless in the time of Darius
Ochus, and I do not remember that there were elephants, even with him.

In passing, I would fain have gone ashore to see if there were any
remains of the celebrated temple of Paphos; but a voyage, such as I
was then embarked on, stood in need of vows to Hercules rather than
to Venus, and the master, fearing to lose his passage, determined to
proceed.

Many medals (scarce any of them good) are dug up in Cyprus; silver
ones, of very excellent workmanship, are found near Paphos, of little
value in the eyes of antiquarians, being chiefly of towns of the
size of those found at Crete and Rhodes, and all the islands of the
Archipelago. Intaglios there are some few, part in very excellent Greek
style, and generally upon better stones than usual in the islands. I
have seen some heads of Jupiter, remarkable for bushy hair and beard,
that were of the most exquisite workmanship, worthy of any price.
All the inhabitants of the island are subject to fevers, but more
especially those in the neighbourhood of Paphos.

We left Lernica the 17th of June, about four o’clock in the afternoon.
The day had been very cloudy, with a wind at N. E. which freshened as
we got under weigh. Our master, a seaman of experience upon that coast,
ran before it to the westward with all the sails he could set. Trusting
to a sign that he saw, which he called a bank, resembling a dark cloud
in the horizon, he guessed the wind was to be from that quarter the
next day.

Accordingly, on the 18th, a little before twelve o’clock, a very fresh
and favourable breeze came from the N. W. and we pointed our prow
directly, as we thought, upon Alexandria.

The coast of Egypt is exceedingly low, and, if the weather is not
clear, you often are close in with the land before you discover it.

A strong current sets constantly to the eastward; and the way the
masters of vessels pretend to know their approach to the coast is by
a black mud, which they find upon the plummet[55] at the end of their
sounding-line, about seven leagues distant from land.

Our master pretended at midnight he had found that black sand, and
therefore, although the wind was very fair, he chose to lie to, till
morning, as thinking himself near the coast; although his reckoning, as
he said, did not agree with what he inferred from his soundings.

As I was exceedingly vexed at being so disappointed of making the best
of our favourable wind, I rectified my quadrant, and found by the
passages of two stars over the meridian, that we were in lat. 32° 1´
45´´, or seventeen leagues distant from Alexandria, instead of seven,
and that by difference of our latitude only.

From this I inferred that part of the assertion, that it is the mud
of the Nile which is supposed to shew seamen their approach to Egypt,
is mere imagination; seeing that the point where we then were was
really part of the sea opposite to the desert of Barca, and had no
communication whatever with the Nile.

On the contrary, the Etesian winds blowing all Summer upon that coast,
from the westward of north, and a current setting constantly to the
eastward, it is impossible that any part of the mud of the Nile can go
so high to the windward of any of the mouths of that river.

It is well known, that the action of these winds, and the constancy of
that current, has thrown a great quantity of mud, gravel, and sand,
into all the ports on the coast of Syria.

All vestiges of old Tyre are defaced; the ports of Sidon, [56]Berout,
Tripoli, and [57]Latikea, are all filled up by the accretion of sand;
and, not many days before my leaving Sidon, Mr de Clerambaut, consul of
France, shewed me the pavements of the old city of Sidon, 7½ feet lower
than the ground upon which the present city stands, and considerably
farther back in the gardens nearer to Mount Libanus.

This every one in the country knows is the effect of that easterly
current setting upon the coast, which, as it acts perpendicularly to
the course of the Nile when discharging itself, at all or any of its
mouths, into the Mediterranean, must hurry what it is charged with on
towards the coast of Syria, and hinder it from settling opposite to, or
making those additions to the land of Egypt, which [58]Herodotus has
vainly supposed.

The 20th of June, early in the morning, we had a distant prospect
of Alexandria rising from the sea. Was not the state of that city
perfectly known, a traveller in search of antiquities in architecture
would think here was a field for long study and employment.

It is in this point of view the town appears most to the advantage. The
mixture of old monuments, such as the Column of Pompey, with the high
moorish towers and steeples, raise our expectations of the consequence
of the ruins we are to find.

But the moment we are in the port the illusion ends, and we distinguish
the immense Herculean works of ancient times, now few in number, from
the ill-imagined, ill-constructed, and imperfect buildings, of the
several barbarous masters of Alexandria in later ages.

There are two ports, the Old and the New. The entrance into the latter
is both difficult and dangerous, having a bar before it; it is the
least of the two, though it is what is called the Great Port, by
[59]Strabo.

Here only the European ships can lie; and, even when here, they are not
in safety; as numbers of vessels are constantly lost, though at anchor.

Above forty were cast a-shore and dashed to pieces in March 1773, when
I was on my return home, mostly belonging to Ragusa, and the small
ports in Provence, while little harm was done to ships of any nation
accustomed to the ocean.

It was curious to observe the different procedure of these different
nations upon the same accident. As soon as the squall began to
become violent, the masters of the Ragusan vessels, and the French
caravaneurs, or vessels trading in the _Mediterranean_, after having
put out every anchor and cable they had, took to their boats and fled
to the nearest shore, leaving the vessels to their chance in the storm.
They knew _the furniture_ of their ships to be too flimsy to trust
their lives to it.

Many of their cables being made of a kind of grass called Spartum,
could not bear the stress of the vessels or agitation of the waves, but
parted with the anchors, and the ships perished.

On the other hand, the British, Danish, Swedish, and Dutch navigators
of the _ocean_, no sooner saw the storm beginning, than they left
their houses, took to their boats, and went all hands on board. These
knew the sufficiency of their tackle, and provided they were present,
to obviate unforeseen accidents, they had no apprehension from the
weather. They knew that their cables were made of good hemp, that their
anchors were heavy and strong. Some pointed their yards to the wind,
and others lowered them upon deck. Afterwards they walked to and fro
on their quarter-deck with perfect composure, and bade defiance to the
storm. Not one man of these stirred from the ships, till calm weather,
on the morrow, called upon them to assist their feeble and more
unfortunate brethren, whose ships were wrecked and lay scattered on the
shore.

The other port is the [60]Eunostus of the ancients, and is to the
westward of the Pharos. It was called also the Port of Africa; is much
larger than the former, and lies immediately under part of the town of
Alexandria. It has much deeper water, though a multitude of ships have
every day, for ages, been throwing a quantity of ballast into it; and
there is no doubt, but in time it will be filled up, and joined to the
continent by this means. And posterity may, probably, following the
system of Herodotus (if it should be still fashionable) call this as
they have done the rest of Egypt, _the Gift of the Nile_.

Christian vessels are not suffered to enter this port; the only reason
is, least the _Moorish women_ should be seen taking the air in the
evening at open windows; and this has been thought to be of weight
enough for Christian powers to submit to it, and to over-balance the
constant loss of ships, property, and men.

[61]Alexander, returning to Egypt from the Libyan side, was struck
with the beauty and situation of these two ports. [62]Dinochares, an
architect who accompanied him, traced out the plan, and Ptolemy I.
built the city.

The healthy, though desolate and bare country round it, part of the
Desert of Libya, was another inducement to prefer this situation to
the unwholesome black mud of Egypt; but it had no water; this Ptolemy
was obliged to bring far above from the Nile, by a calish, or canal,
vulgarly called the Canal of Cleopatra, though it was certainly coeval
with the foundation of the city; it has no other name at this day.

This circumstance, however, remedied in the beginning, was fatal to the
city’s magnificence ever after, and the cause of its being in the state
it is at this day.

The importance of its situation to trade and commerce, made it a
principal object of attention to each party in every war. It was easily
taken, because it had no water; and, as it could not be kept, it was
destroyed by the conqueror, that the temporary possession of it might
not turn to be a source of advantage to an enemy.

We are not, however, to suppose, that the country all around it was
as bare in the days of prosperity as it is now. Population, we see,
produces a swerd of grass round ancient cities in the most desert parts
of Africa, which keeps the sand immoveable till the place is no longer
inhabited.

I apprehend the numerous lakes in Egypt were all contrived as
reservoirs to lay up a store of water for supplying gardens and
plantations in the months of the Nile’s decrease. The great effects of
a very little water are seen along the calish, or canal, in a number of
bushes that it produces, and thick plantations of date-trees, all in a
very luxuriant state; and this, no doubt, in the days of the Ptolemies,
was extended further, more attended to, and better understood.

Pompey’s pillar, the obelisks, and subterraneous cisterns, are all
the antiquities we find now in Alexandria; these have been described
frequently, ably, and minutely.

The foliage and capital of the pillar are what seem generally to
displease; the fust is thought to have merited more attention than has
been bestowed upon the capital.

The whole of the pillar is granite, but the capital is of another
stone; and I should suspect those rudiments of leaves were only
intended to support firmly leaves of metal[63] of better workmanship;
for the capital itself is near nine feet high, and the work, in
proportionable leaves of stone, would be not only very large, but,
after being finished, liable to injuries.

This magnificent monument appears, in taste, to be the work of that
period, between Hadrian and Severus; but, though the former erected
several large buildings in the east, it is observed of him he never put
inscriptions upon them.

This has had a Greek inscription, and I think may very probably be
attributed to the time of the latter, as a monument of the gratitude
of the city of Alexandria for the benefits he conferred on them,
especially since no ancient history mentions its existence at an
earlier period.

I apprehend it to have been brought in a block from the Thebais in
Upper Egypt, by the Nile; though some have imagined it was an old
obelisk, hewn to that round form. It is nine feet diameter; and were it
but 80 feet high, it would require a prodigious obelisk indeed, that
could admit to be hewn to this circumference for such a length, so as
perfectly to efface the hieroglyphics that must have been very deeply
cut in the four faces of it.

The tomb of Alexander has been talked of as one of the antiquities
of this city. Marmol[64] says he saw it in the year 1546. It was,
according to him, a small house, in form of a chapel, in the middle of
the city, near the church of St Mark, and was called Escander.

The thing itself is not probable, for all those that made themselves
masters of Alexandria, in the earliest times, had too much respect for
Alexander, to have reduced his tomb to so obscure a state. It would
have been spared even by the Saracens; for Mahomet speaks of Alexander
with great respect, both as a king and a prophet. The body was
preserved in a glass coffin, in [65]Strabo’s time, having been robbed
of the golden one in which it was first deposited.

The Greeks, for the most part, are better instructed in the history
of these places than the Cophts, Turks, or Christians; and, after the
Greeks, the Jews.

As I was perfectly disguised, having for many years worn the dress of
the Arabs, I was under no constraint, but walked through the town in
all directions, accompanied by any of those different nations I could
induce to walk with me; and, as I constantly spoke Arabic, was taken
for a [66]Bedowé by all sorts of people; but, notwithstanding the
advantage this freedom gave me, and of which I daily availed myself, I
never could hear a word of this monument from either Greek, Jew, Moor,
or Christian.

Alexandria has been often taken since the time of Cæsar. It was at
last destroyed by the Venetians and Cypriots, upon, or rather after
the release of St Lewis, and we may say of it as of Carthage, _Periêre
ruinæ_, its very ruins appear no longer.

The building of the present gates and walls, which some have thought to
be antique, does not seem earlier than the last restoration in the 13th
century. Some parts of the gate and walls may be of older date; (and
probably were those of the last Caliphs before Salidan) but, except
these, and the pieces of columns which lie horizontally in different
parts of the wall, every thing else is apparently of very late times,
and the work has been huddled together in great haste.

It is in vain then to expect a plan of the city, or try to trace here
the Macedonian mantle of Dinochares; the very vestiges of ancient
ruins are covered, many yards deep, by rubbish, the remnant of the
devastations of later times. Cleopatra, were she to return to life
again, would scarcely know where her palace was situated, in this her
own capital.

There is nothing beautiful or pleasant in the present Alexandria, but a
handsome street of modern houses, where a very active and intelligent
number of merchants live upon the miserable remnants of that trade,
which made its glory in the first times.

It is thinly inhabited, and there is a tradition among the natives,
that, more than once, it has been in agitation to abandon it all
together, and retire to Rosetto, or Cairo, but that they have been
withheld by the opinion of divers saints from Arabia, who have allured
them, that Mecca being destroyed, (as it must be as they think by
the Russians) Alexandria is then to become _the holy place_, and
that Mahomet’s body is to be transported thither; when that city is
destroyed, the sanctified reliques are to be transported to Cairouan,
in the kingdom of Tunis: lastly, from Cairouan they are to come to
Rosetto, and there to remain till the consummation of all things, which
is not then to be at a great distance.

Ptolemy places his Alexandria in lat 30° 31´ and in round numbers in
his almagest, lat. 31° north.

Our Professor, Mr Greaves, one of whose errands into Egypt was to
ascertain the latitude of this place, seems yet, from some cause or
other, to have failed in it, for though he had a brass sextant of five
feet radius, he makes the latitude of Alexandria, from a mean of many
observations, to be lat 31° 4´ N. whereas the French astronomers from
the Academy of Sciences have settled it at 31° 11´ 20´´, so between Mr
Greaves and the French there is a difference of 7´ 20´´, which is too
much. There is not any thing, in point of situation, that can account
for this variance, as in the case of Ptolemy; for the new town of
Alexandria is built from east to west; and as all christian travellers
necessarily make their observations now on the same line, there cannot
possibly be any difference from situation.

Mr Niebuhr, whether from one or more observations he does not say,
makes the latitude to be 31° 12´. From a mean of thirty-three
observations, taken by the three-feet quadrant I have spoken of, I
found it to be 31° 11´ 16´´: So that, taking a medium of these three
results, you will have the latitude of Alexandria 31° 11´ 32´´, or, in
round number, 31° 11´ 30´´, nor do I think there possibly can be 5´´
difference.

By an eclipse, moreover, of the first satellite of Jupiter, observed
on the 23d day of June 1769, I found its longitude to be 30° 17´ 30´´
east, from the meridian of Greenwich.

We arrived at Alexandria the 20th of June, and found that the plague
had raged in that city and neighbourhood from the beginning of March,
and that two days only before our arrival people had begun to open
their houses and communicate with each other; but it was no matter, St
John’s day was _past_, the miraculous nucta, or dew, had fallen, and
every body went about their ordinary business in safety, and without
fear.

With very great pleasure I had received my instruments at Alexandria.
I examined them, and, by the perfect state in which they arrived, knew
the obligations I was under to my correspondents and friends. Prepared
now for any enterprise, I left with eagerness the thread-bare inquiries
into the meagre remains, of this once-famous capital of Egypt.

The journey to Rosetto is always performed by land, as the mouth of
the branch of the Nile leading to Rosetto, called the Bogaz[67], is
very shallow and dangerous to pass, and often tedious; besides, nobody
wishes to be a partner for any time in a voyage with Egyptian sailors,
if he can possibly avoid it.

The journey by land is also reputed dangerous, and people travel
burdened with arms, which they are determined never to use.

For my part, I placed my safety, in my disguise, and my behaviour. We
had all of us pistols at our girdles, against an extremity; but our
fire-arms of a larger sort, of which we had great store, were sent with
our baggage, and other instruments, by the Bogaz to Rosetto. I had a
small lance, called a Jerid, in my hand, my servants were without any
visible arms.

We left Alexandria in the afternoon, and about three miles before
arriving at Aboukeer, we met a man, in appearance of some consequence,
going to Alexandria.

As we had no fear of him or his party, we neither courted nor avoided
them. We passed near enough, however, to give them the usual salute,
_Salam Alicum_; to which the leader of the troop gave no answer, but
said to one of his servants, as in contempt, Bedowé! they are peasants,
or country Arabs. I was much better pleased with this token that we had
deceived them, than if they had returned the salute twenty times.

Some inconsiderable ruins are at Aboukeer, and seem to denote, that
it was the former situation of an ancient city. There is here also an
inlet of the sea; and the distance, something less than four leagues
from Alexandria, warrants us to say that it is Canopus, one of the
most ancient cities in the world; its ruins, notwithstanding the
neighbourhood of the branch of the Nile, which goes by that name, have
not yet been covered by the increase of the land of Egypt.

At Medea, which we suppose, by its distance of near seven leagues, to
be the ancient Heraclium, is the passage or ferry which terminates the
fear of danger from the Arabs of Libya; and it is here [68]supposed the
Delta, or Egypt, begins.

Dr Shaw[69] is obliged to confess, that between Alexandria and the
Canopic branch of the Nile, few or no _vestiges_ are seen of the
increase of the land by the inundation of the river; indeed it would
have been a wonder if there had.

Alexandria, and its environs, are part of the desert of Barca, too
high to have ever been overflowed by the Nile, from any part of its
lower branches; or else there would have been no necessity for going so
high up as above Rosetto, to get level enough, to bring water down to
Alexandria by the canal.

Dr Shaw adds, that the ground hereabout may have been an island; and so
it may, and so may almost any other place in the world; but there is
no sort of indication that it was so, nor viable means by which it was
formed.

We saw no vegetable from Alexandria to Medea, excepting some scattered
roots of Absinthium; nor were these luxuriant, or promising to thrive,
but though they had not a very strong smell, they were abundantly
bitter; and their leaves seemed to have imbibed a quantity of saline
particles, with which the soil of the whole desert of Barca is strongly
impregnated.

We saw two or three gazels, or antelopes, walking one by one, at
several times, in nothing differing from the species of that animal,
in the desert of Barca and Cyrenaicum; and the [70]jerboa, another
inhabitant of these deserts; but from the multitude of holes in the
ground, which we saw at the root of almost every plant of Absinthium,
we were very certain its companion, the [71]Cerastes, or horned viper,
was an inhabitant of that country also.

From Medea, or the Passage, our road lay through very dry sand; to
avoid which, and seek firmer footing, we were obliged to ride up to the
bellies of our horses in the sea. If the wind blows this quantity of
dust or sand into the Mediterranean, it is no wonder the mouths of the
branches of the Nile are choked up.

All Egypt is like to this part of it, full of deep dust and sand, from
the beginning of March till the first of the inundation. It is this
fine powder and sand, raised and loosened by the heat of the sun,
and want of dew, and not being tied fast, as it were, by any root or
vegetation, which the Nile carries off with it, and buries in the sea,
and which many ignorantly suppose comes from Abyssinia, where every
river runs in a bed of rock.

When you leave the sea, you strike off nearly at right angles, and
pursue your journey to the eastward of north. Here heaps of stone and
trunks of pillars, are set up to guide you in your road, through moving
sands, which stand in hillocks in proper directions, and which conduct
you safely to Rosetto, surrounded on one side by these hills of sand,
which seem ready to cover it.

Rosetto is upon that branch of the Nile which was called the Bolbuttic
Branch, and is about four miles from the sea. It probably obtained its
present name from the Venetians, or Genoese, who monopolized the trade
of this country, before the Cape of Good Hope was discovered; for it
is known to the natives by the name of Rashid, by which is meant the
Orthodox.

The reason of this I have already explained, it is some time or other
to be a substitute to Mecca, and to be blessed with all that holiness,
that the possession of the reliques, of their prophet can give it.

Dr Shaw[72] having always in his mind the strengthening of Herodotus’s
hypothesis, _that Egypt is created by the Nile_, says, that perhaps
this was once a Cape, because Rashid has that meaning. But as Dr Shaw
understood Arabic perfectly well, he must therefore have known, that
Rashid has no such signification in any of the Oriental Languages. Ras,
indeed, is a head land, or cape; but Rassit has no such signification,
and Rashid a very different one, as I have already mentioned.

Rashid then, or Rosetto, is a large, clean, neat town, or village,
upon the eastern side of the Nile. It is about three miles long, much
frequented by studious and religious Mahometans; among these too are a
considerable number of merchants, it being the entrepot between Cairo
and Alexandria, and _vice versa_; here too the merchants have their
factors, who superintend and watch over the merchandise which passes
the Bogaz to and from Cairo.

There are many gardens, and much verdure, about Rosetto; the ground is
low, and retains long the moisture it imbibes from the overflowing of
the Nile. Here also are many curious plants and flowers, brought from
different countries, by _Fakirs_, and merchants. Without this, Egypt,
subject to such long inundation, however it may abound in necessaries,
could not boast of many beautiful productions of its own gardens,
though flowers, trees, and plants, were very much in vogue in this
neighbourhood, two hundred years ago, as we find by the observations of
Prosper Alpinus.

The study and search after every thing useful or beautiful, which
for some time had been declining gradually, fell at last into total
contempt and oblivion, under the brutal reign of these last slaves[73],
the most infamous reproach to the name of Sovereign.

Rosetto is a favourite halting-place of the Christian travellers
entering Egypt, and merchants established there. There they draw their
breaths, in an imaginary increase of freedom, between the two great
sinks of tyranny, oppression, and injustice, Alexandria and Cairo.

Rosetto has this good reputation, that the people are milder, more
tractable, and less avaricious, than those of the two last-mentioned
capitals; but I must say, that, in my time, I could not discern much
difference.

The merchants, who trade at all hours of the day with Christians, are
indeed more civilized, and less insolent, than the soldiery and the
rest of the common people, which is the case every where, as it is for
their own interest; but their priests, and moullahs, their soldiers,
and people living in the country, are, in point of manners, just as bad
as the others.

Rosetto is in lat. 31° 24´ 15´´ N.; it is the place where we embark for
Cairo, which we accordingly did on June the 30th.

There is a wonderful deal of talk at Alexandria of the danger of
passing over the desert to Rosetto. The same conversation is held here.
After you embark on the Nile in your way to Cairo, you hear of pilots,
and masters of vessels, who land you among robbers to share your
plunder, and twenty such like stories, all of them of old date, and
which perhaps happened long ago, or never happened at all.

But provided the government of Cairo is settled, and you do not land at
villages in strife with each other, (in which circumstances no person
of any nation is safe) you must be very unfortunate indeed, if any
great accident befal you between Alexandria and Cairo.

For, from the constant intercourse between these two cities, and the
valuable charge confided to these masters of vessels, they are all as
well known, and at the least as much under authority, as the boatmen on
the river Thames; and, if they should have either killed, or robbed any
person, it must be with a view to leave the country immediately; else
either at Cairo, Rosetto, Fuè, or Alexandria, wherever they were first
caught, they would infallibly be hanged.




CHAP. II.

    _Author’s Reception at Cairo--Procures Letters from the Bey and
    the Greek Patriarch--Visits the Pyramids--Observations on their
    Construction._


It was in the beginning of July we arrived at Cairo, recommended to
the very hospitable house of Julian and Bertran, to whom I imparted my
resolution of pursuing my journey into Abyssinia.

The wildness of the intention seemed to strike them greatly, on which
account they endeavoured all they could to persuade me against it, but,
upon seeing me resolved, offered kindly their most effectual services.

As the government of Cairo hath always been jealous of this enterprise
I had undertaken, and a regular prohibition had been often made by the
Porte, among indifferent people, I pretended that my destination was to
India, and no one conceived any thing wrong in that.

This intention was not long kept secret, (nothing can be concealed
at Cairo:) All nations, Jews, Turks, Moors, Cophts, and Franks, are
constantly upon the inquiry, as much after things that concern other
people’s business as their own.

The plan I adopted was to appear in public as seldom as possible,
unless disguised; and I soon was considered as a _Fakir_, or
_Dervich_, moderately skilled in magic, and who cared for nothing but
study and books.

This reputation opened me, privately, a channel for purchasing many
Arabic manuscripts, which the knowledge of the language enabled me
to chuse, free from the load of trash that is generally imposed upon
Christian purchasers.

The part of Cairo where the French are settled is exceedingly
commodious, and fit for retirement. It consists of one long street,
where all the merchants of that nation live together. It is shut at
one end, by large gates, where there is a guard, and these are kept
constantly close in the time of the plague.

At the other end is a large garden tolerably kept, in which there are
several pleasant walks, and seats; all the enjoyment that Christians
can hope for, among this vile people, reduces itself to peace, and
quiet; nobody seeks for more. There are, however, wicked emissaries who
are constantly employed, by threats, lies, and extravagant demands,
to torment them, and keep them from enjoying that repose, which would
content them instead of freedom, and more solid happiness, in their own
country.

I have always considered the French at Cairo, as a number of honest,
polished, and industrious men, by some fatality condemned to the
gallies; and I must own, never did a set of people bear their continual
vexations with more fortitude and manliness.

Their own affairs they keep to themselves, and, notwithstanding the bad
prospect always before them, they never fail to put on a chearful face
to a stranger, and protect and help him to the utmost of their power;
as if his little concerns, often ridiculous, always very troublesome
ones, were the only charge they had in hand.

But a more brutal, unjust, tyrannical, oppressive, avaricious set of
infernal miscreants, there is not on earth, than are the members of the
government of Cairo.

There is also at Cairo a Venetian consul, and a house of that nation
called _Pini_, all excellent people.

The government of Cairo is much praised by some. It may perhaps have
merit when explained, but I never could understand it, and therefore
cannot explain it.

It is said to consist of twenty-four Beys; yet its admirers could never
fix upon one year in which there was that number. There were but seven
when I was at Cairo, and one who commanded the whole.

The Beys are understood to be veiled with the sovereign power of the
country; yet sometimes a Kaya commands absolutely, and, though of an
inferior rank, he makes his servants, Beys or Sovereigns.

At a time of peace, when Beys are contented to be on an equality,
and no ambitious one attempts to govern the whole, there is a number
of inferior officers depending upon each of the Beys, such as Kayas,
Schourbatchies, and the like, who are but subjects in respect to the
Beys, yet exercise unlimited jurisdiction over the people in the city,
and appoint others to do the same over villages in the country.

There are perhaps four hundred inhabitants in Cairo, who have absolute
power, and administer what they call justice, in their own way, and
according to their own views.

Fortunately in my time this many-headed monster was no more, there
was but one Ali Bey, and there was neither inferior nor superior
jurisdiction exercised, but by his officers only. This happy state
did not last long. In order to be a Bey, the person must have been a
slave, and bought for money, at a market. Every Bey has a great number
of servants, slaves to him, as he was to others before; these are his
guards, and these he promotes to places in his household, according as
they are qualified.

The first of these domestic charges is that of hasnadar, or treasurer,
who governs his whole household; and whenever his master the Bey dies,
whatever number of children he may have, they never succeed him; but
this man marries his wife, and inherits his dignity and fortune.

The Bey is old, the wife is young, so is the hasnadar, upon whom she
depends for every thing, and whom she must look upon as the presumptive
husband; and those people who conceal, or confine their women, and are
jealous, upon the most remote occasion, never feel any jealousy for
the probable consequences of this passion, from the existence of such
connection.

It is very extraordinary, to find a race of men in power, all agree
to leave their succession to strangers, in preference to their own
children, for a number of ages; and that no one should ever have
attempted to make his son succeed him, either in dignity or estate, in
preference to a slave, whom he has bought for money like a beast.

The Beys themselves have seldom children, and those they have, seldom
live. I have heard it as a common observation, that Cairo is very
unwholesome for young children in general; the prostitution of the Beys
from early youth probably give their progeny a worse chance than those
of others.

The instant that I arrived at Cairo was perhaps the only one in which I
ever could have been allowed, single and unprotected as I was, to have
made my intended journey.

Ali Bey, lately known in Europe by various narratives of the last
transactions of his life, after having undergone many changes of
fortune, and been banished by his rivals from his capital, at last had
enjoyed the satisfaction of a return, and of making himself absolute in
Cairo.

The Port had constantly been adverse to him, and he cherished the
strongest resentment in his heart. He wished nothing so much as to
contribute his part to rend the Ottoman empire to pieces.

A favourable opportunity presented itself in the Russian war, and
Ali Bey was prepared to go all lengths in support of that power. But
never was there an expedition so successful and so distant, where
the officers were less instructed from the cabinet, more ignorant of
the countries, more given to useless parade, or more intoxicated with
pleasure, than the Russians on the Mediterranean then were.

After the defeat, and burning of the Turkish squadron, upon the coast
of Asia Minor, there was not a sail appeared that did not do them
homage. They were properly and advantageously situated at Paros, or
rather, I mean, a squadron of ships of one half their number, would
have been properly placed there.

The number of Bashas and Governors in Caramania, very seldom in their
allegiance to the Port, were then in actual rebellion; great part of
Syria was in the same situation, down to Tripoli and Sidon; and thence
Shekh Daher, from Acre to the plains of Esdraelon, and to the very
frontiers of Egypt.

With circumstances so favourable, and a force so triumphant, Egypt and
Syria would probably have fallen dismembered from the Ottoman empire.
But it was very plain, that the Russian commanders were not provided
with instructions, and had no idea how far their victory might have
carried them, or how to manage those they had conquered.

They had no confidential correspondence with Ali Bey, though they might
have safely trusted him as he would have trusted them; but neither
of them were provided with proper negotiators, nor did they ever
understand one another till it was too late, and till their enemies,
taking advantage of their tardiness, had rendered the first and great
scheme impossible.

Carlo Rozetti, a Venetian merchant, a young man of capacity and
intrigue, had for some years governed the Bey absolutely. Had such
a man been on board the fleet with a commission, after receiving
instructions from Petersburgh, the Ottoman empire in Egypt was at an
end.

The Bey, with all his good sense and understanding, was still a
mamaluke, and had the principles of a slave. Three men of different
religions possessed his confidence and governed his councils all
at a time. The one was a Greek, the other a Jew, and the third an
Egyptian Copht, his secretary. It would have required a great deal of
discernment and penetration to have determined which of these was the
most worthless, or most likely to betray him.

The secretary, whose name was Risk, had the address to supplant the
other two at the time they thought themselves at the pinnacle of their
glory; over-awing every Turk, and robbing every Christian, the Greek
was banished from Egypt, and the Jew bastinadoed to death. Such is the
tenure of Egyptian ministers.

Risk professed astrology, and the Bey, like all other Turks, believed
in it implicitly, and to this folly he sacrificed his own good
understanding; and Risk, probably in pay to Constantinople, led him
from one wild scheme to another, till he undid him--by the stars.

The apparatus of instruments that were opened at the custom-house of
Alexandria, prepossessed Risk in favour of my superior knowledge in
astrology.

The Jew, who was master of the custom-house, was not only ordered to
refrain from touching or taking them out of their places (a great
mortification to a Turkish custom-house, where every thing is handed
about and shewn) but an order from the Bey also arrived that they
should be sent to me without duty or fees, because they were not
merchandise.

I was very thankful for that favour, not for the sake of saving the
dues at the custom-house, but because I was excused from having them
taken out of their cases by rough and violent hands, which certainly
would have broken something.

Risk waited upon me the next day, and let me know from whom the favour
came; on which we all thought this was a hint for a present; and
accordingly, as I had other business with the Bey, I had prepared a
very handsome one.

But I was exceedingly astonished when desiring to know the time when it
was to be offered; it was not only refused, but some few trifles were
sent as a present from the secretary with this message: “That, when
I had reposed, he would visit me, desire to see me make use of these
instruments; and, in the mean time, that I might rest confident, that
nobody durst any way molest me while in Cairo, for I was under the
immediate protection of the Bey.” He added also, “That if I wanted any
thing I should send my Armenian servant, Arab Keer, to him, without
troubling myself to communicate my necessities to the French, or trust
my concerns to their Dragomen.”

Although I had lived for many years in friendship and in constant good
understanding with both Turks and Moors, there was something more
polite and considerate in this than I could account for.

I had not seen the Bey, it was not therefore any particular address, or
any prepossession in my favour, with which these people are very apt to
be taken at first sight, that could account for this; I was an absolute
stranger; I therefore opened myself entirely to my landlord, Mr Bertran.

I told him my apprehension of too much fair weather in the beginning,
which, in these climates, generally leads to a storm in the end; on
which account, I suspected some design; Mr Bertran kindly promised to
sound Risk for me.

At the same time, he cautioned me equally against offending him, or
trusting myself in his hands, as being a man capable of the blackest
designs, and merciless in the execution of them.

It was not long before Risk’s curiosity gave him a fair opportunity.
He inquired of Bertran as to my knowledge of the stars; and my friend,
who then saw perfectly the drift of all his conduct, so prepossessed
him in favour of my superior science, that he communicated to him in
the instant the great expectations he had formed, to be enabled by
me, to foresee the destiny of the Bey; the success of the war; and, in
particular, whether or not he should make himself master of Mecca; to
conquer which place, he was about to dispatch his slave and son-in-law,
Mahomet Bey Abou Dahab, at the head of an army conducting the pilgrims.

Bertran communicated this to me with great tokens of joy: for my own
part, I did not greatly like the profession of fortune-telling, where
bastinado or impaling might be the reward of being mistaken.

But I was told I had most credulous people to deal with, and that there
was nothing for it but escaping as long as possible, before the issue
of any of my prophecies arrived, and as soon as I had done my own
business.

This was my own idea likewise; I never saw a place I liked worse, or
which afforded less pleasure or instruction than Cairo, or antiquities
which less answered their descriptions.

In a few days I received a letter from Risk, desiring me to go out to
the Convent of St George, about three miles from Cairo, where the Greek
patriarch had ordered an apartment for me; that I should pretend to the
French merchants that it was for the sake of health, and that there I
should receive the Bey’s orders.

Providence seemed to teach me the way I was to go. I went accordingly
to St George, a very solitary mansion, but large and quiet, very proper
for study, and still more for executing a plan which I thought most
necessary for my undertaking.

During my stay at Algiers, the Rev. Mr Tonyn, the king’s chaplain to
that factory, was absent upon leave. The bigotted catholic priests
there neither marry, baptize, nor bury the dead of those that are
Protestants.

There was a Greek priest,[74]Father Christopher, who constantly
had offered gratuitously to perform these functions. The civility,
humanity, and good character of the man, led me to take him to reside
at my country house, where I lived the greatest part of the year;
besides that he was of a chearful disposition, I had practised much
with him both in speaking and reading Greek with the accent, not in
use in our schools, but without which that language, in the mouth of a
stranger, is perfectly unintelligible all over the Archipelago.

Upon my leaving Algiers to go on my voyage to Barbary, being tired of
the place, he embarked on board a vessel, and landed at Alexandria,
from which soon after he was called to Cairo by the Greek patriarch
Mark, and made _Archimandrites_, which is the second dignity in the
Greek church under the patriarch. He too was well acquainted in the
house of Ali Bey, where all were Georgian and Greek slaves; and it was
at his solicitation that Risk had desired the patriarch to furnish me
with an apartment in the Convent of St George.

The next day after my arrival I was surprised by the visit of my
old friend Father Christopher; and, not to detain the reader with
useless circumstances, the intelligence of many visits, which I shall
comprehend in one, was, that there were many Greeks then in Abyssinia,
all of them in great power, and some of them in the first places of
the empire; that they corresponded with the patriarch when occasion
offered, and, at all times, held him in such respect, that his will,
when signified to them, was of the greatest authority, and that
obedience was paid to it as to holy writ.

Father Christopher took upon him, with the greatest readiness, to
manage the letters, and we digested the plan of them; three copies were
made to send separate ways, and an admonitory letter to the whole of
the Greeks then in Abyssinia, in form of a bull.

By this the patriarch enjoined them as a penance, upon which a kind of
jubilee was to follow, that, laying aside their pride and vanity, great
sins with which he knew them much _infected_ and, instead of pretending
to put themselves on a footing with me when I should arrive at the
court of Abyssinia, they should concur, heart and hand, in serving me;
and that, before it could be supposed they had received instructions
from _me_, they should make a declaration before the king, that they
were not in condition equal to me, that I was a free citizen of a
_powerful nation_, and servant of a great king; that _they_ were born
slaves of the Turk, and, at best, ranked but as would my servants; and
that, in fact, one of their countrymen was in that station then with
me.

After having made that declaration publicly, and _bona fide_, in
presence of their priest, he thereupon declared to them, that all their
past sins were forgiven.

All this the patriarch most willingly and chearfully performed. I saw
him frequently when I was in Cairo; and we had already commenced a
great friendship and intimacy.

In the mean while, Risk sent to me, one night about nine o’clock, to
come to the Bey. I saw him then for the first time. He was a much
younger man than I conceived him to be; he was sitting upon a large
sofa, covered with crimson-cloth of gold; his turban, his girdle, and
the head of his dagger, all thick covered with fine brilliants; one
in his turban, that served to support a sprig of brilliants also, was
among the largest I had ever seen.

He entered abruptly into discourse upon the war between Russia and the
Turk, and asked me if I had calculated what would be the consequence of
that war? I said, the Turks would be beaten by sea and land wherever
they presented themselves.

Again, Whether Constantinople would be burned or taken?--I said,
Neither; but peace would be made, after much bloodshed, with little
advantage to either party.

He clapped his hands together, and swore an oath in Turkish, then
turned to Risk, who stood before him, and said, That will be sad
indeed! but truth is truth, and God is merciful.

He offered me coffee and sweatmeats, promised me his protection, bade
me fear nothing, but, if any body wronged me, to acquaint him by Risk.

Two or three nights afterwards the Bey sent for me again. It was near
eleven o’clock before I got admittance to him.

I met the janissary Aga going out from him, and a number of soldiers at
the door. As I did not know him, I passed him without ceremony, which
is not usual for any person to do. Whenever he mounts on horseback, as
he was then just going to do, he has absolute power of life and death,
without appeal, all over Cairo and its neighbourhood.

He stopt me just at the threshold, and asked one of the Bey’s people
who I was? and was answered, “It is Hakim Englese,” the English
philosopher, or physician.

He asked me in Turkish, in a very polite manner, if I would come and
see him, for he was not well? I answered him in Arabic, “Yes, whenever
he pleased, but could not then stay, as I had received a message that
the Bey was waiting.” He replied in Arabic, “No, no; go, for God’s sake
go; any time will do for me.”

The Bey was sitting, leaning forward, with a wax taper in one hand,
and reading a small slip of paper, which he held close to his face. He
seemed to have little light, or weak eyes; nobody was near him; his
people had been all dismissed, or were following the janissary Aga out.

He did not seem to observe me till I was close upon him, and started
when I said, “_Salam_.” I told him I came upon his message. He said, I
thank you, did I send for you? and without giving me leave to reply,
went on, “O true, I did so,” and fell to reading his paper again.

After this was over, he complained that he had been ill, that he
vomited immediately after dinner, though he eat moderately; that his
stomach was not yet settled, and was afraid something had been given
him to do him mischief.

I felt his pulse, which was low, and weak; but very little feverish.
I desired he would order his people to look if his meat was dressed
in copper properly tinned; I assured him he was in no danger, and
insinuated that I thought he had been guilty of some excess before
dinner; at which he smiled, and said to Risk, who was standing by,
“Afrite! Afrite”! he is a devil! he is a devil! I said, If your stomach
is really uneasy from what you may have ate, warm some water, and, if
you please, put a little green tea into it, and drink it till it makes
you vomit gently, and that will give you ease; after which you may take
a dish of strong coffee, and go to bed, or a glass of spirits, if you
have any that are good.

He looked surprised at this proposal, and said very calmly, “Spirits!
do you know I am a Mussulman?” But I, Sir, said I, am none. I tell you
what is good for your body, and have nothing to do with your religion,
or your soul. He seemed vastly diverted, and pleased with my frankness,
and only said, “He speaks like a man.” There was no word of the war,
nor of the Russians that night. I went home desperately tired, and
peevish at being dragged out, on so foolish an errand.

Next morning, his secretary Risk came to me to the convent. The Bey was
not yet well; and the idea still remained that he had been poisoned.
Risk told me the Bey had great confidence in me. I asked him how the
water had operated? He said he had not yet taken any of it, that he did
not know how to make it, therefore he was come at the desire of the
Bey, to see how it was made.

I immediately shewed him this, by infusing some green tea in some warm
water. But this was not all, he modestly insinuated that I was to drink
it, and so vomit myself, in order to shew him how to do with the Bey.

I excused myself from being patient and physician at the same time, and
told him, I would vomit _him_, which would answer the same purpose of
instruction; neither was this proposal accepted.

The old Greek priest, Father Christopher, coming at the same time, we
both agreed to vomit the Father, who would not consent, but produced a
Caloyeros, or young monk, and we forced _him_ to take the water whether
he would or not.

As my favour with the Bey was now established by my midnight
interviews, I thought of leaving my solitary mansion at the convent.
I desired Mr Risk to procure me peremptory letters of recommendation
to Shekh Haman, to the governor of Syene, Ibrim, and Deir, in Upper
Egypt. I procured also the same from the janissaries, to these three
last places, as their garrisons are from that body at Cairo, which they
call their Port. I had also letters from Ali Bey, to the Bey of Suez,
to the Sherriffe of Mecca, to the Naybe (so they call the Sovereign) of
Masuah, and to the king of Sennaar, and his minister for the time being.

Having obtained all my letters and dispatches, as well from the
patriarch as from the Bey, I set about preparing for my journey.

Cairo is supposed to be the ancient Babylon[75], at least part of it.
It is in lat. 30° 21´ 30´´ north, and in long. 31° 16´ east, from
Greenwich. I cannot assent to what is said of it, that it is built in
form of a crescent. You ride round it, gardens and all, in three hours
and a quarter, upon an ass, at an ordinary pace, which will be above
three miles an hour.

The Calish[76], or Amnis Trajanus, passes through the length of it, and
fills the lake called Birket el Hadje, the first supply of water the
pilgrims get in their tiresome journey to Mecca.

On the other side of the Nile, from Cairo, is Geeza, so called, as
some Arabian authors say, from there having been a bridge there; Geeza
signifies the Passage.

About eleven miles beyond this are the Pyramids, called the Pyramids of
Geeza, the description of which is in every body’s hands. Engravings
of them had been published in England, with plans of them upon a large
scale, two years before I came into Egypt, and were shewn me by Mr
Davidson consul of Nice, whose drawings they were.

He it was too that discovered the small chamber above the
landing-place, after you ascend through the long gallery of the great
Pyramid on your left hand, and he left the ladder by which he ascended,
for the satisfaction of other travellers. But there is nothing in the
chamber further worthy of notice, than its having escaped discovery so
many ages.

I think it more extraordinary still, that, for such a time as these
Pyramids have been known, travellers were content rather to follow the
report of the ancients, than to make use of their own eyes.

Yet it has been a constant belief, that the stones composing these
Pyramids have been brought from the [77]Libyan mountains, though any
one who will take the pains to remove the sand on the south side, will
find the solid rock there hewn into steps.

And in the roof of the large chamber, where the Sarcophagus stands,
as also in the top of the roof of the gallery, as you go up into
that chamber, you see large fragments of the rock, affording an
unanswerable proof, that those Pyramids were once huge rocks, standing
where they now are; that some of them, the most proper from their
form, were chosen for the body of the Pyramid, and the others hewn
into steps, to serve for the superstructure, and the exterior parts of
them.

[Illustration: _Canja under Sail._

_London Publish’d Dec^r. 1^{st}. 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]




CHAP. III.

    _Leaves Cairo--Embarks on the Nile for Upper Egypt--Visits
    Metrahenny and Mohannan--Reasons for supposing this the
    situation of Memphis._


Having now provided every thing necessary, and taken a rather
melancholy leave of our very indulgent friends, who had great
apprehensions that we should never return; and fearing that our stay
till the very excessive heats were past, might involve us in another
difficulty, that of missing the Etesian winds, we secured a boat to
carry us to Furshout, the residence of Hamam, the Shekh of Upper Egypt.

This sort of vessel is called a Canja, and is one of the most
commodious used on any river, being safe, and expeditious at the same
time, though at first sight it has a strong appearance of danger.

That on which we embarked was about 100 feet from stern to stem, with
two masts, main and foremast, and two monstrous _Latine_ sails; the
main-sail yard being about 200 feet in length.

The structure of this vessel is easily conceived, from the draught,
plan, and section. It is about 30 feet in the beam, and about 90 feet
in keel.

The keel is not straight, but a portion of a parabola whose curve is
almost insensible to the eye. But it has this good effect in sailing,
that whereas the bed of the Nile, when the water grows low, is full of
sand banks under water, the keel under the stem, where the curve is
greatest, first strikes upon these banks, and is fast, but the rest
of the ship is afloat; so that by the help of oars, and assistance of
the stream, furling the sails, you get easily off; whereas, was the
keel straight, and the vessel going with the pressure of that immense
main-sail, you would be so fast upon the bank as to lie there like a
wreck for ever.

This yard and sail is never lowered. The sailors climb and furl it as
it stands. When they shift the sail, they do it with a thick stick like
a quarter staff, which they call a _noboot_, put between the lashing of
the yard and the sail; they then twist this stick round till the sail
and yard turn over to the side required.

When I say the yard and sail are never lowered, I mean while we are
getting up the stream, before the wind; for, otherwise, when the vessel
returns, they take out the mast, lay down the yards, and put by their
sails, so that the boat descends like a wreck broadside forwards;
otherwise, being so heavy a-loft, were she to touch with her stem
going down the stream, she could not fail to carry away her masts, and
perhaps be staved to pieces.

The cabin has a very decent and agreeable dining-room, about twenty
feet square, with windows that have close and latticed shutters, so
that you may open them at will in the day-time, and enjoy the freshness
of the air; but great care must be taken to keep these shut at night.

[Illustration: _Section of the Canja._

    _A. Planks sewed together without nailing._

_London publish’d Dec^r 1^{st}. 1789 by G. Robinson & Co._]

A certain kind of robber, peculiar to the Nile, is constantly on the
watch to rob boats, in which they suppose the crew are off their guard.
They generally approach the boat when it is calm, either swimming under
water, or when it is dark, upon goats skins; after which, they mount
with the utmost silence, and take away whatever they can lay their
hands on.

They are not very fond, I am told, of meddling with vessels whereon
they see Franks, or Europeans, because by them some have been wounded
with fire-arms.

The attempts are generally made when you are at anchor, or under weigh,
at night, in very moderate weather; but oftenest when you are falling
down the stream without masts; for it requires, strength, vigour, and
skill, to get aboard a vessel going before a brisk wind; though indeed
they are abundantly provided with all these requisites.

Behind the dining-room (that is, nearer the stern,) you have a
bed-chamber ten feet long, and a place for putting your books and arms.
With the latter we were plentifully supplied, both with those of the
useful kind, and those (such as large blunderbusses,) meant to strike
terror. We had great abundance of ammunition, likewise, both for our
defence and sport.

With books we were less furnished, yet our library was _chosen_, and
a very _dear_ one; for, finding how much my baggage was increased by
the accession of the large quadrant and its foot, and Dolland’s large
achromatic telescope, I began to think it folly to load myself more
with things to be carried on mens shoulders through a country full of
mountains, which it was very doubtful whether I should get liberty to
enter, much more be able to induce savages to carry these incumbrances
for me.

To reduce the bulk as much as possible, after considering in my mind
what were likeliest to be of service to me in the countries through
which I was passing, and the several inquiries I was to make, I fell,
with some remorse, upon garbling my library, tore out all the leaves
which I had marked for my purpose, destroyed some editions of very rare
books, rolling up the needful, and tying them by themselves. I thus
reduced my library to a more compact form.

It was December 12th when I embarked on the Nile at Bulac, on board
the Canja already mentioned, the remaining part of which needs no
description, but will be understood immediately upon inspection.

At first we had the precaution to apply to our friend Risk concerning
our captain Hagi Hassan Abou Cuffi, and we obliged him to give his son
Mahomet in security for his behaviour towards us. Our hire to Furshout
was twenty-seven patakas, or about L.6:15:0 Sterling.

There was nothing so much we desired as to be at some distance from
Cairo on our voyage. Bad affairs and extortions always overtake you in
this detestable country, at the very time when you are about to leave
it.

The wind was contrary, so we were obliged to advance against the
stream, by having the boat drawn with a rope.

We were surprised to see the alacrity with which two young Moors
bestirred themselves in the boat, they supplied the place of masters,
companions, pilots, and seamen to us.

Our Rais had not appeared, and I did not augur much good, from the
alacrity of these Moors, so willing to proceed without him.

However, as it was conformable to our own wishes, we encouraged and
cajoled them all we could. We advanced a few miles to two convents of
Cophts, called Deireteen[78].

Here we stopped to pass the night, having had a fine view of the
Pyramids of Geeza and Saccara, and being then in sight of a prodigious
number of others built of white clay, and stretching far into the
desert to the south-west.

Two of these seemed full as large as those that are called the Pyramids
of Geeza. One of them was of a very extraordinary form, it seemed as
if it had been intended at first to be a very large one, but that the
builder’s heart or means had failed him, and that he had brought it to
a very mis-shapen disproportioned head at last.

We were not a little displeased to find, that, in the first promise
of punctuality our Rais had made, he had disappointed us by absenting
himself from the boat. The fear of a complaint, if we remained near
the town, was the reason why his servants had hurried us away; but
being now out of reach, as they thought, their behaviour was entirely
changed; they scarce deigned to speak to us, but smoked their pipes,
and kept up a conversation bordering upon ridicule and insolence.

On the side of the Nile, opposite to our boat, a little farther to the
south, was a tribe of Arabs encamped.

These are subject to Cairo, or were then at peace with its government.
They are called Howadat, being a part of the Atouni, a large tribe that
possesses the Isthmus of Suez, and from that go up between the Red Sea
and the mountains that bound the east part of the Valley of Egypt. They
reach to the length of Cosseir, where they border upon another large
tribe called Ababdé, which extends from thence up into Nubia.

Both these are what were anciently called _Shepherds_, and are now
constantly at war with each other.

The Howadat are the same that fell in with Mr Irvine[79] in these
very mountains, and conducted him so generously and safely to Cairo.
Though little acquainted with the manners, and totally ignorant of the
language of his conductors, he imagined them to be, and calls them by
no other name, than “_the Thieves_.”

One or two of these straggled down to my boat to seek tobacco and
coffee, when I told them, if a few decent men among them would come on
board, I should make them partakers of the coffee and tobacco I had.
Two of them accepted the invitation, and we presently became great
friends.

I remembered, when in Barbary, living with the tribes of Noile and
Wargumma (two numerous and powerful clans of Arabs in the kingdom of
Tunis) that the Howadat, or Atouni, the Arabs of the Isthmus of Suez,
were of the same family and race with one of them.

I even had marked this down in my memorandum-book, but it happened
not to be at hand; and I did not really remember whether it was to
the Noile or Wargumma they were friends, for these two are rivals,
and enemies, so in a mistake there was danger. I, however, cast about
a little to discover this if possible; and soon, from discourse and
circumstances that came into my mind, I found it was the Noile to
whom these people belonged; so we soon were familiar, and as our
conversation tallied so that we found we were _true men_, they got up
and insisted on fetching one of their Shekhs.

I told them they might do so if they pleased; but they were first
bound to perform me a piece of service, to which they willingly and
readily offered themselves. I desired, that, early next morning, they
would have a boy and horse ready to carry a letter to Risk, Ali Bey’s
secretary, and I would give him a piaster upon bringing back the answer.

This they instantly engaged to perform, but no sooner were they gone
a-shore, than, after a short council held together, one of our
laughing boat-companions stole off on foot, and, before day, I was
awakened by the arrival of our Rais Abou Cuffi, and his son Mahomet.

Abou Cuffi was _drunk_, though a _Sherriffe_, a _Hagi_, and half a
_Saint_ besides, who never tasted _fermented_ liquor, as he told me
when I hired him.--The son was terrified out of his wits. He said he
should have been impaled, had the messenger arrived; and, seeing that
I fell upon means to keep open a correspondence with Cairo, he told
me he would not run the risk of being surety, and of going back to
Cairo to answer for his father’s faults, least, one day or another,
upon some complaint of that kind, he might be taken out of his bed and
bastinadoed to death, without knowing what his offence was.

An altercation ensued; the father declined staying upon pretty much the
same reasons, and I was very happy to find that Risk had dealt roundly
with them, and that I was master of the string upon which I could touch
their fears.

They then both agreed to go the voyage, for none of them thought it
very safe to stay; and I was glad to get men of some substance along
with me, rather than trust to hired vagabond servants, which I esteemed
the two Moors to be.

As the Shekh of the Howadat and I had vowed friendship, he offered
to carry me to Cosseir by land, without any expence, and in perfect
safety, thinking me diffident of my boatmen, from what had passed.

I thanked him for this friendly offer, which I am persuaded I might
have accepted very safely, but I contented myself with desiring, that
one of the Moor servants in the boat should go to Cairo to fetch
Mahomet Abou Cuffi’s son’s cloaths, and agreed that I should give five
patakas additional hire for the boat, on condition that Mahomet should
go with us in place of the Moor servant, and that Abou Cuffi, the
father and saint (that never drank fermented liquors) should be allowed
to sleep himself sober, till his servant the Moor returned from Cairo
with his son’s cloaths.

In the mean time, I bargained with the Shekh of the Howadat to furnish
me with horses to go to Metrahenny or Mohannan, where once he said Mimf
had stood, a large city, the capital of all Egypt.

All this was executed with great success. Early in the morning the
Shekh of the Howadat had passed at Miniel, where there is a ferry, the
Nile being very deep, and attended me with five horsemen and a spare
horse for myself, at Metrahenny, south of Miniel, where there is a
great plantation of palm-trees.

The 13th, in the morning about eight o’clock, we let out our vast
sails, and passed a very considerable village called Turra, on the east
side of the river, and Shekh Atman, a small village, consisting of
about thirty houses, on the west.

The mountains which run from the castle to the eastward of south-east,
till they are about five miles distant from the Nile east and by north
of this station, approach again the banks of the river, running in a
direction south and by west, till they end close on the banks of the
Nile about Turra.

The Nile here is about a quarter of a mile broad; and there cannot
be the smallest doubt, in any person disposed to be convinced, that
this is by very far [80]the narrowest part of Egypt yet seen. For it
certainly wants of half-a-mile between the foot of the mountain and
the Libyan shore, which cannot be said of any other part of Egypt
we had yet come to; and it cannot be better described than it is by
[81]Herodotus; and “again, _opposite_ to the Arabian side, is another
stony mountain of Egypt towards Libya, covered with sand, where are the
Pyramids.”

As this, and many other circumstances to be repeated in the sequel,
must naturally awaken the attention of the traveller to look for
the ancient city of Memphis here, I left our boat at Shekh Atman,
accompanied by the Arabs, pointing nearly south. We entered a large and
thick wood of palm-trees, whose greatest extension seemed to be south
by east. We continued in this course till we came to one, and then to
several large villages, all built among the plantation of date-trees,
so as scarce to be seen from the shore.

These villages are called Metrahenny, a word from the etymology of
which I can derive no information, and leaving the river, we continued
due west to the plantation that is called Mohannan, which, as far as I
know, has no signification either.

All to the south, in this desert, are vast numbers of Pyramids; as far
as I could discern, all of clay, some so distant as to appear just in
the horizon.

Having gained the western edge of the palm-trees at Mohannan, we have a
fair view of the Pyramids at Geeza, which lie in a direction nearly S.
W. As far as I can compute the distance, I think about nine miles, and
as near as it was possible to judge by sight, Metrahenny, Geeza, and
the center of the three Pyramids, made an Isosceles triangle, or nearly
so.

I asked the Arab what he thought of the distance? whether it was
farthest to Geeza, or the Pyramids? He said, they were _sowah, sowah_,
just alike, he believed; from Metrahenny to the Pyramids perhaps might
be farthest, but he would much sooner go it, than along the coast to
Geeza, because he should be interrupted by meeting with water.

All to the west and south of Mohannan, we saw great mounds and heaps of
rubbish, and calishes that were not of any length, but were lined with
stone, covered and choked up in many places with earth.

We saw three large granite pillars S. W. of Mohannan, and a piece of
a broken chest or cistern of granite; but no obelisks, or stones with
hieroglyphics, and we thought the greatest part of the ruins seemed to
point that way, or more southerly.

These, our conductor said, were the ruins of Mimf, the ancient seat of
the Pharaohs kings of Egypt, that there was another Mimf, far down
in the Delta, by which he meant Menouf, below Terrane and Batn el
Baccara[82].

Perceiving now that I could get no further intelligence, I returned
with my kind guide, whom I gratified for his pains, and we parted
content with each other.

In the sands I saw a number of hares. He said, if I would go with him
to a place near Faioume, I should kill half a boat-load of them in a
day, and antelopes likewise, for he knew where to get dogs; mean-while
he invited me to shoot at them there, which I did not choose; for,
passing very quietly among the date-trees, I wished not to invite
further curiosity.

All the people in the date villages seemed to be of a yellower and
more sick-like colour, than any I had ever seen; besides, they had an
inanimate, dejected, grave countenance, and seemed rather to avoid,
than wish any conversation.

It was near four o’clock in the afternoon when we returned to our
boatmen. By the way we met one of our Moors, who told us they had
drawn up the boat opposite to the northern point of the palm-trees of
Metrahenny.

My Arab insisted to attend me thither, and, upon his arrival, I made
him some trifling presents, and then took my leave.

In the evening I received a present of dry dates, and some sugar cane,
which does not grow here, but had been brought to the Shekh by some of
his friends, from some of the villages up the river.

The learned Dr Pococke, as far as I know, is the first European
traveller that ventured to go out of the beaten path, and look for
Memphis, at Metrahenny and Mohannan.

Dr Shaw, who in judgment, learning, and candour, is equal to Dr
Pococke, or any of those that have travelled into Egypt, contends
warmly for placing it at Geeza.

Mr Niebuhr, the Danish traveller, agrees with Dr Pococke. I believe
neither Shaw nor Niebuhr were ever at Metrahenny, which Dr Pococke and
myself visited; though all of us have been often enough at Geeza, and
I must confess, strongly as Dr Shaw has urged his arguments, I cannot
consider any of the reasons for placing Memphis at Geeza as convincing,
and very few of them that do not go to prove just the contrary in
favour of Metrahenny.

Before I enter into the argument, I must premise, that Ptolemy, if he
is good for any thing, if he merits the hundredth part of the pains
that have been taken with him by his commentators, must surely be
received as a competent authority in this case.

The inquiry is into the position of the old capital of Egypt, not
fourscore miles from the place where he was writing, and immediately in
dependence upon it. And therefore, in dubious cases, I shall have no
doubt to refer to him as deserving the greatest credit.

Dr Pococke[83] says, that the situation of Memphis was at Mohannan, or
Metrahenny, because Pliny says the [84]Pyramids were between Memphis
and the Delta, as they certainly are, if Dr Pococke is right as to the
situation of Memphis.

Dr Shaw does not undertake to answer this direct evidence, but thinks
to avoid its force by alledging a contrary sentiment of the same Pliny,
“that the Pyramids[85] lay between Memphis and the Arsinoite nome,
and consequently, as Dr Shaw thinks, they must be to the westward of
Memphis.”

Memphis, if situated at Metrahenny, was in the middle of the Pyramids,
three of them to the N. W. and above threescore of them to the south.

When Pliny said that the Pyramids were between Memphis and the Delta,
he meant the three large Pyramids, commonly called the Pyramids of
Geeza.

But in the last instance, when he spoke of the Pyramids of Saccara, or
that great multitude of Pyramids southward, he said they were between
Memphis and the Arsinoite nome; and so they are, placing Memphis at
Metrahenny.

For Ptolemy gives Memphis 29° 50´ in latitude, and the Arsinoite nome
29° 30´ and there is 8´ of longitude betwixt them. Therefore the
Arsinoite nome cannot be to the west, either of Geeza or Metrahenny;
the Memphitic nome extends to the westward, to that part of Libya
called the Scythian Region; and south of the Memphitic nome is the
Arsinoite nome, which is bounded on the westward by the same part of
Libya.

To prove that the latter opinion of Pliny should outweigh the former
one, Dr Shaw cites [86]Diodorus Siculus, who says Memphis was most
commodiously situated in the very key, or inlet of the country, where
the river begins to divide itself into several branches, and forms the
Delta.

I cannot conceive a greater proof of a man being blinded by attachment
to his own opinion, than this quotation. For Memphis was in lat. 29°
50´, and the point of the Delta was in 30°, and this being the latitude
of Geeza, it cannot be that of Memphis. That city must be sought for
ten or eleven miles farther south.

If, as Dr Shaw supposes, it was nineteen miles round, and that it was
five or six miles in breadth, its greatest breadth would probably be
to the river. Then 10 and 6 make 16, which will be the latitude of
Metrahenny, according to [87]Dr Shaw’s method of computation.

But then it cannot be said that Geeza is either in the key or inlet of
the country; all to the westward of Geeza is plain, and desert, and no
mountain nearer it on the other side than the castle of Cairo.

Dr Shaw[88] thinks that this is further confirmed by Pliny’s saying
that Memphis was within fifteen miles of the Delta. Now if this was
really the case, he suggests a plain reason, if he relies on ancient
measures, why Geeza, that is only ten miles, cannot be Memphis.

If a person, arguing from measures, thinks he is intitled to throw away
or add, the third part of the quantity that he is contending for, he
will not be at a great stress to place these ancient cities in what
situation he pleases.

Nor is it fair for Dr Shaw to suppose quantities that never did exist;
for Metrahenny, instead of [89]forty, is not quite twenty-seven miles
from the Delta; such liberties would confound any question.

The Doctor proceeds by saying, that heaps of ruins [90]alone are not
proof of any particular place; but the agreeing of the distances
between Memphis and the Delta, which is a fixed and standing boundary,
lying at a determinate distance from Memphis, must be a proof beyond
all exception[91].

If I could have attempted to advise Dr Shaw, or have had an opportunity
of doing it, I would have suggested to him, as one who has maintained
that all Egypt is the gift of the Nile, not to say that the point of
the Delta is a standing and determined boundary that cannot alter. The
inconsistency is apparent, and I am of a very contrary opinion.

Babylon, or Cairo, as it is now called, is fixed by the Calish or Amnis
Trajanus passing through it. Ptolemy[92] says so, and Dr Shaw says that
Geeza was opposite to Cairo, or in a line east and west from it, and is
the ancient Memphis.

Now, if Babylon is lat. 30°, and so is Geeza, they may be opposite to
one another in a line of east and west. But if the latitude of Memphis
is 29° 50´ it cannot be at Geeza, which is opposite to Babylon, but ten
miles farther south, in which case it cannot be opposite to Babylon or
Cairo. Again, if the point of the Delta be in lat. 30°, Babylon, or
Cairo, 30°, and Geeza be 30°, then the point of the Delta cannot be ten
miles from Cairo or Babylon, or ten miles from Geeza.

It is ten miles from Geeza, and ten miles from Babylon, or Cairo,
and therefore the distances do not agree as Dr Shaw says they do;
nor can the point of the Delta, as he says, be a permanent boundary
consistently with his own figures and those of Ptolemy, but it must
have been washed away, or gone 10´ northward; for Babylon, as he says,
is a certain boundary fixed by the Amnis Trajanus, and, supposing the
Delta had been a fixed boundary, and in lat. 30°, then the distance of
fifteen miles would just have made up the space that Pliny says was
between that point and Memphis, if we suppose that great city was at
Metrahenny.

I shall say nothing as to his next argument in relation to the distance
of Geeza from the Pyramids; because, making the same suppositions, it
is just as much in favour of one as of the other.

His next argument is from [93]Herodotus, who says, that Memphis lay
under the sandy mountain of Libya, and that this mountain is a stony
mountain covered with sand, and is opposite to the Arabian mountain.

Now this surely cannot be called Geeza; for Geeza is under no mountain,
and the Arabian mountain spoken of here is that which comes close to
the shore at Turra.

Diodorus says, it was placed in the straits or narrowest part of Egypt;
and this Geeza cannot be so placed, for, by Dr Shaw’s own confession,
it is at least twelve miles from Geeza to the sandy mountain where the
Pyramids stand on the Libyan side; and, on the Arabian side, there is
no mountain but that on which the castle of Cairo stands, which chain
begins there, and runs a considerable way into the desert, afterwards
pointing south-west, till they come so near to the eastern shore as to
leave no room but for the river at Turra; so that, if the cause is to
be tried by this point only, I am very confident that Dr Shaw’s candour
and love of truth would have made him give up his opinion if he had
visited Turra.

The last authority I shall examine as quoted by Dr Shaw, is to me so
decisive of the point in question, that, were I writing to those only
who are acquainted with Egypt, and the navigation of the Nile, I would
not rely upon another.

Herodotus[94] says, “At the time of the inundation, the Egyptians do
not sail from Naucratis to Memphis by the common channel of the river,
that is Cercasora, and the point of the Delta, but over the plain
country, along the very side of the Pyramids.”

Naucratis was on the west side of the Nile, about lat. 30° 30´, let us
say about Terrane in my map. They then sailed along the plain, out of
the course of the river, upon the inundation, close by the Pyramids,
whatever side they pleased, till they came to Metrahenny, the ancient
Memphis.

The Etesian wind, fair as it could blow, forwarded their course whilst
in this line. They went directly before the wind, and, if we may
suppose, accomplished the navigation in a very few hours; having been
provided with those barks, or canjas, with their powerful sails, which
I have already described, and, by means of which, they shortened their
passage greatly, as well as added pleasure to it.

But very different was the case if the canja was going to Geeza.

They had nothing to do with the Pyramids, nor to come within three
leagues of the Pyramids; and nothing can be more contrary, both to fact
and experience, than that they would shorten their voyage by sailing
along the side of them; for the wind being at north and north-west as
fair as possible for Geeza, they had nothing to do but to keep as
direct upon it as they could lie. But if, as Dr Shaw thinks, they made
the Pyramids first, I would wish to know in what manner they conducted
their navigation to come down upon Geeza.

Their vessels go only before the wind, and they had a strong steady
gale almost directly in their teeth.

They had no current to help them; for they were in still water; and
if they did not take down their large yards and sails, they were so
top-heavy, the wind had so much purchase upon them above, that there
was no alternative, but, either with sails or without, they must make
for Upper Egypt; and there, entering into the first practicable calish
that was full, get into the main stream.

But their dangers were not still over, for, going down with a violent
current, and with their standing rigging up, the moment they touched
the banks, their masts and yards would go overboard, and, perhaps, the
vessel stave to pieces.

Nothing would then remain, but for safety’s sake to strike their masts
and yards, as they always do when they go down the river; they must
lie broadside foremost, the strong wind blowing perpendicular on one
side of the vessel, and the violent current pushing it in a contrary
direction on the other; while a man, with a long oar, balances the
advantage the wind has of the stream, by the hold it has of the cabin
and upper works.

This would most infallibly be the case of the voyage from Naucratis,
unless in striving to sail by tacking, (a manœuvre of which their
vessel is not capable) their canja should overset, and then they must
all perish.

If Memphis was Metrahenny, I believe most people who had leisure would
have tried the voyage from Naucratis by the plain. They would have
been carried straight from north to south. But Dr Shaw is exceedingly
mistaken, if he thinks there is any way so expeditious as going up the
current of the river. As far as I can guess, from ten to four o’clock,
we seldom went less than eight miles in the hour, against a current
that surely ran more than six. This current kept our vessel stiff,
whilst the monstrous sail forced us through with a facility not to be
imagined.

Dr Shaw, to put Geeza and Memphis perfectly upon a footing, says[95],
that there were no traces of the city now to be found, from which he
imagines it began to decay soon after the building of Alexandria, that
the mounds and ramparts which kept the river from it were in process
of time neglected, and that Memphis, which he supposes was in the old
bed of the river about the time of the Ptolemies, was so far abandoned,
that the Nile at last got in upon it, and overflowing its old ruins,
great part of the best of which had been carried first to build the
city of Alexandria, that the mud covered the rest, so that no body knew
what was its true situation. This is the opinion of Dr Pococke, and
likewise of M. de Maillet.

The opinion of these two last-mentioned authors, that the ruins and
situation of Memphis are now become obscure, is certainly true; the
foregoing dispute is a sufficient evidence of this.

But I will not suffer it to be said, that, soon after the building
of Alexandria, or in the time of the Ptolemies, this was the case,
because Strabo[96] says, that when he was in Egypt, Memphis, next to
Alexandria, was the most magnificent city in Egypt.

It was called the Capital[97] of Egypt, and there was entire a temple
of Osiris; the Apis (or sacred ox) was kept and worshipped there. There
was likewise an apartment for the mother of that ox still standing, a
temple of Vulcan of great magnificence, a large [98]circus, or space
for fighting bulls; and a great colossus in the front of the city
thrown down: there was also a temple of Venus, and a serapium, in a
very sandy place, where the wind heaps up hills of moving sand very
dangerous to travellers, and a number of [99]sphinxes, (of some only
their heads being visible) the others covered up to the middle of their
body.

In the [100]front of the city were a number of palaces then in ruins,
and likewise lakes. These buildings, he says, stood formerly upon an
eminence; they lay along the side of the hill, stretching down to
the lakes and the groves, and forty stadia from the city; there was
a mountainous height, that had many Pyramids standing upon it, the
sepulchres of the kings, among which there are three remarkable, and
two the wonders of the world.

This is the account of an eye-witness, an historian of the first
credit, who mentions Memphis, and this state of it, so late as the
reign of Nero; and therefore I shall conclude this argument with three
observations, which, I am very sorry to say, could never have escaped a
man of Dr Shaw’s learning and penetration.

1_st_, That by this description of Strabo, who was in it, it is plain
that the city was not deserted in the time of the Ptolemies.

2_dly_, That no time, between the building of Alexandria and the
time of the Ptolemies, could it be swallowed up by the river, or its
situation unknown.

3_dly_, That great part of it having been built upon an eminence on the
side of a hill, especially the large and magnificent edifices I have
spoken of, it could not be situated, as he says, low in the bed of the
river; for, upon the giving way of the Memphitic rampart, it would be
swallowed up by it.

If it was swallowed up by the river, it was not Geeza; and this
accident must have been since Strabo’s time, which Dr Shaw will not
aver; and it is by much too loose arguing to say, first, that the place
was destroyed by the violent overflowing of the river, and then pretend
its situation to be Geeza, where a river never came.

The descent of the hill to where the Pyramids were, and the number of
Pyramids that were there around it, of which three are remarkable; the
very sandy situation, and the quantity of loose flying hillocks that
were there (dangerous in windy weather to travellers) are very strong
pictures of the Saccara, the neighbourhood of Metrahenny and Mohannan,
but they have not the smallest or most distant resemblance to any part
in the neighbourhood of Geeza.

It will be asked, Where are all those temples, the Serapium, the
Temple of Vulcan, the Circus, and Temple of Venus? Are they found near
Metrahenny?

To this I answer, Are they found at Geeza? No, but had they been at
Geeza, they would have still been visible, as they are at Thebes,
Diospolis, and Syene, because they are surrounded with black earth not
moveable by the wind. Vast quantities of these ruins, however, are in
every street of Cairo: every wall, every Bey’s stable, every cistern
for horses to drink at, preserve part of the magnificent remains that
have been brought from Memphis or Metrahenny.--The rest are covered
with the moving sands of the Saccara; as the sphinxes and buildings
that had been deserted were in Strabo’s time for want of grass and
roots, which always spread and keep the soil firm in populous inhabited
places, the sands of the deserts are let loose upon them, and have
covered them _probably for ever_.

A man’s heart fails him in looking to the south and south-west of
Metrahenny. He is lost in the immense expanse of desert, which he sees
full of Pyramids before him. Struck with terror from the unusual scene
of vastness opened all at once upon leaving the palm-trees, he becomes
dispirited from the effects of sultry climates.

From habits of idleness contracted at Cairo, from the stories he has
heard of the bad government and ferocity of the people, from want of
language and want of plan, he shrinks from the attempting any discovery
in the moving sands of the Saccara, embraces in safety and in quiet the
reports of others, whom he thinks have been more inquisitive and more
adventurous than himself.

Thus, although he has created no new error of his own, he is accessary
to the having corroborated and confirmed the ancient errors of others;
and, though people travel in the same numbers as ever, physics and
geography continue at a stand.

In the morning of the 14th of December, after having made our peace
with Abou Cuffi, and received a multitude of apologies and vows
of amendment and fidelity for the future, we were drinking coffee
preparatory to our leaving Metrahenny, and beginning our voyage in
earnest, when an Arab arrived from my friend the Howadat, with a
letter, and a few dates, not amounting to a hundred.

The Arab was one of his people that had been sick, and wanted to go to
Kenné in Upper Egypt. The Shekh expressed his desire that I would take
him with me this trifle of about two hundred and fifty miles, that I
would give him medicines, cure his disease, and maintain him all the
way.

On these occasions there is nothing like ready compliance. He had
offered to carry me the same journey with all my people and baggage
without hire; he conducted me with safety and great politeness to the
Saccara; I therefore answered instantly, “You shall be very welcome,
upon my head be it.” Upon this the miserable wretch, half naked, laid
down a dirty clout containing about ten dates, and the Shekh’s servant
that had attended him returned in triumph.

I mention this trifling circumstance, to shew how essential to humane
and civil intercourse presents are considered to be in the east;
whether it be dates, or whether it be diamonds, they are so much a part
of their manners, that, without them an inferior will never be at peace
in his own mind, or think that he has a hold of his superior for his
favour or protection.




CHAP. IV.

    _Leave Metrahenny--Come to the Island Halouan--False
    Pyramid--These buildings end--Sugar Canes--Ruins of
    Antinopolis--Reception there._


Our wind was fair and fresh, rather a little on our beam; when, in
great spirits, we hoisted our main and fore-sails, leaving the point
of Metrahenny, where our reader may think we have too long detained
him. We saw the Pyramids of Saccara still S. W. of us; several
villages on both sides of the river, but very poor and miserable;
part of the ground on the east side had been overflowed, yet was not
sown; a proof of the oppression and distress the husbandman suffers
in the neighbourhood of Cairo, by the avarice and disagreement of the
different officers of that motely incomprehensible government.

After sailing about two miles, we saw three men fishing in a very
extraordinary manner and situation. They were on a raft of palm
branches, supported on a float of clay jars, made fast together. The
form was like an Isosceles triangle, or face of a Pyramid; two men,
each provided with a casting net, stood at the two corners, and threw
their net into the stream together; the third stood at the apex of
the triangle, or third corner, which was foremost, and threw his net
the moment the other two drew theirs out of the water. And this they
repeated, in perfect time, and with surprising regularity. Our Rais
thought we wanted to buy fish; and letting go his main-sail, ordered
them on board with a great tone of superiority.

They were in a moment alongside of us; and one of them came on board,
lashing his miserable raft to a rope at our stern. In recompence for
their trouble, we gave them some large pieces of tobacco, and this
transported them so much, that they brought us a basket, of several
different kinds of fish, all small; excepting one laid on the top of
the basket, which was a clear salmon-coloured fish, silvered upon its
sides, with a shade of blue upon its back[101]. It weighed about 10
lib. and was most excellent, being perfectly firm and white like a
perch. There are some of this kind 70 lib. weight. I examined their
nets, they were rather of a smaller circumference than our casting
nets in England; the weight, as far as I could guess, rather heavier
in proportion than ours, the thread that composed them being smaller.
I could not sufficiently admire their success, in a violent stream of
deep water, such as the Nile; for the river was at least twelve feet
deep where they were fishing, and the current very strong.

These fishers offered willingly to take me upon the raft to teach me;
but I cannot say my curiosity went so far. They said their fishing was
merely accidental, and in course of their trade, which was selling
these potter earthen jars, which they got near Ashmounein; and after
having carried the raft with them to Cairo, they untie, sell them at
the market, and carry the produce home in money, or in necessaries
upon their back. A very poor œconomical trade, but sufficient as they
said, from the carriage of crude materials, the moulding, making, and
sending them to market, to Cairo and to different places in the Delta,
to afford occupation to two thousand men; this is nearly four times
the number of people employed in the largest iron foundery in England.
But the reader will not understand, that I warrant this fact from any
authority but what I have given him.

About two o’clock in the afternoon, we came to the point of an island;
there were several villages with date trees on both sides of us; the
ground is overflowed by the Nile, and cultivated. The current is very
strong here. We passed a village called Regnagie, and another named
Zaragara, on the east side of the Nile. We then came to Caphar el
Hayat, or the Toll of the Tailor; a village with great plantations of
dates, and the largest we had yet seen.

We passed the night on the S. W. point of the island between Caphar el
Hayat, and Gizier Azali, the wind failing us about four o’clock. This
place is the beginning of the Heracleotic nome, and its situation a
sufficient evidence that Metrahenny was Memphis; its name is Halouan.

This island is now divided into a number of small ones, by calishes
being cut through and through it, and, under different Arabic names,
they still reach very far up the stream. I landed to see if there
were remains of the olive tree which Strabo[102] says grew here, but
without success. We may imagine, however, that there was some such like
thing; because opposite to one of the divisions into which this large
island is broken, there is a village called Zeitoon, or the Olive Tree.

On the 15th of December, the weather being nearly calm, we left the
north end of the island, or Heracleotic nome; our course was due south,
the line of the river; and three miles farther we passed Woodan, and a
collection of villages, all going by that name, upon the east: to the
west, or right, were small islands, part of the ancient nome of which I
have already spoken.

The ground is all cultivated about this village, to the foot of the
mountains, which is not above four miles; but it is full eight on
the west, all overflowed and sown. The Nile is here but shallow, and
narrow, not exceeding a quarter of a mile broad, and three feet deep;
owing, I suppose, to the resistance made by the island in the middle of
the current, and by a bend it makes, thus intercepting the sand brought
down by the stream.

The mountains here come down till within two miles of Suf el Woodan,
for so the village is called. We were told there were some ruins to the
westward of this, but only rubbish, neither arch nor column standing. I
suppose it is the Aphroditopolis, or the city of Venus, which we are to
look for here, and the nome of that name, all to the eastward of it.

The wind still freshening, we passed by several villages on each side,
all surrounded with palm-trees, verdant and pleasant, but conveying
an idea of sameness and want of variety, such as every traveller must
have felt who has sailed in the placid, muddy, green-banked rivers in
Holland.

The Nile, however, is here fully a mile broad, the water deep, and the
current strong. The wind seemed to be exasperated by the resistance of
the stream, and blew fresh and steadily, as indeed it generally does
where the current is violent.

We passed Nizelet Embarak, which means the Blessed Landing-place.
Mr Norden[103] calls it Giesiret Barrakaed, which he says is the
_watering-place of the cross_. Was this even the proper name here
given it, it should be translated the Blessed Island; but, without
understanding the language, it is in vain to keep a register of names.

The boatmen, living either in the Delta, Cairo, or one of the great
towns in Upper Egypt, and coming constantly loaded with merchandise, or
strangers from these great places, make swift passages by the villages,
either down the river with a rapid current, or up with a strong, fair,
and steady wind: And, when the season of the Nile’s inundation is over,
and the wind turns southward, they repair all to the Delta, the river
being no longer navigable above, and there they are employed till the
next season.

They know little, therefore, and care less about the names or
inhabitants of these villages, who have each of them barks of their
own to carry on their own trade. There are some indeed employed by
the Coptic and Turkish merchants, who are better versed in the names
of villages than others; but, if they are not, and find you do not
understand the language, they will never confess ignorance; they
will tell you the first name that comes uppermost, sometimes very
ridiculous, often very indecent, which we see afterwards pass into
books, and wonder that such names were ever given to towns.

The reader will observe this in comparing Mr Norden’s voyage and mine,
where he will seldom see the same village pass by the same name. My
Rais, Abou Cuffi, when he did not know a village, sometimes tried this
with me. But when he saw me going to write, he used then to tell me
the truth, that he did not know the village; but that such was the
custom of him, and his brethren, to people that did not understand the
language, especially if they were priests, meaning Catholic Monks.

We passed with great velocity Nizelet Embarak, Cubabac, Nizelet Omar,
Racca Kibeer, then Racca Seguier, and came in sight of Atsia, a large
village at some distance from the Nile; all the valley here is green,
the palm-groves beautiful, and the Nile deep.

Still it is not the prospect that pleases, for the whole ground that
is sown to the sandy ascent of the mountains, is but a narrow stripe
of three quarters of a mile broad, and the mountains themselves, which
here begin to have a moderate degree of elevation, and which bound this
narrow valley, are white, gritty, sandy, and uneven, and perfectly
destitute of all manner of verdure.

At the small village of Racca Seguier there was this remarkable,
that it was thick, surrounded with trees of a different nature and
figure from palms; what they were I know not, I believe they were
pomegranate-trees; I thought, that with my glass I discerned some
reddish fruit upon them; and we had passed a village called Rhoda, a
name they give in Egypt to pomegranates; Salcah is on the opposite, or
east-side of the river. The Nile divides above the village; it fell
very calm, and here we passed the night of the fifteenth.

Our Rais Abou Cuffi begged leave to go to Comadreedy, a small village
on the west of the Nile, with a few palm-trees about it; he said that
his wife was there. As I never heard any thing of this till now, I
fancied he was going to divert himself in the manner he had done the
night before he left Cairo; for he had put on his black surtout, or
great coat, his scarlet turban, and a new scarlet shaul, both of which
he said he had brought, to do me honour in my voyage.

I thanked him much for his consideration, but asked him why, as he
was a Sherriffe, he did not wear the _green turban_ of Mahomet? He
answered, Poh! that was a trick put upon strangers; there were many
men who wore green turbans, he said, that were very great rascals; but
he was a _Saint_, which was better than a Sherriffe, and was known
as such all over the world, whatever colour of a turban he wore, or
whether a turban at all, and he only dressed for my honour; would be
back early in the morning, and bring me a fair wind.

“Hassan, said I, I fancy it is much more likely that you bring me some
aquavitæ, if you do not drink it all.” He promised that he would see
and procure some, for mine was now at an end. He said, the Prophet
never forbade aquavitæ, only the drinking of wine; and the prohibition
could not be intended for Egypt, for there was no wine in it. But
Bouza, says he, Bouza I will drink, as long as I can walk from stem to
stern of a vessel, and away he went. I had indeed no doubt he would
keep his resolution of drinking whether he returned or not.

We kept, as usual, a very good watch all night, which passed without
disturbance. Next day, the 17th, was exceedingly hazy in the morning,
though it cleared about ten o’clock. It was, however, sufficient to
shew the falsity of the observation of the author, who says that the
Nile[104] emits no fogs, and in course of the voyage we often saw other
examples, of the fallacy of this assertion.

In the afternoon, the people went ashore to shoot pigeons; they were
very bad, and black, as it was not the season of grain. I remained
arranging my journal, when, with some surprize, I saw the Howadat Arab
come in, and sit down close to me; however, I was not afraid of any
evil intention, having a crooked knife at my girdle, and two pistols
lying by me.

What’s this? How now, friend? said I; Who sent for you? He would have
kissed my hand, saying _Fiarduc_, I am under your protection: he then
pulled out a rag from within his girdle, and said he was going to
Mecca, and had taken that with him; that he was afraid my boatmen would
rob him, and throw him into the Nile, or get somebody to rob and murder
him by the way; and that one of the Moors, Hassan’s servant, had been
feeling for his money the night before, when he thought him asleep.

I made him count his sum, which amounted to 7½ sequins, and a piece of
silver, value about half-a-crown, which in Syria they call Abou Kelb,
Father Dog. It is the Dutch Lion rampant, which the Arabs, who never
call a thing by its right name, term _a dog_.--In short, this treasure
amounted to something more than three guineas; and this he desired me
to keep till we separated. Do not you tell them, said he, and I will
throw off my cloaths and girdle, and leave them on board, while I go to
swim, and when they find I have nothing upon me they will not hurt me.

But what security, said I, have you that I do not rob you of this, and
get you thrown into the Nile some night? No, no, says he, that I know
is impossible. I have never been able to sleep till I spoke to you;
do with me what you please, and my money too, only keep me out of the
hands of those murderers. “Well, well, said I, now you have got rid
of your money, you are safe, and you shall be my servant; lye before
the door of my dining-room all night, they dare not hurt a hair of your
head while I am alive.”

The Pyramids, which had been on our right hand at different distances
since we passed the Saccara, terminated here in one of a very singular
construction. About two miles from the Nile, between Suf and Woodan,
there is a Pyramid, which at first sight appears all of a piece; it
is of unbaked bricks, and perfectly entire; the inhabitants call
it the [105]False Pyramid. The lower part is a hill exactly shaped
like a Pyramid for a considerable height. Upon this is continued
the superstructure in proportion till it terminates like a Pyramid
above; and, at a distance, it would require a good eye to discern the
difference, for the face of the stone has a great resemblance to clay,
of which the Pyramids of the Saccara are composed.

Hassan Abou Cuffi was as good as his word in one respect; he came in
the night, and had not drunk much fermented liquors; but he could find
no spirits, he said, and that, to be sure, was one of the reasons of
his return; I had sat up a great part of the night waiting a season for
observation, but it was very cloudy, as all the nights had been since
we left Cairo.

The 18th, about eight o’clock in the morning, we prepared to get on our
way; the wind was calm, and south. I asked our Rais where his fair
wind was which he promised to bring? He said, his wife had quarrelled
with him all night, and would not give him time to pray; and therefore,
says he with a very droll face, you shall see me do all that a Saint
can do for you on this occasion. I asked him what that was? He made
another droll face, “Why, it is to draw the boat by the rope till the
wind _turns fair_.” I commended very much this wise alternative, and
immediately the vessel began to move, but very slowly, the wind being
still unfavourable.

On looking into Mr Norden’s voyage, I was struck at first sight with
this paragraph[106]: “We saw this day abundance of camels, but they did
not come near enough for us to shoot them.”--I thought with myself, to
_shoot_ camels in Egypt would be very little better than to _shoot_
men, and that it was very lucky for him the camels did not come near,
if that was the only thing that prevented him. Upon looking at the
note, I see it is a small mistake of the translator[107], who says,
“that in the original it is Chameaux d’eau, _water-camels_; but whether
they are a particular species of camels, or a different kind of animal,
he does not know.”

But this is no species of camel, it is a bird called a Pelican, and
the proper name in Arabic, is Jimmel el Bahar, the Camel of the River.
The other bird like a partridge, which Mr Norden’s people shot, and
did not know its name, and which was better than a pigeon, is called
Gooto, very common in all the desert parts of Africa. I have drawn
them of many different colours. That of the Deserts of Tripoli, and
Cyrenaicum, is very beautiful; that of Egypt is spotted white like the
Guinea-fowl, but upon a brown ground, not a blue one, as that latter
bird is. However, they are all very bad to eat, but they are not of the
same kind with the partridge. Its legs and feet are all covered with
feathers, and it has but two toes before. The Arabs imagine it feeds on
stones, but its food is insects.

After Comadreedy, the Nile is again divided by another fragment of
the island, and inclines a little to the westward. On the east is the
village Sidi Ali el Courani. It has only two palm-trees belonging to
it, and on that account hath a deserted appearance; but the wheat upon
the banks was five inches high, and more advanced than any we had seen.
The mountains on the east-side come down to the banks of the Nile, are
bare, white, and sandy, and there is on this side no appearance of
villages.

The river here is about a quarter of a mile broad, or something more.
It should seem it was the Angyrorum Civitas of Ptolemy, but neither
night nor day could I get an instant for observation, on account of
thin white clouds, which confused (for they scarce can be said to
cover) the heavens continually.

We passed now a convent of cophts, with a small plantation of palms. It
is a miserable building, with a dome like to a saint’s or marabout’s,
and stands quite alone.

About four miles from this is the village of Nizelet el Arab,
consisting of miserable huts. Here begin large plantations of sugar
canes, the first we had yet seen; they were then loading boats with
these to carry them to Cairo. I procured from them as many as I
desired. The canes are about an inch and a quarter in diameter, they
are cut in round pieces about three inches long, and, after having been
slit, they are steeped in a wooden bowl of water. They give a very
agreeable taste and flavour to it, and make it the most refreshing
drink in the world, whilst by imbibing the water, the canes become more
juicy, and lose a part of their heavy clammy sweetness, which would
occasion thirst. I was surprized at finding this plant in such a state
of perfection so far to the northward. We were now scarcely arrived
in lat. 29°, and nothing could be more beautiful and perfect than the
canes were.

I apprehend they were originally a plant of the old continent, and
transported to the new, upon its first discovery, because here in Egypt
they grow from seed. I do not know if they do so in Brazil, but they
have been in all times the produce of Egypt. Whether they have been
found elsewhere I have not had an opportunity of being informed, but
it is time that some skilful person, versed in the history of plants,
should separate some of the capital productions of the old, and new
continent, from the adventitious, before, from length of time, that
which we now know of their history be lost.

Sugar, tobacco, red podded or Cayenne pepper, cotton, some species
of Solanum, Indigo, and a multitude of others, have not as yet their
origin well ascertained.

Prince Henry of Portugal put his discoveries to immediate profit, and
communicated what he found new in each part in Europe, Asia, Africa,
and America, to where it was wanting. It will be soon difficult to
ascertain to each quarter of the world the articles that belong to it,
and fix upon those few that are common to all.

Even wheat, the early produce of Egypt, is not a native of it. It
grows under the Line, within the Tropics, and as far north and south
as we know. Severe northern winters seem to be necessary to it, and it
vegetates vigorously in frost and snow. But whence it came, and in what
shape, is yet left to conjecture.

Though the stripe of green wheat was continued all along the Nile,
it was interrupted for about half a mile on each side of the coptish
convent. These poor wretches know, that though they may sow, yet, from
the violence of the Arabs, they shall never reap, and therefore leave
the ground desolate.

On the side opposite to Sment, the stripe begins again, and continues
from Sment to Mey-Moom, about two miles, and from Mey-Moom to Shenuiah,
one mile further. In this small stripe, not above a quarter of a mile
broad, besides wheat, clover is sown, which they call Bersine. I
don’t think it equals what I have seen in England, but it is sown and
cultivated in the same manner.

Immediately behind this narrow stripe, the white mountains appear
again, square and flat on the top like tables. They seem to be laid
upon the surface of the earth, not inserted into it, for the several
strata that are divided lye as level as it is possible to place them
with a rule; they are of no considerable height.

We next passed Boush, a village on the west-side of the Nile, two miles
south of Shenuiah; and, a little further, Beni Ali, where we see for
a minute the mountains on the right or west-side of the Nile, running
in a line nearly south, and very high. About five miles from Boush is
the village of Maniareish on the east-side of the river, and here the
mountains on that side end.

Boush is about two miles and a quarter from the river. Beni Ali is a
large village, and its neighbour, Zeytoom, still larger, both on the
western shore. I suppose this last was part of the Heracleotic nome,
where [108]Strabo says the olive-tree grew, and no where else in Egypt,
but we saw no appearance of the great works once said to have been in
that nome. A little farther south is Baida, where was an engagement
between Hussein Bey, and Ali Bey then in exile, in which the former was
defeated, and the latter restored to the government of Cairo.

From Maniareish to Beni Suef is two miles and a half, and opposite to
this the mountains appear again of considerable height, about twelve
miles distant. Although Beni Suef is no better built than any other
town or village that we had passed, yet it interests by its extent; it
is the most considerable place we had yet seen since our leaving Cairo.
It has a cacheff and a mosque, with three large steeples, and is a
market-town.

The country all around is well cultivated, and seems to be of the
utmost fertility; the inhabitants are better cloathed, and seemingly
less miserable, and oppressed, than those we had left behind in the
places nearer Cairo.

The Nile is very shallow at Beni Suef, and the current strong. We
touched several times in the middle of the stream, and came to an
anchor at Baha, about a quarter of a mile above Beni Suef, where we
passed the night.

We were told to keep good watch here all night, that there were troops
of robbers on the east-side of the water who had lately plundered some
boats, and that the cacheff either dared not, or would not give them
any assistance. We did indeed keep strict watch, but saw no robbers,
and were no other way molested.

The 18th we had fine weather and a fair wind. Still I thought the
villages were beggarly, and the constant groves of palm-trees so
perfectly verdant, did not compensate for the penury of sown land, the
narrowness of the valley, and barrenness of the mountains.

We passed Mansura, Gadami, Magaga, Malatiah, and other small villages,
some of them not consisting of fifteen houses. Then follow Gundiah and
Kerm on the west-side of the river, with a large plantation of dates,
and four miles further Sharuni. All the way from Boush there appeared
no mountains on the west side, but large plantations of dates, which
extended from Gundiah four miles.

From this to Abou Azeeze, frequent plantations of sugar canes were now
cutting. All about Kafoor is sandy and barren on both sides of the
river. Etfa is on the west side of the Nile, which here again makes an
island. All the houses have now receptacles for pigeons on their tops,
from which is derived a considerable profit. They are made of earthen
pots one above the other, occupying the upper story, and giving the
walls of the turrets a lighter and more ornamented appearance.

We arrived in the evening at Zohora, about a mile south of Etfa. It
consists of three plantations of dates, and is five miles, from Miniet,
and there we passed the night of the 18th of December.

There was nothing remarkable till we came to Barkaras, a village on the
side of a hill, planted with thick groves of palm-trees.

The wind was so high we scarcely could carry our sails; the current was
strong at Shekh Temine, and the violence with which we went through the
water was terrible. My Rais told me we should have slackened our sails,
if it had not been, that, seeing me curious about the construction of
the vessel and her parts, and as we were in no danger of striking,
though the water was low, he wanted to shew me what she could do.

I thanked him for his kindness. We had all along preserved strict
friendship. Never fear the banks, said I; for I know if there is one
in the way, you have nothing to do but to bid him begone, and he will
hurry to one side directly. “I have had passengers, says he, who would
believe that, and more than that, when I told them; but there is no
occasion I see to waste much time with you in speaking of miracles.”

“You are mistaken, Rais, I replied, very much mistaken; I love to
hear modern miracles vastly, there is always some amusement in
them.”--“Aboard your Christian ships, says he, you always have a prayer
at twelve o’clock, and drink a glass of brandy; since you won’t be a
Turk like me, I wish at least you would be a Christian.”--Very fairly
put, said I, Hassan, let your vessel keep her wind if there is no
danger, and I shall take care to lay in a stock for the whole voyage at
the first town in which we can purchase it.

We passed by a number of villages on the western shore, the eastern
seeming to be perfectly unpeopled: First, Feshné, a considerable place;
then [109]Miniet, or the ancient Phylæ, a large town which had been
fortified towards the water, at least there were some guns there. A
rebel Bey had taken possession of it, and it was usual to stop here,
the river being both narrow and rapid; but the Rais was in great
spirits, and resolved to hold his wind, as I had desired him, and
nobody made us any signal from shore.

We came to a village called Rhoda, whence we saw the magnificent ruins
of the ancient city of Antinous, built by Adrian. Unluckily I knew
nothing of these ruins when I left Cairo, and had taken no pains to
provide myself with letters of recommendation as I could easily have
done. Perhaps I might have found it difficult to avail myself of them,
and it was, upon the whole, better as it was.

I asked the Rais what sort of people they were? He said that the
town was composed of very bad Turks, very bad Moors, and very bad
Christians; that several devils had been seen among them lately,
who had been discovered by being better and quieter than any of the
rest.--The Nubian geographer informs us, that it was from this town
Pharaoh brought his magicians, to compare their powers with those of
Moses; an anecdote worthy that great historian.

I told the Rais, that I must, of necessity, go ashore, and asked him,
if the people of this place had no regard for saints? that I imagined,
if he would put on his red turban as he did at Comadreedy for my
honour, it would then appear that he was a saint, as he before said he
was known to be all the world over. He did not seem to be fond of the
expedition; but hauling in his main-sail, and with his fore-sail full,
stood S. S. E. directly under the Ruins. In a short time we arrived at
the landing-place; the banks are low, and we brought up in a kind of
bight or small bay, where there was a stake, so our vessel touched very
little, or rather swung clear.

Abou Cuffi’s son Mahomet, and the Arab, went on shore, under pretence
of buying some provision, and to see how the land lay, but after the
character we had of the inhabitants, all our fire-arms were brought
to the door of the cabin. In the mean time, partly with my naked eye
and partly with my glass, I observed the ruins so attentively as to be
perfectly in love with them.

These columns of the angle of the portico were standing fronting to
the north, part of the tympanum, cornice, frize, and architrave, all
entire, and very much ornamented; thick trees hid what was behind.
The columns were of the largest size and fluted; the capitals
Corinthian, and in all appearance entire. They were of white Parian
marble probably, but had lost the extreme whiteness, or polish, of
the Antinous at Rome, and were changed to the colour of the fighting
gladiator, or rather to a brighter yellow. I saw indistinctly, also, a
triumphal arch, or gate of the town, in the very same style; and some
blocks of very white shining stone, which seemed to be alabaster, but
for what employed I do not know.

No person had yet stirred, when all on a sudden we heard the noise of
Mahomet and the Moor in strong dispute. Upon this the Rais stripping
off his coat, leaped ashore, and flipped off the rope from the stake,
and another of the Moors stuck a strong perch or pole into the river,
and twisted the rope round it. We were in a bight, or calm place, so
that the stream did not move the boat.

Mahomet and the Moor came presently in sight; the people had taken
Mahomet’s turban from him, and they were apparently on the very worst
terms. Mahomet cried to us, that the whole town was coming, and getting
near the boat, he and the Moor jumped in with great agility. A number
of people was assembled, and three shots were fired at us, very
quickly, the one after the other.

I cried out in Arabic, “Infidels, thieves, and robbers! come on, or
we shall presently attack you:” upon which I immediately fired a
ship-blunderbuss with pistol small bullets, but with little elevation,
among the bushes, so as not to touch them. The three or four men that
were nearest fell flat upon their faces, and slid away among the bushes
on their bellies, like eels, and we saw no more of them.

We now put our vessel into the stream, filled our fore-sail, and stood
off, Mahomet crying, Be upon your guard, if you are men, we are the
Sanjack’s soldiers, and will come for the turban to-night. More we
neither heard nor saw.

We were no sooner out of their reach, than our Rais, filling his pipe,
and looking very grave, told me to thank God that I was in the vessel
with such a man as he was, as it was owing to that only I escaped from
being murdered a-shore. “Certainly, said I, Hassan, under God, the way
of escaping from being murdered on land, is never to go out of the
boat, but don’t you think that my blunderbuss was as effectual a mean
as your holiness? Tell me, Mahomet, What did they do to you?” He said,
They had not seen us come in, but had heard of us ever since we were at
Metrahenny, and had waited to rob or murder us; that upon now hearing
we were come, they had all ran to their houses for their arms, and were
coming down, immediately, to plunder the boat; upon which he and the
Moor ran off, and being met by these three people, and the boy, on the
road, who had nothing in their hands, one of them snatched the turban
off. He likewise added, that there were two parties in the town; one
in favour of Ali Bey, the other friends to a rebel Bey who had taken
Miniet; that they had fought, two or three days ago, among themselves,
and were going to fight again, each of them having called Arabs to
their assistance. “Mahomet Bey, says my Howadat Arab, will come one of
these days with the soldiers, and bring our Shekh and people with him,
who will burn their houses, and destroy their corn, that they will be
all starved to death next year.”

Hassan and his son Mahomet were violently exasperated, and nothing
would serve them but to go in again near the shore, and fire all the
guns and blunderbusses among the people. But, besides that I had no
inclination of that kind, I was very loth to frustrate the attempts
of some future traveller, who may add this to the great remains of
architecture we have preserved already.

It would be a fine outset for some engraver; the elegance and
importance of the work are certain. From Cairo the distance is but
four days pleasant and safe navigation, and in quiet times, protection
might, by proper means, be easily enough obtained at little expence.




CHAP. V.

    _Voyage to Upper Egypt continued--Ashmounein, Ruins there--Gawa
    Kibeer Ruins--Mr Norden mistaken--Achmim--Convent of
    Catholics--Dendera--Magnificent Ruins--Adventure with a Saint
    there._


The Rais’s curiosity made him attempt to prevail with me to land
at Reremont, three miles and a half off, just a-head of us; this I
understood was a Coptic Christian town, and many of Shekh Abadé’s
people were Christians also. I thought them too near to have any thing
to do with either of them. At Reremont there are a great number of
Persian wheels, to draw the water for the sugar canes, which belong to
Christians. The water thus brought up from the river runs down to the
plantations, below or behind the town, after being emptied on the banks
above; a proof that here the descent from the mountains is not an optic
fallacy, as Dr Shaw says.

We passed Ashmounein, probably the ancient Latopolis, a large town,
which gives the name to the province, where there are magnificent ruins
of Egyptian architecture; and after that we came to Melawé, larger,
better built, and better inhabited than Ashmounein, the residence of
the Cacheff. Mahomet Aga was there at that time with troops from Cairo,
he had taken Miniet, and, by the friendship of Shekh Hamam, the great
Arab, governor of Upper Egypt, he kept all the people on that side of
the river in their allegiance to Ali Bey.

I had seen him at Cairo, and Risk had spoken to him to do me service
if he met with me, which he promised. I called at Melawé to complain
of our treatment at Shekh Abadé, and see if I could engage him, as he
had nothing else to employ him, to pay a visit to my friends at that
inhospitable place. This I was told he would do upon the slightest
intimation. He, unfortunately, however, happened to be out upon some
party; but I was lucky in getting an old Greek, a servant of his, who
knew I was a friend, both to the Bey and to his Patriarch.

He brought me about a gallon of brandy, and a jar of lemons and
oranges, preserved in honey; both very agreeable. He brought likewise
a lamb, and some garden-stuffs. Among the sweetmeats was some
horse-raddish preserved like ginger, which certainly, though it might
be wholesome, was the very worst stuff ever I tasted. I gave a good
square piece of it, well wrapt in honey, to the Rais, who coughed and
spit half an hour after, crying he was poisoned.

I saw he did not wish me to stay at Melawé, as he was afraid of the
Bey’s troops, that they might engage him in their service to carry them
down, so went away with great good will, happy in the acquisition of
the brandy, declaring he would carry sail as long as the wind held.

We passed Mollé, a small village with a great number of acacia trees
intermixed with the plantations of palms. These occasion a pleasing
variety, not only from the difference of the shape of the tree, but
also from the colour and diversity of the green.

As the sycamore in Lower Egypt, so this tree seems to be the only
indigenous one in the Thebaid. It is the Acacia Vera, or the Spina
Egyptiaca, with a round yellow flower. The male is called the Saiel;
from it proceeds the gum arabic, upon incision with an ax. This gum
chiefly comes from Arabia Petrea, where these trees are most numerous.
But it is the tree of all deserts, from the northmost part of Arabia,
to the extremity of Ethiopia, and its leaves the only food for camels
travelling in those desert parts. This gum is called Sumach in the west
of Africa, and is a principal article of trade on the Senega among the
Ialofes.

A large plantation of Dates reaches all along the west side, and ends
in a village called Masara. Here the river, though broad, happened to
be very shallow; and by the violence with which we went, we stuck upon
a sand bank so fast, that it was after sun-set before we could get
off; we came to an anchor opposite to Masara the night of the 19th of
December.

On the 20th, early in the morning, we again set sail and passed two
villages, the first called Welled Behi, the next Salem, about a mile
and a half distant from each other on the west side of the Nile. The
mountains on the west side of the valley are about sixteen miles off,
in a high even ridge, running in a direction south-east; while the
mountains on the east run in a parallel direction with the river, and
are not three miles distant.

We passed Deirout on the east side, and another called Zohor, in the
same quarter, surrounded with palms; then Siradé on the east side also,
where is a wood of the Acacia, which seems very luxuriant; and, though
it was now December, and the mornings especially very cold, the trees
were in full flower. We passed Monfalout, a large town on the western
shore. It was once an old Egyptian town, and place of great trade; it
was ruined by the Romans, but re-established by the Arabs.

An Arabian [110]author says, that, digging under the foundation of an
old Egyptian temple here, they found a crocodile made of lead, with
hieroglyphics upon it, which they imagine to be a talisman, to prevent
crocodiles from passing further. Indeed, as yet, we had not seen any;
that animal delights in heat, and, as the mornings were very cold, he
keeps himself to the southward. The valley of Egypt here is about eight
miles from mountain to mountain.

We passed Siout, another large town built with the remains of the
ancient city [111]Isiu. It is some miles inland, upon the side of a
large calish, over which there is an ancient bridge. This was formerly
the station of the caravan for Sennaar. They assembled at Monfalout and
Siout, under the protection of a Bey residing there. They then passed
nearly south-west, into the sandy desert of Libya, to El Wah, the
Oasis Magna of antiquity, and so into the great Desert of Selima.

Three miles beyond Siout, the wind turned directly south, so we were
obliged to stay at Tima the rest of the 20th. I was wearied with
continuing in the boat, and went on shore at Tima. It is a small
town, surrounded like the rest with groves of palm-trees. Below Tima
is Bandini, three miles on the east side. The Nile is here full of
sandy islands. Those that the inundation has first left are all sown,
these are chiefly on the east. The others on the west were barren and
uncultivated; all of them mostly composed of sand.

I walked into the desert behind the village, and shot a considerable
number of the bird called Gooto, and several hares likewise, so that
I sent one of my servants loaded to the boat. I then walked down past
a small village called Nizelet el Himma, and returned by a still
smaller one called Shuka, about a quarter of a mile from Tima. I was
exceedingly fatigued with the heat by the south wind[112] blowing, and
the deep sand on the side of the mountain. I was then beginning my
apprenticeship, which I fully compleated.

The people in these villages were in appearance little less miserable
than those of the villages we had passed. They seemed shy and surly
at first, but, upon conversation, became placid enough. I bought some
medals from them of no value, and my servants telling them I was a
physician, I gave my advice to several of the sick. This reconciled
them perfectly, they brought me fresh water and some sugar-canes, which
they split and steeped in it. If they were satisfied, I was very much
so. They told me of a large scene of ruins that was about four miles
distant, and offered to send a person to conduct me, but I did not
accept their offer, as I was to pass there next day.

The 21st, in the morning, we came to Gawa, where is the second scene
of ruins of Egyptian architecture, after leaving Cairo. I immediately
went on shore, and found a small temple of three columns in front,
with the capitals entire, and the columns in several separate pieces.
They seemed by that, and their slight proportions, to be of the most
modern of that species of building; but the whole were covered with
hieroglyphics, the old story over again, the hawk and the serpent, the
man sitting with the dog’s head, with the perch, or measuring-rod;
in one hand, the hemisphere and globes with wings, and leaves of the
banana-tree, as is supposed, in his other. The temple is filled with
rubbish and dung of cattle, which the Arabs bring in here to shelter
them from the heat.

Mr Norden says, that these are the remains of the ancient Diospolis
Parva, but, though very loth to differ from him, and without the least
desire of criticising, I cannot here be of his opinion. For Ptolemy,
I think, makes Diospolis Parva about lat. 26° 40´, and Gawa is 27°
20´, which is by much too great a difference. Besides, Diospolis and
its nome were far to the southward of Panopolis; but we shall shew, by
undoubted evidence, that Gawa is to the northward.

There are two villages of this name opposite to each other; the one
Gawa Shergieh, which means the Eastern Gawa, and this is by much
the largest; the other Gawa Garbieh. Several authors, not knowing
the meaning of these terms, call it Gawa Gebery; a word that has no
signification whatever, but Garbieh means the Western.

I was very well pleased to see here, for the first time, two shepherd
dogs lapping up the water from the stream, then lying down in it with
great seeming leisure and satisfaction. It refuted the old fable, that
the dogs living on the banks of the Nile run as they drink, for fear of
the crocodile.

All around the villages of Gawa Garbieh, and the plantations belonging
to them, Meshta and Raany, with theirs also joining them (that is, all
the west side of the river) are cultivated and sown from the very foot
of the mountains to the water’s edge, the grain being thrown upon the
mud as soon as ever the water has left it. The wheat was at this time
about four inches in length.

We passed three villages, Shaftour, Commawhaia, and Zinedi; we anchored
off Shaftour, and within sight of Taahta. Taahta is a large village,
and in it are several mosques. On the east is a mountain called Jibbel
Heredy, from a Turkish saint, who was turned into a snake, has lived
several hundred years, and is to live for ever. As Christians, Moors,
and Turks, all faithfully believe in this, the consequence is, that
abundance of nonsense is daily writ and told concerning it. Mr Norden
discusses it at large, and afterwards gravely tells us, he does not
believe it; in which I certainly must heartily join him, and recommend
to my readers to do the same, without reading any thing about it.

On the 22d, at night, we arrived at Achmim. I landed my quadrant and
instruments, with a view of observing an eclipse of the moon; but,
immediately after her rising, clouds and mist so effectually covered
the whole heavens, that it was not even possible to catch a star of any
size passing the meridian.

Achmim is a very considerable place. It belonged once to an Arab prince
of that name, who possessed it by a grant from the Grand Signior, for
a certain revenue to be paid yearly. That family is now extinct; and
another Arab prince, Hamam Shekh of Furshout, now rents it for his
life-time, from the Grand Signior, with all the country (except Girgé),
from Siout to Luxor.

The inhabitants of Achmim are of a very yellow, unhealthy appearance,
probably owing to the bad air, occasioned by a very dirty calish that
passes through the town. There are, likewise, a great many trees,
bushes, and gardens, about the stagnated water, all which increase the
bad quality of the air.

There is here what is called a Hospice, or Convent of religious
Franciscans, for the entertainment of the converts, or persecuted
Christians in Nubia, _when they can find them_. This institution I
speak of at large in the sequel. One of the last princes of the house
of Medicis, all patrons of learning, proposed to furnish them with a
compleat observatory, with the most perfect and expensive instruments;
but they refused them, from a scruple least it would give umbrage to
the natives. The fear that it should expose their own ignorance and
idleness, I must think, entered a little into the consideration.

They received us civilly, and that was just all. I think I never knew
a number of priests met together, who differed so little in capacity
and knowledge, having barely a routine of scholastic disputation,
on every other subject inconceivably ignorant. But I understood
afterwards, that they were low men, all Italians; some of them had been
barbers, and some of them tailors at Milan; they affected to be all
Anti-Copernicans, upon scripture principles, for they knew no other
astronomy.

These priests lived in great ease and safety, were much protected and
favoured by this Arab prince Hamam; and their acting as physicians
reconciled them to the people. They told me there were about eight
hundred catholics in the town, but I believe the fifth part of that
number would never have been found, even such catholics as they are.
The rest of them were Cophts, and Moors, but a very few of the latter,
so that the missionaries live perfectly unmolested.

There was a manufactory of coarse cotton cloth in the town, to
considerable extent; and great quantity of poultry, esteemed the best
in Egypt, was bred here, and sent down to Cairo. The reason is plain,
the great export from Achmim is wheat; all the country about it is sown
with that grain, and the crops are superior to any in Egypt. Thirty-two
grains pulled from the ear was equal to forty-nine of the best Barbary
wheat gathered in the same season; a prodigious disproportion, if it
holds throughout. The wheat, however, was not much more forward in
Upper Egypt, than that lower down the country, or farther northward. It
was little more than four inches high, and sown down to the very edge
of the water.

The people _here_ wisely pursuing agriculture, so as to produce wheat
in the greatest quantity, have dates only about their houses, and a
few plantations of sugar cane near their gardens. As soon as they have
reaped their wheat, they sow for another crop, before the sun has
drained the moisture from the ground. Great plenty of excellent fish
is caught here at Achmim, particularly a large one called the Binny, a
figure of which I have given in the Appendix. I have seen them about
four feet long, and one foot and a half broad.

The people seemed to be very peaceable, and well disposed, but of
little curiosity. They expressed not the least surprise at seeing my
large quadrant and telescopes mounted. We passed the night in our tent
upon the river side, without any sort of molestation, though the men
are reproached with being very great thieves. But seeing, I suppose, by
our lights, that we were awake, they were afraid.

The women seldom marry after sixteen; we saw several with child, who
they said were not eleven years old. Yet I did not observe that the
men were less in size, less vigorous and active in body, than in other
places. This, one would not imagine from the appearance these young
wives make. They are little better coloured than a corpse, and look
older at sixteen, than many English women at sixty, so that you are to
look for beauty here in childhood only.

Achmim appears to be the Panopolis of the ancients, not only by its
latitude, but also by an inscription of a very large triumphal arch, a
few hundred yards south of the convent. It is built with marble by the
Emperor Nero, and is dedicated in a Greek inscription, ΠΑΝΙ ΘΕΩ. The
columns that were in its front are broken and thrown away; the arch
itself is either sunk into the ground, or overturned on the side, with
little separation of the several pieces.

The 24th of December we left Achmim, and came to the village Shekh Ali
on the west, two miles and a quarter distant. We then passed Hamdi,
about the same distance farther south; Aboudarac and Salladi on the
east; then Salladi Garbieh, and Salladi Shergieh on the east and west,
as the names import; and a number of villages, almost opposite, on each
side of the river.

At three o’clock in the afternoon we arrived at Girgé, the largest
town we had seen since we left Cairo; which, by the latitude Ptolemy
has very rightly placed it in, should be the Diospolis Parva, and not
Gawa, as Mr Norden makes it. For this we know is the beginning of the
Diospolitan nome, and is near a remarkable crook of the Nile, as it
should be. It is also on the western side of the river, as Diospolis
was, and at a proper distance from Dendera, the ancient Tentyra, a mark
which cannot be mistaken.

The Nile makes a kind of loop here; is very broad, and the current
strong. We passed it with a wind at north; but the waves ran high as
in the ocean. All the country, on both sides of the Nile, to Girgé, is
but one continued grove of palm-trees, in which are several villages a
small distance from each other, Doulani, Consaed, Deirout, and Berdis,
on the west side; Welled Hallifi, and Beni Haled, on the east.

The villages have all a very picturesque appearance among the trees,
from the many pigeon-houses that are on the tops of them. The mountains
on the east begin to depart from the river, and those on the west to
approach nearer it. It seems to me, that, soon, the greatest part of
Egypt on the east side of the Nile, between Achmim and Cairo, will be
desert; not from the rising of the ground by the mud, as is supposed,
but from the quantity of sand from the mountains, which covers the
mould or earth several feet deep. This 24th of December, at night, we
anchored between two villages, Beliani and Mobanniny.

Next morning, the 25th, impatient to visit the greatest, and most
magnificent scene of ruins that are in Upper Egypt, we set out from
Beliani, and, about ten o’clock in the forenoon, arrived at Dendera.
Although we had heard that the people of this place were the very worst
in Egypt, we were not very apprehensive. We had two letters from the
Bey, to the two principal men there, commanding them, as they would
answer with their lives and fortunes, to have a special care that no
mischief befel us; and likewise a very pressing letter to Shekh Hamam
at Furshout, in whose territory we were.

I pitched my tent by the river side, just above our bark, and sent a
message to the two principal people, first to the one, then to the
other, desiring them to send a proper person, for I had to deliver to
them the commands of the Bey. I did not choose to trust these letters
with our boatman; and Dendera is near half a mile from the river.
The two men came after some delay, and brought each of them a sheep;
received the letters, went back with great speed, and, soon after,
returned with a horse and three asses, to carry me to the ruins.

Dendera is a considerable town at this day, all covered with thick
groves of palm-trees, the same that Juvenal describes it to have been
in his time. Juvenal himself must have seen it, at least once, in
passing, as he himself died in a kind of honourable exile at Syene,
whilst in command there.

    _Terga fugæ celeri, præstantibus omnibus instant,_
    _Qui vicina colunt umbrosæ Tentyra palmæ._
                                   JUV. Sat. 15. v. 75

This place is governed by a cacheff appointed by Shekh Hamam. A mile
south of the town, are the ruins of two temples, one of which is so
much buried under ground, that little of it is to be seen; but the
other, which is by far the most magnificent, is entire, and accessible
on every side. It is also covered with hieroglyphics, both within and
without, all in relief; and of every figure, simple and compound, that
ever has been published, or called an hieroglyphic.

The form of the building is an oblong square, the ends of which are
occupied by two large apartments, or vestibules, supported by monstrous
columns, all covered with hieroglyphics likewise. Some are in form
of men and beasts; some seem to be the figures of instruments of
sacrifice, while others, in a smaller size, and less distinct form,
seem to be inscriptions in the current hand of hieroglyphics, of which
I shall speak at large afterwards. They are all finished with great
care.

The capitals are of one piece, and consist of four huge human heads,
placed back to back against one another, with bat’s ears, and an
ill-imagined, and worse-executed, fold of drapery between them.

Above these is a large oblong square block, still larger than the
capitals, with four flat fronts, disposed like pannels, that is, with a
kind of square border round the edges, while the faces and fronts are
filled with hieroglyphics; as are the walls and ceilings of every part
of the temple. Between these two apartments in the extremities, there
are three other apartments, resembling the first, in every respect,
only that they are smaller.

The whole building is of common white stone, from the neighbouring
mountains, only those two in which have been sunk the pirns for hanging
the outer doors, (for it seems they had doors even in those days) are
of granite, or black and blue porphyry.

The top of the temple is flat, the spouts to carry off the water
are monstrous heads of sphinxes; the globes with wings, and the two
serpents, with a kind of shield or breast-plate between them, are here
frequently repeated, such as we see them on the Carthaginian medals.

The hieroglyphics have been painted over, and great part of the
colouring yet remains upon the stones, red, in all its shades,
especially that dark dusky colour called Tyrian Purple; yellow, very
fresh; sky-blue (that is, near the blue of an eastern sky, several
shades lighter than ours); green of different shades; these are all the
colours preserved.

I could discover no vestiges of common houses in Dendera more than in
any other of the great towns in Egypt. I suppose the common houses of
the ancients, in these warm countries, were constructed of very slight
materials, after they left their caves in the mountains. There was
indeed no need for any other. Not knowing the regularity of the Nile’s
inundation, they never could be perfectly secure in their own minds
against the deluge; and this slight structure of private buildings
seems to be the reason so few ruins are found in the many cities once
built in Egypt. If there ever were any other buildings, they must be
now covered with the white sand from the mountains, for the whole plain
to the foot of these is o’erflowed, and in cultivation. It was no part,
either of my plan or inclination, to enter into the detail of this
extraordinary architecture. Quantity, and solidity, are two principal
circumstances that are seen there, with a vengeance.

It strikes and imposes on you, at first sight, but the impressions
are like those made by the size of mountains, which the mind does not
retain for any considerable time after seeing them; I think, a very
ready hand might spend six months, from morning to night, before he
could copy the hieroglyphics in the inside of the temple. They are,
however, in several combinations, which have not appeared in the
collection of hieroglyphics. I wonder that, being in the neighbourhood,
as we are, of Lycopolis, we never see a wolf as an hieroglyphic; and
nothing, indeed, but what has some affinity to water; yet the wolf is
upon all the medals, from which I apprehend that the worship of the
wolf was but a modern superstition.

Dendera stands on the edge of a small, but fruitful plain; the wheat
was thirteen inches high, now at Christmas; their harvest is in the
end of March. The valley is not above five miles wide, from mountain
to mountain. Here we first saw the Doom-tree in great profusion
growing among the palms, from which it scarcely is distinguishable at
a distance. It is the [113]Palma Thebaica Cuciofera. Its stone is like
that of a peach covered with a black bitter pulp, which resembles a
walnut over ripe.

A little before we came to Dendera we saw the first crocodile, and
afterwards hundreds, lying upon every island, like large flocks of
cattle, yet the inhabitants of Dendera drive their beasts of every kind
into the river, and they stand there for hours. The girls and women
too, that come to fetch water in jars, stand up to their knees in the
water for a considerable time; and if we guess by what happens, their
danger is full as little as their fear, for none of them, that ever I
heard of, had been bit by a crocodile. However, if the Denderites were
as keen and expert hunters of Crocodiles, as some [114]historians tell
us they were formerly, there is surely no part in the Nile where they
would have better sport than here, immediately before their own city.

Having made some little acknowledgment to those who had conducted me
through the ruins in great safety, I returned to the Canja, or rather
to my tent, which I placed in the first firm ground. I saw, at some
distance, a well-dressed man, with a white turban, and yellow shawl
covering it, and a number of ill-looking people about him. As I thought
this was some quarrel among the natives, I took no notice of it, but
went to my tent, in order to rectify my quadrant for observation.

As soon as our Rais saw me enter my tent, he came with expressions of
very great indignation. “What signifies it, said he, that you are a
friend to the Bey, have letters to every body, and are at the door of
Furshout, if yet here is a man that will take your boat away from you?”

“Softly, softly, I answered, Hassan, he may be in the right. If Ali
Bey, Shekh Hamam, or any body want a boat for public service, I must
yield mine. Let us hear.”

“Shekh Hamam and Ali Bey! says he; why it is a fool, an idiot, and an
ass; a fellow that goes begging about, and says he is a saint; but he
is a natural fool, full as much knave as fool however; he is a thief, I
know him to be a thief.”

“If he is a saint, said I, Hagi Hassan, as you are another, known to
be so all the world over, I don’t see why I should interfere; saint
against saint is a fair battle.”--“It is the Cadi, replies he, and no
one else.”

“Come away with me, said I, Hassan, and let us see this cadi; if it is
the cadi, it is not the fool, it may be the knave.”

He was sitting upon the ground on a carpet, moving his head backwards
and forwards, and saying prayers with beads in his hand. I had no
good opinion of him from his first appearance, but said, _Salam
alicum_, boldly; this seemed to offend him, as he looked at me with
great contempt, and gave me no answer, though he appeared a little
disconcerted by my confidence.

“Are you the _Cafr_, said he, to whom that boat belongs?”

“No, Sir, said I, it belongs to Hagi Hassan.”

“Do you think, says he, I call Hagi Hassan, who is a Sherriffe, _Cafr_?”

“That depends upon the measure of your prudence, said I, of which as
yet I have no proof that can enable me to judge or decide.”

“Are you the _Christian_ that was at the ruins in the morning? says he.”

“I was at the ruins in the morning, replied I, and _I am a Christian_.
Ali Bey calls that denomination of people _Nazarani_, that is the
Arabic of Cairo and Constantinople, and I understand no other.”

“I am, said he, going to Girgé, and this holy saint is with me, and
there is no boat but your’s bound that way, for which reason I have
promised to take him with me.”

By this time the _saint_ had got into the boat, and sat forward; he was
an ill-favoured, low, sick-like man, and seemed to be almost blind.

You should not make rash promises, said I to the cadi, for this one you
made you never can perform; I am not going to Girgé. Ali Bey, _whose
slave you are_, gave me this boat, but told me, I was not to ship
either saints or cadies. There is my boat, go a-board if you dare; and
you, Hagi Hassan, let me see you lift an oar, or loose a sail, either
for the cadi or the saint, if I am not with them.

I went to my tent, and the Rais followed me. “Hagi Hassan, said I,
there is a proverb in my country, It is better to flatter fools than to
fight them: Cannot you go to the fool, and give him half-a-crown? will
he take it, do you think, and abandon his journey to Girgé? afterwards
leave me to settle with the cadi for his voyage thither.”

“He will take it with all his heart, he will kiss your hand for
half-a-crown, says Hassan.”

“Let him have half-a-crown from me, said I, and desire him to go about
his business, and intimate that I give him it in charity, at same time
expect compliance with the condition.”

In the interim, a Christian Copht came into the tent: “Sir, said he,
you don’t know what you are doing; the cadi is a great man, give him
his present, and have done with him.”

“When he behaves better, it will be time enough for that, said I?--If
you are a friend of his, advise him to be quiet, before an order comes
from Cairo by a Serach, and carries him thither. Your countryman Risk
would not give me the advice you do?”

Risk! says he; Do you know Risk? Is not that Risk’s writing, said I,
shewing him a letter from the Bey? Wallah! (by God) it is, says he, and
away he went without speaking a word farther.

The saint had taken his half-crown, and had gone away singing, it
being now near dark.--The cadi went away, and the mob dispersed, and
we directed a Moor to cry, That all people should, in the night-time,
keep away from the tent, or they would be fired at; a stone or two were
afterwards thrown, but did not reach us.

I finished my observation, and ascertained the latitude of Dendera,
then packed up my instruments, and sent them on board.

Mr Norden seems greatly to have mistaken the position of this town,
which, conspicuous and celebrated as it is by ancient authors, and
justly a principal point of attention to modern travellers, he does
not so much as describe; and, in his map, he places Dendera twenty or
thirty miles to the southward of Badjoura; whereas it is about nine
miles to the northward. For Badjoura is in lat. 26° 3´, and Dendera is
in 26° 10´.

It is a great pity, that he who had a taste for this very remarkable
kind of architecture, should have passed it, both in going up and
coming down; as it is, beyond comparison, a place that would have given
more satisfaction than all Upper Egypt.

While we were striking our tent, a great mob came down, but without the
cadi. As I ordered all my people to take their arms in their hands,
they kept at a very considerable distance; but the fool, or saint, got
into the boat with a yellow flag in his hand, and sat down at the foot
of the main-mast, saying, with an idiot smile, That we should fire, for
he was out of the reach of the shot; some stones were thrown, but did
not reach us.

I ordered two of my servants with large brass ship-blunderbusses,
very bright and glittering, to get upon the top of the cabbin. I then
pointed a wide-mouthed Swedish blunderbuss from one of the windows, and
cried out, Have a care;--the next stone that is thrown I fire my cannon
amongst you, which will sweep away 300 of you instantly from the face
of the earth; though I believe there were not above two hundred then
present.

I ordered Hagi Hassan to cast off his cord immediately, and, as soon as
the blunderbuss appeared, away ran every one of them, and, before they
could collect themselves to return, our vessel was in the middle of the
stream. The wind was fair, though not very fresh, on which we set both
our sails, and made great way.

The saint, who had been singing all the time we were disputing, began
now to shew some apprehensions for his own safety: He asked Hagi
Hassan, if this was the way to Girgé? and had for answer, “Yes, it is
the fool’s way to Girgé.”

We carried him about a mile, or more, up the river; then a convenient
landing-place offering, I asked him whether he got my money, or not,
last night? He said, he had for yesterday, but he had got none for
to-day.--“Now, the next thing I have to ask you, said I, is, Will you
go ashore of your own accord, or will you be thrown into the Nile? He
answered with great confidence, Do you know, that, at my word, I can
fix your boat to the bottom of the Nile, and make it grow a tree there
for ever?” “Aye, says Hagi Hassan, and make oranges and lemons grow on
it likewise, can’t you? You are a cheat.” “Come, Sirs, said I, lose no
time, put him out.” I thought he had been blind and weak; and the boat
was not within three feet of the shore, when placing one foot upon the
gunnel, he leaped clean upon land.

We slacked our vessel down the stream a few yards, filling our sails,
and stretching away. Upon seeing this, our saint fell into a desperate
passion, cursing, blaspheming, and stamping with his feet, at every
word crying “Shar Ullah!” _i. e._ may God send, and do justice. Our
people began to taunt and gibe him, asking him if he would have a pipe
of tobacco to warm him, as the morning was very cold; but I bade them
be content. It was curious to see him, as far as we could discern,
sometimes sitting down, sometimes jumping and skipping about, and
waving his flag, then running about a hundred yards, as if it were
after us; but always returning, though at a slower pace.

None of the rest followed. He was indeed apparently the tool of that
rascal the cadi, and, after his designs were frustrated, nobody cared
what became of him. He was left in the lurch, as those of his character
generally are, after serving the purpose of _knaves_.




CHAP. VI.

    _Arrive at Furshout--Adventure of Friar Christopher--Visit
    Thebes--Luxor and Carnac--Large Ruins at Edfu and Esné--Proceed
    on our Voyage._


We arrived happily at Furshout that same forenoon, and went to the
convent of Italian Friars, who, like those of Achmim, are of the order
of the reformed Franciscans, of whose mission I shall speak at large in
the sequel.

We were received more kindly here than at Achmim; but Padre Antonio,
superior of that last convent, upon which this of Furshout also
depends, following us, our good reception suffered a small abatement.
In short, the good Friars would not let us _buy_ meat, because they
said it would be a _shame_ and _reproach_ to them; and they would not
_give_ us any, for fear that should be a reproach to them likewise, if
it was told in Europe they _lived well_.

After some time I took the liberty of providing for myself, to which
they submitted with christian patience. Yet these convents were founded
expressly with a view, and from a necessity of providing for travellers
between Egypt and Ethiopia, and we were strictly intitled to that
entertainment. Indeed there is very little use for this institution in
Upper Egypt, as long as rich Arabs are there, much more charitable and
humane to stranger Christians than the Monks.

Furshout is in a large and cultivated plain. It is nine miles over to
the foot of the mountains, all sown with wheat. There are, likewise,
plantations of sugar canes. The town, as they said, contains above
10,000 people, but I have no doubt this computation is rather
exaggerated.

We waited upon the Shekh Hamam; who was a big, tall, handsome man;
I apprehend not far from sixty. He was dressed in a large fox-skin
pelisse over the rest of his cloaths, and had a yellow India shawl
wrapt about his head, like a turban. He received me with great
politeness and condescension, made me sit down by him, and asked me
more about Cairo than about Europe.

The Rais had told him our adventure with the saint, at which he laughed
very heartily, saying, I was a wise man and a man of conduct. To me
he only said, “they are bad people at Dendera;” to which I answered,
“there were very few places in the world in which there were not some
bad.” He replied, “Your observation is true, but there they are all
bad; rest yourselves however here, it is a quiet place; though there
are still some even in this place not quite so good as they _ought_ to
be.”

The Shekh was a man of immense riches, and, little by little, had
united in his own person, all the separate districts of Upper Egypt,
each of which formerly had its particular prince. But his interest was
great at Constantinople, where he applied directly for what he wanted,
insomuch as to give a jealousy to the Beys of Cairo. He had in farm
from the Grand Signior almost the whole country, between Siout and
Syene, or Assouan. I believe this is the Shekh of Upper Egypt, whom Mr
Irvine speaks of so gratefully. He was betrayed, and murdered some time
after, by one of the Beys whom he had protected in his own country.

While we were at Furshout, there happened a very extraordinary
phænomenon. It rained the whole night, and till about nine o’clock next
morning; and the people began to be very apprehensive least the whole
town should be destroyed. It is a perfect prodigy to see rain here; and
the prophets said it portended a dissolution of government, which was
justly verified soon afterwards, and at that time indeed was extremely
probable.

Furshout is in lat 26° 3´30´´; above that, to the southward, on the
same plain, is another large village, belonging to Shekh Ismael, a
nephew of Shekh Hamam. It is _a large town_, built with clay like
Furshout, and surrounded with groves of palm trees, and very large
plantations of sugar canes. Here they make sugar.

Shekh Ismael was a very pleasant and agreeable man, but in bad health,
having a violent asthma, and sometimes pleuretic complaints, to be
removed by bleeding only. He had given these friars a house for a
convent in Badjoura; but as they had not yet taken possession of it, he
desired me to come and stay there.

Friar Christopher, whom I understood to have been a Milanese barber,
was his physician, but he had not the science of an English barber in
surgery. He could not bleed, but with a sort of instrument resembling
that which is used in cupping, only that it had but a single lancet;
with this he had been lucky enough as yet to escape laming his
patients. This bleeding instrument they call the Tabange, or the
Pistol, as they do the cupping instrument likewise. I never could help
shuddering at seeing the confidence with which this man placed a small
brass box upon all sorts of arms, and drew the trigger for the point to
go where fortune pleased.

Shekh Ismael was very fond of this surgeon, and the surgeon of his
patron; all would have gone well, had not friar Christopher aimed
likewise at being an Astronomer. Above all he gloried in being a
violent enemy to the Copernican system, which unluckily he had mistaken
for a heresy in the church; and partly from his own slight ideas and
stock of knowledge, partly from some Milanese almanacs he had got, he
attempted, the weather being cloudy, to foretel the time when the moon
was to change, it being that of the month Ramadan, when the Mahometans’
lent, or fasting, was to begin.

It happened that the Badjoura people, and their Shekh Ismael, were
upon indifferent terms with Hamam, and his men of Furshout, and being
desirous to get a triumph over their neighbours by the help of their
friar Christopher, they continued to eat, drink, and smoke, two days
after the conjunction.

The moon had been seen the second night, by a Fakir[115], in the
desert, who had sent word to Shekh Hamam, and he had begun his fast.
But Ismael, assured by friar Christopher that it was impossible, had
continued eating.

The people of Furshout, meeting their neighbours singing and dancing,
and with pipes of tobacco in their mouths, _all cried out_ with
astonishment, and asked, “Whether they had abjured their religion or
not?”--From words they came to blows; seven or eight were wounded on
each side, luckily none of them mortally.--Hamam next day came to
inquire at his nephew Shekh Ismael, what had been the occasion of all
this, and to consult what was to be done, for the two villages had
declared one another infidels.

I was then with my servants in Badjoura, in great quiet and
tranquillity, under the protection, and very much in the confidence
of Ismael; but hearing the hooping, and noise in the streets, I had
barricadoed my outer-doors. A high wall surrounded the house and
court-yard, and there I kept quiet, satisfied with being in perfect
safety.

In the interim, I heard it was a quarrel about the keeping of Ramadan,
and, as I had provisions, water, and employment enough in the house,
I resolved to stay at home till they fought it out; being very little
interested which of them should be victorious.--About noon, I was sent
for to Ismael’s house, and found his uncle Hamam with him.

He told me, there were several wounded in a quarrel about the Ramadan,
and recommended them to my care. “About Ramadan, said I! what, your
principal fast! have you not settled that yet?”--Without answering me
as to this, he asked, “When does the moon change?” As I knew nothing
of friar Christopher’s operations, I answered, in hours, minutes, and
seconds, as I found them in the ephemerides.

“Look you there, says Hamam, this is fine work!” and, directing
his discourse to me, “When shall we see it?” Sir, said I, that is
impossible for me to tell, as it depends on the state of the heavens;
but, if the sky is clear, you must see her to-night; if you had looked
for her, probably you would have seen her last night low in the
horizon, thin like a thread; she is now three days old.--He started at
this, then told me friar Christopher’s operation, and the consequences
of it.

Ismael was ashamed, cursed him, and threatened revenge. It was too
late to retract, the moon appeared, and spoke for herself; and the
unfortunate friar was disgraced, and banished from Badjoura. Luckily
the pleuretic stitch came again, and I was called to bleed him, which
I did with a lancet; but he was so terrified at its brightness, at the
ceremony of the towel and the bason, and at my preparation, that it
did not please him, and therefore he was obliged to be reconciled to
Christopher and his tabange.--Badjoura is in lat. 26° 3´ 16´´; and is
situated on the western shore of the Nile, as Furshout is likewise.

We left Furshout the 7th of January 1769, early in the morning. We had
not hired our boat farther than Furshout; but the good terms which
subsisted between me and the saint, my Rais, made an accommodation
very easy to carry us farther. He now agreed for L. 4 to carry us to
Syene and down again; but, if he behaved well, he expected a trifling
premium. “And, if you behave ill, Hassan, said I, what do you think you
deserve?”--“To be hanged, said he, I deserve, and desire no better.”

Our wind at first was but scant. The Rais said, that he thought his
boat did not go as it used to do, and that it was growing into a tree.
The wind, however, freshened up towards noon, and eased him of his
fears. We passed a large town called How, on the west side of the Nile.
About four o’clock in the afternoon we arrived at El Gourni, a small
village, a quarter of a mile distant from the Nile. It has in it a
temple of old Egyptian architecture. I think that this, and the two
adjoining heaps of ruins, which are at the same distance from the Nile,
probably might have been part of the ancient Thebes.

Shaamy and Taamy are two colossal statues in a sitting posture covered
with hieroglyphics. The southmost is of one stone, and perfectly
entire. The northmost is a good deal more mutilated. It was probably
broken by Cambyses; and they have since endeavoured to repair it.
The other has a very remarkable head-dress, which can be compared to
nothing but a tye-wig, such as worn in the present day. These two,
situated in a very fertile spot belonging to Thebes, were apparently
the Nilometers of that town, as the marks which the water has left
upon the bases sufficiently shew. The bases of both of them are bare,
and uncovered, to the bottom of the plinth, or lowest member of their
pedestal; so that there is not the eighth of an inch of the lowest part
of them covered with mud, though they stand in the middle of a plain,
and have stood there certainly above 3000 years; since which time, if
the fanciful rise of the land of Egypt by the Nile had been true, the
earth should have been raised so as fully to conceal half of them both.

These statues are covered with inscriptions of Greek and Latin; the
import of which seems to be, that there were certain travellers, or
particular people, who heard Memnon’s statue utter the sound it was
said to do, upon being struck with the rays of the sun.

It may be very reasonably expected, that I should here say something
of the building and fall of the first Thebes; but as this would carry
me to very early ages, and interrupt for a long time my voyage upon
the Nile; as this is, besides, connected with the history of several
nations which I am about to describe, and more proper for the work of
an historian, than the cursory descriptions of a traveller, I shall
defer saying any thing upon the subject, till I come to treat of it in
the first of these characters, and more especially till I shall speak
of the origin of the _Shepherds_, and the calamities brought upon Egypt
by that powerful nation, a people often mentioned by different writers,
but whose history hitherto has been but imperfectly known.

Nothing remains of the ancient Thebes but four prodigious temples,
all of them in appearance more ancient, but neither so entire, nor so
magnificent, as those of Dendera. The temples at Medinet Tabu are
the most elegant of these. The hieroglyphics are cut to the depth of
half-a-foot, in some places, but we have still the same figures, or
rather a less variety, than at Dendera.

The hieroglyphics are of four sorts; first, such as have only the
contour marked, and, as it were, scratched only in the stone. The
second are hollowed; and in the middle of that space rises the figure
in relief, so that the prominent part of the figure is equal to the
flat, unwrought surface of the stone, and seems to have a frame round
it, designed to defend the hieroglyphic from mutilation. The third
sort is in relief, or basso relievo, as it is called, where the figure
is left bare and exposed, without being sunk in, or defended, by any
compartment cut round it in the stone. The fourth are those mentioned
in the beginning of this description, the outlines of the figure being
cut very deep in the stone.

All the hieroglyphics, but the last mentioned, which do not admit it,
are painted red, blue, and green, as at Dendera, and with no other
colours.

Notwithstanding all this variety in the manner of executing the
hieroglyphical figures, and the prodigious multitude which I have seen
in the several buildings, I never could make the number of different
hieroglyphics amount to more than five hundred and fourteen, and of
these there were certainly many, which were not really different,
but from the ill execution of the sculpture only appeared so. From
this I conclude, certainly, that it can be no entire language which
hieroglyphics are meant to contain, for no language could be
comprehended in five hundred words, and it is probable that these
hieroglyphics are not _alphabetical_, or _single letters_ only; for
five hundred letters would make _too large_ an alphabet. The Chinese
indeed have many more letters in use, but have no alphabet, but _who is
it that understands the Chinese_?

There are three different characters which, I observe, have been in use
at the same time in Egypt, Hieroglyphics, the Mummy character, and the
Ethiopic. These are all three found, as I have seen, on the same mummy,
and therefore were certainly used at the same time. The last only I
believe was a _language_.

The mountains immediately above or behind Thebes, are hollowed out into
numberless caverns, the first habitations of the Ethiopian colony which
built the city. I imagine they continued long in these habitations,
for I do not think the temples were ever intended but for _public_ and
_solemn_ uses, and in none of these ancient cities did I ever see a
wall or foundation, or any thing like a private house; all are temples
and tombs, if temples and tombs in those times were not the same thing.
But vestiges of houses there are none, whatever[116] Diodorus Siculus
may say, building with stone was too expensive for individuals; the
houses probably were all of clay, thatched with palm branches, as they
are at this day. This is one reason why so few ruins of the immense
number of cities we hear of remain.

Thebes, according to Homer, had a _hundred gates_. We cannot, however,
discover yet the foundation of any wall that it had; and as for the
horsemen and chariots it is said to have sent out, all the Thebaid sown
with wheat would not have maintained _one-half_ of them.

Thebes, at least the ruins of the temples, called Medinet Tabu, are
built in a long stretch of about a mile broad, most parsimoniously
chosen at the sandy foot of the mountains. The Horti[117] Pensiles,
or hanging gardens, were surely formed upon the sides of these hills,
then supplied with water by mechanical devices. The utmost is done to
spare the plain, and with great reason; for all the space of ground
this ancient city has had to maintain its myriads of horses and men,
is a plain of three quarters of a mile broad, between the town and the
river, upon which plain the water rises to the height of four, and five
feet, as we may judge by the marks on the statues Shaamy and Taamy.
All this pretended populousness of ancient Thebes I therefore believe
fabulous.

It is a circumstance very remarkable, in building the first temples,
that, where the side-walls are solid, that is, not supported by
pillars, some of these have their angles and faces perpendicular,
others inclined in a very considerable angle to the horizon. Those
temples, whose walls are inclined, you may judge by the many
hieroglyphics and ornaments, are of the first ages, or the greatest
antiquity. From which, I am disposed to think, that singular
construction was a remnant of the partiality of the builders for their
first domiciles; an imitation of the slope[118], or inclination of the
sides of mountains, and that this inclination of flat surfaces to each
other in building, gave afterwards the first idea of Pyramids[119].

A number of robbers, who much resemble our gypsies, live in the holes
of the mountains above Thebes. They are all out-laws, punished with
death if elsewhere found. Osman Bey, an ancient governor of Girgé,
unable to suffer any longer the disorders committed by these people,
ordered a quantity of dried faggots to be brought together, and, with
his soldiers, took, possession of the face of the mountain, where the
greatest number of these wretches were: He then ordered all their
caves to be filled with this dry brushwood, to which he set fire, so
that most of them were destroyed; but they have since recruited their
numbers, without changing their manners.

About half a mile north of El Gourni, are the magnificent, stupendous
sepulchres, of Thebes. The mountains of the Thebaid come close behind
the town; they are not run in upon one another like ridges, but stand
insulated upon their bases; so that you can get round each of them.
A hundred of these, it is said, are excavated into sepulchral, and
a variety of other apartments. I went through seven of them with a
great deal of fatigue. It is a solitary place; and my guides, either
from a natural impatience and distaste that these people have at such
employments, or, that their fears of the banditti that live in the
caverns of the mountains were real, importuned me to return to the
boat, even before I had begun my search, or got into the mountains
where are the many large apartments of which I was in quest.

In the first one of these I entered is the prodigious sarcophagus, some
say of Menes, others of Osimandyas; possibly of neither. It is sixteen
feet high, ten long, and six broad, of one piece of red-granite; and,
as such, is, I suppose, the finest vase in the world. Its cover is
still upon it, (broken on one side,) and it has a figure in relief
on the outside. It is not probably the tomb of Osimandyas, because,
Diodorus[120] says, that it was ten stadia from the tomb of the kings;
whereas this is one among them.

There have been some ornaments at the outer-pillars, or outer-entry,
which have been broken and thrown down. Thence you descend through an
inclined passage, I suppose, about twenty feet broad; I speak only by
guess, for I did not measure. The side-walls, as well as the roof of
this passage, are covered with a coat of stucco, of a finer and more
equal grain, or surface, than any I ever saw in Europe. I found my
black-lead pencil little more worn by it than by writing upon paper.

Upon the left-hand side is the crocodile seizing upon the apis, and
plunging him into the water. On the right-hand is the [121]scarabæus
thebaicus, or the thebaic beetle, the first animal that is seen alive
after the Nile retires from the land; and therefore thought to be an
emblem of the resurrection. My own conjecture is, that the apis was
the emblem of the arable land of Egypt; the crocodile, the typhon, or
cacodæmon, the type of an over-abundant Nile; that the scarabæus was
the land which had been overflowed, and from which the water had soon
retired, and has nothing to do with the resurrection or immortality,
neither of which at that time were in contemplation.

Farther forward on the right-hand of the entry, the pannels, or
compartments, were still formed in stucco, but, in place of figures
in relief, they were painted in fresco. I dare say this was the case
on the left-hand of the passage, as well as the right. But the first
discovery was so unexpected, and I had flattered myself that I should
be so far master of my own time, as to see the whole at my leisure,
that I was rivetted, as it were, to the spot by the first sight of
these paintings, and I could proceed no further.

In one pannel were several musical instruments strowed upon the
ground, chiefly of the hautboy kind, with a mouth-piece of reed.
There were also some simple pipes or flutes. With them were several
jars apparently of potter-ware, which, having their mouths covered
with parchment or skin, and being braced on their sides like a drum,
were probably the instrument called the _tabor_, or[122]_tabret_,
beat upon by the hands, coupled in earliest ages with the harp, and
preserved still in Abyssinia, though its companion, the last-mentioned
instrument, is no longer known _there_.

In three following pannels were painted, in fresco, three harps, which
merited the utmost attention, whether we consider the elegance of these
instruments in their form, and the detail of their parts as they are
here clearly expressed, or confine ourselves to the reflection that
necessarily follows, to how great perfection music must have arrived,
before an artist could have produced so complete an instrument as
either of these.

As the first harp seemed to be the most perfect, and least spoiled, I
immediately attached myself to this, and desired my clerk to take upon
him the charge of the second. In this way, by sketching exactly, and
loosely, I hoped to have made myself master of all the paintings in
that cave, perhaps to have extended my researches to others, though, in
the sequel, I found myself miserably deceived.

My first drawing was that of a man playing upon a harp; he was
standing, and the instrument being broad, and flat at the base,
probably for that purpose, supported itself easily with a very little
inclination upon his arm; his head is close shaved, his eye-brows
black, without beard or mustachoes. He has on him a loose shirt,
like what they wear at this day in Nubia (only it is not blue) with
loose sleeves, and arms and neck bare. It seemed to be thick muslin,
or cotton cloth, and long-ways through it is a crimson stripe about
one-eighth of an inch broad; a proof, if this is Egyptian manufacture,
that they understood at that time how to dye cotton, crimson, an art
found out in Britain only a very few years ago. If this is the fabric
of India, still it proves the antiquity of the commerce between the two
countries, and the introduction of Indian manufactures into Egypt.

[Illustration: _Painting in Fresco, in the Sepulchres of Thebes._

_London Publish’d Dec^{r}. 1^{st}. 1789 by G. Robinson & Co._]

It reached down to his ancle; his feet are without sandals; he seems to
be a corpulent man, of about sixty years of age, and of a complexion
rather dark for an Egyptian. To guess by the detail of the figure,
the painter seems to have had the same degree of merit with a good
sign-painter in Europe, at this day.--If we allow this harper’s stature
to be five feet ten inches, then we may compute the harp, in its
extreme length, to be something less than six feet and a half.

This instrument is of a much more advantageous form than the triangular
Grecian harp. It has thirteen strings, but wants the forepiece of
the frame opposite to the longest string. The back part is the
sounding-board, composed of four thin pieces of wood, joined together
in form of a cone, that is, growing wider towards the bottom; so that,
as the length of the string increases, the square of the corresponding
space in the sounding-board, in which the sound was to undulate, always
increases in proportion. The whole principles, on which this harp is
constructed, are rational and ingenious, and the ornamented parts are
executed in the very best manner.

The bottom and sides of the frame seem to be fineered, and inlaid,
probably with ivory, tortoise-shell, and mother-of-pearl, the ordinary
produce of the neighbouring seas and deserts. It would be even now
impossible, either to construct or to finish a harp of any form with
more taste and elegance. Besides the proportions of its outward
form, we must observe likewise how near it approached to a perfect
instrument, for it wanted only two strings of having two complete
octaves; that these were purposely omitted, not from defect of taste or
science, must appear beyond contradiction, when we consider the harp
that follows.

I had no sooner finished the harp which I had taken in hand, than I
went to my assistant, to see what progress he had made in the drawing
in which he was engaged. I found, to my very great surprise, that this
harp differed essentially, in form and distribution of its parts,
from the one I had drawn, without having lost any of its elegance; on
the contrary, that it was finished with full more attention than the
other. It seemed to be fineered with the same materials, ivory and
tortoise-shell, but the strings were differently disposed, the ends of
the three longest, where they joined to the sounding-board below, were
defaced by a hole dug in the wall. Several of the strings in different
parts had been scraped as with a knife, for the rest, it was very
perfect. It had eighteen strings. A man, who seemed to be still older
than the former, but in habit perfectly the same, bare-footed, close
shaved, and of the same complexion with him, stood playing with
both his hands near the middle of the harp, in a manner seemingly less
agitated than in the other.

[Illustration: _Painting in Fresco, in the Sepulchres of Thebes._

_Publish’d Dec^r. 1^{st}. 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]

I went back to my first harp, verified, and examined my drawing in all
its parts; it is with great pleasure I now give a figure of this second
harp to the reader, it was mislaid among a multitude of other papers,
at the time when I was solicited to communicate the former drawing to
a gentleman then writing the History of Music, which he has already
submitted to the public; it is very lately and unexpectedly this last
harp has been found; I am only sorry this accident has deprived the
public of Dr Burney’s remarks upon it. I hope he will yet favour us
with them, and therefore abstain from anticipating his reflections, as
I consider this as his province; I never knew any one so capable of
affording the public, new, and at the same time just lights on this
subject.

There still remained a third harp of ten strings, its precise form I do
not well remember, for I had seen it but once when I first entered the
cave, and was now preparing to copy that likewise. I do not recollect
that there was any man playing upon this one, I think it was rather
resting upon a wall, with some kind of drapery upon one end of it,
and was the smallest of the three. But I am not at all so certain of
particulars concerning this, as to venture any description of it; what
I have said of the other two may be absolutely depended upon.

I look upon these harps then as the Theban harps in use in the time of
Sesostris, who did not rebuild, but decorate ancient Thebes; I consider
them as affording an incontestible proof, were they the only monuments
remaining, that every art necessary to the construction, ornament, and
use of this instrument, was in the highest perfection, and if so, all
the others must have probably attained to the same degree.

We see in particular the ancients then possessed an art relative to
architecture, that of hewing the hardest stones with the greatest ease,
of which we are at this day utterly ignorant and incapable. We have
no instrument that could do it, no composition that could make tools
of temper sufficient to cut bass reliefs in granite or porphyry so
readily; and our ignorance in this is the more completely shewn, in
that we have all the reasons to believe, the cutting instrument with
which they did these surprising feats was composed of brass; a metal of
which, after a thousand experiments, no tool has ever been made that
could serve the purpose of a common knife, though we are at the same
time certain, it was of brass the ancients made their razors.

These harps, in my opinion, overturn all the accounts hitherto given of
the earliest state of music and musical instruments in the east; and
are altogether in their form, ornaments, and compass, an incontestible
proof, stronger than a thousand Greek quotations, that geometry,
drawing, mechanics, and music, were at the greatest perfection when
this instrument was made, and that the period from which we date the
invention of these arts, was only the beginning of the æra of their
restoration. This was the sentiment of Solomon, a writer who lived at
the time when this harp was painted. “Is there (says Solomon) any thing
whereof it may be said, See, this is new! it hath been already of old
time which was before us[123].”

We find, in these very countries, how a later calamity, of the same
public nature, the conquest of the Saracens, occasioned a similar
downfal of literature, by the burning the Alexandrian library under the
fanatical caliph Omar. We see how soon after, they flourished, planted
by the same hands that before had rooted them out.

The effects of a revolution occasioned, at the period I am now
speaking of, by the universal inundation of the _Shepherds_, were
the destruction of Thebes, the ruin of architecture, and the downfal
of astronomy in Egypt. Still a remnant was left in the colonies and
correspondents of Thebes, though fallen. Ezekiel[124] celebrates Tyre
as being, from her beginning, famous for the tabret and harp, and it
is probably to Tyre the taste for music fled from the contempt and
persecution of the barbarous Shepherds; who, though a numerous nation,
to this day never have yet possessed any species of music, or any kind
of musical instruments capable of improvement.

Although it is a curious subject for reflection, it should not surprise
us to find here the harp, in such variety of form. Old Thebes, as we
presently shall see, had been destroyed, and was soon after decorated
and adorned, but not rebuilt by Sesostris. It was some time between the
reign of Menes, the first king of the Thebaid, and the first general
war of the Shepherds, that these decorations and paintings were made.
This gives it a prodigious antiquity; but supposing it was a favourite
instrument, consequently well understood at the building of Tyre[125]
in the year 1320 before Christ, and Sesostris had lived in the time of
Solomon, as Sir Isaac Newton imagines; still there were 320 years since
that instrument had already attained to great perfection, a sufficient
time to have varied it into every form.

Upon seeing the preparations I was making to proceed farther in my
researches, my conductors lost all sort of subordination. They were
afraid my intention was to sit in this cave all night, (as it really
was,) and to visit the others next morning. With great clamour and
marks of discontent, they dashed their torches against the largest
harp, and made the best of their way out of the cave, leaving me and my
people in the dark; and all the way as they went, they made dreadful
denunciations of tragical events that were immediately to follow, upon
their departure from the cave.

There was no possibility of doing more. I offered them money,
much beyond the utmost of their expectations; but the fear of the
Troglodytes, above Medinet Tabu, had fallen upon them; and seeing at
last this was real, I was not myself without apprehensions, for they
were banditti, and outlaws, and no reparation was to be expected,
whatever they should do to hurt us.

Very much vexed, I mounted my horse to return to the boat. The road
lay through a very narrow valley, the sides of which were covered with
bare loose stones. I had no sooner got down to the bottom, than I heard
a great deal of loud speaking on both sides of the valley; and, in an
instant, a number of large stones were rolled down upon me, which,
though I heard in motion, I could not see, on account of the darkness;
this increased my terror.

Finding, by the impatience of the horse, that several of these stones
had come near him, and that it probably was the noise of his feet which
guided those that threw them, I dismounted, and ordered the Moor to get
on horseback; which he did, and in a moment galloped out of danger.
This, if I had been wise, I certainly might have done before him, but
my mind was occupied by the paintings. Nevertheless, I was resolved
upon revenge before leaving these banditti, and listened till I heard
voices, on the right side of the hill. I accordingly levelled my gun
as near as possible, by the ear, and fired one barrel among them. A
moment’s silence ensued, and then a loud howl, which seemed to have
come from thirty or forty persons. I took my servant’s blunderbuss,
and discharged it where I heard the howl, and a violent confusion of
tongues followed, but no more stones. As I found this was the time to
escape, I kept along the dark side of the hill, as expeditiously as
possible, till I came to the mouth of the plain, when we reloaded our
firelocks, expecting some interruption before we reached the boat; and
then we made the best of our way to the river.

We found our Rais full of fears for us. He had been told, that, as soon
as day light should appear, the whole Troglodytes were to come down to
the river, in order to plunder and destroy our boat.

This night expedition at the mountains was but partial, the general
attack was reserved for next day. Upon holding council, we were
unanimous in opinion, as indeed we had been during the whole course
of this voyage. We thought, since our enemy had left us to-night, it
would be our fault if they found us in the morning. Therefore, without
noise, we cast off our rope that fastened us, and let ourselves over to
the other side. About twelve at night a gentle breeze began to blow,
which wafted us up to Luxor, where there was a governor, for whom I had
letters.

From being convinced by the sight of Thebes, which had not the
appearance of ever having had walls, that the fable of the hundred
gates, mentioned by Homer, was mere invention, I was led to conjecture
what could be the origin of that fable.

That the old inhabitants of Thebes lived in caves in the mountains, is,
I think, without doubt, and that the hundred mountains I have spoken
of, excavated, and adorned, were the greatest wonders at that time,
seems equally probable. Now, the name of these to this day is Beeban el
Meluke, the ports or gates of the kings, and hence, perhaps, come the
hundred gates of Thebes upon which the Greeks have dwelt so much. Homer
never saw Thebes, it was demolished before the days of any profane
writer, either in prose or verse. What he added to its history must
have been from imagination.

All that is said of Thebes, by poets or historians, after the days of
Homer, is meant of Diospolis; which was built by the Greeks long after
Thebes was destroyed, as its name testifies; though Diodorus[126] says
it was built by Busiris. It was on the east side of the Nile, whereas
ancient Thebes was on the west, though both are considered as one city;
and [127]Strabo says, that the river[128] runs through the middle of
Thebes, by which he means between old Thebes and Diospolis, or Luxor
and Medinet Tabu.

While in the boat, I could not help regretting the time I had spent
in the morning, in looking for the place in the narrow valley where
the mark of the famous golden circle was visible, which Norden says he
saw, but I could discern no traces of it any where, and indeed it does
not follow that the mark left was that of a circle. This magnificent
instrument was probably fixed perpendicular to the horizon in the plane
of the meridian; so that the appearance of the place where it stood,
would very probably not partake of the circular form at all, or any
precise shape whereby to know it. Besides, as I have before said, it
was not among these tombs or excavated mountains, but ten stades from
them, so the vestiges of this famous instrument[129] could not be found
here. Indeed, being omitted in the latest edition of Norden, it would
seem that traveller himself was not perfectly well allured of its
existence.

We were well received by the governor of Luxor, who was also a believer
in judicial astrology. Having made him a small present, he furnished us
with provisions, and, among several other articles, some brown sugar;
and as we had seen limes and lemons in great perfection at Thebes, we
were resolved to refresh ourselves with some punch, in remembrance of
Old England. But, after what had happened the night before, none of our
people chose to run the risk of meeting the Troglodytes. We therefore
procured a servant of the governor’s of the town, to mount upon his
goat-skin filled with wind, and float down the stream from Luxor to El
Gournie, to bring us a supply of these, which he soon after did.

He informed us, that the people in the caves had, early in the morning,
made a descent upon the townsmen, with a view to plunder our boat; that
several of them had been wounded the night before, and they threatened
to pursue us to Syene. The servant did all he could to frighten them,
by saying that his master’s intention was to pass over with troops, and
exterminate them, as Osman Bey of Girgé had before done, and _we_ were
to assist him with our fire-arms.--After this we heard no more of them.

Luxor, and Carnac, which is a mile and a quarter below it, are by far
the largest and most magnificent scenes of ruins in Egypt, much more
extensive and stupendous than those of Thebes and Dendera put together.

There are two obelisks here of great beauty, and in good preservation,
they are less than those at Rome, but not at all mutilated. The
pavement, which is made to receive the shadow, is to this day so
horizontal, that it might still be used in observation. The top of the
obelisk is semicircular, an experiment, I suppose, made at the instance
of the observer, by varying the shape of the point of the obelisk, to
get rid of the penumbra.

At Carnac we saw the remains of two vast rows of sphinxes, one on the
right-hand, the other on the left, (their heads were mostly broken)
and, a little lower, a number of termini as it should seem. They were
composed of basaltes, with a dog or lion’s head, of Egyptian sculpture.
They stood in lines likewise, as if to conduct or serve as an avenue to
some principal building.

They had been covered with earth, till very lately a [130]Venetian
physician and antiquary bought one of them at a very considerable
price, as he said, for the king of Sardinia. This has caused several
others to be uncovered, though no purchaser hath yet offered.

Upon the outside of the walls at Carnac and Luxor there seems to be an
historical engraving instead of hieroglyphics; this we had not met with
before. It is a representation of men, horses, chariots, and battles;
some of the attitudes are freely and well drawn, they are rudely
scratched upon the surface of the stone, as some of the hieroglyphics
at Thebes are. The weapons the men make use of are short javelins, such
as are common at this day among the inhabitants of Egypt, only they
have feathered wings like arrows. There is also distinguished among the
rest, the figure of a man on horseback, with a lion fighting furiously
by him, and Diodorus[131] says, Osimandyas was so represented at
Thebes. This whole composition merits great attention.

I have said, that Luxor is Diospolis, and should think, that that
place, and Carnac together, made the Jovis Civitas Magna of Ptolemy,
though there is 9´ difference of the latitude by my observation
compared with his. But as mine was made on the south of Luxor, if
his was made on the north of Carnac, the difference will be greatly
diminished.

The 17th we took leave of our friendly Shekh of Luxor, and sailed with
a very fair wind, and in great spirits. The liberality of the Shekh of
Luxor had extended as far as even to my Rais, whom he engaged to land
me here upon my return.--I had procured him considerable ease in some
complaints he had; and he saw our departure with as much regret as in
other places they commonly did our arrival.

On the eastern shore are Hambdé, Maschergarona, Tot, Senimi, and
Gibeg. Mr Norden seems to have very much confused the places in this
neighbourhood, as he puts Erment opposite to Carnac, and Thebes farther
south than Erment, and on the east side of the Nile, whilst he places
Luxor farther south than Erment. But Erment is fourteen miles farther
south than Thebes, and Luxor about a quarter of a mile (as I have
already said) farther south on the East side of the river, whereas
Thebes is on the West.

He has fixed a village (which he calls [132]Demegeit) in the situation
where Thebes stands, and he calls it Crocodilopolis, from what
authority I know not; but the whole geography is here exceedingly
confused, and out of its proper position.

In the evening we came to an anchor on the eastern shore nearly
opposite to Esné. Some of our people had landed to shoot, trusting to
a turn of the river that is here, which would enable them to keep up
with us; but they did not arrive till the sun was setting, loaded with
hares, pigeons, gootos, all very bad game. I had, on my part, staid on
board, and had shot two geese, as bad eating as the others, but very
beautiful in their plumage.

We passed over to Esné next morning. It is the ancient Latopolis, and
has very great remains, particularly a large temple, which, though the
whole of it is of the remotest antiquity, seems to have been built
at different times, or rather out of the ruins of different ancient
buildings. The hieroglyphics upon this are very ill executed, and
are not painted. The town is the residence of an Arab Shekh, and the
inhabitants are a very greedy, bad sort of people; but as I was dressed
like an Arab, they did not molest, because they did not know me.

The 18th, we left Esné, and passed the town of Edfu, where there is
likewise considerable remains of Egyptian architecture. It is the
Appollinis Civitas Magna.

The wind failing, we were obliged to stop in a very poor, desolate, and
dangerous part of the Nile, called Jibbel el Silselly, where a boom,
or chain, was drawn across the river, to hinder, as is supposed, the
Nubian boats from committing piratical practices in Egypt lower down
the stream. The stones on both sides, to which the chain was fixed,
are very visible; but I imagine that it was for fiscal rather than for
warlike purposes, for Syene being garrisoned, there is no possibility
of boats passing from Nubia by that city into Egypt. There is indeed
another purpose to which it might be designed; to prevent war upon the
Nile between any two states.

We know from Juvenal[133], who lived some time at Syene, that there was
a tribe in that neighbourhood called Ombi, who had violent contentions
with the people of Dendera about the crocodile; it is remarkable these
two parties were Anthropophagi so late as Juvenal’s time, yet no
historian speaks of this extraordinary fact, which cannot be called in
question, as he was an eye-witness and resided at Syene.

Now these two nations who were at war had above a hundred miles of
neutral territory between them, and therefore they could never meet
except on the Nile. But either one or the other possessing this chain,
could hinder his adversary from coming nearer him. As the chain is in
the hermonthic nome, as well as the capital of the Ombi, I suppose this
chain to be the barrier of this last state, to hinder those of Dendera
from coming up the river _to eat_ them.

About noon we passed Coom Ombo, a round building like a castle, where
is supposed to have been the metropolis of Ombi, the people last spoken
of. We then arrived at Daroo[134], a miserable mansion, unconscious
that, some years after, we were to be indebted to that paltry village
for the man who was to guide us through the desert, and restore us to
our native country and our friends.

We next came to Shekh Ammer, the encampment of the Arabs [135]Ababdé,
I suppose the same that Mr Norden calls Ababuda, who reach from near
Cosseir far into the desert. As I had been acquainted with one of them
at Badjoura, who desired medicines for his father, I promised to call
upon him, and see their effect, when I should pass Shekh Ammer, which
I now accordingly did; and by the reception I met with, I found they
did not expect I would ever have been as good as my word. Indeed they
would probably have been in the right, but as I was about to engage
myself in extensive deserts, and this was a very considerable nation in
these tracts, I thought it was worth my while to put myself under their
protection.

Shekh Ammer is not one, but a collection of villages, composed of
miserable huts, containing, at this time, about a thousand effective
men: they possess few horse, and are mostly mounted on camels. These
were friends to Shekh Hamam, governor of Upper Egypt for the time,
and consequently to the Turkish government at Syene, as also to the
janissaries there at Deir and Ibrim. They were the barrier, or bulwark,
against the prodigious number of Arabs, the Bishareen[136], and others,
depending upon the kingdom of Sennaar.

Ibrahim, the son, who had seen me at Furshout and Badjoura, knew me as
soon as I arrived, and, after acquainting his father, came with about
a dozen of naked attendants, with lances in their hands to escort me.
I was scarce got into the door of the tent, before a great dinner
was brought after their custom; and, that being dispatched, it was a
thousand times repeated, how little they expected that I would have
thought or inquired about them.

We were introduced to their Shekh, who was sick, in a corner of a hut,
where he lay upon a carpet, with a cushion under his head. This chief
of the Ababdé, called Nimmer, _i. e. the Tiger_ (though his furious
qualities were at this time in great measure allayed by sickness) asked
me much about the state of Lower Egypt. I satisfied him as far as
possible, but recommended to him to confine his thoughts nearer home,
and not to be over anxious about these distant countries, as he himself
seemed, at that time, to be in a declining state of health.

Nimmer was a man about sixty years of age, exceedingly tormented with
the gravel, which was more extraordinary as he dwelt near the Nile;
for it is, universally, the disease with those who use water from
draw-wells, as in the desert. But he told me, that, for the first
twenty-seven years of his life, he never had seen the Nile, unless upon
some plundering party; that he had been constantly at war with the
people of the cultivated part of Egypt, and reduced them often to the
state of starving; but now that he was old, a friend to Shekh Hamam,
and was resident near the Nile, he drank of its water, and was little
better, for he was already a martyr to the disease. I had sent him soap
pills from Badjoura, which had done him a great deal of good, and now
gave him lime-water, and promised him, on my return, to shew his people
how to make it.

A very friendly conversation ensued, in which was repeated often, how
little they expected I would have visited them! As this implied two
things; the first, that I paid no regard to my promise when given; the
other, that I did not esteem them of consequence enough to give myself
the trouble, I thought it right to clear myself from these suspicions.

“Shekh Nimmer, said I, this frequent repetition that you thought I
would not keep my word is _grievous_ to me. I am a Christian, and have
lived now many years among you Arabs. Why did you imagine that I would
not keep my word, since it is a principle among all the Arabs I have
lived with, inviolably to keep theirs? When your son Ibrahim came to
me at Badjoura, and told me the pain that you was in, night and day,
fear of God, and desire to do good, even to them I had never seen, made
me give you those medicines that have eased you. After this proof of
my humanity, what was there extraordinary in my coming to see you in
the way? I knew you not before; but my religion teaches me to do good
to all men, even to enemies, without reward, or without considering
whether I ever should see them again.”

“Now, after the drugs I sent you by Ibrahim, tell me, and tell me
truly, upon the _faith_ of an _Arab_, would your people, if they met me
in the _desert_, do me any wrong, more than _now_, as I have eat and
drank with you to-day?”

The old man Nimmer, on this rose from his carpet, and sat upright, a
more ghastly and more horrid figure I never saw. “No, said he, Shekh,
cursed be those men of _my people_, or _others_, that ever shall lift
up their hand against you, either in the _Desert_ or the _Tell_, _i.
e._ the part of Egypt which is cultivated. As long as you are in this
country, or between this and Cosseir, my son shall serve you with heart
and hand; one night of pain that your medicines freed me from, would
not be repaid, if I was to follow you on foot to Messir, that is Cairo.”

I then thought it a proper time to enter into conversation about
penetrating into Abyssinia that way, and they discussed it among
themselves in a very friendly, and at the same time in a very sagacious
and sensible manner.

“We could carry you to _El Haimer_, (which I understood to be a well
in the desert, and which I afterwards was much better acquainted with
to my sorrow.) We could conduct you so far, says old Nimmer, under
God, without fear of harm, all that country was Christian once, and
_we_ Christians like yourself[137]. The _Saracens_ having nothing
in their power there, we could carry you safely to Suakem, but the
Bishary are men not to be trusted, and we could go no farther than to
land you among them, and they would put you to death, and laugh at you
all the time they were tormenting you[138]. Now, if you want to visit
Abyssinia, go by Cosseir and Jidda, there _you Christians_ command the
country.”

“I told him, I apprehended, the _Kennouss_, about the second cataract,
above Ibrim, were bad people. He said the Kennouss were, he believed,
bad enough in their hearts, but they were wretched slaves, and
servants, had no power in their hands, would not wrong any body that
was with his people; if they did, he would extirpate them in a day.”

“I told him, I was satisfied of the truth of what was said, and asked
him the best way to Cosseir. He said, the best way for me to go, was
from Kenné, or Cuft, and that he was carrying a quantity of wheat from
Upper Egypt, while Shekh Hamam was sending another cargo from his
country, both which would be delivered at Cosseir, and loaded there for
Jidda.”

“All that is right, Shekh, said I, but suppose your people meet us in
the desert, in going to Cosseir, or otherwise, how should we fare in
that case? Should we fight?” “I have told you Shekh already, says he,
Cursed be the man who lifts his hand against you, or even does not
defend and befriend you, to his own loss, were it Ibrahim my own son.”

I then told him I was bound to Cosseir, and that if I found myself
in any difficulty, I hoped, upon applying to his people, they would
protect me, and that he would give them the word, that I was _yagoube_,
a physician, seeking no harm, but doing good; bound by a vow, for a
certain time, to wander through deserts, from fear of God, and that
they should not have it in their power to do me harm.

The old man muttered something to his sons in a dialect I did not then
understand; it was that of the _Shepherds_ of Suakem. As that was the
first word he spoke, which I did not comprehend, I took no notice, but
mixed some lime-water in a large Venetian bottle that was given me when
at Cairo full of _liqueur_, and which would hold about four quarts; and
a little after I had done this the whole hut was filled with people.

There were _priests_ and _monks_ of their religion, and the heads of
families, so that the house could not contain half of them. The great
people among them came, and, after joining hands, repeated a kind
of [139]prayer, of about two minutes long, by which they declared
themselves, and their children, accursed, if ever they lifted their
hands against me in the _Tell_, or Field in the _desert_, or on the
river; or, in case that I, or mine should fly to them for refuge, if
they did not protect us at the risk of their lives, their families, and
their fortunes, or, as they emphatically expressed it, to the death of
the last male child among them.

Medicines and advice being given on my part, faith and protection
pledged on theirs, two bushels of wheat and seven sheep were carried
down to the boat, nor could we decline their kindness, as refusing a
present in that country (however it is understood in ours,) is just as
great an affront, as coming into the presence of a superior without a
present at all.

I told them, however, that I was going up among Turks who were
_obliged_ to maintain me, the consequence therefore will be, to save
their own, that they will take your sheep, and make my dinner of them;
you and I are _Arabs_, and know what _Turks_ are. They all muttered
curses between their teeth at the name of Turk, and we agreed they
should keep the sheep till I came back, provided they should be then at
liberty to add as many more.

This was all understood between us, and we parted perfectly content
with one another. But our Rais was very far from being satisfied,
having heard something of the seven sheep; and as we were to be next
day at Syene, where he knew we were to get meat enough, he reckoned
that they would have been his property. To stifle all cause of
discontent, however, I told him he was to take no notice of my visit to
Shekh Ammer, and that I would make him amends when I returned.




CHAP. VII.

    _Arrives at Syene--Goes to see the Cataract--Remarkable
    Tombs--the situation of Syene--The Aga proposes a Visit to Deir
    and Ibrím--The Author returns to Kenné._


We sailed on the 20th, with the wind favouring us, till about an hour
before sun-rise, and about nine o’clock came to an anchor on the south
end of the palm groves, and north end of the town of Syene, nearly
opposite to an island in which there is a small handsome Egyptian
temple, pretty entire. It is the temple of[140]_Cnuphis_, where
formerly was the Nilometer.

Adjoining to the palm trees was a very good comfortable house,
belonging to Hussein Schourbatchie, the man that used to be sent from
that place to Cairo, to receive the pay of the janissaries in garrison
at Syene, upon whom too I had credit for a very small sum.

The reasons of a credit in such a place are three: First, in case of
sickness, or purchase of any antiquities: Secondly, that you give the
people an idea (a very useful one) that you carry no money about with
you: Thirdly, that your money changes its value, and is not even
current beyond Esné.

Hussein was not at home, but was gone somewhere upon business, but I
had hopes to find him in the course of the day. Hospitality is never
refused, in these countries, upon the slightest pretence. Having
therefore letters to him, and hearing his house was empty, we sent our
people and baggage to it.

I was not well arrived before a janissary came, in long Turkish
cloaths, without arms, and a white wand in his hand, to tell me that
Syene was a garrison town, and that the Aga was at the castle ready to
give me audience.

I returned him for answer, that I was very sensible it was my first
duty, as a stranger, to wait upon the Aga in a _garrisoned_ town of
which he had the command, but, being bearer of the Grand Signior’s
Firman, having letters from the Bey of Cairo, and from the Port of
Janissaries _to him in particular_, and, at present being indisposed
and fatigued, I hoped he would indulge me till the arrival of my
landlord; in which interim I should take a little rest, change my
cloaths, and be more in the situation in which I would wish to pay my
respects to him.

I received immediately an answer by two janissaries, who insisted to
see me, and were accordingly introduced while I was lying down to
rest. They said that Mahomet Aga had received my message, that the
reason of sending to me was not either to hurry or disturb me; but the
earlier to know in what he could be of service to me; that he had _a
particular letter_ from the Bey of Cairo, in consequence of which, he
had dispatched orders to receive me at Esné, but as I had not waited on
the Cacheff there, he had not been apprised.

After giving coffee to these very civil messengers, and taking two
hours rest, our landlord the Schourbatchie arrived; and, about four
o’clock in the afternoon, we went to the Aga.

The fort is built of clay, with some small guns mounted on it; it is of
strength sufficient to keep people of the country in awe.

I found the Aga sitting in a small kiosk, or closet, upon a stone-bench
covered with carpets. As I was in no fear of him, I was resolved to
walk according to my privileges; and, as the meanest Turk would do
before the greatest man in England, I sat down upon a cushion below
him, after laying my hand on my breast, and saying in an audible voice,
with great marks of respect, however, _Salam alicum!_ to which he
answered, without any of the usual difficulty, _Alicum salam! Peace
be between us_ is the salutation; _There is peace between us_ is the
return.

After sitting down about two minutes, I again got up, and stood in the
middle of the room before him, saying, I am bearer of a hatésherriffe,
or royal mandate, to you, Mahomet Aga! and took the firman out of my
bosom, and presented it to him. Upon this he stood upright, and all
the rest of the people, before sitting with him likewise; he bowed his
head upon the carpet, then put the firman to his forehead, opened it,
and pretended to read it; but he knew well the contents, and I believe,
besides, he could neither read nor write any language. I then gave him
the other letters from Cairo, which he ordered his secretary to read in
his ear.

All this ceremony being finished, he called for a pipe, and coffee. I
refused the first, as never using it; but I drank a dish of coffee, and
told him, that I was bearer of a _confidential message_ from Ali Bey
of Cairo, and wished to deliver it to him without witnesses, whenever
he pleased. The room was accordingly cleared without delay, excepting
his secretary, who was also going away, when I pulled him back by the
cloaths, saying, “Stay, if you please, we shall need you to write the
answer.” We were no sooner left alone, than I told the Aga, that, being
a stranger, and not knowing the disposition of his people, or what
footing they were on together, and being desired to address myself only
to him by the Bey, and our mutual friends at Cairo, I wished to put it
in his power (as he pleased or not) to have witnesses of delivering
the small _present_ I had brought him from Cairo. The Aga seemed very
sensible of this delicacy; and particularly desired me to take no
notice to my landlord, the Schourbatchie, of any thing I had brought
him.

All this being over, and a _confidence_ established with _government_,
I sent his present by his own servant that night, under pretence
of desiring horses to go to the cataract next day. The message was
returned, that the horses were to be ready by six o’clock next morning.
On the 21st, the Aga sent me his own horse, with mules and asses for my
servants, to go to the cataract.

We passed out at the south gate of the town, into the first small sandy
plain. A very little to our left, there are a number of tomb-stones
with inscriptions in the Cufic character, which travellers erroneously
have called _unknown_ language, and letters, although it was the only
letter and language known to Mahomet, and the most learned of his sect
in the first ages.

The Cufic characters seem to be all written in capitals, which one
might learn to read much more easily than the modern Arabic, and they
more resemble the Samaritan. We read there--Abdullah el Hejazi el
Ansari--Mahomet Abdel Shems el Taiefy el Ansari. The first of these,
Abdullah el Hejazi, is Abdullah born in Arabia Petrea. The other is,
Mahomet the slave of the sun, born in Taief. Now, both of these are
called _Ansari_, which many writers, upon Arabian history, think,
means, _born in Medina_; because, when Mahomet fled from Mecca, the
night of the hegira, the people of Medina received him willingly,
and thenceforward got the name of [141]Ansari, or Helpers. But this
honourable name was extended afterwards to all those who fought under
Mahomet in his wars, and after, even to those who had been born in his
lifetime.

These of whose tombs we are now speaking, were of the army of Haled
Ibn el Waalid, whom Mahomet named, Saif Ullah, the ‘Sword of God,’ and
who, in the califat of Omar, took and destroyed Syene, after losing
great part of his army before it. It was afterwards rebuilt by the
_Shepherds_ of Beja, then Christians, and again taken in the time of
Salidan, and, with the rest of Egypt, _ever since_ hath belonged to
Cairo. It was conquered by, or rather surrendered to, Selim Emperor of
the Turks, in 1516, who planted two advanced posts (Deir and Ibrim)
beyond the cataract in Nubia, with small garrisons of janissaries
likewise, where they continue to this day.

Their pay is issued from Cairo; sometimes they marry each others
daughters, rarely marry the women of the country, and the son, or
nephew, or nearest relation of each deceased, succeeds as janissary
in room of his father. They have lost their native language, and have
indeed nothing of the Turk in them, but a propensity to violence,
rapine, and injustice; to which they have joined the perfidy of
the Arab, which, as I have said, they sometimes inherit from their
mother. An Aga commands these troops in the castle. They have about
two hundred horsemen armed with firelocks; with which, by the help of
the Ababdé, encamped at Shekh Ammer, they keep the Bishareen, and all
these numerous tribes of Arabs, that inhabit the Desert of Sennaar, in
tolerable order.

The inhabitants, merchants, and common people of the town, are
commanded by a cacheff. There is neither butter nor milk at Syene (the
latter comes from Lower Egypt) the same may be said of fowls. Dates do
not ripen at Syene, those that are sold at Cairo come from Ibrim and
Dongola. There are good fish in the Nile, and they are easily caught,
especially at the cataract, or in broken water; there are only two
kinds of large ones which I have happened to see, the binny and the
boulti. The binny I have described in its proper place.

After passing the tomb-stones without the gate, we come to a
plain about five miles long, bordered on the left by a hill of no
considerable height, and sandy like the plain, upon which are seen some
ruins, more modern than those Egyptian buildings we have described,
They seem indeed to be a mixture of all kinds and ages.

The distance from the gate of the town to Termissi, or Marada, the
small villages on the cataract, is exactly six English miles. After the
description already given of this cataract in some authors, a traveller
has reason to be surprised, when arrived on its banks, to find that
vessels sail up the cataract, and consequently the fall cannot be so
violent as to deprive people of their hearing[142].

The bed of the river, occupied by the water, was not then half a mile
broad. It is divided into a number of small channels, by large blocks
of granite, from thirty to forty feet high. The current, confined
for a long course between the rocky mountains of Nubia, tries to
expand itself with great violence. Finding, in every part before
it, opposition from the rocks of granite, and forced back by these,
it meets the opposite currents. The chafing of the water against
these huge obstacles, the meeting of the contrary currents one with
another, creates such a violent ebullition, and makes such a noise and
disturbed appearance, that it fills the mind with confusion rather than
with terror.

We saw the miserable Kennouss (who inhabit the banks of the river up
into Nubia, to above the second cataract) to procure their daily food,
lying behind rocks, with lines in their hands, and catching fish;
they did not seem to be either dexterous or successful in the sport.
They are not black, but of the darkest brown; are not woolly-headed,
but have hair. They are small, light, agile people, and seem to be
more than half-starved. I made a sign that I wanted to speak with
one of them; but seeing me surrounded with a number of horse and
fire-arms, they did not choose to trust themselves. I left my people
behind with my firelock, and went alone to see if I could engage them
in a conversation. At first they walked off; finding I persisted in
following them, they ran at full speed, and hid themselves among the
rocks.

Pliny[143] says, that, in his time, the city of Syene was situated
so directly under the tropic of Cancer, that there was a well, into
which the sun shone so perpendicular, that it was enlightened by its
rays down to the bottom. Strabo[144] had said the same. The ignorance,
or negligence, in the Geodesique measure in this observation, is
extraordinary; Egypt had been measured yearly, from early ages, and
the distance between Syene and Alexandria should have been known to an
ell. From this inaccuracy, I do very much suspect the other measure
Eratosthenes is said to have made, by which he fixed the sun’s parallax
at 10 seconds and a half, was not really made by him, but was some old
Chaldaic, or Egyptian observation, made by more instructed astronomers
which he had fallen upon.

The Arabs call it Assouan, which they say signifies _enlightened_;
in allusion, I suppose, to the circumstance of the well, enlightened
within by the sun’s being stationary over it in June; in the language
of Beja its name signifies a circle, or portion of a circle.

Syene, among other things, is famous for the first attempt made by
Greek astronomers to ascertain the measure of the circumference of the
earth. Eratosthenes, born at Cyrene about 276 years before Christ,
was invited from Athens to Alexandria by Ptolemy Evergetes, who made
him keeper of the Royal Library in that city. In this experiment two
positions were assumed, that Alexandria and Syene were exactly 5000
stades distant from each other, and that they were precisely under the
same meridian. Again, it was verified by the experiment of the well,
that, in the summer solstice at mid-day, when the sun was in the tropic
of Cancer, in its greatest northern declination, the well[145] at that
instant was totally and equally illuminated; and that no style, or
gnomon, erected on a perfect plane, did cast, or project, any manner of
shadow for 150 stades round, from which it was justly concluded, that
the sun, on that day, was so exactly vertical to Syene, that the center
of its disk immediately corresponded to the center of the bottom of
the well. These preliminaries being fixed, Eratosthenes set about his
observation thus:--

On the day of the summer solstice, at the moment the sun was stationary
in the meridian of Syene, he placed a style perpendicularly in the
bottom of a half-concave sphere, which he exposed in open air to the
sun at Alexandria. Now, if that style had cast no shade at Alexandria,
it would have been precisely in the same circumstance with a style in
the well in Syene; and the reason of its not casting the shade would
have been, that the sun was directly vertical to it. But he found,
on the contrary, this style at Alexandria did cast a shadow; and by
measuring the distance of the top of this shadow from the foot of the
style, he found, that, when the sun cast no shadow at Syene, by being
in the zenith, at Alexandria he projected a shadow; which shewed he
was distant from the vertical point, or zenith, 7⅕°=7° 12´, which was
1/50th of the circumference of the whole heavens, or of a great circle.

This being settled, the conclusion was, that Alexandria and Syene must
be distant from each other by the 50th part of the circumference of the
whole earth.

Now 5000 stades was the distance already assumed between Alexandria
and the well of Syene; and all that was to be done was to repeat 5000
stades fifty times, or multiply 5000 stades by 50, and the answer was
250,000 stades, which was the total of the earth’s circumference. This,
admitting the French contents of the Egyptian stadium to be just, will
amount to 11,403 leagues for the circumference of the earth sought;
and as our present account fixes it to be 9000, the error will be 2403
leagues in excess, or more than one-fourth of the whole sum required.

This observation surely therefore is not worth recording, unless to
shew the insufficiency or imperfection of the method; it cannot deserve
the encomiums[146] that have been bestowed upon it, if justice has
been done to Eratosthenes’ geodesique measures, which I do not, by any
manner of means, warrant to be the case, because the measure of his
arch of the meridian seems to have been conducted with a much greater
degree of success and precision than that of his base.

On the 22d, 23d, and 24th of January, being at Syene, in a house
immediately east of the small island in the Nile (where the temple of
Cnuphis is still standing, very little injured, and which [147]Strabo,
who was himself there, says was in the ancient town, and near the well
built for the observation of the solstice) with a three-foot brass
quadrant, made by Langlois, and described by [148]Monsieur de la Lande,
by a mean of three observations of the sun in the meridian, I concluded
the latitude of Syene to be 24° 0´ 45´´ north.

And, as the latitude of Alexandria, by a medium of many observations
made by the French academicians, and more recently by Mr Niebuhr and
myself, is beyond possibility of contradiction 31° 11´ 33´´, the arch
of the meridian contained between Syene and Alexandria, must be 7°
10´ 48´´, or 1´ 12´´ less than Eratosthenes made it. And this is a
wonderful precision, if we consider the imperfection of his instrument,
in the probable shortness of his radius, and difficulty (almost
insurmountable) in distinguishing the division of the penumbra.

There certainly is one error very apparent, in measuring the base
betwixt Syene and Alexandria; that is, they were not (as supposed)
under the same meridian; for though, to my very great concern
afterwards, I had no opportunity of fixing the longitude at this first
visit to Syene, as I had done the latitude, yet on my return, in the
year 1772, from an eclipse of the first satellite of Jupiter, I found
its longitude to be 33° 30´; and the longitude of Alexandria, being 30°
16´ 7´´, there is 3° 14´ that Syene is to the eastward of the meridian
of Alexandria, or so far from their being under the same meridian as
supposed.

It is impossible to fix the time of the building of Syene; upon the
most critical examination of its hieroglyphics and proportions, I would
imagine it to have been founded some time after Thebes, but before
Dendera, Luxor, or Carnac.

It would be no less curious to know, whether the well, which
Eratosthenes made use of for one of the terms of the geodesique base,
and his arch of the meridian, between Alexandria and Syene, was
coeval with the building of that city, or whether it was made for the
experiment. I should be inclined to think the former was the case;
and the placing this city first, then the well under the tropic, were
with a view of ascertaining the length of the solar year. In short,
this point, so material to be settled, was the constant object of
attention of the first astronomers, and this was the use of the dial
of Osimandyas; this inquiry was the occasion of the number of obelisks
raised in every ancient city in Egypt. We cannot mistake this, if we
observe how anxiously they have varied the figure of the top, or point
of each obelisk; sometimes it is a very sharp one; sometimes a portion
of a circle, to try to get rid of the great impediment that perplexed
them, the penumbra.

The projection of the pavements, constantly to the northward, so
diligently levelled, and made into exact planes by large slabs of
granite, most artificially joined, have been so substantially secured,
that they might serve for the observation to this day; and it is
probable, the position of this city and the well were coeval, the
result of intention, and both the works of these first astronomers,
immediately after the building of Thebes. If this was the case, we may
conclude, that the fact of the sun illuminating the bottom of the well
in Eratosthenes’s time was a supposed one, from the uniform tradition,
that once it had been so, the periodical change of the quantity of the
angle, made by the equator and ecliptic, not being then known, and
therefore that the quantity of the celestial arch, comprehended between
Alexandria and Syene, might be as erroneous from another cause, as the
base had been by assuming a wrong distance on the earth, in place of
one exactly measured.

There is at Axum an obelisk erected by Ptolemy Evergetes, the very
prince who was patron to Eratosthenes, without hieroglyphics, directly
facing the south, with its top first cut into a narrow neck, then
spread out like a fan in a semicircular form, with a pavement curiously
levelled to receive the shade, and make the reparation of the true
shadow from the penumbra as distinct as possible.

This was probably intended for verifying the experiment of Eratosthenes
with a larger radius, for, by this obelisk, we must not imagine Ptolemy
intended to observe the obliquity of the ecliptic at Axum. Though
it was true, that Axum, by its situation, was a very proper place,
the sun passing over that city and obelisk twice a-year, yet it was
equally true, that, from another circumstance, which he might have been
acquainted with, at less expence of time than building the obelisk
would have cost him, that he himself could not make any use of the
sun’s being twice vertical to Axum; for the sun is vertical at Axum
about the 25th of April, and again about the 20th of August; and, at
both these seasons, the heaven is so overcast with clouds, and the rain
so continual, especially at mid-day, that it would be a wonder indeed,
if Ptolemy had once seen the sun during the months he staid there.

Though Syene, by its situation should be healthy, the general complaint
is a weakness and soreness in the eyes; and this not a temporary one
only, but generally ending in blindness of one, or both eyes; you
scarce ever see a person in the street that sees with both eyes. They
say it is owing to the hot wind from the desert; and this I apprehend
to be true, by the violent soreness and inflammation we were troubled
with in our return home, through the great Desert, to Syene.

We had now finished every thing we had to do at Syene, and prepared to
descend the Nile. After having been quiet, and well used so long, we
did not expect any altercation at parting; we thought we had contented
every body, and we were perfectly content with them. But, unluckily for
us, our landlord, the Schourbatchie, upon whom I had my credit, and
who had distinguished himself by being very serviceable and obliging to
us, happened to be the _proprietor_ of a boat, for which, at that time,
he had _little_ employment; nothing would satisfy him but my hiring
that boat, instead of returning in that which brought us up.

This could by no means be done, without breaking faith with our Rais,
Abou Cuffi, which I was resolved not to do on any account whatever, as
the man had behaved honestly and well in every respect. The janissaries
took the part of their brother against the stranger, and threatened to
cut Abou Cuffi to pieces, and throw him to the crocodiles.

On the other part, he was very far from being terrified. He told them
roundly, that he was a servant of Ali Bey, that, if they attempted to
take his fare from him, their pay should be stopped at Cairo, till
they surrendered the guilty person to do him justice. He laughed most
unaffectedly at the notion of cutting him to pieces; and declared,
that, if he was to complain of the usage he met when he went down to
Lower Egypt, there would not be a janissary from Syene who would not be
in much greater danger of crocodiles, than he.

I went in the evening to the Aga, and complained of my landlord’s
behaviour, I told him positively, but with great shew of respect, I
would rather go down the Nile upon a _raft_, than set my foot in any
other boat but the one that brought me up. I begged him to be cautious
how he proceeded, as it would be _my story_, and not _his_, that would
go to the Bey. This grave and resolute appearance had the effect. The
Schourbatchie was sent for, and reprimanded, as were all those that
sided with him; while privately, to calm all animosities against my
Rais, I promised him a piece of green cloth, which was his wish; and so
heartily were we reconciled, that, the next day, he made his servants
help Abou Cuffi to put our baggage on board the boat.

The Aga hinted to me, in conversation, that he wondered at my
departure, as he heard my intention was to go to Ibrim and Deir. I told
him, those garrisons had a bad name; that a Danish gentleman, some
years ago, going up thither, with orders from the government of Cairo,
was plundered, and very nearly assassinated, by Ibrahim, Cacheff of
Deir. He looked surprised, shook his head, and seemed not to give me
credit; but I persisted, in the terms of Mr Norden’s [149]Narrative;
and told him, the brother of the Aga of Syene was along with him at the
time. “Will any person, said he, tell me, that a man who is in my hands
once a month, who has not an ounce of bread but what I furnish him
from this garrison, and whose pay would be stopt (as your Rais truly
said) on the first complaint transmitted to Cairo, could assassinate
a man with Ali Bey’s orders, and my brother along with him? Why, what
do you think he is? I shall send a servant to the Cacheff of Deir
to-morrow, who shall bring him down by the beard, if he refuses to come
willingly.” I said, “Then times were very much changed for the better;
it was not always so, there was not always at Cairo a sovereign
like Ali Bey, nor at Syene a man of his prudence, and capacity in
commanding; but having no business at Deir and Ibrim, I should not risk
finding them in another humour, exercising other powers than those he
allowed them to have.”

The 26th we embarked at the north end of the town, in the very spot
where I again took boat above three years afterwards. We now no longer
enjoyed the advantage of our prodigious main-sail; not only our yards
were lowered, but our masts were taken out; and we floated down the
current, making the figure of a wreck. The current, pushing against one
of our sides, the wind directly contrary, pressing us on the other,
we went down _broad side foremost_; but so steadily, as scarce to be
sensible the vessel was in motion.

In the evening I stopt at Shekh Ammer, and saw my patient Nimmer, Shekh
of the Ababdé. I found him greatly better, and as thankful as ever; I
renewed my prescriptions, and he his offers of service.

I was visited, however, with a pretty smart degree of fever by hunting
crocodiles on the Nile as I went down, without any possibility of
getting near them.

On the 31st of January we arrived at Negadé, the fourth settlement of
the Franciscan friars in Upper Egypt, for the pretended mission of
Ethiopia. I found it to be in lat. 25° 53´ 30´´. It is a small neat
village, covered with palm-trees, and mostly inhabited by Cophts, none
of whom the friars have yet converted, nor ever will, unless by small
pensions, which they give to the poorest of them, to be decoy-ducks· to
the rest.

Opposite to Negadé, on the other side of the river about three miles,
is Cus, a large town, the Appollonis Civitas Parva of the ancients.
There are no antiquities at this place; but the caravan, which was to
carry the corn for Mecca, across the desert to Cosseir, was to assemble
there. I found they were not near ready; and that the Arabs Atouni had
threatened they would be in their way, and would not suffer them to
pass, at any rate, and that the guard commanded to escort them across
the desert, would come from Furshout, and therefore I should have early
warning.

It was the 2d of February I returned to Badjoura, and took up my
quarters in the house formerly assigned me, greatly to the joy of
Shekh Ismael, who, though he was in the main reconciled to his friend,
friar Christopher, had not yet forgot the wounding of the five men by
his miscalculating ramadan; and was not without fears that the same
inadvertence might, some day or other, be fatal to him, in his pleurisy
and asthma, or, what is still more likely, by the operation of the
tabange.

As I was now about to launch into that part of my expedition, in which
I was to have no further intercourse with Europe I set myself to work
to examine all my observations, and put my journal in such forwardness
by explanations, where needful, that the labours and pains I had
hitherto been at, might not be totally lost to the public, if I should
perish in the journey I had undertaken, which, every day, from all
information I could procure, appeared to be more and more desperate.

Having finished these, at least so far as to make them intelligible to
others, I conveyed them to my friends Messrs Julian and Rosa at Cairo,
to remain in their custody till I should return, or news come that I
was otherwise disposed of.




CHAP. VIII.

    _The Author sets out from Kenné--Crosses the Desert of the
    Thebaid--Visits the Marble Mountains--Arrives at Cosseir, on
    the Red Sea--Transactions there._


It was Thursday, the 16th of February 1769, we heard the caravan was
ready to set out from Kenné, the Cæne Emporium of antiquity. From Kenné
our road was first East, for half an hour, to the foot of the hills,
which here bound the cultivated land; then S. E. when, at 11 o’clock in
the forenoon, we passed a very dirty small village called Sheraffa. All
the way from Kenné, close on our left, were desert hills, on which not
the least verdure grew, but a few plants of a large species of Solanum,
called Burrumbuc.

At half past two we came to a well, called Bir Ambar, the well of
spices, and a dirty village of the same name, belonging to the Azaizy,
a poor inconsiderable tribe of Arabs. They live by letting out their
cattle for hire to the caravans that go to Cosseir, and attending
themselves, when necessary. It got its name, I suppose, from its having
formerly been a station of the caravans from the Red Sea, loaded with
this kind of merchandise from India. The houses of the Azaizy are of
a very particular construction, if they can be called houses. They
are all made of potter-clay, in one piece, in shape of a bee-hive; the
largest is not above ten feet high, and the greatest diameter six.

There are no vestiges here of any canal, mentioned to have been cut
between the Nile and the Red Sea. The cultivated land here is not above
half a mile in extent from the river, but the inundation of the Nile
reaches much higher, nor has it left behind it any appearance of soil.
After passing Bir Ambar, we pitched our tent about four o’clock at
Gabba[150], a short mile from Cuft, on the borders of the desert--here
we passed the night.

On the 17th, at eight o’clock in the morning, having mounted my
servants all on horseback, and taken the charge of our own camels,
(for there was a confusion in our caravan not to be described, and
our guards we knew were but a set of thieves) we advanced slowly into
the desert. There were about two hundred men on horseback, armed with
firelocks; all of them lions, if you believed their word or appearance;
but we were credibly informed, that fifty of the Arabs, at first sight,
would have made these heroes fly without any bloodshed.

I had not gone two miles before I was joined by the Howadat Arab, whom
I had brought with me in the boat from Cairo. He offered me his service
with great professions of gratitude, and told me, that he hoped I would
again take charge of his money, as I had before done from Cairo. It
was now for the first time he told me his name, which was Mahomet Abdel
Gin, “the Slave of the Devil, or the Spirit.” There is a large tribe
of that name, many of which come to Cairo from the kingdom of Sennaar;
but he had been born among the Howadat, opposite to Metrahenny, where I
found him.

Our road was all the way in an open plain, bounded by hillocks of sand,
and fine gravel, perfectly hard, and not perceptibly above the level
of the plain country of Egypt. About twelve miles distant there is a
ridge of mountains of no considerable height, perhaps the most barren
in the world. Between these our road lay through plains, never three
miles broad, but without trees, shrubs, or herbs. There are not even
the traces of any living creature, neither serpent nor lizard, antelope
nor ostrich, the usual inhabitants of the most dreary deserts. There is
no sort of water on the surface, brackish or sweet. Even the birds seem
to avoid the place as pestilential, not having seen one of any kind so
much as flying over. The sun was burning hot, and, upon rubbing two
sticks together, in half a minute they both took fire, and flamed; a
mark how near the country was reduced to a general conflagration!

At half past three, we pitched our tent near some draw-wells, which,
upon tasting, we found bitterer than soot. We had, indeed, other water
carried by the camels in skins. This well-water had only one needful
quality, it was cold, and therefore very comfortable for refreshing
us outwardly. This unpleasant station is called Legeta; here we were
obliged to pass the night, and all next day, to wait the arrival of
the caravans of Cus, Esné, and part of those of Kenné, and Ebanout.

While at the wells of Legeta, my Arab, Abdel Gin, came to me with his
money, which had increased now to nineteen sequins and a half. “What!
said I, Mahomet, are you never safe among your countrymen, neither, by
sea nor land?” “Oh, no, replied Mahomet; the difference, when we were
on board the boat, was, we had three thieves only; but, when _assembled
here_, we shall have above three thousand.--But I have an advice to
give you.”--“And my ears,” said I, “Mahomet, are always open to advice,
especially in strange countries.”--“These people,” continued Mahomet,
“are all afraid of the Atouni Arabs; and, when attacked, they will run
away, and leave you in the hands of these Atouni, who will carry off
your baggage. Therefore, as you have nothing to do with their corn, do
not kill any of the Atouni if they come, for that will be a bad affair,
but go aside, and let me manage. I will answer with my life, though all
the caravan should be stripped stark-naked, and you loaded with gold,
not one article belonging to you shall be touched.” I questioned him
very particularly about this intimation, as it was an affair of much
consequence, and I was so well satisfied, that I resolved to conform
strictly to it.

In the evening came twenty Turks from Caramania, which is that part of
Asia Minor immediately on the side of the Mediterranean opposite to the
coast of Egypt; all of them neatly and cleanly dressed like Turks, all
on camels, armed with swords, a pair of pistols at their girdle, and a
short neat gun; their arms were in very good order, with their flints
and ammunition stowed in cartridge-boxes, in a very soldier-like
manner. A few of these spoke Arabic, and my Greek servant, Michael,
interpreted for the rest. Having been informed, that the large tent
belonged to an Englishman, they came into it without ceremony. They
told me, that they were a number of neighbours and companions, who had
set out together to go to Mecca, to the Hadje; and not knowing the
language, or customs of the people, they had been but indifferently
used since they landed at Alexandria, particularly somewhere (as I
guessed) about Achmim; that one of the Owam, or swimming thieves,
had been on board of them in the night, and had carried off a small
portmanteau with about 200 sequins in gold; that, though a complaint
had been made to the Bey of Girgé, yet no satisfaction had been
obtained; and that now they had heard an Englishman was here, whom they
reckoned their _countryman_, they had come to propose, that we should
make a common cause to defend each other against all enemies.--What
they meaned by _countryman_ was this:--

There is in Asia Minor, somewhere between Anatolia and Caramania, a
district which they call Caz Dagli, corruptly Caz Dangli, and this the
Turks believe was the country from which the English first drew their
origin; and on this account they never fail to claim kindred with the
English wherever they meet, especially if they stand in need of their
assistance.

I told them the arrangement I had taken with the Arab. At first, they
thought it was too much confidence to place in him, but I convinced
them, that it was greatly diminishing our risk, and, let the worst come
to the worst, I was well satisfied that, armed as we were, on foot, we
were more than sufficient to beat the Atouni, after they had defeated
the clownish caravan of Egypt, from whose courage we certainly had
nothing to expect.

I cannot conceal the secret pleasure I had in finding the character of
my country so firmly established among nations so distant, enemies to
our religion, and strangers to our government. Turks from Mount Taurus,
and Arabs from the desert of Libya, thought themselves unsafe among
their own countrymen, but trusted their lives and their little fortunes
implicitly to the direction and word of an Englishman whom they had
never before seen.

These Turks seemed to be above the middling rank of people; each of
them had his little cloak bag very neatly packed up; and they gave
me to understand that there was money in it. These they placed in my
servants tent, and chained them all together, round the middle pillar
of it; for it was easy to see the Arabs of the caravan had those
packages in view, from the full moment of the Turk’s arrival.

We staid all the 18th at Legeta, waiting for the junction of the
caravans, and departed the 19th at six o’clock in the morning. Our
journey, all that day, was through a plain, never less than a mile
broad, and never broader than three; the hills, on our right and left,
were higher than the former, and of a brownish calcined colour, like
the stones on the sides of Mount Vesuvius, but without any herb or tree
upon them.

At half past ten, we passed a mountain of green and red marble, and
at twelve we entered a plain called Hamra, where we first observed
the sand red, with a purple cast, of the colour of porphyry, and this
is the signification of Hamra, the name of the valley. I dismounted
here, to examine of what the rocks were composed; and found, with the
greatest pleasure, that here began the quarries of porphyry, without
the mixture of any other stone; but it was imperfect, brittle, and
soft. I had not been engaged in this pursuit an hour, before we
were alarmed with a report that the Atouni had attacked the rear of
the caravan; we were at the head of it. The Turks and my servants
were all drawn together, at the foot of the mountain, and posted as
advantageously as possible. But it soon appeared that they were some
thieves only, who had attempted to steal some loads of corn from camels
that were weak, or fallen lame, perhaps in intelligence with those of
our own caravans.

All the rest of the afternoon, we saw mountains of a perfectly purple
colour, all of them porphyry; nor has Ptolemy[151] much erred in the
position of them. About four o’clock, we pitched our tent at a place
called Main el Mafarek. The colour of the valley El Hamra continued to
this station; and it was very singular to observe, that the ants, or
pismires, the only living creatures I had yet observed, were all of a
beautiful red colour like the sand.

The 20th, at six o’clock in the morning, we left Main el Mafarek,
and, at ten, came to the mouth of the defiles. At eleven we began to
descend, having had a very imperceptible ascent from Kenné all the way.

We were now indemnified for the sameness of our natural productions
yesterday; for, on each side of the plain, we found different sorts of
marble, twelve kinds of which I selected, and took with me.

At noon, we came to a plain planted with acacia-trees, at equal
distances; single trees, spreading broader than usual, as if on purpose
to proportion the refreshment they gave to the number of travellers who
stood in need of it. This is a station of the Atouni Arabs after rain.
From our leaving Legeta, we had no water that, nor the following day.

On the right-hand side of this plain we found porphyry and granite, of
very beautiful kinds. All the way, on both sides of the valley, this
day, the mountains were of porphyry, and a very few of stone.

At a quarter past four, we encamped at Koraim, a small plain, perfectly
barren, consisting of fine gravel, sand, and stones, with a few
acacia-trees, interspersed throughout.

The 21st, we departed early in the morning from Koraim, and, at ten
o’clock, we passed several defiles, perpetually alarmed by a report,
that the Arabs were approaching; none of whom we ever saw. We then
proceeded through several defiles, into a long plain that turns to the
east, then north-east, and north, so as to make a portion of a circle.
At the end of this plain we came to a mountain, the greatest part of
which was of the marble, _verde antico_, as it is called in Rome, but
by far the most beautiful of the kind I had ever seen.

Having passed this, we had mountains on both sides of us, but
particularly on our right. The only ones that I myself examined were
of a kind of granite, with reddish veins throughout, with triangular
and square black spots. These mountains continued to Mesag el Terfowey,
where we encamped at twelve o’clock; we were obliged to bring our water
from about five miles to the south-east. This water does not appear
to be from springs, it lies in cavities and grottos in the rock, of
which there are twelve in number, whether hollowed by nature or art, or
partly by both, is more than I can solve. Great and abundant rains fall
here in February. The clouds, breaking on the tops of these mountains,
in their way to Abyssinia, fill these cisterns with large supplies,
which the impending rocks secure from evaporation.

It was the first fresh water we tasted since we left the Nile; and
the only water of any kind since we left Legeta. But such had been
the foresight of our caravan, that very few resorted thither, having
all laid in abundant store from the Nile; and some of them a quantity
sufficient to serve them till their return. This was not our case. We
had water, it is true, from the Nile; but we never thought we could
have too much, as long as there was room in our water-skins to hold
more; I therefore went early with my camel-drivers, expecting to have
seen some antelopes, which every night come to drink from the well,
having no opportunity to do it throughout the day.

I had not concealed myself half an hour, above a narrow path leading
to the principal cave, before I saw, first one antelope walking very
stately alone; then four others, closely following him. Although I
was wholly hid as long as I lay still, he seemed to have discerned me
from the instant that I saw him. I should have thought it had been
the smell that had discovered me, had not I used the precaution of
carrying a piece of burnt turf along with me, and left, one with my
horse likewise; perhaps it was this unusual smell that terrified him.
Whatever was the cause, he advanced apparently in fear, and seemed
to be trusted with the care of the flock, as the others testified
no apprehension, but were rather sporting or fighting with each
other. Still he advanced slower, and with greater caution; but, being
perfectly within reach, I did not think proper any longer to risk
the whole from a desire to acquire a greater number. I shot him so
justly, that, giving one leap five or six feet high, he fell dead
upon his head. I fired at the others, retiring all in a crowd; killed
one likewise, and lamed another, who fled among the mountains, where
darkness protected him. We were perfectly content with our acquisition,
and the nature of the place did not prompt us to look after the
wounded. We continued at the well to assist our· companions who came in
want of water, a duty with which necessity binds us all to comply.

We returned near midnight with our game and our water. We found our
tents all lighted, which, at that time of night, was unusual. I
thought, however, it was on account of my absence, and to guide me the
surer home. We were however surprised, when, coming within a moderate
distance of our tent, we heard _the word_ called for; I answered
immediately, _Charlotte_; and, upon our arrival, we perceived the
Turks were parading round the tents in arms, and soon after our Howadat
Arab came to us, and with him a messenger from Sidi Hassan, desiring me
to come instantly to his tent, while my servants advised me first to
hear what they had to say to me in mine.

I soon, therefore, perceived that all was not well, and I returned my
compliments to Hassan, adding, that, if he had any thing to say to me
so late, he would do well to come, or send, as it was past my hour of
visiting in the desert, especially as I had not eat, and was tired with
having the charge of the water. I gave orders to my servants to put out
all the extraordinary lights, as that seemed to be a mark of fear; but
forbade any one to sleep, excepting those who had the charge of our
beasts, and had been fetching the water.

I found that, while our people had been asleep, two persons had got
into the tent and attempted to steal one of the portmanteaus; but, as
they were chained together, and the tent-pole in the middle, the noise
had awakened my servants, who had seized one of the men; and that the
Turks had intended instantly to have dispatched him with their knives,
and with great difficulty had been prevented by my servants, according
to my constant orders, for I wished to avoid all extremities, upon such
occasions, when possible. They had indeed leave to deal with their
sticks as freely as their prudence suggested to them; and they had
gone, in this case, fully beyond the ordinary limits of _discretion_,
especially Abdel Gin, who was the first to seize the robber. In short,
they had dealt so liberally with their sticks, that the thief was
only known to be living by his groans, and they had thrown him at a
small distance, for any person to own him that pleased. It appeared,
that he was a servant of Sidi Hassan, an Egyptian slave, or servant to
Shekh Hamam, who conducted or commanded the caravan, if there was any
_conduct_ or _command_ in it.

There were with me ten servants, all completely armed, twenty-five
Turks, who seemed worthy to be depended upon, and four janissaries, who
had joined us from Cairo, so that there were of us forty men perfectly
armed, besides attendants on the cattle. As we had people with us who
knew the wells, and also a friend who was acquainted with the Atouni,
nothing, even in a desert, could reasonably alarm us.

With great difficulty we pulled down an old acacia-tree, and procured
some old-dried camels dung, with which we roasted our two antelopes:
very ill-roasted they were; and execrable meat, though they had been
ever so well dressed, and had had the best sauce of Christendom.
However, we were in the desert, and every thing was acceptable. We had
some spirits, which finished our repast that night: it was exceedingly
cold, and we sat thick about the fire.

Five men with firelocks, and a number of Arabs with lances, having come
towards us, and being challenged by the centinel for not giving _the
word_, were then desired to stand, or they would be fired upon. They
all cried out, _Salam Alicum!_ and I intimated that any three of them
might come forward, but desired them to keep away the Arabs. Three of
them accordingly came, and then two more. They delivered a message
from Sidi Hassan, that my people had killed a man; they desired that
the murderer might be delivered to them, and that I should come to
his tent, and see justice done. “I told them, that none of my people,
however provoked, would put a man to death in my absence, unless
in defence of their own lives; that, if I had been there, I should
certainly have ordered them to fire upon a thief catched in the act of
stealing within my tent; but, since he was dead, I was satisfied as to
him, only expected that Sidi Hassan would give me up his companion,
who had fled; that, as it was near morning, I should meet him when the
caravan decamped, and hear what he had to say in his defence. In the
mean time I forbade any person to come near my tent, or quarters, on
any pretence whatever, till-day light.” Away they went murmuring, but
what they said I did not understand. We heard no more of them, and none
of us slept. All of us, however, repeated our vows of standing by each
other; and we since found, that we had stood in the way of a common
practice, of stripping these poor strangers, the Turks, who come every
year this road to Mecca.

At dawn of day, the caravan was all in motion. They had got
intelligence, that two days before, about 300 Atouni had watered at
Terfowey; and, indeed, there were marks of great resort at the well,
where we filled the water. We had agreed not to load one of our camels,
but let the caravan go on before us, and meet the Atouni first; that
I only should go on horseback, about two hundred yards into the plain
from the tent, and all the rest follow me on foot with arms in their
hands.

Hassan, too, was mounted on horseback, with about a hundred of his
myrmidons, and a number of Arabs on foot. He sent me word that I was to
advance, with only two servants; but I returned for answer, that I had
no intention to advance at all; that if he had any business, he should
say so, and that I would meet him one to one, or three to six, just as
he pleased. He sent me again word, that he wanted to communicate the
intelligence he had of the Atouni, to put me on my guard. I returned
for answer, that I was already upon my guard, against all thieves, and
did not make any distinction, if people were thieves themselves, or
encouraged others to be so, or whether they were Atouni or Ababdé. He
then sent me a message, that it was a cold morning, and wished I would
give him a dish of coffee, and keep those strangers away. I therefore
desired one of my servants to bring the coffee-pot, and directing my
people to sit down, I rode up to him, and dismounted, as he did also,
when twenty or thirty of his vagabonds came, and sat down likewise. He
said he was exceedingly surprised, after sending to me last night, that
I did not come to him; that the whole camp was in murmur at beating the
man, and that it was all that he could do to hinder his soldiers from
falling upon us, and extirpating us all at once; that I did wrong to
protect those Turks, who carried always money to Mecca for merchandise,
and defrauded them of their dues.

My servant having just poured out a dish of coffee to give him, I
said, Stay, Sir, till we know whether we are in peace. Sidi Hassan, if
that is the way of levying dues upon the Turks, to send thieves to rob
them in my tent, you should advise me first of it, and then we should
have settled the business. With regard to your preventing people from
murdering me, it is a boast so ridiculous that I laugh at it. Those
pale-faced fellows who are about you muffled up in burnooses for fear
of cold in the morning, are they capable to look janissaries in the
face like mine? Speak lowly, and in Arabic, when you talk at this rate,
or perhaps it will not be in my power to return you the compliment you
did me last night, or hinder them from killing you on the spot. Were
ever such words spoken! said a man behind; tell me, master, are you a
king? If Sidi Hassan, answered I, is your master, and you speak to me
on this occasion, you are a wretch; get out of my sight; I swear I will
not drink a dish of coffee while you are here, and will mount my horse
directly.

I then rose, and the servant took back the coffee-pot; upon which
Hassan ordered his servant out of his presence, saying, “No, no; give
me the coffee if we are in peace;” and he drank it accordingly. Now,
says he, past is past; the Atouni are to meet us at the [152]mouth of
Beder; your people are better armed than mine, are Turks, and used to
fighting. I would wish you to go foremost, and we will take charge of
your camels, though my people have 4000 of their own, and they have
enough to do to take charge of the corn. “And I,” said I, “if I wanted
water or provision, would go to meet the Atouni, who would use me well.
Why, you don’t know to whom you are speaking, nor that the Atouni are
Arabs of Ali Bey, and that I am his man of confidence, going to the
Sherriffe of Mecca? The Atouni will not hurt _us_; but, as you say, you
are commander of the caravan, we have all sworn we will not fire a
shot, till we see you heartily engaged; and then we will do our best;
to hinder the Arabs from stealing the Sherriffe of Mecca’s corn, for
_his sake only_.” They all cried out El Fedtah! El Fedtah! so I said
the prayer of peace as a proxy; for none of the Turks would come near
him.

Opposite to where we were encamped is Terfowey, a large mountain,
partly green-marble, partly granite, with a red blush upon a grey
ground, with square oblong spots. About forty yards within the narrow
valley, which separates this mountain from its neighbour, we saw a
part of the fust or shaft of a monstrous obelisk of marble, very
nearly square, broken at the end, and towards the top. It was nearly
thirty feet long, and nineteen feet in the face; about two feet of the
bottom were perfectly insulated, and one whole side separated from the
mountain. The gully had been widened and levelled, and the road made
quite up to underneath the block.

We saw likewise, throughout the plain, small pieces of jasper, having
green, white, and red spots, called in Italy, “Diaspo Sanguineo.” All
the mountains on both sides of the plain seemed to be of the same sort,
whether they really were so or not, I will not say, having had no time
to examine them.

The 22d, at half past one in the morning, we set out full of terror
about the Atouni. We continued in a direction nearly east, till
at three we came to the defiles; but it was so dark, that it was
impossible to discern of what the country on each side consisted. At
day-break, we found ourselves at the bottom of a mountain of granite,
bare like the former.

We saw quantities of small pieces of various sorts of granite, and
porphyry scattered over the plain, which had been carried down by a
torrent, probably from quarries of ancient ages; these were white,
mixed with black spots; red, with green veins, and black spots. After
this, all the mountains on the right hand were of red marble in
prodigious abundance, but of no great beauty. They continued, as the
granite did, for several miles along the road, while the opposite side
was all of dead-green, supposed serpentine marble.

It was one of the most extraordinary sights I ever saw. The former
mountains were of considerable height, without a tree, or shrub,
or blade of grass upon them; but these now before us had all the
appearance, the one of having been sprinkled over with Havannah, the
other with Brazil snuff. I wondered, that, as the red is nearest
the sea, and the ships going down the Abyssinian coast observe this
appearance within lat. 26°, writers have not imagined this was called
the _Red Sea_ upon that account, rather than for the many weak reasons
they have relied upon.

About eight o’clock we began to descend smartly, and, half an hour
after, entered into another defile like those before described, having
mountains of green marble on every side of us. At nine, on our left,
we saw the highest mountain we had yet passed. We found it, upon
examination, to be composed of serpentine marble; and, thro’ about
one-third of the thickness, ran a large vein of jasper, green, spotted
with red. Its exceeding hardness was such as not to yield to the blows
of a hammer; but the works of old times were more apparent in it, than
in any mountain we had seen. Ducts, or channels, for carrying water
transversely, were observed evidently to terminate in this quarry of
jasper: a proof that water was one of the means used in cutting these
hard stones.

About ten o’clock, descending very rapidly, with green marble and
jasper on each side of us, but no other green thing whatever, we had
the first prospect of the Red Sea, and, at a quarter past eleven, we
arrived at Cosseir. It has been a wonder with all travellers, and with
myself among the rest, where the ancients procured that prodigious
quantity of fine marble, with which all their buildings abound. That
wonder, however, among many others, now ceases, after having passed, in
four days, more granite, porphyry, marble, and jasper, than would build
Rome, Athens, Corinth, Syracuse, Memphis, Alexandria, and half a dozen
such cities. It seemed to be very visible, that those openings in the
hills, which I call Defiles, were not natural, but artificial; and that
whole mountains had been cut out at these places, to preserve a slope
towards the Nile as gentle as possible: this, I suppose, might be a
descent of about one foot in fifty at most; so that, from the mountains
to the Nile, those heavy carriages must have moved with as little
draught as possible, and, at the same time, been sufficiently impeded
by friction, so as not to run amain, or acquire an increased velocity,
against which, also, there must have been other provisions contrived.
As I made another excursion to these marble mountains from Cosseir,
I will, once for all, here set down what I observed concerning their
natural appearance.

The porphyry shews itself by a fine purple sand, without any gloss or
glitter on it, and is exceedingly agreeable to the eye. It is mixed
with the native white sand, and fixed gravel of the plains. Green
unvariegated marble, is generally seen in the same mountain with the
porphyry. Where the two veins meet, the marble is for some inches
brittle, but the porphyry of the same hardness as in other places.

The granite is covered with sand, and looks like stone of a dirty,
brown colour. But this is only the change and impression the sun and
weather have made upon it; for, upon breaking it, you see it is grey
granite, with black spots, with a reddish cast, or blush over it. This
red seems to fade and suffer from the outward air, but, upon working
or polishing the surface, this colour again appears. It is in greater
quantity than the porphyry, and nearer the Red Sea. Pompey’s pillar
seems to have been from this quarry.

Next to the granite, but never, as I observed, joined with it in the
same mountain, is the red marble. It is covered with sand of the same
colour, and looks as if the whole mountain were spread over with brick
dust. There is also a red marble with white veins, which I have often
seen at Rome, but not in principal subjects, I have also seen it in
Britain. The common green (called Serpentine) looks as if covered over
with Brazil snuff. Joined with this green, I saw two samples of that
beautiful marble they call Isabella; one of them with a yellowish
cast, which we call Quaker-colour; the other with a blueish, which is
commonly termed Dove-colour. These two seem to divide the respective
mountains with the serpentine. In this green, likewise, it was we saw
the vein of jasper; but whether it was absolutely the same with this
which is the bloody jasper, or blood-stone, is what we had not time to
settle.

I should first have made mention of the verde antico, the dark green
with white irregular spots, because it is of the greatest value, and
nearest the Nile. This is produced in the mountains of the plain green,
or serpentine, as is the jasper, and is not discoverable by the dust,
or any particular colour upon it. First, there is a blue fleaky stone,
exceedingly even and smooth in the grain, solid, and without sparks or
colour. When broken, it is something lighter than a slate, and more
beautiful than most marble; it is like the lava of volcanoes, when
polished. After lifting this, we come to the beds of verde antico;
and here the quarrying is very obvious, for it has been uncovered in
patches, not above twenty feet square. Then, in another part, the green
stone has been removed, and another pit of it wrought.

I saw, in several places in the plain, small pieces of African marble
scattered about, but no rocks or mountains of it. I suppose it is found
in the heart of some other coloured marble, and in strata, like the
jasper and verde antico, and, I suspect, in the mountains of Isabella
marble, especially of the yellowest sort of it, but this is mere
conjecture. This prodigious store of marble is placed upon a ridge,
whence there is a descent to the east or west, either to the Nile or
Red Sea. The level ground and hard-fixed gravel are proper for the
heaviest carriages, and will easily and smoothly convey any weight
whatever to its place of embarkation on the Nile; so that another
wonder ceased, how the ancients transported those vast blocks to
Thebes, Memphis, and Alexandria.

Cosseir is a small mud-walled village, built upon the shore, among
hillocks of floating sand. It is defended by a square fort of hewn
stone, with square towers in the angles, which have in them three small
cannon of iron, and one of brass, all in very bad condition; of no
other use but to terrify the Arabs, and hinder them from plundering the
town when full of corn, going to Mecca in time of famine. The walls are
not high; nor was it necessary, if the great guns were in order. But
as this is not the case, the ramparts are heightened by clay, or by
mud-walls, to screen the soldiers from the fire-arms of the Arabs, that
might otherwise command them from the sandy hills in the neighbourhood.

There are several wells of brackish water on the N. W. of the castle,
which, for experiment’s sake, I made drinkable, by filtering it through
sand; but the water in use is brought from Terfowey, a good day’s
journey off.

The port, if we may call it so, is on the south-east of the town. It
is nothing but a rock which runs out about four hundred yards into the
sea, and defends the vessels, which ride to the west of it, from the
north and north-east winds, as the houses of the town cover them from
the north-west.

There is a large inclosure with a high mud-wall, and, within, every
merchant has a shop or magazine for his corn and merchandise: little of
this last is imported, unless coarse India goods, for the consumption
of Upper Egypt itself, since the trade to Dongola and Sennaar has been
interrupted.

I had orders from Shekh Hamam to lodge in the castle. But a few hours
before my arrival, Hussein Bey Abou Kersh landed from Mecca, and Jidda,
and he had taken up the apartments which were destined for me. He was
one of those Beys whom Ali Bey had defeated, and driven from Cairo. He
was called _Abou Kersh_, i. e. Father Belly, from being immoderately
fat; his adversity had brought him a little into shapes. My servants,
who had gone before, thinking that a friend of the Bey in power was
better than an enemy outlawed, and banished by him, had inadvertently
put some of my baggage into the castle just when this potentate was
taking possession. Swords were immediately drawn, death and destruction
threatened to my poor servants, who fled and hid themselves till I
arrived.

Upon their complaint, I told them they had acted improperly; that
a sovereign was a sovereign all the world over; and it was not my
business to make a difference, whether he was in power or not. I easily
procured a house, and sent a janissary of the four that had joined us
from Cairo, with my compliments to the Bey, desiring restitution of my
baggage, and that he would excuse the ignorance of my servants, who
did not know that he was at Cosseir; but only, having the firman of
the Grand Signior, and letters from the Bey and Port of janissaries of
Cairo, they presumed that I had a right to lodge there, if he had not
taken up the quarters.

It happened, that an intimate friend of mine, Mahomet Topal, captain
of one of the large Cairo ships, trading to Arabia, was a companion of
this Hussein Bey, and had carried him to see Captain Thornhill, and
some of our English captains at Jidda, who, as their very laudable
custom is, always shew such people some civilities. He questioned
the janissary about me, who told him I was English; that I had the
protection I had mentioned, and that, from kindness and charity, I
had furnished the stranger Turks with water, and provision at my own
expence, when crossing the desert. He professed himself exceedingly
ashamed at the behaviour of his servants, who had drawn their sabres
upon mine, and had cut my carpet and some cords. After which, of his
own accord, he ordered his kaya, or next in command, to remove from
the lodging he occupied, and instead of sending back my baggage by my
servant, he directed it to be carried into the apartment from which
the kaya had removed. This I absolutely refused, and sent word, I
understood he was to be there for a few days only; and as I might
stay for a longer time, I should only desire to succeed him after his
departure, in order to put my baggage in safety from the Arabs; but
for the present they were in no danger, as long _as he was in the
town_. I told him, I would pay my respects to him in the evening,
when the weather cooled. I did so, and, contrary to his expectations,
brought him a small present. Great intercourse of civility passed; my
fellow-travellers, the Turks, were all seated there, and he gave me,
repeatedly, very honourable testimonials of my charity, generosity, and
kindness to them.

These Turks, finding themselves in a situation to be heard, had not
omitted the opportunity of complaining to Hussein Bey of the attempt
of the Arab to rob them in the desert. The Bey asked me, If it
happened in my tent? I said, It was in that of my servants. “What is
the reason, says he, that, when you English people know so well what
good government is, you did not order his head to be struck off, when
you had him in your hands, before the door of the tent?”--“Sir,” said
I, “I know well what good government is; but being a stranger, and a
Christian, I have no sort of title to exercise the power of life and
death in this country; only in this one case, when a man attempts my
life, then I think I am warranted to defend myself, whatever may be
the consequence to him. My men took him in the fact, and they had my
orders, in such cases, to beat the offenders so that they should not
steal these two months again: They did so; that was punishment enough
in cold blood.”--“But my blood,” says he, “never cools with regard to
such rascals as these: Go (and he called one of his attendants) tell
Hassan, the head of the caravan, from me, that unless he hangs that
Arab before sun-rise to-morrow, I will carry him in irons to Furshout.”

Upon this message I took my leave; saying only, “Hussein Bey, take my
advice; procure a vessel and send these Turks over to Mecca before you
leave this town, or, be assured they will all be made responsible for
the death of this Arab; will be stripped naked, and perhaps murdered,
as soon as your back is turned.” It was all I could do to get them
protected thus far. This measure was already provided for, and the
poor Turks joyfully embarked next morning. The thief was not at all
molested: he was sent out of the way, under pretence that he had fled.

Cosseir has been mistaken by different authors. Mr Huet, Bishop of
Avranches, says, It is the Myos Hormos of antiquity; others, the
Philoteras Portus of Ptolemy. The fact is, that neither one nor other
is the port, both being considerably farther to the northward. Nay,
more, the present town of Cosseir was no ancient port at all; old
Cosseir was five or six miles to the northward. There can be no sort
of doubt, that it was the Portus Albus, or the White Harbour; for we
find the steep descent from Terfowey, and the marble mountains, called,
to this day, the Accaba, which, in Arabic, signifies a steep ascent or
descent, is placed here by Ptolemy with the same name, though in Greek
that name has no signification. Again, Ptolemy places [153]Aias Mons,
or the mountain Aias, just over Cosseir, and this mountain, by the same
name, is found there at this day. And, upon this mountain, and the one
next it, (both over the port) are two very remarkable chalky cliffs;
which, being conspicuous and seen far at sea, have given the name of
the White Port, which Cosseir bore in all antiquity.

I found, by many meridian altitudes of the sun, taken at the castle,
that Cosseir is in lat. 26° 7´ 51´´ north; and, by three observations
of Jupiter’s satellites, I found its longitude to be 34° 4´ 15´´ east
of the meridian of Greenwich.

The caravan from Syené arrived at this time, escorted by four hundred
Ababdé, all upon camels, each armed with two short javelins. The manner
of their riding was very whimsical; they had two small saddles on
each camel, and sat back to back, which might be, in their practice,
convenient enough; but I am sure, that, if they had been to fight with
us, every ball would have killed two of them, what _their advantage_
would have been, I know not.

The whole town was in terror at the influx of so many barbarians,
who knew no law whatever. They brought a thousand camels loaded with
wheat to transport to Mecca. Every body shut their doors, and I among
the rest, whilst the Bey sent to me to remove into the castle. But I
had no fear, and resolved to make an experiment, after hearing these
were people of _Nimmer_, whether I could trust them in the desert or
not. However, I sent all my instruments, my money, and the best of my
baggage, my medicines and memorandums, into a chamber in the castle:
after the door was locked, and the key brought to me, the Bey ordered
to nail up pieces of wood across it, and set a centinel to watch it all
day, and two in the night.

I was next morning down at the port looking for shells in the sea, when
a servant of mine came to me in apparent fright and hurry. He told me
the Ababdé had found out that Abdel Gin, my Arab, was an _Atouni, their
enemy_, and that they had either cut his throat, or were about to do
it; but, by the fury with which they seized him, in his sight, he could
not believe they would spare him a minute.

He very providently brought me a horse, upon which I mounted
immediately, seeing there was no time to be lost; and in the
fishing-dress, in which I was, with a red turban about my head, I
galloped as hard as the horse could carry me through the town. If I was
alarmed myself, I did not fail to alarm many others. They all thought
it was something behind, not any thing before me, that occasioned this
speed. I only told my servant at passing, to send two of my people on
horseback after me, and that the Bey would lend them horses.

I was not got above a mile into the sands, when I began to reflect on
the folly of the undertaking. I was going into the desert among a band
of savages, whose only trade was robbery and murder, where, in all
probability, I should be as ill treated as the man I was attempting to
save. But, seeing a crowd of people about half a mile before me, and
thinking they might be at that time murdering that poor, honest, and
simple fellow, all consideration of my own safety for the time vanished.

Upon my coming near them, six or eight of them surrounded me on
horseback, and began to gabble in their own language. I was not very
fond of my situation. It would have cost them nothing to have thrust a
lance through my back, and taken the horse away; and, after stripping
me, to have buried me in a hillock of sand, if they were so kind as
give themselves that last trouble. However, I picked up courage, and
putting on the best appearance I could, said to them steadily, without
trepidation, “What men are these before?” The answer, after some pause,
was, _they are men_; and they looked very queerly, as if they meant
to ask each other, What sort of a spark is this? “Are those before us
Ababdé, said I; are they from Shekh Ammer?” One of them nodded, and
grunted sullenly, rather than said “Aye, Ababdé from Shekh Ammer.”
“Then Salam Alicum! said I, we are brethren. How does the Nimmer? Who
commands you here? Where is Ibrahim?”

At the mention of Nimmer, and Ibrahim, their countenance changed, not
to any thing sweeter or gentler than before, but to a look of great
surprise. They had not returned my salutation, _peace be between us_;
but one of them asked me who I was?--“Tell me first, said I, who that
is you have before?”--“It is an Arab, our enemy, says he, guilty of
our blood.”--“He is, replied I, my servant. He is a Howadat Arab, his
tribe lives in peace at the gates of Cairo, in the same manner your’s
at Shekh Ammer does at those of Assouan.” “I ask you, Where is Ibrahim
your Shekh’s’ son?”--“Ibrahim, says he, is at our head, he commands us
here. But who are you?”--“Come with me, and shew me Ibrahim, said I,
and I will shew you who I am.”

I passed by these, and by another party of them. They had thrown a hair
rope about the neck of Abdel Gin, who was almost strangled already,
and cried out most miserably, for me not to leave him. I went directly
to the black tent which I saw had a long spear thrust up in the end
of it, and met at the door Ibrahim and his brother, and seven or
eight Ababdé. He did not recollect me, but I dismounted close to the
tent-door, and had scarce taken hold of the pillar of the tent, and
said _Fiarduc_[154], when Ibrahim, and his brother both knew me. “What!
said they, are you _Yagoube_ our physician, and our friend?”--“Let me
ask you, replied I, if you are the Ababdé of Shekh Ammer, that cursed
yourselves, and your children, if you ever lifted a hand against me, or
mine, in the desert, or in the plowed field: If you have repented of
that oath, or sworn falsely on purpose to deceive me, here I am come
to you in the _desert_.” “What is the matter, says Ibrahim, we are the
Ababdé of Shekh Ammer, there are no other, and we still say, Cursed
be he, whether our father, or children, that lifts his hand against
you, in the desert, or in the plowed field.” “Then, said I, you are all
accursed in the desert, and in the field, for a number of your people
are going to murder my servant. They took him indeed from my house _in
the town_, perhaps that is not included in your curse, as it is neither
in the _desert_ nor the _plowed field_.”--I was very angry. “Whew! says
Ibrahim with a kind of whistle, that is downright nonsense. Who are
those of my people that have authority to murder, and take prisoners
while I am here? Here one of you, get upon Yagoube’s horse, and bring
that man to me.” Then turning to me, he desired I would go into the
tent and sit down: “For God renounce me and mine, (says he), if it is
as you say, and one of them hath touched the hair of his head, if ever
_he_ drinks of the Nile again.”

A number of people who had seen me at Shekh Ammer, now came all around
me; some with complaints of sickness, some with compliments; more with
impertinent questions, that had no relation to either. At last came
in the culprit Abdel Gin, with forty or fifty of the Ababdé who had
gathered round him, but no rope about his neck. There began a violent
altercation between Ibrahim, and his men, in their own language. All
that I could guess was, that the men had the worst of it; for every one
present said something harsh to them, as disapproving the action.

I heard the name of Hassan Sidi Hassan often in the dispute. I began to
suspect something, and desired in Arabic to know what that Sidi Hassan
was, so often mentioned in discourse, and then the whole secret came
out.

The reader will remember, that this Arab, Abdel Gin, was the person
that seized the servant of Hassan, the Captain of the Caravan, when he
was attempting to steal the Turk’s portmanteau out of my tent; that my
people had beat him till he lay upon the ground like dead, and that
Hussein Bey, at the complaint of the Caramaniots, had ordered him to be
hanged. Now, in order to revenge this, Hassan had told the Ababdé that
Abdel Gin was an Atouni spy, that he had detected him in the Caravan,
and that he was come to learn the number of the Ababdé, in order to
bring his companions to surprise them. He did not say one word that he
was my servant, nor that I was at Cosseir; so the people thought they
had a very meritorious sacrifice to make, in the person of poor Abdel
Gin.

All passed now in kindness, fresh medicines were asked for the Nimmer,
great thankfulness, and professions, for what they had received, and
a prodigious quantity of meat on wooden platters very excellently
dressed, and most agreeably diluted with fresh water, from the coldest
rock of Terfowey, was set before me.

In the mean time, two of my servants, attended by three of Hussein Bey,
came in great anxiety to know what was the matter; and, as neither they
nor the Arabs chose much each others company, I sent them with a short
account of the whole to the Bey; and soon after took my leave, carrying
Abdel Gin along with me, who had been clothed by Ibrahim from head to
foot. We were accompanied by two Ababdé, in case of accident.

I cannot help here accusing myself of what, doubtless, may be well
reputed a very great sin. I was so enraged at the traitorous part
which Hassan had acted, that, at parting, I could not help saying to
Ibrahim, “Now, Shekh, I have done every thing you have desired, without
ever expecting fee, or reward; the only thing I now ask you, and it is
probably the last, is, that you revenge me upon this Hassan, who is
every day in your power.” Upon this, he gave me his hand, saying, “He
shall not die in his bed, or I shall never see old age.”

We now returned all in great spirits to Cosseir, and I observed that my
unexpected connection with the Ababdé had given me an influence in that
place, that put me above all fear of personal danger, especially as
they had seen in the desert, that the Atouni were my friends also, as
reclaiming this Arab shewed they really were.

The Bey insisted on my supping with him. At his desire I told him the
whole story, at which he seemed to be much surprised, saying, several
times, “Menullah! Menullah! Mucktoub!” It is God’s doing, it is God’s
doing, it was written so. And, when I had finished, he said to me, “I
will not leave this traitor with you to trouble you further; I will
oblige him, as it is his duty, to attend me to Furshout.” This he
accordingly did; and, to my very great surprise, though he might be
assured I had complained of him to Shekh Hamam, meeting me the next
day, when they were all ready to depart, and were drinking coffee with
the Bey, he gave me a slip of paper, and desired me, by that direction,
to buy him a sabre, which might be procured in Mecca. It seems it is
the manufacture of Persia, and, though I do not understand in the
least, the import of the terms, I give it to the reader that he may
know by what description he is to buy an excellent sabre. It is called
Suggaro Tabanne Haresanne Agemmi, _for Sidi Hassan of Furshout_.

Although pretty much used to stifle my resentment upon impertinences
of this kind, I could not, after the trick he had played me with
the Ababdé, carry it indifferently; I threw the billet before the
Bey, saying to Hassan, “A sword of that value would be useless and
misemployed in the hand of a coward and a traitor, such as surely
you must be sensible I know you to be.” He looked to the Bey as if
appealing to him, from the incivility of the observation; but the
Bey, without scruple, answered, “It is true, it is true what he says,
Hassan; if I was in Ali Bey’s place, when you dared use a stranger of
mine, or any stranger, as you have done him, I would plant you upon a
sharp stake in the market-place, till the boys in the town stoned you
to death; but he has complained of you in a letter, and I will be a
witness against you before Hamam, for your conduct is not that of a
_Mussulman_.”

While I was engaged with the Ababdé, a vessel was seen in distress in
the offing, and all the boats went out and towed her in. It was the
vessel in which the twenty-five Turks had embarked, which had been
heavily loaded. Nothing is so dreadful as the embarkation in that sea;
for the boats have no decks; the whole, from stern to stem, being
filled choak-full of wheat, the waste, that is the slope of the vessel,
between the height of her stem and stern, is filled up by one plank on
each side, which is all that is above the surface of the waves. Sacks,
tarpaulins, or mats, are strowed along the surface of the wheat upon
which all the passengers lye. On the least agitation of the waves, the
sea getting in upon the wheat, increases its weight so prodigiously,
that, falling below the level of the gunnel, the water rushes in
between the plank and that part of the vessel, and down it goes to the
bottom.

Though every day produces an accident of this kind from the same cause,
yet such is the desire of gaining money in that season, which offers
but once a-year, that every ship sails, loaded in the same manner
as the last which perished. This was just the case with the vessel
that had carried the Turks. Anxious to go away, they would not wait
the signs of the weather being rightly settled. _Ullah Kerim!_ they
cry, ‘God is great and is merciful’; and upon that they embark in a
navigation, where it needs indeed a miracle to save them.

The Turks all came ashore but one; the youngest, and, according to all
appearance, the best, had fallen over board, and perished. The Bey
received them, and with great charity entertained them all at his own
expence, but they were so terrified with the sea, as almost to resolve
never to make another attempt.

The Bey had brought with him from Jidda, a small, but tight vessel
belonging to [155]Sheher; which came from that country loaded with
frankincense, the commodity of that port. The Rais had business
down the Gulf at Tor, and he had spoken to the Bey, to recommend him
to me. I had no business at Tor, but as we had grown into a kind of
friendship, from frequent conversation, and as he was, according to
his own word, a great saint, like my last boatman, a character that I
thought I could perfectly manage, I proposed to the Bey, that he and I
should contribute something to make it worth this Captain’s pains, to
take our friends the Turks on board, and carry them to Yambo, that they
might not be deprived of that blessing which would result from their
visit to the Prophet’s tomb, and which they had toiled so much to earn.
I promised, in that case, to hire his vessel at so much a month upon
its return from Yambo; and, as I had then formed a resolution of making
a survey of the Red Sea to the Straits of Babelmandeb, the Rais was to
take his directions from me, till I pleased to dismiss him.

Nothing was more agreeable to the views of all parties than this. The
Bey promised to stay till they sailed, and I engaged to take him after
he returned; and as the captain, in quality of a saint, assured us,
that any rock that stood in our way in the voyage, would either jump
aside, or become soft like a spunge, as it had often happened before,
both the Turks and we were now assured of a voyage without danger.

All was settled to our mutual satisfaction, when, unluckily, the Turks
going down to their boat, met Sidi Hassan, whom, with reason, they
thought the author of all their misfortunes. The whole twenty-four drew
their swords, and, without seeking sabres from Persia, as he had done,
they would have cut Sidi Hassan in pieces, but, fortunately for him,
the Turks had great cloth trowsers, like Dutchmen, and they could not
run, whilst he ran very nimbly in his. Several pistols, however, were
fired, one of which shot him in the back part of the ear; on which he
fled for refuge to the Bey, and we never saw him more.




CHAP. IX.

    _Voyage to Jibbel Zumrud--Return to Cosseir--Sails from
    Cosseir--Jaffateen Islands--Arrive at Tor._


The Turks and the Bey departed, and with the Turks I dispatched my
Arab, Abdel Gin, not only giving him something myself, but recommending
him to my beneficent countrymen at Jidda, if he should go there.

I now took up my quarters in the castle, and as the Ababdé had told
strange stories about the Mountain of Emeralds, I determined, till
my captain should return, to make a voyage thither. There was no
possibility of knowing the distance by report; sometimes it was
twenty-five miles, sometimes it was fifty, sometimes it was a hundred,
and God knows how much more.

I chose a man who had been twice at these mountains of emeralds; with
the best boat then in the harbour, and on Tuesday the 14th of March,
we sailed, with the wind at North East, from the harbour of Cosseir,
about an hour before the dawn of day. We kept coasting along, with a
very moderate wind, much diverted with the red and green appearances
of the marble mountains upon the coast. Our vessel had one sail, like a
straw mattress, made of the leaves of a kind of palm-tree, which they
call _Doom_. It was fixed above, and drew up like a curtain, but did
not lower with a yard like a sail; so that upon stress of weather, if
the sail was furled, it was so top-heavy, that the ship must founder,
or the mast be carried away. But, by way of indemnification, the planks
of the vessel were sewed together, and there was not a nail, nor a
piece of iron, in the whole ship; so that, when you struck upon a rock,
seldom any damage ensued. For my own part, from an absolute detestation
of her whole construction, I insisted upon keeping close along shore,
at an easy sail.

The Continent, to the leeward of us, belonged to our friends the
Ababdé. There was great plenty of shell-fish to be picked up on every
shoal. I had loaded the vessel with four skins of fresh water, equal to
four hogsheads, with cords, and buoys fixed to the end of each of them,
so that, if we had been shipwrecked near land, as rubbing two slicks
together made us fire, I was not afraid of receiving succour, before we
were driven to the last extremity, provided we did not perish in the
sea, of which I was not very apprehensive.

On the 15th, about nine o’clock, I saw a large high rock, like a
pillar, rising out of the sea. At first, I took it for a part of the
Continent; but, as we advanced nearer it, the sun being very clear, and
the sea calm, I took an observation, and as our situation was lat. 25°
6´, and the island about a league distant, to the S. S. W. of us, I
concluded its latitude to be pretty exactly 25° 37´ North. This island
is about three miles from the shore, of an oval form, rising in the
middle. It seems to me to be of granite; and is called, in the language
of the country, Jibbel Siberget, which has been translated _the
Mountain of Emeralds_. Siberget, however, is a word in the language of
the _Shepherds_, who, I doubt, never in their lives saw an emerald; and
though the Arabic translation is _Jibbel Zumrud_, and that word has
been transferred to the emerald, a very fine stone, oftener seen since
the discovery of the new world, yet I very much doubt, that either
_Siberget_ or _Zumrud_ ever meant Emerald in old times. My reason is
this, that we found, both here and in the Continent, splinters, and
pieces of green pellucid chrystaline substance; yet, though green,
they were veiny, clouded, and not at all so hard as rock-crystal; a
mineral production certainly, but a little harder than glass, and
this, I apprehend, was what the _Shepherds_, or people of Beja, called
_Siberget_, the Latins _Smaragdus_, and the Moors _Zumrud_.

The 16th, at day-break in the morning, I took the Arab of Cosseir
with me, who knew the place. We landed on a point perfectly desert;
at first, sandy like Cosseir, afterwards, where the soil was fixed,
producing some few plants of rue or absinthium. We advanced above
three miles farther in a perfectly desert country, with only a few
acacia-trees scattered here and there, and came to the foot of the
mountains. I asked my guide the name of that place; he said it was
Saiel. They are never at a loss for a name, and those who do not
understand the language, always believe them. This would have been the
case in the present conjuncture. He knew not the name of the place, and
perhaps it had no name, but he called it _Saiel_, which signifies a
male acacia-tree; merely because he saw an acacia growing there; and,
with equal reason, he might have called every mile Saiel, from the Gulf
of Suez to the line.

We see this abuse in the old Itineraries, especially in the
[156]Antonine, from such a town to such a town, so many miles; and what
is the next station? (_el seggera_) ten miles. This el seggera[157],
the Latin readers take to be the name of a town, as Harduin, and all
commentators on the classics, have done. But so far from Seggera
signifying a town, it imports just the contrary, that there is no town
there, but the traveller must be obliged to take up his quarters under
a tree that night, for such is the meaning of Seggera as a station, and
so likewise of Saiel.

At the foot of the mountain, or about seven yards up from the base of
it, are five pits or shafts, none of them four feet in diameter, called
the _Zumrud Wells_, from which the ancients are said to have drawn
the emeralds. We were not provided with materials, and little endowed
with inclination, to descend into any one of them, where the air was
probably bad. I picked up the nozzels, and some fragments of lamps,
like those of which we find millions in Italy: and some worn fragments,
but very small ones, of that brittle green chrystal, which is the
siberget and bilur of Ethiopia, perhaps the zumrud, the smaragdus
described by Pliny, but by no means the emerald, known since the
discovery of the new world, whose first character absolutely defeats
its pretension, the true Peruvian emerald being equal in hardness to
the ruby.

Pliny[158] reckons up twelve kind of emeralds, and names them all by
the country where they are found. Many have thought the smaragdus to be
but a finer kind of jasper. Pomet assures us it is a mineral, formed in
iron, and says he had one to which iron-ore was sticking. If this was
the case, the finest emeralds should not come from Peru, where, as far
as ever has been yet discovered, there is no iron.

With regard to the Oriental emeralds, which they say come from the East
Indies, they are now sufficiently known, and the value of each stone
pretty well ascertained; but all our industry and avarice have not yet
discovered a mine of emeralds there, as far as I have heard. That there
were emeralds in the East Indies, upon the first discovery of it by the
Cape, there is no sort of doubt; that there came emeralds from that
quarter in the time of the Romans, seems to admit of as little; but few
antique emeralds have ever been seen; and so greatly in esteem, and
rare were they in those times, that it was made a crime for any artist
to engrave upon an emerald[159].

It is very natural to suppose, that some people of the East had a
communication and trade with the new world, before we attempted to
share it with them; and that the emeralds, they had brought from that
quarter, were those which came afterwards into Europe, and were called
the _Oriental_, till they were confounded with the [160]Peruvian, by
the quantity of that kind brought into the East Indies, by the Jews and
Moors, after the discovery of the new Continent.

But what invincibly proves, that the ancients and we are not agreed
as to the same stone, is, that [161]Theophrastus says, that in the
Egyptian commentaries he saw mention made of an emerald four cubits,
(six feet long,) which was sent as a present to one of their kings; and
in one of the temples of Jupiter in Egypt he saw an obelisk 60 feet
high, made of four emeralds: and Roderick of Toledo informs us, that,
when the Saracens took that city, Tarik, their chief, had a table of
an emerald 365 cubits, or 547½ feet long. The Moorish histories of the
invasion of Spain are full of such emeralds.

Having satisfied my curiosity as to these mountains, without having
seen a living creature, I returned to my boat, where I found all well,
and an excellent dinner of fish prepared. These were of three kinds,
called Bisser, Surrumbac, and Nhoude el Benaat. The first of these
seems to be of the Oyster-kind, but the shells are both equally curved
and hollow, and open with a hinge on the side like a mussel. It has a
large beard, like an oyster, which is not eatable, but which should be
stript off. We found some of these two feet long, but the largest I
believe ever seen composes the baptismal font in the church of Notre
Dame in Paris[162]. The second is the Concha Veneris, with large
projecting points like fingers. The third, called the Breasts of the
Virgin, is a beautiful shell, perfectly pyramidal, generally about four
inches in height, and beautifully variegated with mother-of-pearl, and
green. All these fishes have a peppery taste, but are not therefore
reckoned the less wholesome, and they are so much the more convenient,
that they carry that ingredient of spice along with them for sauce,
with which travellers, like me, very seldom burden themselves.

Besides a number of very fine shells, we picked up several branches
of coral, coralines, yusser[163], and many other articles of natural
history. We were abundantly provided with every thing; the weather was
fair; and we never doubted it was to continue, so we were in great
spirits, and only regreted that we had not, once for all, taken leave
of Cosseir, and stood over for Jidda.

In this disposition we sailed about three o’clock in the afternoon,
and the wind flattered us so much, that next day, the 17th, about
eleven o’clock, we found ourselves about two leagues a-stern of a
small island, known to the Pilot by the name of Jibbel Macouar. This
island is at least four miles from the shore, and is a high land, so
that it may be seen, I suppose, eight leagues at sea, but is generally
confounded with the Continent. I computed myself to be about 4´ of the
meridian distant when I made the observation, and take its latitude to
be about 24° 2´ on the centre of the island.

The land here, after running from Jibbel Siberget to Macouar, in a
direction nearly N. W. and S. E. turns round in shape of a large
promontory, and changes its direction to N. E. and S. W. and ends in a
small bay or inlet; so that, by fanciful people, it has been thought to
resemble the nose of a man, and is called by the Arabs, _Ras el Anf_,
the Cape of the Nose. The mountains, within land, are of a dusky burnt
colour; broken into points, as if intersected by torrents.

The coasting vessels from Masuah and Suakem which are bound to Jidda,
in the strength of the Summer monsoon, stand close in shore down the
coast of Abyssinia, where they find a gentle steady east wind blowing
all night, and a west wind very often during the day, if they are near
enough the shore, for which purpose their vessels are built.

Besides this, the violent North-East monsoon raking in the direction of
the Gulf, blows the water out of the Straits of Babelmandeb into the
Indian Ocean, where, being accumulated, it presses itself backwards;
and, unable to find way in the middle of the Channel, creeps up among
the shallows on each coast of the Red Sea. However long the voyage
from Masuah to Jibbel Macouar may seem, yet these gentle winds and
favourable currents, if I may so call those in the sea, soon ran us
down the length of that mountain.

A large vessel, however, does not dare to try this, whilst constantly
among shoals, and close on a lee-shore; but those sewed together, and
yielding without damage to the stress, slide over the banks of white
coral, and even sometimes the rocks. Arrived at this island, they set
their prow towards the opposite shore, and cross the Channel in one
night, to the coast of Arabia, being nearly before the wind. The track
of this extraordinary navigation is marked upon[164] the map, and it is
so well verified, that no ship-master need doubt it.

About three o’clock in the afternoon, with a favourable wind and fine
weather, we continued along the coast, with an easy sail. We saw no
appearance of any inhabitants; the mountains were broken and pointed,
as before taking the direction of the coast; advancing and receding as
the shore itself did. This coast is a very bold one, nor was there in
any of the islands we had seen, shoals or anchoring places, unless upon
the rock itself; so that, when we landed, we could run our boltsprit
home over the land.

This island, Jibbel Macouar, has breakers running off from it at all
points; but, though we hauled close to these, we had no soundings. We
then went betwixt it and the small island, that lies S. S. E. from it
about three miles, and tried for soundings to the leeward, but we had
none, although almost touching the land. About sun-set, I saw a small
sandy island, which we left about a league to the westward of us. It
had no shrubs, nor trees, nor height, that could distinguish it. My
design was to push on to the river Frat, which is represented in the
charts as very large and deep, coming from the Continent; though,
considering by its latitude that it is above the tropical rains, (for
it is laid down about lat. 21° 25´), I never did believe that any such
river existed.

In fact, we know no river, north of the sources of the Nile, that
does not fall into the Nile. Nay, I may say, that not one river, in
all Abyssinia, empties itself into the Red Sea. The tropical rains
are bounded, and finish, in lat. 16°, and there is no river, from the
mountains, that falls into the desert of Nubia; nor do we know of any
river which is tributary to the Nile, but what has its rise under the
tropical rains. It would be a very singular circumstance, then, that
the Frat should rise in one of the dryest places in the globe, that
it should be a river at least equal to the Nile; and should maintain
itself full in all seasons, which the Nile does not; last of all, in a
country where water is so scarce and precious, that it should not have
a town or settlement upon it, either ancient or modern, nor that it
should be resorted to by any encampment of Arabs, who might cross over
and traffic with Jidda, which place is immediately opposite.

On the 18th, at day-break, I was alarmed at seeing no land, as I had no
sort of confidence in the skill of my pilot, however sure I was of my
latitude. About an hour after sun-set, I observed a high rugged rock,
which the pilot told me, upon inquiry, was Jibbel, (viz. a _Rock_), and
this was all the satisfaction I could get. We bore down upon it with a
wind, scant enough; and, about four, we came to an anchor. As we had no
name for that island, and I did not know that any traveller had been
there before me, I used the privilege by giving it my own, in memory
of having been there. The south of this island seems to be high and
rocky, the north is low and ends in a tail, or sloping bank, but is
exceedingly steep to, and at the length of your bark any way from it,
you have no soundings.

All this morning since before day, our pilot had begged us to go no
farther. He said the wind had changed; that, by infallible signs he
had seen to the southward, he was confident (without any chance of
being mistaken) that in twenty-four hours we should have a storm,
which would put us in danger of shipwreck; that Frat, which I wanted
to see, was immediately opposite to Jidda, so that either a country,
or English boat would run me over in a night and a day, when I might
procure people who had connections in the country, so as to be under
no apprehension of any accident; but that, in the present track I was
going, every man that I should meet was my enemy. Although not very
susceptible of fear, my ears were never shut against reason, and to
what the pilot stated, I added in my own breast, that we might be blown
out to sea, and want both water and provision. We, therefore, dined
as quickly as possible, and encouraged one another all we could. A
little after six the wind came easterly, and changeable, with a thick
haze over the land. This cleared about nine in the evening, and one
of the finest and steadiest gales that ever blew, carried us swiftly
on, directly for Cosseir. The sky was full of dappled clouds, so that,
though I, several times, tried to catch a star in the meridian, I was
always frustrated. The wind became fresher, but still very fair.

The 19th, at day-break, we saw the land stretching all the way
northward, and, soon after, distinctly discerned Jibbel Siberget upon
our lee-bow. We had seen it indeed before, but had taken it for the
main-land.

After passing such an agreeable night, we could not be quiet, and
laughed at our pilot about his perfect knowledge of the weather. The
fellow shook his head, and said, he had been mistaken before now, and
was always glad when it happened so; but still we were not arrived at
Cosseir, though he hoped and believed we should get there in safety.
In a very little time the vane on the mast-head began to turn, first
north, then east, then south, and back again to all the points in the
compass; the sky was quite dark, with thick rain to the southward of
us; then followed a most violent clap of thunder, but no lightning;
and back again came the wind fair at south-east. We all looked
rather downcast at each other, and a general silence followed. This,
however, I saw availed us nothing, we were in the scrape, and were to
endeavour to get out of it the best way we could. The vessel went at
a prodigious rate. The sail that was made of mat happened to be new,
and, filled with a strong wind, weighed prodigiously. What made this
worse, was, the sails were placed a little forward. The first thing
I asked, was, if the pilot could not lower his main-sail? But that
we found impossible, the yard being fixed to the mast-head. The next
step was to reef it, by hauling it in part up like a curtain: this our
pilot desired us not to attempt; for it would endanger our foundering.
Notwithstanding which, I desired my servant to help me with the
haulyards; and to hold them in his hand, only giving them a turn round
the bench. This increasing the vessel’s weight above and before, as
she already had too much pressure, made her give two pitches, the one
after the other, so that I thought she was buried under the waves, and
a considerable deal of water came in upon us. I am fully satisfied, had
she not been in good order, very buoyant, and in her trim, she would
have gone to the bottom, as the wind continued to blow a hurricane.

I began now to throw off my upper coat and trowsers, that I might
endeavour to make shore, if the vessel should founder, whilst the
servants seemed to have given themselves up, and made no preparation.
The pilot kept in close by the land, to see if no bight, or inlet,
offered to bring up in; but we were going with such violence, that I
was satisfied we should overset if we attempted this. Every ten minutes
we ran over the white coral banks, which we broke in pieces with the
grating of a file, upon iron, and, what was the most terrible of all, a
large wave followed higher than our stern, curling over it, and seemed
to be the instrument destined by Providence to bury us in the abyss.

Our pilot began apparently to lose his understanding with fright. I
begged him to be steady, persuading him to take a glass of spirits,
and desired him not to dispute or doubt any thing that I should do or
order, for that I had seen much more terrible nights in the ocean; I
assured him, that all harm done to his vessel should be repaired when
we should get to Cosseir, or even a new one bought for him, if his own
was much damaged. He answered me nothing, but that _Mahomet was the
prophet of GOD_.--Let him prophecy, said I, as long as he pleases, but
what I order you is to keep steady to the helm; mind the vane on the
top of the mast, and steer straight before the wind, for I am resolved
to cut that main-sail to pieces, and prevent the mast from going
away, and your vessel from sinking to the bottom. I got no answer to
this which I could hear, the wind was so high, except something about
the mercy and the merit of Sidi Ali el Genowi. I now became violently
angry. “D--n Sidi Ali el Genowi, said I, you beast, cannot you give
me a rational answer? Stand to your helm, look at the vane; keep the
vessel straight before the wind, or, by the great G--d who sits in
heaven, (another kind of oath than by _Sidi Ali el Genowi_), I will
shoot you dead the first yaw the ship gives, or the first time that
you leave the steerage where you are standing.” He answered only,
Maloom, _i. e._ very well.--All this was sooner done than said; I
got the main-sail in my arms, and, with a large knife, cut it all to
shreds, which eased the vessel greatly, though we were still going at a
prodigious rate.

About two o’clock the wind seemed to fail, but, half an hour after,
was more violent than ever. At three, it fell calm. I then encouraged
my pilot, who had been very attentive, and, I believe, had pretty well
got through the whole list of saints in his calendar, and I assured him
that he should receive ample reparation for the loss of his main-sail.
We now saw distinctly the white cliffs of the two mountains above Old
Cosseir, and on the 19th, a little before sun set, we arrived safely at
the New.

We, afterwards, heard how much more fortunate we had been than some of
our fellow-sailors that same night; three of the vessels belonging to
Cosseir, loaded with wheat for Yambo, perished, with all on board of
them, in the gale; among these was the vessel that first had the Turks
on board. This account was brought by Sidi Ali el Meymoum el Shehrie,
which signifies ‘Ali, the ape or monkey, from Sheher.’ For though
he was a saint, yet being in figure liker to a monkey, they thought
it proper to distinguish him by that to which he bore the greatest
resemblance.

We were all heartily sick of Cosseir embarkations, but the vessel of
Sidi Ali el Meymoum, tho’ small, was tight and well-rigged; had sails
of canvas, and had navigated in the Indian Ocean; the Rais had four
stout men on board, apparently good sailors; he himself, though near
sixty, was a very active, vigorous little man, and to the full as good
a sailor as he was a saint. It was on the 5th of April, after having
made my last observation of longitude at Cosseir, that I embarked on
board this vessel, and sailed from that port. It was necessary to
conceal from some of my servants our intention of proceeding to the
bottom of the Gulf, least, finding themselves among Christians so near
Cairo, they might desert a voyage of which they were sick, before it
was well begun.

For the first two days we had hazy weather, with little wind. In the
evening, the wind fell calm. We saw a high land to the south-west of
us, very rugged and broken, which seemed parallel to the coast, and
higher in the middle than at either end. This, we conceived, was the
mountain that divides the coast of the Red Sea from the eastern part of
the Valley of Egypt, corresponding to Monfalout and Siout. We brought
to, in the night, behind a small low Cape, tho’ the wind was fair, our
Rais being afraid of the Jassateen Islands, which we knew were not far
a-head.

We caught a great quantity of fine fish this night with a line, some of
them weighing 14 pounds. The best were blue in the back, like a salmon,
but their belly red, and marked with blue round spots. They resembled a
salmon in shape, but the fish was white, and not so firm.

In the morning of the 6th we made the Jaffateen Islands. They are
four in number, joined by shoals and sunken rocks. They are crooked,
or bent, like half a bow, and are dangerous for ships sailing in the
night, because there seems to be a passage between them, to which, when
pilots are attending, they neglect two small dangerous sunk rocks, that
lie almost in the middle of the entrance, in deep water.

I understood, afterwards, from the Rais, that, had it not been from
some marks he saw of blowing weather, he would not have come in to the
Jaffateen Islands, but stood directly for Tor, running between the
island Sheduan, and a rock which is in the middle of the channel, after
you pass Ras Mahomet. But we lay so perfectly quiet, the whole night,
that we could not but be grateful to the Rais for his care, although we
had seen no apparent reason for it.

Next morning, the 7th, we left our very quiet birth in the bay, and
stood close, nearly south-east, along-side of the two southermost
Jaffateen Islands, our head upon the center of Sheduan, till we had
cleared the eastermost of those islands about three miles. We then
passed Sheduan, leaving it to the eastward about three leagues, and
keeping nearly a N. N. W. course, to range the west side of Jibbel
Zeit. This is a large desert island, or rock, that is about four miles
from the main.

The passage between them is practicable by small craft only, whose
planks are sewed together, and are not affected by a stroke upon
hard ground; for it is not for want of water that this navigation is
dangerous. All the west coast is very bold, and has more depth of water
than the east; but on this side there is no anchoring ground, nor
shoals. It is a rocky shore, and there is depth of water every where,
yet that part is full of sunken rocks; which, though not visible, are
near enough the surface to take up a large ship, whose destruction
thereupon becomes inevitable. This I presume arises from one cause.
The mountains on the side of Egypt and Abyssinia are all (as we have
stated) hard stone, Porphyry, Granite, Alabaster, Basaltes, and many
sorts of Marble. These are all therefore fixed, and even to the
northward of lat. 16°, where there is no rain, very small quantities
of dust or sand can ever be blown from them into the sea. On the
opposite, or Arabian side, the sea-coast of the Hejaz, and that of
the Tehama, are all moving sands; and the dry winter-monsoon from the
south-east blows a large quantity from the deserts, which is lodged
among the rocks on the Arabian side of the Gulf, and confined there by
the north-east or summer-monsoon, which is in a contrary direction, and
hinders them from coming over, or circulating towards the Egyptian side.

From this it happens, that the west, or Abyssinian side, is full of
deep water, interspersed with sunken rocks, unmasked, or uncovered
with sand, with which they would otherwise become islands. These are
naked and bare all round, and sharp like points of spears; while on the
east-side there are rocks, indeed, as in the other, but being between
the south-east monsoon, which drives the sand into its coast, and the
north-west monsoon which repels it, and keeps it in there, every rock
on the Arabian shore becomes an _Iland_, and every two or three islands
become a harbour.

Upon the ends of the principal of these harbours large heaps of stones
have been piled up, to serve as signals, or marks, how to enter; and it
is in these that the large vessels from Cairo to Jidda, equal in size
to our 74 gun ships, (but from the cisterns of mason-work built within
for holding water, I suppose double their weight) after navigating
their portion of the channel in the day, come safely and quietly to, at
four o’clock in the afternoon, and in these little harbours pass the
night, to sail into the channel again, next morning at sun-rise.

Therefore, though in the track of my voyage to Tor, I am seen running
from the west side of Jibbel Zeit a W. N. W. course (for I had no place
for a compass) into the harbour of Tor, I do not mean to do so bad a
service to humanity as to persuade large ships to follow my track.
There are two ways of instructing men usefully, in things absolutely
unknown to them. The first is, to teach them what they can do safely.
The next is, to teach them what they cannot do at all, or, warranted by
a pressing occasion, attempt with more or less danger, which should be
explained and placed before their eyes, for without this last no man
knows the extent of his own powers. With this view, I will venture,
without fear of contradiction, to say, that my course from Cosseir, or
even from Jibbel Siberget, to Tor, is impossible to a great ship. My
voyage, painful, full of care, and dangerous as it was, is not to be
accounted a surety for the lives of thousands. It may be regarded as a
foundation for surveys hereafter to be made by persons more capable,
and better protected; and in this case will, I hope, be found a
valuable fragment, because, whatever have been my conscientious fears
of running servants, who work for pay, into danger of losing their
lives by peril of the sea, yet I can safely say, that never did the
face of man, or fear of danger to myself, deter me from verifying with
my eyes, what my own hands have put upon paper.

In the days of the Ptolemies, and, as I shall shew, long before, the
west coast of the Red Sea, where the deepest water, and most dangerous
rocks are, was the track which the Indian and African ships chose, when
loaded with the richest merchandise that ever vessels since carried.
The Ptolemies built a number of large cities on this coast; nor do we
hear that ships were obliged to abandon that track, from the disasters
that befel them in the navigation. On the contrary, they avoided the
coast of Arabia; and one reason, among others, is plain why they
should;--they were loaded with the most valuable commodities, gold,
ivory, gums, and precious stones; room for stowage on board therefore
was very valuable.

Part of this trade, when at its greatest perfection, was carried on in
vessels with oars. We know from the prophet Ezekiel[165], 700 years
before Christ, or 300 after Solomon had finished his trade with Africa
and India, that they did not always make use of sails in the track of
the monsoons; and consequently a great number of men must have been
necessary for so tedious a voyage. A number of men being necessary, a
quantity of water was equally so; and this must have taken up a great
deal of stowage. Now, no where on the coast of Abyssinia could they
want water two days; and scarce any where, on the coast of Arabia,
could they be sure of it once in fifteen, and from this the western
coast was called _Ber el Ajam_[166], corruptly Azamia, _the country of
water_, in opposition to the eastern shore, called _Ber el Arab_, where
there was none.

A deliberate survey became absolutely necessary, and as in proportion
to the danger of the coast pilots became more skilful, when once they
had obtained more complete knowledge of the rocks and dangers, they
preferred the boldest shore, because they could stand on all night, and
provide themselves with water every day. Whereas, on the Arabian side,
they could not sail but half the day, would be obliged to lie to all
night, and to load themselves with water, equal to half their cargo.

I now shall undertake to point out to large ships, the way by which
they can safely enter the Gulf of Suez, so as that they may be
competent judges of their own course, in case of accident, without
implicitly surrendering themselves, and property, into the hands of
pilots.

In the first place, then, I am very confident, that, taking their
departure from Jibbel el Ourée, ships may safely stand on all night
mid-channel, until they are in the latitude of Yambo.

The Red Sea maybe divided into four parts, of which the Channel
occupies two, till about lat. 26°, or nearly that of Cosseir. On the
west side it is deep water, with many rocks, as I have already said.
On the east side, that quarter is occupied by islands, that is, sand
gathered about the rocks, the causes whereof I have before mentioned;
between which there are channels of very deep water, and harbours, that
protect the largest ships in any winds. But among these, from Mocha
down to Suez, you must sail with a pilot, and during part of the day
only.

To a person used to more civilized countries, it appears no great
hardship to sail with a pilot, if you can get one, and in the Red Sea
there are plenty; but these are creatures without any sort of science,
who decide upon a manœuvre in a moment, without forethought, or any
warning given. Such pilots often, in a large ship deeply loaded, with
every sail out which she can carry, in a very instant cry out to let go
your anchors, and bring you to, all standing, in the face of a rock,
or sand. Were not our seamen’s vigour, and celerity in execution,
infinitely beyond the skill and foresight of those pilots, I believe
very few ships, coming the inward passage among the islands, would ever
reach the port in safety.

If you are, however, going to Suez, without the consent of the
Sherriffe of Mecca, that is, not intending to sell your cargo at
Jidda, or pay your custom there, then you should take in your water
at Mocha; or, if any reason should hinder you from touching that
shore, a few hours will carry you to Azab, or Saba, on the Abyssinian
coast, whose latitude I found to be 13° 5´ north. It is not a port,
but a very tolerable road, where you have very safe riding, under the
shelter of a low desert island called Crab Island, with a few rocks
at the end of it. But it must be remembered, the people are _Galla_,
the most treacherous and villanous wretches upon the earth. They are
_Shepherds_, who sometimes are on the coast in great numbers, or in
the back of the hills that run close along the shore, or in miserable
villages composed of huts, that run nearly in an east and west
direction from Azab to Raheeta, the largest of all their villages. You
will there, at Azab, get plenty of water, sheep, and goats, as also
some myrrh and incense, if you are in the proper season, or will stay
for it.

I again repeat it, that no confidence is to be had in the people. Those
of Mocha, who even are absolutely necessary to them in their commercial
transactions, cannot trust them without surety or hostages. And it was
but a few years before I was there, the surgeon and mate of the Elgin
East-India man, with several other sailors, were cut off, going on
shore with a letter of safe conduct from their Shekh to purchase myrrh.
Those that were in the boat escaped, but most of them were wounded. A
ship, on its guard, does not fear banditti like these, and you will get
plenty of water and provision, though I am only speaking of it as a
station of necessity.

If you are not afraid of being known, there is a low black island
on the Arabian coast called Camaran, it is in lat. 15° 39´, and is
distinguished by a white house, or fortress, on the west end of it,
where you will procure excellent water, in greater plenty than at Azab;
but no provisions, or only such as are very bad. If you should not wish
to be seen, however, on the coast at all, among the chain of islands
that reaches almost across the Gulf from Loheia to Masuah, there is one
called Foosht, where there is good anchorage; it is laid down in my map
in lat. 15° 59´ 43´´ N. and long. 42° 27´ E. from actual observation
taken upon the island. There is here a quantity of excellent water,
with a saint or monk to take care of it, and keep the wells clean. This
poor creature was so terrified at seeing us come ashore with fire-arms,
that he lay down upon his face on the sand; nor would he rise, or lift
up his head, till the Rais had explained to me the cause of his fear,
and till, knowing I was not in any danger of surprise, I had sent my
guns on board.

From this to Yambo there is no safe watering place. Indeed if the river
Frat were to be found, there is no need of any other watering place
in the Gulf; but it is absolutely necessary to have a pilot on board
before you make Ras Mahomet; because, over the mountains of Auche, the
Elanitic Gulf, and the Cape itself, there is often a great haze, which
lasts for many days together, and many ships are constantly lost, by
mistaking the Eastern Bay, or Elanitic Gulf, for the entrance of the
Gulf of Suez; the former has a reef of rocks nearly across it.

After you have made Sheduan, a large island three leagues farther, in
a direction nearly north and by west, is a bare rock, which, according
to their usual carelessness and indifference, they are not at the
pains to call by any other name but _Jibbel_, the rock, island, or
mountain, in general. You should not come within three full leagues of
that rock, but leave it at a distance to the westward. You will then
see shoals, which form a pretty broad channel, where you have soundings
from fifteen to thirty fathoms. And again, standing on directly upon
Tor, you have two other oval sands with sunken rocks, in the channel,
between which you are to steer. All your danger is here in sight, for
you might go in the inside, or to the eastward, of the many small
islands you see toward the shore; and there are the anchoring places
of the Cairo vessels, which are marked with the black anchor in the
draught. This is the course best known and practised by pilots for
ships of all sizes. But by a draught of Mr Niebuhr, who went from Suez
with Mahomet Rais Tobal, his track with that large ship was through the
channels, till he arrived at the point, where Tor bore a little to the
northward of east of him.

Tor may be known at a distance by two hills that stand near the water
side, which, in clear weather, may be seen six leagues off. Just to
the south-east of these is the town and harbour, where there are
some palm-trees about the houses, the more remarkable, that they are
the first you see on the coast. There is no danger in going into Tor
harbour, the soundings in the way are clean and regular; and by giving
the beacon a small birth on the larboard hand, you may haul in a little
to the northward, and anchor in five or six fathom. The bottom of the
bay is not a mile from the beacon, and about the same distance from the
opposite shore. There is no sensible tide in the middle of the Gulf,
but, by the sides, it runs full two knots an hour. At springs, it is
high water at Tor nearly at twelve o’clock.

On the 9th we arrived at Tor, a small straggling village, with
a convent of Greek Monks, belonging to Mount Sinai. Don John de
Castro[167] took this town when it was walled, and fortified, soon
after the discovery of the Indies by the Portuguese; it has never since
been of any consideration. It serves now, only as a watering-place for
ships going to, and from Suez. From this we have a distinct view of the
points of the mountains Horeb and Sinai, which appear behind and above
the others, their tops being often covered with snow in winter.

There are three things, (now I am at the north end of the Arabian
Gulf,) of which the reader will expect some account, and I am heartily
sorry to say, that I fear I shall be obliged to disappoint him in all,
by the unsatisfactory relation I am forced to give.

The first is, Whether the Red Sea is not higher than the Mediterranean,
by several feet or inches? To this I answer, That the fact has been
supposed to be so by antiquity, and alledged as a reason why Ptolemy’s
canal was made from the bottom of the Heroopolitic Gulf, rather than
brought due north across the Isthmus of Suez; in which last case, it
was feared it would submerge a great part of Asia Minor. But who has
ever attempted to verify this by experiment? or who is capable of
settling the difference of levels, amounting, as supposed, to some feet
and inches, between two points 120 miles distant from each other, over
a desert that has no settled surface, but is changing its height every
day? Besides, since all seas are, in fact, but one, what is it that
hinders the Indian Ocean to flow to its level? What is it that keeps
the Indian Ocean up?

Till this last branch of the question is resolved, I shall take it for
granted that no such difference of level exists, whatever Ptolemy’s
engineers might have pretended to him; because, to suppose it fact, is
to suppose the violation of one very material law of nature.

The next thing I have to take notice of, for the satisfaction of my
reader, is, the way by which the children of Israel passed the Red Sea
at the time of their deliverance from the land of Egypt.

As scripture teaches us, that this passage, wherever it might be, was
under the influence of a miraculous power, no particular circumstance
of breadth, or depth, makes one place likelier than another. It is a
matter of mere curiosity, and can only promote an illustration of the
scripture, for which reason, I do not decline the consideration of it.

I shall suppose, that my reader has been sufficiently convinced, by
other authors, that the land of Goshen, where the Israelites dwelt in
Egypt, was that country lying east of the Nile, and not overflowed by
it, bounded by the mountains of the Thebaid on the south, by the Nile
and Mediterranean on the west and north, and the Red Sea and desert of
Arabia on the east. It was the Heliopolitan nome, its capital was _On_;
from predilection of the letter O, common to the Hebrews, they called
it Goshen; but its proper name was _Geshen_, the country of Grass, or
Pasturage; or of the _Shepherds_; in opposition to the rest of the
land which was sown, after having been overflowed by the Nile.

There were three ways by which the children of Israel, flying from
Pharaoh, could have entered Palestine. The first was by the sea-coast
by Gaza, Askelon, and Joppa. This was the plainest and nearest way;
and, therefore, fittest for people incumbered with kneading troughs,
dough, cattle, and children. The sea-coast was full of rich commercial
cities, the mid-land was cultivated and sown with grain. The eastern
part, nearest the mountains, was full of cattle and shepherds, as rich
a country, and more powerful than the cities themselves.

This narrow valley, between the mountains and the sea, ran all
along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, from Gaza northward,
comprehending the low part of Palestine and Syria. Now, here a small
number of men might have passed, under the laws of hospitality; nay,
they did constantly pass, it being the high road between Egypt, and
Tyre, and Sidon. But the case was different with a multitude, such as
six hundred thousand men having their cattle along with them. These
must have occupied the whole land of the Philistines, destroyed all
private property, and undoubtedly have occasioned some revolution; and
as they were not now intended to be put in possession of the land of
promise, the measure of the iniquity of the nations being not yet full,
God turned them aside from going that way, though the nearest, least
they “should see war[168],” that is, least the people should rise
against them, and destroy them.

There was another way which led south-west, upon Beersheba and Hebron,
in the middle, between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. This was
the direction in which Abraham, Lot, and Jacob, are supposed to have
reached Egypt. But there was neither food nor water there to sustain
the Israelites. When Abraham and Lot returned out of Egypt, they were
obliged to separate by consent, because Abraham said to his brother,
“The land will not bear us both[169].”

The third way was straight east into Arabia, pretty much the road by
which the Pilgrims go at this day to Mecca, and the caravans from Suez
to Cairo. In this track they would have gone round by the mountains of
Moab, east of the Dead Sea, and passed Jordan in the plain opposite
to Jericho, as they did forty years afterwards. But it is plain from
scripture, that God’s counsels were to make Pharaoh and his Egyptians
an example of his vengeance; and, as none of these roads led to the
sea, they did not answer the Divine intention.

About twelve leagues from the sea, there was a narrow road which turned
to the right, between the mountains, through a valley called _Badeab_,
where their course was nearly south-east; this valley ended in a pass,
between two considerable mountains, called _Gewoube_ on the south; and
Jibbel Attakah on the north, and opened into the low stripe of country
which runs all along the Red Sea; and the Israelites were ordered to
encamp at Pihahiroth, opposite to Baal-zephon, between Migdol and that
sea.

It will be necessary to explain these names. _Badeah_, Dr Shaw
interprets, _the Valley of the Miracle_, but this is forcing an
etymology, for there was yet no miracle wrought, nor was there
ever any in the valley. But _Badeah_, means _barren_, _bare_, and
_uninhabited_; such as we may imagine a valley between stony mountains,
a desert valley. _Jibbel Attakah_, he translates also, _the Mountain
of Deliverance_. But so far were the Israelites from being delivered
on their arrival at this mountain, that they were then in the greatest
distress and danger. _Attakah_, means, however, to _arrive_ or _come up
with_, either because there they arrived within sight of the Red Sea;
or, as I am rather inclined to think, this place took its name from
the arrival of Pharaoh, or his coming in sight of the Israelites, when
encamped between Migdol and the Red Sea.

Pihahiroth is the mouth of the valley, opening to the flat country
and the sea, as I have already said, such are called _Mouths_; in the
Arabic, _Fum_; as I have observed in my journey to Cosseir, where the
opening of the valley is called Fum el Beder, _the mouth of Beder_; Fum
el Terfowey, _the mouth of Terfowey_. Hhoreth, the flat country along
the Red Sea, is so called from _Hhor_, a narrow valley where torrents
run, occasioned by sudden irregular showers. Such we have already
described on the east side of the mountains, bordering upon that narrow
flat country along the Red Sea, where temporary showers fall in great
abundance, while none of them touch the west side of the mountains or
valley of Egypt. Pihahiroth then is the mouth of the valley Badeah;
which opens to Hhoreth, the narrow stripe of land where showers fall.

Baal-Zephon, the God of the watch-tower, was, probably, some idol’s
temple, which served for a signal-house upon the Cape which forms the
north entrance of the bay opposite to Jibbel Attakah, where there is
still a mosque, or saint’s tomb. It was probably a light-house, for
the direction of ships going to the bottom of the Gulf, to prevent
mistaking it for another foul bay, under the high land, where there is
also a tomb of a saint called Abou Derage.

The last rebuke God gave to Pharaoh, by slaying all the first-born,
seems to have made a strong impression upon the Egyptians. Scripture
says, that the people were now urgent with the Israelites to be gone,
for they said, “We be all dead men[170].” And we need not doubt,
it was in order to keep up in their hearts a motive of resentment,
strong enough to make them pursue the Israelites, that God caused
the Israelites to borrow, and take away the jewels of the Egyptians;
without some new cause of anger, the late terrible chastisement might
have deterred them. While, therefore, they journeyed eastward towards
the desert, the Egyptians had no motive to attack them, because they
went with permission there to sacrifice, and were on their return to
restore them their moveables. But when the Israelites were observed
turning to the south, among the mountains, they were then supposed
to flee without a view of returning, because they had left the way of
the desert; and therefore Pharaoh, that he might induce the Egyptians
to follow them, tells them that the Israelites were now entangled
among the mountains, and the wilderness behind them, which was really
the case, when they encamped at Pihahiroth, before, or south of
Baal-Zephon, between Migdol and the sea. Here, then, before Migdol, the
sea was divided, and they passed over dry shod to the wilderness of
Shur, which was immediately opposite to them; a space something less
than four leagues, and so easily accomplished in one night, without any
miraculous interposition.

Three days they were without water, which would bring them to Korondel,
where is a spring of brackish, or bitter water, to this day, which
probably were the _waters of Marah_[171].

The natives still call this part of the sea Bahar Kolzum, or the Sea
of Destruction; and just opposite to Pihahiroth is a bay, where the
North Cape is called Ras Musa, or the Cape of Moses, even now. These
are the reasons why I believe the passage of the Israelites to have
been in this direction. There is about fourteen fathom of water in the
channel, and about nine in the sides, and good anchorage every where;
the farthest side is a low sandy coast, and a very easy landing-place.
The draught of the bottom of the Gulf given by Doctor Pococke is very
erroneous, in every part of it.

It was proposed to Mr Niebuhr, when in Egypt, to inquire, upon the
spot, Whether there were not some ridges of rocks, where the water was
shallow, so that an army at particular times might pass over? Secondly,
Whether the Etesian winds, which blow strongly all Summer from the
north west, could not blow so violently against the sea, as to keep
it back on a heap, so that the Israelites might have passed without
a miracle? And a copy of these queries was left for me, to join my
inquiries likewise.

But I must confess, however learned the gentlemen were who proposed
these doubts, I did not think they merited any attention to solve them.
This passage is told us, by scripture, to be a miraculous one; and, if
so, we have nothing to do with natural causes. If we do not believe
Moses, we need not believe the transaction at all, seeing that it is
from his authority alone we derive it. If we believe in God that he
made the sea, we must believe he could divide it when he sees proper
reason, and of that he must be the only judge. It is no greater miracle
to divide the Red Sea, than to divide the river of Jordan.

If the Etesian wind blowing from the north-west in summer, could
heap up the sea as a wall, on the right, or to the south, of fifty
feet high, still the difficulty would remain, of building the wall
on the left hand, or to the north. Besides, water standing in that
position for a day, must have lost the nature of fluid. Whence came
that cohesion of particles, that hindered that wall to escape at the
sides? This is as great a miracle as that of Moses. If the Etesian
winds had done this once, they must have repeated it many a time before
and since, from the same causes. Yet, [172]Diodorus Siculus says,
the Troglodytes, the indigenous inhabitants of that very spot, had a
tradition from father to son, from their very earliest and remotest
ages, that once this division of the sea did happen there, and that
after leaving its bottom sometimes dry, the sea again came back, and
covered it with great fury. The words of this author are of the most
remarkable kind. We cannot think this heathen is writing in favour of
revelation. He knew not Moses, nor says a word about Pharaoh, and his
host; but records the miracle of the division of the sea, in words
nearly as strong as those of Moses, from the mouths of unbiassed,
undesigning Pagans.

Were all these difficulties surmounted, what could we do with the
pillar of fire? The answer is, We should not believe it. Why then
believe the passage at all? We have no authority for the one, but what
is for the other; it is altogether contrary to the ordinary nature of
things, and if not a miracle, it must be a fable.

The cause of the several names of the Red Sea, is a subject of more
liberal inquiry. I am of opinion, that it certainly derived its name
from Edom, long and early its powerful master, that word signifying
Red in Hebrew. It formerly went by the name of Sea of Edom, or Idumea;
since, by that of the Red Sea.

It has been observed, indeed, that not only the Arabian Gulf, but part
of the Indian Ocean[173], went by this name, though far distant from
Idumea. This is true, but when we consider, as we shall do in the
course of this history, that the masters of that sea were still the
Edomites, who went from the one sea directly in the same voyage to the
other, we shall not dispute the propriety of extending the name to part
of the Indian Ocean also. As for what fanciful people[174] have said of
any redness in the sea itself, or colour in the bottom, the reader may
assure himself all this is fiction, the Red Sea being in colour nothing
different from the Indian, or any other Ocean.

There is greater difficulty in assigning a reason for the Hebrew name,
Yam Suph; properly so called, say learned authors, from the quantity of
weeds in it. But I must confess, in contradiction to this, that I never
in my life, (and I have seen the whole extent of it) saw a weed of any
sort in it; and, indeed, upon the slightest consideration, it will
occur to any one, that a narrow gulf, under the immediate influence of
monsoons, blowing from contrary points six months each year, would have
too much agitation to produce such vegetables, seldom found, but in
stagnant waters, and seldomer, if ever, found in salt ones. My opinion
then is, that it is from the[175] large trees, or plants of white
coral, spread every where over the bottom of the Red Sea, perfectly in
imitation of plants on land, that the sea has obtained this name. If
not, I fairly confess I have not any other conjecture to make.

No sea, or shores, I believe, in the world, abound more in subjects
of Natural History than the Red Sea. I suppose I have drawings and
subjects of this kind, equal in bulk to the journal of the whole
voyage itself. But the vast expence in engraving, as well as other
considerations, will probably hinder for ever the perfection of this
work in this particular.




CHAP. X.

    _Sail from Tor--Pass the Elanitic Gulf--See Raddua--Arrive at
    Yambo--Incidents there--Arrive at Jidda._


Our Rais, having dispatched his business, was eager to depart; and,
accordingly, on the 11th of April, at day-break, we stood out of the
harbour of Tor. At first, we were becalmed in, at the point of the Bay
south of Tor town, but the wind freshening about eight o’clock, we
stood through the channels of the first four shoals, and then between a
smaller one. We made the mouth of a small Bay, formed by Cape Mahomet,
and a low sandy point to the eastward of it. Our vessel seemed to be a
capital one for sailing, and I did every thing in my power to keep our
Rais in good humour.

About half a mile from the sandy point, we struck upon a coral bank,
which, though it was not of any great consistence or solidity, did not
fail to make our mast nod. As I was looking out forward when the vessel
touched, and the Rais by me, I cried out in Arabic, “Get out of the way
you dog!” the Rais, thinking my discourse directed to him, seemed very
much surprised, and asked, “what I meant?” “Why did you not tell me,
said I, when I hired you, that all the rocks in the sea would get out
of the way of your vessel? This ill-mannered fellow here did not _know
his duty_; he was sleeping I suppose, and has given us a hearty jolt,
and I was abusing him for it, till you should chastise him some other
way.” He shook his head, and said, “Well! you do not believe, but God
knows the truth; well now where is the rock? Why he is gone.” However,
very prudently, he anchored soon afterwards, though we had received no
damage.

At night, by an observation of two stars in the meridian, I concluded
the latitude of Cape Mahomet to be 27° 54´, N. It must be understood of
the mountain, or high land, which forms the Cape, not the low point.
The ridge of rocks that run along behind Tor, bound that low sandy
country, called the Desert of Sin, to the eastward, and end in this
Cape, which is the high land observed at sea; but the lower part, or
southermost extreme of the Cape, runs about three leagues off from
the high land, and is so low, that it cannot be seen from deck above
three leagues. It was called, by the ancients, Pharan Promontorium;
not because there was a light-house[176] upon the end of it, (though
this may have perhaps been the case, and a very necessary and proper
situation it is) but from the Egyptian and Arabic word Farek[177],
which signifies to divide, as being the point, or high land that
divides the Gulf of Suez from the Elanitic Gulf.

I went ashore here to gather shells, and shot a small animal among the
rocks, called Daman Israel, or Israel’s Lamb; I do not know why, for
it has no resemblance to the sheep kind. I take it to be the saphan of
the Hebrew Scripture, which we translate by the coney. I have given
a drawing, and description of it, in its proper place[178]. I shot,
likewise, several dozens of gooto, the least beautiful of the kind I
had seen, being very small, and coloured like the back of a partridge,
but very indifferent food.

The 12th, we sailed from Cape Mahomet, just as the sun appeared. We
passed the island of Tyrone, in the mouth of the Elanitic Gulf, which
divides it near equally into two; or, rather the north-west side is
narrowest. The direction of the Gulf is nearly north and south. I judge
it to be about six leagues over. Many of the Cairo ships are lost in
mistaking the entry of the Elanitic for that of the Heroopolitic Gulf,
or Gulf of Suez; for, from the island of Tyrone, which is not above
two leagues from the Main, there runs a string of islands, which seem
to make a semicircular bar across the entry from the point, where a
ship, going with a south wind, would take its departure; and this
range of islands ends in a shoal with sunken rocks, which reaches near
five leagues from the Main. It is probable, that, upon these islands,
the fleet of Rehoboam perished, when sailing for the expedition of
Ophir[179].

I take Tyrone to be the island of Saspirene of Ptolemy, though this
geographer has erred a little, both in its latitude and longitude.

We passed the second of these islands, called Senasser, about three
leagues to the northward, steering with a fresh gale at south-east,
upon a triangular island that has three pointed eminences upon its
south-side. We passed another small island which has no name, about
the same distance as the former; and ranged along three black rocks,
the south-west of the island, called _Susange el Bahar_, or the
_Sea-Spunge_. As our vessel made some water, and the wind had been very
strong all the afternoon, the Rais wanted to bring up to the leeward of
this island, or between this, and a cape of land called _Ras Selah_;
but, not being able to find soundings here, he set sail again, doubled
the point, and came to anchor under the south cape of a fine bay, which
is a station of the Emir Hadje, called _Kalaat el Moilah_, the Castle,
or Station of Water.

We had sailed this day about twenty-one leagues; and, as we had very
fair and fine weather, and were under no sort of concern whatever, I
could not neglect attending to the disposition of these islands, in a
very splendid map lately published. They are carried too far into the
Gulf.

The 13th, the Rais having, in the night, remedied what was faulty in
his vessel, set sail about seven o’clock in the morning. We passed a
conical hill on the land, called Abou Jubbé, where is the sepulchre
of a saint of that name. The mountains here are at a considerable
distance; and nothing can be more desolate and bare than the coast. In
the afternoon, we came to an anchor at a place called Kella Clarega,
after having passed an island called Jibbel Numan, about a league from
the shore. By the side of this shoal we caught a quantity of good
fish, and a great number also very beautiful, and perfectly unknown,
but which, when roasted, shrank away to nothing except skin, and when
boiled, dissolved into a kind of blueish glue.

On the 14th, the wind was variable till near ten o’clock, after which
it became a little fair. At twelve it was as favourable as we could
wish; it blew however but faintly. We passed first by one island
surrounded by breakers, and then by three more, and anchored close
to the shore, at a place called Jibbel Shekh, or the Mountain of the
Saint. Here I resolved to take a walk on shore to stretch my limbs, and
see if I could procure any game, to afford us some variety of food. I
had my gun loaded with ball, when a vast flock of gooto got up before
me, not five hundred yards from the shore. As they lighted very near
me, I lay down among the bent grass, to draw the charge, and load with
small shot. While I was doing this, I saw two antelopes, which, by
their manner of walking and feeding, did not seem to be frightened.
I returned my balls into the gun, and resolved to be close among the
bent, till they should appear before me.

I had been quiet for some minutes, when I heard behind me something
like a person breathing, on which I turned about, and, not without
great surprise, and some little fear, saw a man, standing just over
me. I started up, while the man, who had a little stick only in his
hand, ran two or three steps backwards, and then stood. He was almost
perfectly naked: he had half a yard of coarse rag only wrapt round his
middle, and a crooked knife stuck in it, I asked him who he was? He
said he was an Arab, belonging to Shekh Abd el Macaber. I then desired
to know where his master was? He replied, he was at the hill a little
above, with camels that were going to Yambo. He then, in his turn,
asked who I was? I told him I was an Abyssinian slave of the Sherriffe
of Mecca, was going to Cairo by sea, but wished much to speak to his
master, if he would go and bring him. The savage went away with great
willingness, and he no sooner disappeared, than I set out as quickly
as possible to the boat, and we got her hauled out beyond the shoals,
where we passed the night. We saw afterwards distinctly about fifty
men, and three or four camels; the men made several signs to us, but
we were perfectly content with the distance that was between us, and
sought no more to kill antelopes in the neighbourhood of Sidi Abd el
Macaber.

I would not have it imagined, that my case was absolutely desperate,
even if I had been known as a Christian, and fallen into the hands
of these Arabs, of Arabia Deserta, or Arabia Petrea, supposed to be
the most barbarous people in the world, as indeed they probably are.
Hospitality, and attention to one’s word, seem in these countries
to be in proportion to the degree in which the people are savage. A
very easy method is known, and followed with constant success, by all
the Christians trading to the Red Sea from Suez to Jidda, to save
themselves if thrown on the coast of Arabia. Any man of consideration
from any tribe among the Arabs, comes to Cairo, gives his name and
designation to the Christian sailor, and receives a very small present,
which is repeated annually if he performs so often the voyage. And for
this the Arab promises the Christian his protection, should he ever be
so unfortunate as to be shipwrecked on their coast.

The Turks are very bad seamen, and lose many ships,· the greatest
part of the crew are therefore Christians; when a vessel strikes, or
is ashore, the Turks are all massacred if they cannot make their way
good by force; but the Christians present themselves to the Arab,
crying _Fiarduc_, which means, ‘we are under immediate protection.’
If they are asked, who is their Gaffeer, or Arab, with whom they are
in friendship? They answer, Mahomet Abdelcader is our Gaffeer, or any
other. If he is not there, you are told he is absent so many days
journey off, or any distance. This acquaintance or neighbour, then
helps you, to save what you have from the wreck, and one of them with
his lance draws a circle, large enough to hold you and yours. He then
sticks his lance in the sand, bids you abide within that circle, and
goes and brings your Gaffeer, with what camels you want, and this
Gaffeer is obliged, by rules known only to themselves, to carry you
for nothing, or very little, where-ever you go, and to furnish you
with provisions all the way. Within that circle you are as safe on
the desert coast of Arabia, as in a citadel; there is no example or
exception to the contrary that has ever yet been known. There are many
Arabs, who, from situation, near dangerous shoals or places, where
ships often perish (as between Ras Mahomet and Ras Selah,[180]Dar el
Hamra, and some others) have perhaps fifty or a hundred Christians,
who have been so protected: So that when this Arab marries a daughter,
he gives perhaps his revenue from four or five protected Christians, as
part of his daughter’s portion. I had, at that very time, a Gaffeer,
called Ibn Talil, an Arab of Harb tribe, and I should have been
detained perhaps three days till he came from near Medina, and carried
me (had I been shipwrecked) to Yambo, where I was going.

On the 15th we came to an anchor at El Har[181], where we saw high,
craggy, and broken mountains, called the Mountains of Ruddua. These
abound with springs of water; all sort of Arabian and African fruits
grow here in perfection, and every kind of vegetable that they will
take the pains to cultivate. It is the paradise of the people of Yambo;
those of any substance have country houses there; but, strange to tell,
they stay there but for a short time, and prefer the bare, dry, and
burning sands about Yambo, to one of the finest climates, and most
verdant pleasant countries, that exists in the world. The people of the
place have told me, that water freezes there in winter, and that there
are some of the inhabitants who have red hair, and blue eyes, a thing
scarcely ever seen but in the coldest mountains in the East.

The 16th, about ten o’clock, we passed a mosque, or Shekh’s tomb on the
main land, on our left hand, called Kubbet Yambo, and before eleven
we anchored in the mouth of the port in deep water. Yambo, corruptly
called Imbo, is an ancient city, now dwindled to a paultry village.
Ptolemy calls it Iambia Vicus, or the village Yambia; a proof it was
of no great importance in his time. But after the conquest of Egypt
under Sultan Selim, it became a valuable station, for supplying their
conquests in Arabia, with warlike stores, from Suez, and for the
importation of wheat from Egypt to their garrisons, and the holy places
of Mecca and Medina. On this account, a large castle was built there
by Sinan Basha; for the ancient Yambo of Ptolemy is not that which is
called so at this day. It is six miles farther south; and is called
Yambo el Nachel, or, ‘Yambo among the palm-trees,’ a great quantity of
ground being there covered with this sort of plantation.

Yambo, in the language of the country, signifies a fountain or spring,
a very copious one of excellent water being found there among the date
trees, and it is one of the stations of the Emir Hadje in going to, and
coming from Mecca. The advantage of the port, however, which the other
has not, and the protection of the castle, have carried trading vessels
to the modern Yambo, where there is no water, but what is brought from
pools dug on purpose to receive the rain when it falls.

There are two hundred janissaries in the castle, the descendents of
those brought thither by Sinan Basha; who have succeeded their fathers,
in the way I have observed they did at Syené, and, indeed, in all the
conquests in Arabia, and Egypt, The inhabitants of Yambo are deservedly
reckoned[182] the moist barbarous of any upon the Red Sea, and the
janissaries keep pace with them, in every kind of malice and violence.
We did not go ashore all that day, because we had heard a number of
shots, and had received intelligence from shore, that the janissaries
and town’s people, for a week, had been fighting together; I was very
unwilling to interfere, wishing that they might have all leisure to
extirpate one another, if possible; and my Rais seemed most heartily to
join me in my wishes.

In the evening, the captain of the port came on board, and brought two
janissaries with him, whom, with some difficulty, I suffered to enter
the vessel. Their first demand was gun-powder, which I positively
refused. I then asked them how many were killed in the eight days they
had been engaged? They answered, with some indifference, not many,
about a hundred every day, or a few less or more, chiefly Arabs. We
heard afterwards, when we came on shore, one only had been wounded, and
that a soldier, by a fall from his horse. They insisted upon bringing
the vessel into the port; but I told them, on the contrary, that having
no business at Yambo, and being by no means under the guns of their
castle, I was at liberty to put to sea without coming ashore at all;
therefore, if they did not leave us, as the wind was favourable, I
would sail, and, by force, carry them to Jidda. The janissaries began
to talk, as their custom is, in a very blustering and warlike tone; but
I, who knew my interest at Jidda, and the force in my own hand; that
my vessel was afloat, and could be under weigh in an instant, never
was less disposed to be bullied, than at that moment. They asked me a
thousand questions, whether I was a Mamaluke, whether I was a Turk, or
whether I was an Arab, and why I did not give them spirits and tobacco?
To all which I answered, only, that they should know to-morrow who I
was; then I ordered the Emir Bahar, the captain of the port, to carry
them ashore at his peril, or I would take their arms from them, and
confine them on board all night.

The Rais gave the captain of the port a private hint, to take care what
they did, for they might lose their lives; and that private caution,
understood in a different way perhaps than was meant, had effect upon
the soldiers, to make them withdraw immediately. When they went away, I
begged the Emir Bahar to make my compliments to his masters, Hassan and
Hussein, Agas, to know what time I should wait upon them to-morrow; and
desired him, in the mean time, to keep his soldiers ashore, as I was
not disposed to be troubled with their insolence.

Soon after they went, we heard a great firing, and saw lights all over
the town; and the Rais proposed to me to slip immediately, and set
sail, from which measure I was not at all averse. But, as he said,
we had a better anchoring place under the mosque of the Shekh, and,
besides, that there we would be in a place of safety, by reason of the
holiness of the saint, and that at our own choice might even put to sea
in a moment, or stay till to-morrow, as we were in no sort of doubt of
being able to repel, force by force, if attacked, we got under weigh
for a few hundred yards, and dropt our anchor under the shrine of one
of the greatest saints in the world.

At night the firing had abated, the lights diminished, and the captain
of the port again came on board. He was surprised at missing us at
our former anchoring place, and still more so, when, on our hearing
the noise of his oars, we hailed, and forbade him to advance any
nearer, till he should tell us how many he had on board, or whether he
had soldiers or not, otherwise we should fire upon them: to this he
answered, that there were only himself, his boy, and three officers,
servants to the Aga. I replied, that three strangers were too many at
that time of the night, but, since they were come from the Aga, they
might advance.

All our people were sitting together armed on the forepart of the
vessel; I soon divined they intended us no harm, for they gave us the
salute _Salam Alicum!_ before they were within ten yards of us. I
answered with great complacency; we handed them on board, and set them
down upon deck. The three officers were genteel young men, of a sickly
appearance, dressed in the fashion of the country, in long burnooses
loosely hanging about them, striped with red and white; they wore a
turban of red, green, and white, with ten thousand tassels and fringes
hanging down to the small of their backs. They had in their hand, each,
a short javelin, the shaft not above four feet and a half long, with
an iron head about nine inches, and two or three iron hooks below the
shaft, which was bound round with brass-wire, in several places, and
shod with iron at the farther end.

They asked me where I came from? I said, from Constantinople, last from
Cairo; but begged they would put no more questions to me, as I was not
at liberty to answer them. They said they had orders from their masters
to bid me welcome, if I was the person that had been recommended to
them by the Sherriffe, and was Ali Bey’s physician at Cairo. I said, if
Metical Aga had advised them of that, then I was the man. They replied
he had, and were come to bid me welcome, and attend me on shore to
their masters, whenever I pleased. I begged them to carry my humble
respects to their masters; and told them, though I did not doubt of
their protection in any shape, yet I could not think it consistent with
ordinary prudence, to risk myself at ten o’clock at night, in a town
so full of disorder as Yambo appeared to have been for some time, and
where so little regard was paid to discipline or command, as to fight
with one another. They said that was true, and I might do as I pleased;
but the firing that I had heard did not proceed from fighting, but from
their rejoicing upon making peace.

In short, we found, that, upon some discussion, the garrison and
townsmen had been fighting for several days, in which disorders the
greatest part of the ammunition in the town had been expended, but it
had since been agreed on by the old men of both parties, that no body
had been to blame on either side, but the whole wrong was the work
of _a Camel_. _A camel_, therefore, was seized, and brought without
the town, and there a number on both sides having met, they upbraided
the _camel_ with every thing that had been either said or done. The
_camel_ had killed men, _he_ had threatened to set the town on fire;
the _camel_ had threatened to burn the Aga’s house, and the castle;
_he_ had cursed the Grand Signior, and the Sherriffe of Mecca, the
sovereigns of the two parties; and, the only thing the poor animal was
interested in, _he_ had threatened to destroy the wheat that was going
to Mecca. After having spent great part of the afternoon in upbraiding
the _camel_, whose measure of iniquity, it seems, was near full, each
man thrust him through with a lance, devoting him _Diis manibus &
Diris_, by a kind of prayer, and with a thousand curses upon his head.
After which, every man retired, fully satisfied as to the wrongs he had
received from the _camel_.

The reader will easily observe in this, some traces of the [183]azazel,
or scape-goat of the Jews, which was turned out into the wilderness,
loaded with the sins of the people.

Next morning I went to the palace, as we call it, in which were some
very handsome apartments. There was a guard of janissaries at the
door, who, being warriors, lately come from the bloody battle with the
_camel_, did not fail to shew marks of insolence, which they wished to
be mistaken for courage.

The two Agas were sitting on a high bench upon Persian carpets; and
about forty well-dressed and well-looking men, (many of them old)
sitting on carpets upon the floor, in a semi-circle round them. They
behaved with great politeness and attention, and asked no questions
but general ones; as, How the sea agreed with me? If there was plenty
at Cairo? till I was going away, when the youngest of the Agas
inquired, with a seeming degree of diffidence, Whether Mahomet Bey Abou
Dahab, was ready to march? As I knew well what this question meant, I
answered, I know not if he is ready, he has made great preparations.
The other Aga said, I hope you will be a messenger of peace? I
answered, I intreat you to ask me no questions; I hope, by the grace
of God, all will go well. Every person present applauded the speech;
agreed to respect my secret, as they supposed I had one, and they all
were inclined to believe, that I was a man in the confidence of Ali
Bey, and that his hostile designs against Mecca were laid aside: this
was just what I wished them to suppose; for it secured me against
ill-usage all the time I chose to stay there; and of this I had a proof
in the instant, for a very good house was provided for me by the Aga,
and a man of his sent to shew me to it.

I wondered the Rais had not come home with me; who, in about half
an hour after I had got into my house, came and told me, that, when
the captain of the boat came on board the first time with the two
soldiers, he had put a note, which they call _tiskera_, into his hand,
pressing him into the Sherriffe’s service, to carry wheat to Jidda,
and, with the wheat, a number of _poor pilgrims_ that were going to
Mecca at the Sherriffe’s expence. Finding us, however, out of the
harbour, and, suspecting from our manners and carriage towards the
janissaries, that we were people who knew what we had to trust to, he
had taken the two soldiers a-shore with him, who were by no means fond
of their reception, or inclined to stay in such company; and, indeed,
our dresses and appearances in the boat were fully as likely to make
strangers believe we should rob them, as theirs were to impress us
with an apprehension that they would rob us. The Rais said also, that,
after my audience, the Aga had called upon him, and taken away the
_tiskera_, telling him he was free, and to obey nobody but me; and sent
me one of his servants to sit at the door, with orders to admit nobody
but whom I pleased, and that I might not be troubled with the people of
Yambo.

Hitherto all was well; but it had been with me an observation, which
had constantly held good, that too prosperous beginnings in these
countries always ended in ill at the last. I was therefore resolved to
use my prosperity with great temperance and caution, make myself as
strong, and use my strength as little, as it was possible for me to do.

There was a man of considerable weight in Aleppo, named [184]Sidi Ali
Taraboloussi, who was a great friend of Dr Russel, our physician,
through whom I became acquainted with him. He was an intimate friend
and acquaintance of the cadi of Medina, and had given me a letter to
him, recommending me, in a very particular manner, to his protection
and services. I inquired about this person, and was told he was in
town, directing the distribution of the corn to be sent to his capital.
Upon my inquiry, the news were carried to him as soon almost as his
name was uttered; on which, being desirous of knowing what sort of man
I was, about eight o’clock in the evening he sent me a message, and,
immediately after, I received a visit from him.

I was putting my telescopes and time-keeper in order, and had forbid
admittance to any one; but this was so holy and so dignified a person,
that all doors were open to him. He observed me working about the
great telescope and quadrant in my shirt, for it was hot beyond
conception upon the smallest exertion. Without making any apology for
the intrusion at all, he broke out into exclamation, how lucky he
was! and, without regarding me, he went from telescope to clock, from
clock to quadrant, and from that to the thermometer, crying, _Ah tibe,
ah tibe_! This is fine, this is fine! He scarcely looked upon me, or
seemed to think I was worth his attention, but touched every thing so
carefully, and handled so properly the brass cover of the alidade,
which inclosed the horse-hair with the plummet, that he seemed to be a
man more than ordinarily versed in the use of astronomical instruments.
In short, not to repeat useless matter to the reader, I found he had
studied at Constantinople, understood the principles of geometry
very tolerably, was master of Euclid so far as it regarded plain
trigonometry; the demonstrations of which he rattled off so rapidly,
that it was impossible to follow, or to understand him. He knew nothing
of spherics, and all his astronomy resolved itself at last into maxims
of judicial astrology, first and second houses of the planets and
ascendancies, very much in the style of common almanacks.

He desired that my door might be open to him at all times, especially
when I made observations; he also knew perfectly the division of our
clocks, and begged he might count time for me. All this was easily
granted, and I had from him, what was most useful, a history of the
situation of the government of the place, by which I learned, that the
two young men (the governors) were slaves of the Sherriffe of Mecca;
that it was impossible for any one, the most intimate with them, to
tell which of the two was most base or profligate; that they would have
robbed us all of the last farthing, if they had not been restrained by
fear; and that there was a foreigner, or a frank, very lately going to
India, who had disappeared, but, as he believed, had been privately put
to death in prison, for he had never after been heard of.

Though I cannot say I relished this account, yet I put on the very best
face possible, “Here, in a garrison town, said I, with very worthless
soldiers, they might do what they pleased with six or seven strangers,
but I do not fear them; I now tell them, and the people of Yambo, all
and each of them, they had better be in their bed sick of the plague,
than touch a hair of my dog, if I had one.” “And so, says he they know,
therefore rest and rejoice, and stay as long with us as you can.” “As
short time as possible, said I, Sidi Mahomet; although I do not fear
wicked people, I don’t love them so much as to stay long with them.”

He then asked me a favour, that I would allow my Rais to carry a
quantity of wheat for him to Jidda; which I willingly permitted, upon
condition, that he would order but one man to go along with it; on
which he declared solemnly, that none but one should go, and that
I might _throw_ him even into the _sea_, if he behaved improperly.
However, afterwards he sent three; and one who deserved often to be
_thrown_ into the _sea_, as he had permitted. “Now friend, said I, I
have done every thing that you have desired, though favours should have
begun with you upon your own principle, as I am the stranger. Now,
what I have to ask you is this,--Do you know the Shekh of Beder Hunein?
Know him! says he, I am married to his sister, a daughter of Harb; he
is of the tribe of Harb.” “Harb be it then (said I) your trouble will
be the less; then you are to send a camel to your brother-in-law, who
will procure me the largest, and most perfect plant possible of the
Balsam of Mecca. He is not to break the stem, nor even the branches,
but to pack it entire, with fruit and flower, if possible, and wrap it
in a mat.” He looked cunning, shrugged up his shoulders, drew up his
mouth, and putting his finger to his nose, said, “Enough, I know all
about this, you shall find what sort of a man I am, I am no fool, as
you shall see.”

I received this the third day at dinner, but the flower (if there had
been any) was rubbed off. The fruit was in several stages, and in great
perfection. The drawing, and description from this [185]plant, will, I
hope, for ever obviate all difficulty about its history. He sent me,
likewise, a quart bottle of the pure balsam, as it had flowed that
year from the tree, with which I have verified what the old botanists
in their writings have said of it, in its several stages. He told me
also the circumstances I have related in my description of the balsam,
as to the gathering and preparing of the several kinds of it, and a
curious anecdote as to its origin. He said the plant was no part of
the creation of God in the six days, but that, in the last of three
very bloody battles, which Mahomet fought with the noble Arabs of Harb,
and his kinsmen the Beni Koreish, then Pagans at Beder Hunein, that
Mahomet prayed to God, and a grove of balsam-trees grew up from the
blood of the slain upon the field of battle; and, that with the balsam
that flowed from them he touched the wounds even of those that were
dead, and all those predestined to be good _Mussulmen_ afterwards,
immediately came to life. “I hope, said I, friend, that the other
things you told me of it, are fully as true as this, for they will
otherwise laugh at me in England.” “No, no, says he, not half so true,
nor a quarter so true, there is nothing in the world so certain as
this.” But his looks, and his laughing very heartily, shewed me plainly
he knew better, as indeed most of them do.

In the evening, before we departed, about nine o’clock, I had an
unexpected visit from the youngest of the two Agas; who, after many
pretended complaints of sickness, and injunctions of secrecy, at last
_modestly_ requested me to give him some _slow poison_, that might kill
_his brother_, without suspicion, and after some time should elapse.
I told him, such proposals were not to be made to a man like me; that
all the gold, and all the silver in the world, would not engage me to
poison the poorest vagrant in the street, supposing it never was to be
suspected, or known but to my own heart. All he said, was, “Then your
manners are not the _same_ as ours.”--I answered, dryly, “_Mine_, I
thank God, are not,” and so we parted.

Yambo, or at least the present town of that name, I found, by many
observations of the sun and stars, to be in latitude 24° 3´ 35´´
north, and in long. 38° 16´ 3´´ east from the meridian of Greenwich.
The barometer, at its highest, on the 23d of April, was 27° 8´, and,
the lowest on the 27th, was 26° 11´. The thermometer, on the 24th of
April, at two o’clock in the afternoon, stood at 91°, and the lowest
was 66° in the morning of the 26th of same month. Yambo is reputed very
unwholesome, but there were no epidemical diseases when I was there.

The many delays of loading the wheat, the desire of _doubling_ the
quantity I had permitted, in which both the Rais and my friend the
cadi conspired for their mutual interest, detained me at Yambo all
the 27th of April, very much against my inclination. For I was not a
little uneasy at thinking among what banditti I lived, whose daily
wish was to rob and murder me, from which they were restrained by fear
only; and this, a fit of drunkenness, or a piece of bad news, such as
a report of Ali Bey’s death, might remove in a moment. Indeed we were
allowed to want nothing. A sheep, some bad beer, and some very good
wheat-bread, were delivered to us every day from the Aga, which, with
dates and honey, and a variety of presents from those that I attended
as a physician, made us pass our time comfortably enough; we went
frequently in the boats to fish at sea, and, as I had brought with
me three fizgigs of different sizes, with the proper lines, I seldom
returned without killing four or five dolphins. The sport with the line
was likewise excellent. We caught a number of beautiful fish from the
very house where we lodged, and some few good ones. We had vinegar in
plenty at Yambo; onions, and several other greens, from Raddua; and,
being all cooks, we lived well.

On the 28th of April, in the morning, I sailed with a cargo of wheat
that did not belong to me, and three passengers, instead of one, for
whom only I had undertaken. The wind was fair, and I saw one advantage
of allowing the Rais to load, was, that he was determined to carry sail
to make amends for the delay. There was a tumbling, disagreeable swell,
and the wind seemed dying away. One of our passengers was very sick. At
his request we anchored at Djar, a round small port, whose entrance is
at the north-east. It is about three fathoms deep throughout, unless
just upon the south side, and perfectly sheltered from every wind. We
saw here, for the first time, several plants of rack tree, growing
considerably within the sea-mark, in some places with two feet of water
upon the trunk. I found the latitude of Djar to be 23° 36´ 9´´ north.
The mountains of Beder Hunein were S. S. W. of us.

The 29th, at five o’clock in the morning, we sailed from Djar. At
eight, we passed a small cape called [186]Ras el Himma; and the wind
turning still more fresh, we passed a kind of harbour called Maibeed,
where there is an anchoring place named El Horma. The sun was in the
meridian when we passed this; and I found, by observation, El Horma was
in lat. 23° 0´ 30´´ north. At ten we passed a mountain on land called
Soub; at two, the small port of Muftura, under a mountain whose name is
Hajoub; at half past four we came to an anchor at a place called Harar.
The wind had been contrary all the night, being south-east, and rather
fresh; we thought, too, we perceived a current setting strongly to the
westward.

On the 30th we sailed at eight in the morning, but the wind was
unfavourable, and we made little way. We were surrounded with a great
many sharks, some of which seemed to be large. Though I had no line
but upon the small fizgigs for dolphins, I could not refrain from
attempting one of the largest, for they were so bold, that some of
them, we thought, intended to leap on board. I struck one of the most
forward of them, just at the joining of the neck; but as we were not
practised enough in laying our line, so as to run out without hitching,
he leaped above two feet out of the water, then plunged down with
prodigious violence, and our line taking hold of something standing in
the way, the cord snapped asunder, and away went the shark. All the
others disappeared in an instant; but the Rais said, as soon as they
smelled the blood, they would not leave the wounded one, till they
had torn him to pieces. I was truly sorry for the loss of my tackle,
as the two others were really like harpoons, and not so manageable.
But the Rais, whom I had studied to keep in very good humour, and had
befriended in every thing, was an old harpooner in the Indian Ocean,
and he pulled out from his hold a compleat apparatus. He not only had a
small harpoon like my first, but better constructed. He had, likewise,
several hooks with long chains and lines, and a wheel with a long hair
line to it, like a small windlass, to which he equally fixed the line
of the harpoon, and those of the hooks. This was a compliment he saw I
took very kindly, and did not doubt it would be rewarded in the proper
time.

The wind freshening and turning fairer, at noon we brought to, within
sight of Rabac, and at one o’clock anchored there. Rabac is a small
port in lat. 22° 35´ 30´´ north. The entry is E. N. E. and is about
a quarter of a mile broad. The port extends itself to the east, and
is about two miles long. The mountains are about three leagues to the
north, and the town of Rabac about four miles north by east from the
entrance to the harbour. We remained all day, the first of May, in
the port, making a drawing of the harbour. The night of our anchoring
there, the Emir Hadje of the pilgrims from Mecca encamped about three
miles off. We heard his evening gun.

The passengers that had been sick, now insisted upon going to see the
Hadje; but as I knew the consequence would be, that a number of fanatic
wild people would be down upon us, I told him plainly, if he went from
the boat, he should not again be received; and that we would haul out
of the port, and anchor in the offing; this kept him with us. But all
next day he was in very bad humour, repeating frequently, to himself,
that he deserved all this for embarking with infidels.

The people came down to us from Rabac with water melons, and skins full
of water. All ships may be supplied here plentifully from wells near
the town; the water is not bad.

The country is level, and seemingly uncultivated, but has not so desert
a look as about Yambo. I should suspect by its appearance, and the
freshness of its water, that it rained at times in the mountains here,
for we were now considerably within the tropic, which passes very near
Ras el Himma, whereas Rabac is half a degree to the southward.

On the 2d, at five o’clock in the morning, we sailed from Rabac, with a
very little wind, scarcely making two knots an hour.

At half past nine, Deneb bore east and by south from us. This place is
known by a few palm-trees. The port is small, and very indifferent, at
least for six months of the year, because it lies open to the south,
and there is a prodigious swell here.

At one o’clock we passed an island called Hammel, about a mile off; at
the same time, another island, El Memisk, bore east of us, about three
miles, where there is good anchorage.

At three and three quarters, we passed an island called Gawad, a mile
and a quarter south-east of us. The main bore likewise south-east,
distant something more than a league. We here changed our course from
south to W. S. W. and at four o’clock came to an anchor at the small
island of Lajack.

The 3d, we sailed at half past four in the morning, our course W.
S. W. but it fell calm; after having made about a league, we found
ourselves off Ras Hateba, or the Woody Cape, which bore due east of us.
After doubling the cape, the wind freshening, at four o’clock in the
afternoon we anchored in the port of Jidda, close upon the key, where
the officers of the custom-house immediately took possession of our
baggage.

[Illustration: _Arab Shekh; Tribe Beni Koreish._

_Heath Sc:_

_London Publish’d Dec^r. 1^{st}. 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]




CHAP. XI.

    _Occurrences at Jidda--Visit of the Vizir--Alarm of the
    Factory--Great Civility of the English trading from
    India--Polygamy--Opinion of Dr Arbuthnot ill-founded--Contrary
    to Reason and Experience--Leave Jidda._


The port of Jidda is a very extensive one, consisting of numberless
shoals, small islands, and sunken rocks, with channels, however,
between them, and deep water. You are very safe in Jidda harbour,
whatever wind blows, as there are numberless shoals which prevent the
water from ever being put into any general motion; and you may moor
head and stern, with twenty anchors out if you please. But the danger
of being lost, I conceive, lies in the going in and coming out of the
harbour. Indeed the observation is here verified, the more _dangerous_
the _port_, the _abler_ the _pilots_, and no accidents ever happen.

There is a draught of the harbour of Jidda handed about among the
English for many years, very inaccurately, and very ill laid down,
from what authority I know not, often condemned, but never corrected;
as also a pretended chart of the upper part of the Gulf, from Jidda
to Mocha, full of soundings. As I was some months at Jidda, kindly
entertained, and had abundance of time, Captain Thornhill, and some
other of the gentlemen trading thither, wished me to make a survey of
the harbour, and promised me the assistance of their officers, boats,
and crews. I very willingly undertook it to oblige them. Finding
afterwards, however, that one of their number, Captain Newland, had
undertaken it, and that he would be hurt by my interfering, as he was
in some manner advanced in the work, I gave up all further thoughts of
the plan. He was a man of real ingenuity and capacity, as well as very
humane, well behaved, and one to whom I had been indebted for every
sort of attention.

God forgive those who have taken upon them, very lately, to ingraft
a number of new soundings upon that miserable bundle of errors, that
Chart of the upper part of the Gulf from Jidda to Mocha, which has
been tossed about the Red Sea these twenty years and upwards. One of
these, since my return to Europe, has been sent to me new dressed like
a bride, with all its original and mortal sins upon its head. I would
beg leave to be understood, that there is not in the world a man more
averse than I am to give offence even to a child. It is not in the
spirit of criticism I speak this. In any other case, I would not have
made any observations at all. But, where the lives and properties of so
many are at stake yearly, it is a species of treason to conceal one’s
sentiments, if the publishing of them can any way contribute to safety,
whatever offence it may give to unreasonable individuals.

Of all the vessels in Jidda, two only had their log lines properly
divided, and yet all were so fond of their supposed accuracy, as to
aver they had kept their course within five leagues, between India and
Babelmandeb. Yet they had made no estimation of the currents without
the [187]Babs, nor the different very strong ones soon after passing
Socotra; their half-minute glasses upon a medium ran 57´´; they had
made no observation on the tides or currents in the Red Sea, either in
the channel or in the inward passage; yet there is delineated in this
map a course of Captain Newland’s, which he kept in the middle of the
channel, full of sharp angles and short stretches; you would think
every yard was measured and sounded.

To the spurious catalogue of soundings found in the old chart above
mentioned, there is added a double proportion of new, from what
authority is not known; so that from Mocha, to lat. 17° you have as it
were soundings every mile, or even less. No one can cast his eyes on
the upper part of the map, but must think the Red Sea one of the most
frequented places in the world. Yet I will aver, without fear of being
contradicted, that it is a characteristic of the Red Sea, scarce to
have soundings in any part of the channel, and often on both sides,
whilst ashore soundings are hardly found a boat-length from the main.
To this I will add, that there is scarce one island upon which I ever
was, where the boltsprit was not over the land, while there were no
soundings by a line heaved over the stern. I must then protect against
making these old most erroneous maps a foundation for new ones, as
they can be of no use, but must be of detriment. Many good seamen
of knowledge and enterprise have been in that sea, within these few
years. Let them say, candidly, what were their instruments, what their
difficulties were, where they had doubts, where they succeeded, and
where they were disappointed? Were these acknowledged by one, they
would be speedily taken up by others, and rectified by the help of
mathematicians and good observers on shore.

Mr Niebuhr has contributed much, but we should reform the map on both
sides; though there is a great deal done, yet much remains still to
do. I hope that my friend Mr Dalrymple, when he can afford time, will
give us a foundation more proper to build upon, than that old rotten
one, however changed in form, and supposed to have been improved, if
he really has a number of observations by him that can be relied on,
otherwise it is but continuing the delusion and the danger.

If ships of war afterwards, that keep the channel, shall come, manned
with stout and able seamen, and expert young officers, provided with
lines, glasses, good compasses, and a number of boats, then we shall
know these soundings, at least in part. And then also we shall know
the truth of what I now advance, viz. that ships like those employed
hitherto in trading from India (manned and provided as the best of
them are) were incapable, amidst unknown tides and currents, and going
before a monsoon, whether southern or northern, of knowing within three
leagues where any one of them had ever dropt his sounding line, unless
he was close on board some island, shoal, remarkable point, or in a
harbour.

Till that time, I would advise every man sailing in the Red Sea,
especially in the channel, where the pilots know no more than he, to
trust to his own hands for safety in the minute of danger, to heave
the lead at least every hour, keep a good look-out, and shorten sail
in a fresh wind, or in the night-time, and to consider all maps of the
channel of the Arabian Gulf, yet made, as matters of mere curiosity,
and not fit to trust a man’s life to. Any captain in the India service,
who had run over from Jidda into the mouth of the river Frat, and
the neighbouring port Kilfit, which might every year be done for L.
10 Sterling extra expences, would do more meritorious service to the
navigation of that sea, than all the soundings that were ever yet made
from Jibbel Zekir to the island of Sheduan.

From Yambo to Jidda I had slept little, making my memoranda as full
upon the spot as possible. I had, besides, an aguish disorder, which
very much troubled me, and in dress and cleanliness was so like a
Galiongy (or Turkish seaman) that the [188]Emir Bahar was astonished at
hearing my servants say I was an Englishman, at the time they carried
away all my baggage and instruments to the custom-house. He sent his
servant, however, with me to the Bengal-house, who promised me, in
broken English, all the way, a very magnificent reception from my
countrymen. Upon his naming all the captains for my choice, I desired
to be carried to a _Scotchman_, a _relation of my own_, who was then
accidentally leaning over the rail of the stair-case, leading up to
his apartment. I saluted him by his name; he fell into a violent rage,
calling me _villain_, _thief_, _cheat_, and _renegado rascal_; and
declared, if I offered to proceed a step further, he would throw me
over stairs. I went away without reply, his curses and abuse followed
me long afterwards. The servant, my conductor, screwed his mouth, and
shrugged up his shoulders. “Never fear, says he, I will carry you to
the _best of them all_.” We went up an opposite stair-case, which I
thought within myself, if those are their India manners, I shall keep
my name and situation to myself while I am at Jidda. I stood in no need
of them, as I had credit for 1000 sequins and more, if I should want
it, upon Yousef Cabil, Vizir or Governor of Jidda.

I was conducted into a large room, where Captain Thornhill was sitting,
in a white callico waistcoat, a very high-pointed white cotton
night-cap, with a large tumbler of water before him, seemingly very
deep in thought. The Emir Bahar’s servant brought me forward by the
hand, a little within the door; but I was not desirous of advancing
much farther, for fear of the salutation of being thrown down stairs
again. He looked very steadily, but not sternly, at me; and desired
the servant to go away and shut the door. “Sir, says he, are you an
Englishman?”--I bowed.--“You surely are sick, you should be in your
bed, have you been long sick?”--I said, “long Sir,” and bowed.--“Are
you wanting a passage to India?”--I again bowed.--“Well, says he, you
look to be a man in distress; if you have a secret, I shall respect
it till you please to tell it me, but if you want a passage to India,
apply to no one but Thornhill of the Bengal merchant. Perhaps you are
afraid of somebody, if so, ask for Mr Greig, my lieutenant, he will
carry you on board my ship directly, where you will be safe.”--“Sir,
said I, I hope you will find me an honest man, I have no enemy that
I know, either in Jidda or elsewhere, nor do I owe any man any
thing.”--“I am sure, says he, I am doing wrong, in keeping a poor man
standing, who ought to be in his bed. Here! Philip! Philip!”--Philip
appeared. “Boy,” says he, in Portuguese, which, as I imagine, he
supposed I did not understand, “here is a poor Englishman, that should
be either in his bed or his grave; carry him to the cook, tell him to
give him as much broth and mutton as he can eat; the _fellow_ seems to
have been starved, but I would rather have the feeding of ten to India,
than the burying of one at Jidda.”

Philip de la Cruz was the son of a Portuguese lady, whom Captain
Thornhill had married; a boy of great talents, and excellent
disposition, who carried me with great willingness to the cook. I
made as aukward a bow as I could to Capt. Thornhill, and said, “God
will return this to your honour some day.” Philip carried me into a
court-yard, where they used to expose the samples of their India goods
in large bales. It had a portico along the left-hand side of it, which
seemed designed for a stable. To this place I was introduced, and
thither the cook brought me my dinner. Several of the English from the
vessels, lascars, and others, came in to look at me; and I heard it, in
general, agreed among them, that I was a very thief-like fellow, and
certainly a Turk, and d----n them if they should like to fall into my
hands.

I fell fast asleep upon the mat, while Philip was ordering me another
apartment. In the mean time, some of my people had followed the baggage
to the Custom-house, and some of them staid on board the boat, to
prevent the pilfering of what was left. The keys had remained with
me, and the Vizir had gone to sleep, as is usual, about mid-day. As
soon as he awaked, being greedy of his prey, he fell immediately to my
baggage, wondering that such a quantity of it, and that boxes in such
a curious form, should belong to a mean man like me; he was therefore
full of hopes, that a fine opportunity for pillage was now at hand. He
asked for the keys of the trunks, my servant said, they were with me,
but he would go instantly and bring them. That, however, was too long
to stay; no delay could possibly be granted. Accustomed to pilfer, they
did not force the locks, but, very artist like, took off the hinges at
the back, and in that manner opened the lids, without opening the locks.

The first thing that presented itself to the Vizir’s sight, was the
firman of the Grand Signior, magnificently written and titled, and the
inscription powdered with gold dust, and wrapped in green taffeta.
After this was a white sattin bag, addressed to the Khan of Tartary,
with which Mr Peyssonel, French consul of Smyrna, had favoured me, and
which I had not delivered, as the Khan was then prisoner at Rhodes.
The next was a green and gold silk bag, with letters directed to the
Sherriffe of Mecca; and then came a plain crimson-sattin bag, with
letters addressed to Metical Aga, sword bearer (or Seiictar, as it
is called) of the Sherriffe, or his great minister and favourite. He
then found a letter from Ali Bey to himself, written with all the
superiority of a Prince to a slave.

In this letter the Bey told him plainly, that he heard the governments
of Jidda, Mecca, and other States of the Sherriffe, were disorderly,
and that merchants, coming about their lawful business, were
plundered, terrified, and detained. He therefore intimated to him, that
if any such thing happened to me, he should not write or complain, but
he would send and punish the affront at the very gates of Mecca. This
was very unpleasant language to the Vizir, because it was now publicly
known, that Mahomet Bey Abou Dahab was preparing next year to march
against Mecca, for some offence the Bey had taken at the Sherriffe.
There was also another letter to him from Ibrahim Sikakeen, chief of
the merchants at Cairo, ordering him to furnish me with a thousand
sequins for my present use, and, if more were needed, to take my bill.

These contents of the trunk were so unexpected, that Cabil the Vizir
thought he had gone too far, and called my servant in a violent hurry,
upbraiding him, for not telling who I was. The servant defended
himself, by saying, that neither he, nor his people about him, would so
much as regard a word that he spoke; and the cadi of Medina’s principal
servant, who had come with the wheat, told the Vizir plainly to his
face, that he had given him warning enough, if his pride would have
suffered him to hear it.

All was now wrong, my servant was ordered to nail up the hinges, but he
declared it would be the last action of his life; that nobody opened
baggage that way, but with intention of stealing, when the keys could
be got; and, as there were many rich things in the trunk, intended as
presents to the Sherriffe, and Metical Aga, which might have been taken
out, by the hinges being forced off before he came, he washed his hands
of the whole procedure, but knew his master would complain, and loudly
too, and would be heard both at Cairo and Jidda. The Vizir took his
resolution in a moment like a man. He nailed up the baggage, ordered
his horse to be brought, and attended by a number of naked blackguards
(whom they call soldiers) he came down to the Bengal house, on which
the whole factory took alarm.

About twenty-six years before, the English traders from India to Jidda,
fourteen in number, were all murdered, sitting at dinner, by a mutiny
of these wild people. The house has, ever since, lain in ruins, having
been pulled down and forbidden to be rebuilt.

Great inquiry was made after the English nobleman, whom nobody had
seen; but it was said that one of his servants was there in the Bengal
house; I was sitting drinking coffee on the mat, when the Vizir’s
horse came, and the whole court was filled. One of the clerks of the
custom-house asked me where my master was? I said, “In heaven.” The
Emir Bahar’s servant now brought forward the Vizir to me, who had not
dismounted himself. He repeated the same question, where my master
was?--I told him, I did not know the purport of his question, that I
was the person to whom the baggage belonged, which he had taken to the
custom-house, and that it was in my favour the Grand Signior and Bey
had written. He seemed very much surprised, and asked me how I could
appear in such a dress?--“You cannot ask that seriously, said I; I
believe no prudent man would dress better, considering the voyage I
have made. But, besides, you did not leave it in my power, as every
article, but what I have on me, has been these four hours at the
custom-house, waiting your pleasure.”

We then went all up to our kind landlord, Captain Thornhill, to whom I
made my excuse, on account of the ill usage I had first met with from
my own relation. He laughed very heartily at the narrative, and from
that time we lived in the greatest friendship and confidence. All was
made up, even with Yousef Cabil; and all heads were employed to get
the strongest letters possible to the Naybe of Masuah, the king of
Abyssinia, Michael Suhul the minister, and the king of Sennaar.

Metical Aga, great friend and protector of the English at Jidda, and in
effect, we may say, _sold to them_, for the great presents and profits
he received, was himself originally an Abyssinian slave, was the man of
confidence, and directed the sale of the king’s, and Michael’s gold,
ivory, civet, and such precious commodities, that are paid to them
in kind; he furnished Michael, like wise, with returns in fire-arms;
and this had enabled Michael to subdue Abyssinia, murder the king his
master, and seat another on his throne.

On the other hand, the Naybe of Masuah, whose island belonged to the
Grand Signior, and was an appendage of the government of the Basha
of Jidda, had endeavoured to withdraw himself from his allegiance,
and set up for independency. He paid no tribute, nor could the Basha,
who had no troops, force him, as he was on the Abyssinian side of the
Red Sea. Metical Aga, however, and the Basha, at last agreed; the
latter ceded to the former the island and territory of Masuah, for a
fixed sum annually; and Metical Aga appointed Michael, governor of
Tigré, receiver of his rents. The Naybe no sooner found that he was
to account to Michael, than he was glad to pay his tribute, and give
presents to the bargain; for Tigré was the province from which he drew
his sustenance, and Michael could have over-run his whole territory
in eight days, which once, as we shall see hereafter, belonged to
Abyssinia. Metical’s power being then universally acknowledged and
known, the next thing was to get him to make use of it in my favour.

We knew of how little avail the ordinary futile recommendations of
letters were. We were veteran travellers, and knew the style of the
East too well, to be duped by letters of mere civility. There is no
people on the earth more perfectly polite in their correspondence with
one another, than are those of the East; but their civility means
little more than the same sort of expressions do in Europe, to shew you
that the writer is a well-bred man. But this would by no means do in a
journey so long, so dangerous, and so serious as mine.

We, therefore, set about procuring effective letters, letters of
business and engagement, between man and man; and we all endeavoured to
make Metical Aga a very good man, but no great head-piece, comprehend
this perfectly. My letters from Ali Bey opened the affair to him, and
first commanded his attention. A very handsome present of pistols,
which I brought him, inclined him in my favour, because, as I was
bearer of letters from his superior, I might have declined bestowing
any present upon him.

The English gentlemen joined their influence, powerful enough, to have
accomplished a much greater end, as everyone of these have separate
friends for their own affairs, and all of them were desirous to
befriend me. Added to these was a friend of mine, whom I had known at
Aleppo, Ali Zimzimiah, _i. e._ ‘keeper of the holy well at Mecca,’ a
post of great dignity and honour. This man was a mathematician, and an
astronomer, according to their degree of knowledge in that science.

All the letters were written in a style such as I could have desired,
but this did not suffice in the mind of a very friendly and worthy
man, who had taken an attachment to me since my first arrival. This
was Captain Thomas Price, of the Lion of Bombay. He first proposed
to Metical Aga, to send a man of his own with me, together with the
letters, and I do firmly believe, under Providence, it was to this
last measure I owed my life. With this Captain Thornhill heartily
concurred, and an Abyssinian, called Mahomet Gibberti, was appointed to
go with particular letters besides those I carried myself, and to be an
eye-witness of my reception there.

There was some time necessary for this man to make ready, and a
considerable part of the Arabian Gulf still remained for me to explore.
I prepared, therefore, to set out from Jidda, after having made a
considerable stay in it.

Of all the new things I yet had seen, what most astonished me was
the manner in which trade was carried on at this place. Nine ships
were there from India; some of them worth, I suppose, L. 200,000. One
merchant, a Turk, living at Mecca, thirty hours journey off, where no
Christian dares go, whilst the whole Continent is open to the Turk for
escape, offers to purchase the cargoes of four out of nine of these
ships himself; another, of the same cast, comes and says, he will buy
none, unless he has them all. The samples are shewn, and the cargoes of
the whole nine ships are carried into the wildest part of Arabia, by
men with whom one would not wish to trust himself alone in the field.
This is not all, two India brokers come into the room to settle the
price. One on the part of the India captain, the other on that of the
buyer the Turk. They are neither Mahometans nor Christians, but have
credit with both. They sit down on the carpet, and take an India shawl,
which they carry on their shoulder, like a napkin, and spread it over
their hands. They talk, in the mean time, indifferent conversation,
of the arrival of ships from India, or of the news of the day, as if
they were employed in no serious business whatever. After about twenty
minutes spent in handling each others fingers below the shawl, the
bargain is concluded, say for nine ships, without one word ever having
been spoken on the subject, or pen or ink used in any shape whatever.
There never was one instance of a dispute happening in _these sales_.

But this is not yet all, the money is to be paid. A private Moor, who
has nothing to support him but his character, becomes responsible
for the payment of these cargoes; his name was Ibrahim Saraf when I
was there, _i. e._ Ibrahim the Broker. This man delivers a number of
coarse hempen bags, full of what is supposed to be money. He marks the
contents upon the bag, and puts his seal upon the string that ties the
mouth of it. This is received for what is marked upon it, without any
one ever having opened one or the bags, and, in India, it is current
for the value marked upon it, as long as the bag lasts.

Jidda is very unwholesome, as is, indeed, all the east coast of the Red
Sea. Immediately without the gate of that town, to the eastward, is a
desert plain filled with the huts of the Bedowèens, or country Arabs,
built of long bundles of spartum, or bent grass, put together like
fascines. These Bedowèens supply Jidda with milk and butter. There is
no stirring out of town, even for a walk, unless for about half a mile,
in the south side by the sea, where there is a number of stinking pools
of stagnant water, which contributes to make the town very unwholesome.

Jidda, besides being in the most unwholesome part of Arabia, is, at
the same time, in the most barren and desert situation. This, and
many other inconveniencies, under which it labours, would, probably,
have occasioned its being abandoned altogether, were it not for its
vicinity to Mecca, and the great and sudden influx of wealth from the
India trade, which, once a-year, arrives in this part, but does not
continue, passing on, as through a turnpike, to Mecca; whence it is
dispersed all over the east. Very little advantage however accrues to
Jidda. The customs are all immediately sent to a needy sovereign, and
a hungry set of relations, dependents and ministers at Mecca. The gold
is returned in bags and boxes, and passes on as rapidly to the ships as
the goods do to the market, and leaves as little profit behind. In the
mean time, provisions rise to a prodigious price, and this falls upon
the townsmen, while all the profit of the traffic is in the hands of
strangers; most of whom, after the market is over, (which does not last
six weeks) retire to Yemen, and other neighbouring countries, which
abound in every sort of provision.

Upon this is founded the observation, that of all Mahometan countries
none are so monogam as those of Jidda, and no where are there so many
unmarried women, altho’ this is the country of their prophet, and the
permission of marrying four wives was allowed in this district in the
first instance, and afterwards communicated to all the tribes.

But Mahomet, in his permission of plurality of wives, seems constantly
to have been on his guard, against suffering that, which was intended
for the welfare of his people, from operating in a different manner.
He did not permit a man to marry two, three, or four wives, unless he
could maintain them. He was interested for the rights and rank of these
women; and the man so marrying was obliged to shew before the Cadi, or
some equivalent officer, or judge, that it was in his power to support
them, according to their birth. It was not so with concubines, with
women who were purchased, or who were taken in war. Every man enjoyed
these at his pleasure, and their peril, that is, whether he was able to
maintain them or not.

From this great scarcity of provisions, which is the result of an
extraordinary concourse to a place almost destitute of the necessaries
of life, few inhabitants of Jidda can avail themselves of the privilege
granted him by Mahomet. He therefore cannot marry more than one wife,
because he cannot maintain more, and from this cause arises the want of
people, and the large number of unmarried women.

When in Arabia Felix, where every sort of provision is exceedingly
cheap, where the fruits of the ground, the general food for man, are
produced spontaneously, the supporting of a number of wives costs no
more than so many slaves or servants; their food is the same, and a
blue cotton shirt, a habit common to them all, is not more chargeable
for the one than the other. The consequence is, that celibacy in women
is prevented, and the number of people is increased in a fourfold ratio
by polygamy, to what it is in those that are monogamous.

I know there are authors fond of system, enemies to free inquiry, and
blinded by prejudice, who contend that polygamy, without distinction
of circumstances, is detrimental to the population of a country. The
learned Dr Arbuthnot, in a paper addressed to the Royal Society[189],
has maintained this strange doctrine, in a still stranger manner. He
lays it down, as his first position, that _in semine masculino_ of
our first parent Adam, there was impressed an original necessity of
procreating, ever after, an equal number of males and females. The
manner he proves this, has received great incense from the vulgar, as
containing an unanswerable argument. He shews, by the casting of three
dice, that the chances are almost infinite, that an equal number of
males and females should _not_ be born in any year; and he pretends to
prove, that every year in twenty, as taken from the bills of mortality,
the same number of males and females have constantly been produced,
or at least a greater proportion of men than of women, to make up for
the havock occasioned by war, murder, drunkenness, and all species of
violence to which women are not subject.

I need not say, that this, at least, sufficiently shews the weakness
of the argument. For, if the _equal_ proportion had been _in semine
masculino_ of our first parent, the consequence must have been, that
male and female would have been invariably born, from the creation to
the end of all things. And it is a supposition very unworthy of the
wisdom of God, that, at the creation of man, he could make an allowance
for any deviation that was to happen, from crimes, against the
commission of which his positive precepts ran. Weak as this is, it is
not the weakest part of this artificial argument, which, like the web
of a spider too finely woven, whatever part you touch it on, the whole
falls to pieces.

After taking it for granted, that he has proved the equality of
the two sexes in number, from the bills of mortality in London, he
next supposes, as a consequence, that all the world is in the same
predicament; that is, that an equal number of males and females is
produced every where. Why Dr Arbuthnot, an eminent physician (which
surely implies an informed naturalist) should imagine that this
inference would hold, is what I am not able to account for. He should
know, let us say, in the countries of the east, that fruits, flowers,
trees, birds, fish, every blade of grass, is commonly different, and
that man, in his appearance, diet, exercise, pleasure, government, and
religion, is as widely different; why he should found the issue of an
Asiatic, however, upon the bills of mortality in London, is to the full
as absurd as to assert, that they do not wear either beard or whiskers
in Syria, because that is not the case in London.

I am well aware, that it maybe urged by those who permit themselves to
say every thing, because they are not at pains to consider any thing,
that the course of my argument will lead to a defence of polygamy
in general, the supposed doctrine of the Thelypthora[190]. Such
reflections as these, unless introduced for merriment, are below my
animadversion; all I shall say on that topic is, that they who find
encouragement to polygamy in Mr Madan’s book, the Thelypthora, have
read it with a much more acute perception than perhaps I have done; and
I shall be very much mistaken, if polygamy increases in England upon
the principles laid down in the Thelypthora.

England, says Dr Arbuthnot, enjoys an equality of both sexes, and, if
it is not so, the inequality is so imperceptible, that no inconvenience
has yet followed. What we have now to inquire is, Whether other
nations, or the majority of them, are in the same situation? For, if
we are to decide by this, and if we should happen to find, that, in
other countries, there are invariably born three women to one man, the
conclusion, in regard to that country, must be, that three women to
one man was the proportion of one sex to the other, impressed at the
creation _in semine_ of our first parent.

I confess I am not fond of meddling with the globe _before_ the
_deluge_. But as learned men seem inclined to think that Ararat and
Euphrates are the mountain and river of antediluvian times, and that
Mesopotamia, or Diarbekir, is the ancient situation of the terrestrial
paradise, I cannot give Dr Arbuthnot’s argument fairer play[191], than
to transport myself thither; and, in the same spot where the necessity
was imposed of male and female being produced in equal numbers, inquire
how that case stands now. The pretence that climates and times may have
changed, the proportion cannot be admitted, since it has been taken
for granted, that it exists in the bills of mortality in London, and
governs them to this day; and, since it was founded on necessity, which
must be eternal.

Now, from a diligent inquiry into the south, and scripture-part of
Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Syria, from Mousul (or Nineveh) to Aleppo
and Antioch, I find the proportion to be fully two women born to one
man. There is indeed a fraction over, but not a considerable one. From
Latikea, Laodicea ad mare, down the coast of Syria to Sidon, the number
is very nearly three, or two and three-fourths to one man. Through the
Holy Land, the country called _Horan_, in the Isthmus of Suez, and
the parts of the Delta, unfrequented by strangers, it is something
less than three. But, from Suez to the straits of Babelmandeb, which
contains the three Arabias, the portion is fully four women to one man,
which, I have reason to believe, holds as far as the Line, and 30°
beyond it.

The Imam of Sana[191] was not an old man when I was in Arabia Felix
in 1769; but he had 88 children then alive, of whom 14 only were
sons.--The priest of the Nile had 70 and odd children; of whom, as I
remember, above 50 were daughters.

It may be objected, that Dr Arbuthnot, in quoting the bills of
mortality for twenty years, gave most unexceptionable grounds for
his opinion, and that my single assertion of what happens in a
foreign country, without further foundation, cannot be admitted as
equivalent testimony; and I am ready to admit this objection, as
bills of mortality there are none in any of these countries. I shall
therefore say in what manner I attained the knowledge which I have just
mentioned. Whenever I went into a town, village, or inhabited place,
dwelt long in a mountain, or travelled journies with any set of people,
I always made it my business to inquire how many children they had, or
their fathers, their next neighbours, or acquaintance. This not being a
captious question, or what any one would scruple to answer, there was
no interest to deceive; and if it had been possible, that two or three
had been so wrong-headed among the whole, it would have been of little
consequence.

I then asked my landlord at Sidon, (suppose him a weaver,) how many
children he has had? He tells me how many sons, and how many daughters.
The next I ask is a smith, a tailor, a silk-gatherer, the Cadi of the
place, a cowherd, a hunter, a fisher, in short every man that is not
a stranger, from whom I can get proper information. I say, therefore,
that a medium of both sexes arising from three or four hundred families
indiscriminately taken, shall be the proportion in which one differs
from the other; and this, I am confident, will give the result to be
three women to one man in 50° out of the 90° under every meridian of
the globe.

Without giving Mahomet all the credit for abilities that some have
done, we may surely suppose him to know what happened in his own
family, where he must have seen this great disproportion of four women
born to one man; and from the obvious consequences, we are not to
wonder that one of his first cares, when a legislator, was to rectify
it, as it struck at the very root of his empire, power, and religion.
With this view, he enacted, or rather revived, the law which gave
liberty to every individual to marry four wives, each of whom was
to be equal in rank and honour, without any preference but what the
predilection of the husband gave her. By this he secured civil rights
to each woman, and procured a means of doing away that reproach, of
_dying without issue_, to which the minds of the whole sex have always
been sensible, whatever their religion was, or from whatever part of
the world they came.

Many, who are not conversant with Arabian history, have imagined, that
this permission of a plurality of wives was given in favour of men,
and have taxed one of the most _political_, _necessary_ measures, of
that legislator, arising from motives merely civil, with a tendency
to encourage lewdness, from which it was very far distant. But, if
they had considered that the Mahometan law allows divorce without any
_cause assigned_, and that, every day at the pleasure of the man;
besides, that it permits him as many concubines as he can maintain, buy
with money, take in war, or gain by the ordinary means of address and
solicitations,--they will think such a man was before sufficiently
provided, and that there was not the least reason for allowing him to
marry four wives at a time, when he was already at liberty to marry a
new one every day.

Dr Arbuthnot lays it down as a self-evident position, that four women
will have more children by four men, than the same four women would
have by one. This assertion may very well be disputed, but still it is
not in point. For the question with regard to Arabia, and to a great
part of the world besides, is, Whether or not four women and one man,
married, or cohabiting at discretion, shall produce more children, than
four women and one man who is debarred from cohabiting with any but
one of the four, the others dying unmarried without the knowledge of
man? or, in other words, Which shall have most children, one man and
one woman, or one man and four women? This question I think needs no
discussion.

Let us now consider, if there is any further reason why England should
not be brought as an example, which Arabia, or the East in general, are
to follow.

Women in England are commonly capable of child-bearing at fourteen,
let the other term be forty-eight, when they bear no more; thirty-four
years, therefore, an English woman bears children. At the age of
fourteen or fifteen they are objects of our love; they are endeared
by bearing us children after that time, and none I hope will pretend,
that, at forty-eight and fifty, an English woman is not an agreeable
companion. Perhaps the last years, to thinking minds, are fully more
agreeable than the first. We grow old together, we have a near
prospect of dying together; nothing can present a more agreeable
picture of social life, than monogamy in England.

The Arab, on the other hand, if she begins to bear children at
eleven, seldom or never has a child after twenty. The time then of
her child-bearing is nine years, and four women, _taken altogether_,
have then the term of _thirty-six_. So that the English woman that
bears children for thirty-four years, has only two years less than the
term enjoyed by the four wives whom Mahomet has allowed; and if it be
granted an English wife may bear at fifty, the terms are equal.

But there are other grievous differences. An Arabian girl, at _eleven_
years old, by her youth and beauty, is the object of man’s desire;
being an infant, however, in understanding, she is not a rational
companion for him. A man marries there, say at _twenty_, and before he
is thirty, his wife, improved as a companion, ceases to be an object of
his desires, and a mother of children; so that all the best, and most
vigorous of his days, are spent with a woman he cannot love, and with
her he would be destined to live forty, or forty-five years, without
comfort to himself by increase of family, or utility to the public.

The reasons, then, against polygamy, which subsist in England, do not
by any means subsist in Arabia; and that being the case, it would be
unworthy of the wisdom of God, and an unevenness in his ways, which
we shall never see, to subject two nations, under such different
circumstances, absolutely to the same observances.

I consider the prophecy concerning Ishmael, and his descendants the
Arabs, as one of the most extraordinary that we meet with in the Old
Testament. It was also one of the earliest made, and proceeded upon
grounds of private reparation. Hagar had not sinned, though she had
fled from Sarah with Ishmael her son into the wilderness. In that
desert there were then no inhabitants, and though Ishmael’s[192]
succession was incompatible with God’s promise to Abraham and his son
Isaac, yet neither Hagar nor he having sinned, justice required a
reparation for the heritage which he had lost. God gave him that very
wilderness which before was the property of no man, in which Ishmael
was to erect a kingdom under the most improbable circumstances possible
to be imagined. His [193]hand was to be against every man, and every
man’s hand against him. By his sword he was to live, and pitch his tent
in the _face_ of his brethren.

Never has prophecy been so completely fulfilled. It subsisted from the
earliest ages; it was verified before the time of Moses; in the time
of David and Solomon; it subsisted in the time of Alexander and that
of Augustus Cæsar; it subsisted in the time of Justinian,--all very
distant, unconnected periods; and I appeal to the evidence of mankind,
if, without apparent support or necessity, but what it has derived from
God’s promise only, it is not in full vigour at this very day. This
prophecy alone, in the truth of which all sorts of religions agree, is
therefore of itself a sufficient proof, without other, of the Divine
authority of the scripture.

Mahomet prohibited all pork and wine; two articles which must have
been, before, very little used in Arabia. Grapes, here, grow in the
mountains of Yemen, but never arrive at maturity enough for wine. They
bring them down for this purpose to Loheia, and there the heat of the
climate turns the wine sour before they can clear it of its fæces so
as to make it drinkable; and we know that, before the appearance of
Mahomet, Arabia was never a wine country. As for swine, I never heard
of them in the peninsula, of Arabia, (unless perhaps wild in the woods
about Sana,) and it was from early times inhabited by Jews before the
coming of Mahomet. The only people therefore that ate swine’s flesh
must have been Christians, and they were a sect of little account. Many
of these, however, do not eat pork yet, but all of them were, oppressed
and despised every-where, and there was no inducement for any other
people to imitate them.

Mahomet then prohibiting only what was merely neutral, or indifferent
to the Arabs, indulged them in that to which he knew they were prone.

At the several conversations I had with the English merchants at Jidda,
they complained grievously of the manner in which they were oppressed
by the sherriffe of Mecca and his officers. The duties and fees were
increased every voyage; their privileges all taken away, and a most
destructive measure introduced of forcing them to give presents, which
was only an inducement to oppress, that the gift might be the greater.
I asked them if I should obtain from the Bey of Cairo permission for
their ships to come down to Suez, whither there were merchants in
India who would venture to undertake that voyage? Captain Thornhill
promised, for his part, that the very season after such permission
should arrive in India, he would dispatch his ship the Bengal Merchant,
under command of his mate Captain Greig, to whose capacity and worth
all his countrymen bore very ready testimony, and of which I myself
had formed a very good opinion, from the several conversations we had
together. This scheme was concerted between me and Captain Thornhill
only; and tho’ it must be confessed it had the appearance of an airy
one, (since it was not to be attempted, till I had returned through
Abyssinia and Nubia, against which there were many thousand chances,)
it was executed, notwithstanding, in the very manner in which it had
been planned, as will be after stated.

The kindness and attention of my countrymen did not leave me as long
as I was on shore. They all did me the honour to attend me to the
water edge. If others have experienced pride and presumption, from
gentlemen of the East-Indies, I was most happily exempted from even the
appearance of it at Jidda. Happy it would have been for me, if I had
been more neglected.

All the quay of Jidda was lined with people to see the English salute,
and along with my vessel there parted, at the same time, one bound to
Masuah, which carried Mahomet Abd el cader, Governor of Dahalac, over
to his government. Dahalac[194] is a large island, depending upon
Masuah, but which has a separate firman, or commission, renewed every
two years. This man was a Moor, a servant of the Naybe of Masuah, and
he had been at Jidda to procure his firman from Metical Aga, while
Mahomet Gibberti was to come with me, and was to bring it to the Naybe.
This Abd el cader no sooner was arrived at Masuah, than, following the
turn or his country for lying, he spread a report, that a great man,
or prince, whom he left at Jidda, was coming speedily to Masuah; that
he had brought great presents to the Sherriffe and Metical Aga; that,
in return, he had received a large sum in _gold_ from the Sherriffe’s
Vizir, Yousef Cabil; besides as much as he pleased from the English,
who had done nothing but feast and regale him for the several months
he had been at Jidda; and that, when he departed, as this great man
was now going to visit the Imam in Arabia Felix, all the English ships
hoisted their colours, and fired their cannon from morning to night,
for three days successively, which was two days after he had sailed,
and therefore what he could not possibly have seen. The consequence
of all this was, the Naybe of Masuah expected that a man with immense
treasures was coming to put himself into _his hands_. I look therefore
upon the danger I escaped there as superior to all those put together,
that I have ever been exposed to: of such material and bad consequence
is the most contemptible of all weapons, the tongue of a liar and a
fool!

Jidda is in lat. 28° 0´ 1´´ north, and in long. 39° 16´ 45´´ east of
the meridian of Greenwich. Our weather there had few changes. The
general wind was north-west, or more northerly. This blowing along the
direction of the Gulf brought a great deal of damp along with it; and
this damp increases as the season advances. Once in twelve or fourteen
days, perhaps, we had a south wind, which was always dry. The highest
degree of the barometer at Jidda, on the 5th of June, wind north, was
26° 6´, and the lowest on the 18th of same month, wind north-west, was
25° 7´. The highest degree of the thermometer was 97° on the 12th of
July, wind north, the lowest was 78° wind north.




CHAP. XII.

    _Sails from Jidda--Konfodah--Ras Heli boundary of Arabia
    Felix--Arrives at Loheia--Proceeds to the Straits of the Indian
    Ocean--Arrives there--Returns by Azab to Loheia._


It was on the 8th of July 1769 I sailed from the harbour of Jidda on
board the same vessel as before, and I suffered the Rais to take a
small loading for his own account, upon condition that he was to carry
no passengers. The wind was fair, and we sailed through the English
fleet at their anchors. As they had all honoured me with their regret
at parting, and accompanied me to the shore, the Rais was surprised to
see the respect paid to his little vessel as it passed under their huge
sterns, every one hoisting his colours, and saluting it with eleven
guns, except the ship belonging to my Scotch friend, who shewed his
colours, indeed, but did not fire a gun, only standing upon deck, cried
with the trumpet, “Captain ---- wishes Mr Bruce a good voyage.” I stood
upon deck, took my trumpet, and answered, “Mr Bruce wishes Captain ----
a speedy and perfect return of his understanding;” a wish, poor man,
that has not yet been accomplished, and very much to my regret, it does
not appear probable that ever it will. That night having passed a
cluster of shoals, called the Shoals of Safia, we anchored in a small
bay, Mersa Gedan, about twelve leagues from the harbour of Jidda.

The 9th of July, we passed another small road called _Goofs_, and at
a quarter past nine, Raghwan, east north-east two miles, and, at a
quarter past ten, the small Port of Sodi, bearing east north-east, at
the same distance. At one and three quarters we passed Markat, two
miles distant north-east by east; and a rock called _Numan_, two miles
distant to the south-west. After this the mountain of Somma, and, at a
quarter past six, we anchored in a small unsafe harbour, called _Mersa
Brahim_, of which we had seen a very rough and incorrect design in the
hands of the gentlemen at Jidda. I have endeavoured, with that draught
before me, to correct it so far that it may now be depended upon.

The 10th, we sailed, at five o’clock in the morning, with little wind,
our course south and by west; I suppose we were then going something
less than two knots an hour. At half after seven we passed the island
Abeled, and two other small mountains that bore about a league
south-west and by west of us. The wind freshened as it approached
mid-day, so that at one o’clock we went full three knots an hour, being
obliged to change our course according to the lying of the islands. It
came to be about south south-east in the end of the day.

At a quarter after one, we passed Ras el Askar, meaning the Cape
of the Soldiers, or of the Army. Here we saw some trees, and, at a
considerable distance within the Main, mountains to the north-east
of us. At two o’clock we passed in the middle channel, between five
sandy islands, all covered with kelp, three on the east or right hand,
and two on the west. They are called _Ginnan el Abiad_, or the White
Gardens, I suppose from the green herb growing upon the white sand.
At half after two, with the same wind, we passed an island bearing
east from us, the Main about a league distant. At three we passed
close to an island bearing south-west of us, about a mile off. It is
of a moderate height, and is called _Jibbel Surreine_. At half past
four our course was south-east and by south; we passed two islands to
the south-east of us, at two miles, and a smaller, west south-west a
quarter of a mile distant. From this to the Main will be about five
miles, or something more. At fifty minutes after four, came up to
an island which reached to Konfodah. We saw to the west, and west
south-west of us, different small islands, not more than half a mile
distant. We heaved the line, and had no soundings at thirty-two fathom,
yet, if any where, I thought there we were to find shoal water. At
five o’clock, our course being south-east and by south, we passed
an island a quarter of a mile to the west of us, and afterwards a
number of others in a row; and, at half past eight, we arrived at an
anchoring-place, but which cannot be called a harbour, named _Mersa
Hadou_.

The 11th, we left Mersa Hadou at four o’clock in the morning. Being
calm, we made little way; our course was south south-east, which
changed to a little more easterly. At six, we tacked to stand in for
Konfodah harbour, which is very remarkable for a high mountain behind
it, whose top is terminated by a pyramid or cone of very regular
proportion. There was no wind to carry us in; we hoisted out the boat
which I had bought at Jidda for my pleasure and safety, intending
it to be a present to my Rais at parting, as he very well knew. At a
quarter past eight, we were towed to our anchorage in the harbour of
Konfodah.

Konfodah means the town of the hedge-hog[195]. It is a small village,
consisting of about two hundred miserable houses, built with green
wood, and covered with mats, made of the doom, or palm-tree; lying on a
bay, or rather a shallow bason, in a desert waste or plain. Behind the
town are small hillocks of white sand. Nothing grows on shore excepting
kelp, but it is exceedingly beautiful, and very luxuriant; farther in,
there are gardens. Fish is in perfect plenty; butter and milk in great
abundance; even the desert looks fresher than other deserts, which made
me imagine that rain fell sometimes here, and this the Emir told me was
the case.

Although I made a draught of the port, it is not worth the publishing.
For though in all probability it was once deep, safe, and convenient,
yet there is nothing now but a kind of road, under shelter of a point,
or ridge of land, which rounds out into the sea, and ends in a Cape,
called _Ras Mozeffa_. Behind the town there is another small Cape, upon
which there are three guns mounted, but with what intention it was not
possible to guess.

The Emir Ferhan, governor of the town, was an Abyssinian slave,
who invited me on shore, and we dined together on very excellent
provision, dressed according to their custom. He said the country near
the shore was desert, but a little within land, or where the roots and
gravel had fixed the sand, the soil produced every thing, especially if
they had any showers of rain. It was so long since I had heard mention
of a shower of rain, that I could not help laughing, and he seemed to
think that he had said something wrong, and begged so politely to know
what I laughed at, that I was obliged to confess. “The reason, said I,
Sir, is an absurd one. What passed in my mind at that time was, that I
had travelled about two thousand miles, and above twelve months, and
had neither seen nor heard of a _shower of rain_ till now, and though
you will perceive by my conversation that I understand your language
well, for a stranger, yet I declare to you, the moment you spoke it,
had you asked, what was the Arabic for a shower of rain, I could not
have told you. I declare to you, upon my word, it was that which I
laughed at, and upon no other account whatever.” “You are going, says
he, to countries where you will have rain and wind, sufficiently cold,
and where the water in the mountains is harder than the dry land, and
people stand upon it[196]. We have only the remnant of their showers,
and it is to that we owe our greatest happiness.”

I was very much pleased with his conversation. He seemed to be near
fifty years of age, was exceedingly well dressed, had neither gun
nor pistol about him, not even a knife, nor an Arab servant armed,
though they were all well dressed; but he had in his court-yard
about threescore of the finest horses I had for a long time seen. We
dined just opposite to them, in a small saloon strowed with India
carpets; the walls were covered with white tiles, which I suppose he
had got from India; yet his house, without, was a very common one,
distinguished only from the rest in the village by its size.

He seemed to have a more rational knowledge of things, and spoke more
elegantly than any man I had conversed with in Arabia. He said he had
lost the only seven sons he had, in one month, by the small-pox: And
when I attempted to go away, he wished I would stay with him some time,
and said, that I had better take up my lodgings in his house, than go
on board the boat that night, where I was not perfectly in safety. On
my seeming surprised at this, he told me, that last year, a vessel from
Mascatte, on the Indian Ocean, had quarrelled with his people; that
they had fought on the shore, and several of the crew had been killed;
that they had obstinately cruized in the neighbourhood, in hopes of
reprisals, till, by the change of the monsoon, they had lost their
passage home, and so were necessarily confined to the Red Sea for six
months afterwards; he added, they had four guns, which they called
patareroes, and that they would certainly cut us off, as they could
not miss to fall in with us. This was the very worst news that I had
ever heard, as to what might happen at sea. Before this, we thought all
strangers were our friends, and only feared the natives of the coast
for enemies; now, upon a bare defenceless shore, we found ourselves
likely to be a prey to both natives and strangers.

Our Rais, above all, was seized with a panic; his country was just
adjoining to Mascatte upon the Indian Ocean, and they were generally at
war. He said he knew well who they were, that there was no country kept
in better order than Mascatte; but that these were a set of pirates,
belonging to the Bahareen; that their vessels were stout, full of men,
who carried incense to Jidda, and up as far as Madagascar; that they
feared no man, and loved no man, only were true to their employers for
the time. He imagined (I suppose it was but imagination,) that he had
seen a vessel in the morning, (a lug-sail vessel, as the pirate was
described to be,) and it was with difficulty we could prevail on the
Rais not to sail back to Jidda. I took my leave of the Emir to return
to my tent, to hold a consultation what was to be done.

Konfodah is in the lat. 19° 7´ North. It is one of the most unwholesome
parts on the Red Sea, provision is very dear and bad, and the water,
(contrary to what the Emir had told me) execrable. Goats flesh is
the only meat, and that very dear and lean. The anchorage, from the
castle, bears north-west a quarter of a mile distant, from ten to seven
fathoms, in sand and mud.

On the 14th, our Rais, more afraid of dying by a fever than by the
hands of the pirates, consented willingly to put to sea. The Emir’s
good dinners had not extended to the boat’s crew, and they had been
upon short commons. The Rais’s fever had returned since he left Jidda,
and I gave him some doses of bark, after which he soon recovered. But
he was always complaining of hunger, which the black flesh of an old
goat, the Emir had given us, did not satisfy.

We sailed at six o’clock in the morning, having first, by way of
precaution, thrown all our ballast over-board, that we might run into
shoal water upon the appearance of the enemy. We kept a good look-out
toward the horizon all around us, especially when we sailed in the
morning. I observed we became all fearless, and bold, about noon;
but towards night the panic again seized us, like children that are
afraid of ghosts; though at that time we might have been sure that all
stranger vessels were at anchor.

We had little wind, and passed between various rocks to the westward,
continuing our course S. S. E. nearly, somewhat more easterly, and
about three miles distant from the shore. At four o’clock, noon, we
passed Jibbel Sabeia, a sandy island, larger than the others, but no
higher. To this island the Arabs of Ras Heli send their wives and
children in time of war; none of the rest are inhabited. At five we
passed Ras Heli, which is the boundary between Yemen, or Arabia Felix,
and the [197]Hejaz, or province of Mecca, the first belonging to the
Imam, or king of Sana, the other to the Sherriffe lately spoken of.

I desired my Rais to anchor this night close under the Cape, as it was
perfectly calm and clear, and, by taking a mean of five observations
of the passage of so many stars, the most proper for the purpose, over
the meridian, I determined the latitude of Ras Heli, and consequently
the boundary of the two states, Hejaz and Yemen, or Arabia Felix and
Arabia Deserta, to be 18° 36´ north.

The mountains reach here nearer to the sea. We anchored a mile from
the shore in 15 fathoms, the banks were sand and coral; from this the
coast is better inhabited. The principal Arabs to which the country
belongs are Cotrushi, Sebahi, Helali, Mauchlota, and Menjahi. These are
not Arabs by origin, but came from the opposite coast near Azab, and
were _Shepherds_, who were stubborn enemies to Mahomet, but at last
converted; they are black, and woolly-headed. The mountains and small
islands on the coast, farther inland to the eastward, are in possession
of the _Habib_. These are white in colour, rebellious, or independent
Arabs, who pay no sort of obedience to the Imam, or the Sherriffe of
Mecca, but occasionally plunder the towns on the coast.

All the sandy desert at the foot of the mountains is called _Tehama_,
which extends to Mocha. But in the maps it is marked as a separate
country from Arabia Felix, whereas it is but the low part, or sea-coast
of it, and is not a separate jurisdiction. It is called _Tema_ in
scripture, and derives its name from _Taami_ in Arabic, which signifies
the sea-coast. There is little water here, as it never rains; there is
also no animal but the gazel or antelope, and but a few of them. There
are few birds, and those which may be found are generally mute.

The 15th, we sailed with little wind, coasting along the shore,
sometimes at two miles distance, and often less. The mountains now
seemed high. I sounded several times, and found no ground at thirty
fathoms, within a mile of the shore. We passed several ports or
harbours; first Mersa Amec, where there is good anchorage in eleven
fathom of water, a mile and a half from the shore; at eight o’clock,
Nohoude, with an island of the same name; at ten, a harbour and
village called Dahaban. As the sky was quite overcast, I could get no
observation, though I watched very attentively. Dahaban is a large
village, where there is both water and provision, but I did not see its
harbour. It bore E. N. E. of us about three miles distant. At three
quarters past eleven we came up to a high rock, called _Kotumbal_, and
I lay to, for observation. It is of a dark-brown, approaching to red;
is about two miles from the Arabian shore, and produces nothing. I
found its latitude to be 17° 57´ north. A small rock stands up at one
end of the base of the mountain.

We came to an anchor in the port of Sibt, where I went ashore under
pretence of seeking provisions, but in reality to see the country, and
observe what sort of people the inhabitants were. The mountains from
Kotumbal ran in an even chain along the coast, at no great distance,
but of such a height, that as yet we had seen nothing like them. Sibt
is too mean, and too small to be called a village, even in Arabia. It
consists of about fifteen or twenty miserable huts, built of straw;
around it there is a plantation of doom-trees, of the leaves of which
they make mats and sails, which is the whole manufacture of the place.

Our Rais made many purchases here. The _Cotrushi_, the inhabitants
of this village, seem to be as brutish a people as any in the world.
They are perfectly lean, but muscular, and apparently strong; they
wear all their own hair, which they divide upon the crown of their
head. It is black and bushy, and, although sufficiently long, seems to
partake of the woolly quality of the Negro. Their head is bound round
with a cord or fillet of the doom leaf, like the ancient diadem. The
women are generally ill-favoured, and go naked like the men. Those
that are married have, for the most part, a rag about their middle,
some of them not that. Girls of all ages go quite naked, but seem not
to be conscious of any impropriety in their appearance. Their lips,
eye-brows, and foreheads above the eye-brow, are all marked with
stibium, or antimony, the common ornament of savages throughout the
world. They seemed to be perfectly on an equality with the men, walked,
sat, and smoked with them, contrary to the practice of all women among
the Turks and Arabs.

We found no provisions at Sibt, and the water very bad. We returned
on board our vessel at sun-set, and anchored in eleven fathom, little
less than a mile from the shore. About eight o’clock, two girls, not
fifteen, swam off from the shore, and came on board. They wanted
stibium for their eye-brows. As they had laboured so hard for it, I
gave them a small quantity, which they tied in a rag about their neck.
I had killed three sharks this day; one of them, very large, was lying
on deck. I asked them if they were not afraid of that fish? They said,
they knew it, but it would not hurt them, and desired us to eat it,
for it was good, and made men strong. There appeared no symptoms of
jealousy among them. The harbour of Sibt is of a semi-circular form,
screened between N. N. E. and S. S. W. but to the south, and south
west, it is exposed, and therefore is good only in summer.

The 16th, at five in the morning, we sailed from the port of Sibt, but,
the wind being contrary, were obliged to steer to the W. S. W. and it
was not till nine o’clock we could resume our true course, which was
south-east. At half past four in the afternoon the main bore seven
miles east, when we passed an island a quarter of a mile in length,
called _Jibbel Foran_, the Mountain of Mice. It is of a rocky quality,
with some trees on the south end, thence it rises insensibly, and ends
in a precipice on the north. At six, we passed the island [198]Deregé,
low and covered with grass, but round like a shield, which is the
reason of its name. At half past six Ras Tarfa bore E. S. E. of us,
distant about two miles; and at three quarters after six we passed
several other islands, the largest of which is called _Saraffer_. It is
covered with grass, has small trees upon it, and, probably, therefore
water, but is uninhabited. At nine in the evening we anchored before
Djezan.

Djezan is in lat. 16° 45´ north, situated on a cape, which forms one
side of a large bay. It is built, as are all the towns on the coast,
with straw and mud. It was once a very considerable place for trade,
but since coffee hath been so much in demand, of which they have none,
that commerce is moved to Loheia and Hodeida. It is an usurpation from
the territory of the Imam, by a Sherriffe of the family of Beni Hassan,
called _Booarish_. The inhabitants are all Sherriffes, in other terms,
troublesome, ignorant fanatics. Djezan is one of the towns most subject
to fevers. The Farenteit[199], or worm, is very frequent here. They
have great abundance of excellent fish, and fruit in plenty, which is
brought from the mountains, whence also they are supplied with very
good water.

The 17th, in the evening, we sailed from Djezan; in the night we passed
several small villages called _Dueime_, which I found to be in lat.
16° 12´ 5´´ north. In the morning, being three miles distant from
the shore, we passed Cape Cosserah, which forms the north side of a
large Gulf. The mountains here are at no great distance, but they are
not high. The whole country seems perfectly bare and desert, without
inhabitants. It is reported to be the most unwholesome part of Arabia
Felix.

On the 18th, at seven in the morning, we first discovered the
mountains, under which lies the town of Loheia. These mountains bore
north north-east of us, when anchored in three-fathom water, about
five miles from the shore. The bay is so shallow, and the tide being
at ebb, we could get no nearer; the town bore east north-east of us.
Loheia is built upon the south-west side of a peninsula, surrounded
every where, but on the east, by the sea. In the middle of this neck
there is a small mountain which serves for a fortress, and there are
towers with cannon, which reach across on each side of the hill to the
shore. Beyond this is a plain, where the Arabs intending to attack the
town, generally assemble. The ground upon which Loheia stands is black
earth, and seems to have been formed by the retiring of the sea. At
Loheia we had a very uneasy sensation, a kind of prickling came into
our legs, which were bare, occasioned by the salt effluvia, or steams,
from the earth, which all about the town, and further to the south, is
strongly impregnated with that mineral.

Fish, and butcher meat, and indeed all sorts of provision, are
plentiful and reasonable at Loheia, but the water is bad. It is found
in the sand at the foot of the mountains, down the sides of which it
has fallen in the time of the rain, and is brought to the town in skins
upon camels. There is also plenty of fruit brought from the mountains
by the Bedowé, who live in the skirts of the town, and supply it with
milk, firewood, and fruit, chiefly grapes and bananas.

The government of the Imam is much more gentle than any Moorish
government in Arabia or Africa; the people too are of gentler manners,
the men, from early ages, being accustomed to trade. The women at
Loheia are as solicitous to please as those of the most polished
nations in Europe; and, though very retired, whether married or
unmarried, they are not less careful of their dress and persons. At
home they wear nothing but a long shift of fine cotton-cloth, suitable
to their quality. They dye their feet and hands with [200]henna, not
only for ornament, but as an astringent, to keep them dry from sweat:
they wear their own hair, which is plaited, and falls in long tails
behind.

The Arabians consider long and straight hair as beautiful. The
Abyssinians prefer the short and curled. The Arabians perfume
themselves and their shifts with a composition of musk, ambergrease,
incense, and benjoin, which they mix with the sharp horny nails that
are at the extremity of the fish surrumbac; but why this ingredient
is added I know not, as the smell of it, when burnt, does not at all
differ from that of horn. They put all these ingredients into a kind
of censer on charcoal, and stand over the smoke of it. The smell is
very agreeable; but, in Europe, it would be a very expensive article of
luxury.

The Arab women are not black, there are even some exceedingly fair.
They are more corpulent than the men, but are not much esteemed.--The
Abyssinian girls, who are bought for money, are greatly preferred;
among other reasons, because their time of bearing children is longer;
few Arabian women have children after the age of twenty.

At Loheia we received a letter from Mahomet Gibberti, telling us, that
it would yet be ten days before he could join us, and desiring us to be
ready by that time. This hurried us extremely, for we were much afraid
we should not have time to see the remaining part of the Arabian Gulf,
to where it joins with the Indian Ocean.

On the 27th, in the evening, we parted from Loheia, but were obliged
to tow the boat out. About nine, we anchored between an island called
_Ormook_, and the land; about eleven we set sail with a wind at
north-east, and passed a cluster of islands on our left.

[Illustration: _Arab of Lohein, Tribe Beni Koreish._

_Heath Sc:_

_London Publish’d Dec^r. 1^{st}. 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]

The 28th, at five o’clock in the morning, we saw the small island of
Rasab; at a quarter after six we passed between it and a large island
called _Camaran_, where there is a Turkish garrison and town, and
plenty of good water. At twelve we passed a low round island, which
seemed to consist of white sand. The weather being cloudy, I could get
no observation. At one o’clock we were off Cape Israel.

As the weather was fair, and the wind due north and steady, though
little of it, my Rais said that we had better stretch over to Azab,
than run along the coast in the direction we were now going, because,
somewhere between Hodeida and Cape Nummel, there was foul ground, with
which he should not like to engage in the night. Nothing could be more
agreeable to me. For, though I knew the people of Azab were not to
be trusted, yet there were two things I thought I might accomplish,
by being on my guard. The one was, to learn what those ruins were
that I had heard so much spoken of in Egypt and at Jidda, and which
are supposed to have been works of the Queen of Sheba, whose country
this was. The other was, to obtain the myrrh and frankincense-tree,
which grow upon that coast only, but neither of which had as yet been
described by any author.

At four o’clock we passed a dangerous shoal, which is the one I suppose
our Rais was afraid of. If so, he could not have adopted a worse
measure, than by stretching over from Cape Israel to Azab in the night;
for, had the wind come westerly, as it soon after did, we should have
probably been on the bank; as it was, we passed it something less than
a mile, the wind was north, and we were going at a great rate. At
sun-set we saw Jibbel Zekir, with three small islands, on the north
side of it. At twelve at night the wind failing, we found ourselves
about a league from the west end of Jibbel Zekir, but it then began to
blow fresh from the west; so that the Rais begged liberty to abandon
the voyage to Azab, and to keep our first intended one to Mocha. For my
part, I had no desire at all to land at Mocha. Mr Niebuhr had already
been there before us; and I was sure every useful observation had been
made as to the country, for he had staid there a very considerable
time, and was ill used. We kept our course, however, upon Mocha town.

The 29th, about two o’clock in the morning, we passed six islands,
called Jibbel el Ourèe; and having but indifferent wind, we anchored
about nine off the point of the shoal, which lies immediately east of
the north fort of Mocha.

The town of Mocha makes an agreeable appearance from the sea. Behind it
there is a grove of palm-trees, that do not seem to have the beauty of
those in Egypt, probably owing to their being exposed to the violent
south-westers that blow here, and make it very uneasy riding for
vessels; there is, however, very seldom any damage done. The port is
formed by two points of land, which make a semi-circle. Upon each of
the points is a small fort; the town is in the middle, and if attacked
by an enemy, these two forts are so detached that they might be made
of more use to annoy the town, than they could ever be to defend the
harbour. The ground for anchorage is of the very best kind, sand
without coral, which last chafes the cables all over the Red Sea.

On the 30th, at seven o’clock in the morning, with a gentle but steady
wind at west, we sailed for the mouth of the Indian Ocean. Our Rais
became more lively and bolder as he approached his own coast, and
offered to carry me for nothing, if I would go home with him to Sheher,
but I had already enough upon my hand. It is, however, a voyage some
man of knowledge and enterprise should attempt, as the country and the
manners of the people are very little known. But this far is certain,
that there all the precious gums grow; all the drugs of the _galenical
school_, the frankincense, myrrh, benjoin, dragons-blood, and a
multitude of others, the natural history of which no one has yet given
us.

The coast of Arabia, all along from Mocha to the Straits, is a bold
coast, close to which you may run without danger night or day. We
continued our course within a mile of the shore, where in some places
there appeared to be small woods, in others a flat bare country,
bounded with mountains at a considerable distance. Our wind freshened
as we advanced. About four in the afternoon we saw the mountain
which forms one of the Capes of the Straits of Babelmandeb, in shape
resembling a gunner’s quoin. About six o’clock, for what reason I did
not know, our Rais insisted upon anchoring for the night behind a small
point. I thought, at first, it had been for pilots.

The 31st, at nine in the morning, we came to an anchor above Jibbel
Raban, or Pilots Island, just under the Cape which, on the Arabian
side, forms the north entrance of the Straits. We now saw a small
vessel enter a round harbour, divided from us by the Cape. The Rais
said he had a design to have anchored there last night; but as it
was troublesome to get out in the morning by the westerly wind, he
intended to run over to Perim island to pass the night, and give us an
opportunity to make what observations we pleased in quiet.

We caught here a prodigious quantity of the finest fish that I had ever
before seen, but the silly Rais greatly troubled our enjoyment, by
telling us, that many of the fish in that part were poisonous. Several
of our people took the alarm, and abstained; the rule I made use of in
choosing mine, was to take all those that were likest the fish of our
own northern seas, nor had I ever any reason to complain.

At noon, I made an observation of the sun, just under the Cape of the
Arabian shore, with a Hadley’s quadrant, and found it to be in lat.
12° 38´ 30´´, but by many passages of the stars, observed by my large
astronomical quadrant in the island of Perim, all deductions made, I
found the true latitude of the Cape should be rather 12° 39´ 20´´ north.

Perim is a low island, its harbour good, fronting the Abyssinian shore.
It is a barren, bare rock, producing, on some parts of it, plants of
absynthium, or rue, in others kelp, that did not seem to thrive; it was
at this time perfectly scorched by the heat of the sun, and had only
a very faint appearance of having ever vegetated. The island itself
is about five miles in length, perhaps more, and about two miles in
breadth. It becomes narrower at both ends. Ever since we anchored at
the Cape, it had begun to blow strongly from the west, which gave our
Rais great apprehension, as, he said, the wind sometimes continued in
that point for fifteen days together. This alarmed me not a little,
least, by missing Mahomet Gibberti, we should lose our voyage. We had
rice and butter, honey and flour. The sea afforded us plenty of fish,
and I had no doubt but hunger would get the better of our fears of
being poisoned: with water we were likewise pretty well supplied, but
all this was rendered useless by our being deprived of fire. In short,
though we could have killed twenty turtles a-day, all we could get to
make fire of, were the rotten dry roots of the rue that we pulled from
the clefts of the rock, which, with much ado, served to make fire for
boiling our coffee.

The 1st of August we ate drammock, made with cold water and raw flour,
mixed with butter and honey, but we soon found this would not do,
though I never was hungry, in my life, with so much good provision
about me; for, besides the articles already spoken of, we had two
skins of wine from Loheia, and a small jar of brandy, which I had kept
expressly for a feast, to drink the King’s health on arriving in his
dominions, the _Indian Ocean_. I therefore proposed, that, leaving the
Rais on board, myself and two men should cross over to the south side,
to try if we could get any wood in the kingdom of Adel. This, however,
did not please my companions. We were much nearer the Arabian shore,
and the Rais had observed several people on land, who seemed to be
fishers.

If the Abyssinian shore was bad by its being desert, the danger of the
Arabian side was, that we should fall into the hands of thieves. But
the fear of wanting, even coffee, was so prevalent, and the repetition
of the drammock dose so disgusting, that we resolved to take a boat in
the evening, with two men armed, and speak to the people we had seen.
Here again the Rais’s heart failed him. He said the inhabitants on that
coast had fire-arms as well as we, and they could bring a million
together, if they wanted them, in a moment; therefore we should forsake
Perim island for the time, and, without hoisting in the boat, till we
saw further, run with the vessel close to the Arabian shore. There, it
was conceived, armed as we were, with ammunition in plenty, we should
be able to defend ourselves, if those we had seen were pirates, of
which I had not any suspicion, as they had been eight hours in our
sight, without having made one movement nearer us; but I was the only
person on board that was of that opinion.

Upon attempting to get our vessel out, we found the wind strong against
us; so that we were obliged, with great difficulty and danger, to
tow her round the west point, at the expence of many hard knocks,
which she got by the way. During this operation, the wind had calmed
considerably; my quadrant, and every thing was on board; all our arms,
new charged and primed, were laid, covered with a cloth, in the cabbin,
when we found happily that the wind became due east, and with the wind
our resolution changed. We were but twenty leagues to Mocha, and not
above twenty-six from Azab, and we thought it better, rather to get on
our return to Loheia, than to stay and live upon drammock, or fight
with the pirates for firewood. About six o’clock, we were under weigh.
The wind being perfectly fair, we carried as much sail as our vessel
would bear, indeed, till her masts nodded again. But before we begin
the account of our return, it will be necessary to say something of
these famous Straits, the communication between the Red Sea and Indian
Ocean.

This entrance begins to shew itself, or take a shape between two capes;
the one on the continent of Africa, the other on the peninsula of
Arabia. That on the African side is a high land, or cape, formed by
a chain of mountains, which run out in a point far into the sea. The
Portuguese, or Venetians, the first Christian traders in those parts,
have called it _Gardefui_, which has no signification in any language.
But, in that of the country where it is situated, it is called
_Gardefan_, and means the _Straits of Burial_, the reason of which will
be seen afterwards. The opposite cape is Fartack, on the east coast of
Arabia Felix, and the distance between them, in a line drawn across
from one to another, not above fifty leagues. The breadth between these
two lands diminishes gradually for about 150 leagues, till at last it
ends in the Straits, whose breadth does not seem to me to be above six
leagues.

After getting within the Straits, the channel is divided into two,
by the island of Perim, otherwise called _Mehun_. The inmost and
northern channel, or that towards the Arabian shore, is two leagues
broad at most, and from twelve to seventeen fathom of water. The other
entry is three leagues broad, with deep water, from twenty to thirty
fathom. From this, the coast on both sides runs nearly in a north-west
direction, widening as it advances, and the Indian Ocean grows
straiter. The coast upon the left hand is part of the kingdom of Adel,
and, on the right, that of Arabia Felix. The passage on the Arabian
shore, though the narrowest and shallowest of the two, is that most
frequently sailed through, and especially in the night; because, if you
do not round the south-point of the island, as near as possible, in
attempting to enter the broad one, but are going large with the wind
favourable, you fall in with a great number of low small islands, where
there is danger. At ten o’clock, with the wind fair, our course almost
north-east, we passed three rocky islands about a mile on our left.

On the 2d, at sun-rise, we saw land a-head, which we took to be the
Main, but, upon nearer approach, and the day becoming clearer, we found
two low islands to the leeward; one of which we fetched with great
difficulty. We found there the stock of an old acacia-tree, and two or
three bundles of wreck, or rotten sticks, which we gathered with great
care; and all of us agreed, we would eat breakfast, dinner, and supper
hot, instead of the cold repast we had made upon the drammock in the
Straits. We now made several large fires; one took the charge of the
coffee, another boiled the rice; we killed four turtles, made ready a
dolphin; got beer, wine, and brandy, and drank the King’s health in
earnest, which our regimen would not allow us to do in the Straits of
Babelmandeb. While this good chear was preparing, I saw with my glass,
first one man running along the coast westward, who did not stop;
about a quarter of an hour after, another upon a camel, walking at the
ordinary pace, who dismounted just opposite to us, and, as I thought,
kneeled down to say his prayers upon the sand. We had launched our boat
immediately upon seeing the trunk of the tree on the island; so we were
ready, and I ordered two of the men to row me on shore, which they did.

It is a bay of but ordinary depth, with straggling trees, and some flat
ground along the coast. Immediately behind is a row of mountains of a
brownish or black colour. The man remained motionless, sitting on the
ground, till the boat was ashore, when I jumped out upon the sand,
being armed with a short double-barrelled gun, a pair of pistols, and
a crooked knife. As soon as the savage saw me ashore, he made the best
of his way to his camel, and got upon his back, but did not offer to go
away.

I sat down on the ground, after taking the white turban off my head,
and waving it several times in token of peace, and seeing that he did
not stir, I advanced to him about a hundred yards. Still he stood, and
after again waving to him with my hands, as inviting him to approach,
I made a sign as if I was returning to the shore. Upon seeing this, he
advanced several paces, and stopt. I then laid my gun down upon the
land, thinking that had frightened him, and walked up as near him as
he would suffer me; that is, till I saw he was preparing to go away.
I then waved my turban, and cried, _Salam, Salam_. He staid till I
was within ten yards of him. He was quite naked, was black, and had a
fillet upon his head, either of a black or blue rag, and bracelets of
white beads upon both his arms. He appeared as undetermined what to do.
I spoke as distinctly to him as I could, _Salam Alicum_.--He answered
something like Salam, but what it was I know not. I am, said I, a
stranger from India, who came last from Tajoura in the bay of Zeyla,
in the kingdom of Adel. He nodded his head, and said something in an
unknown language, in which I heard the repetition of Tajoura and Adel.
I told him I wanted water, and made a sign of drinking. He pointed up
the coast to the eastward, and said, _Raheeda_, then made a sign of
drinking, and said _Tybe_. I now found that he understood me, and asked
him where Azab was? he pointed to a mountain just before him, and
said, Eh owah Azab Tybe, still with a representation of drinking.

I debated with myself, whether I should not take this savage prisoner.
He had three short javelins in his hand, and was mounted upon a camel.
I was on foot, and above the ancles in sand, with only two pistols,
which, whether they would terrify him to surrender or not, I did not
know; I should, otherwise, have been obliged to have shot him, and this
I did not intend. After having invited him as courteously as I could,
to the boat, I walked towards it myself, and, in the way, took up my
firelock, which was lying hid among the sand. I saw he did not follow
me a step, but when I had taken the gun from the ground, he set off at
a trot as fast as he could, to the westward, and we presently lost him
among the trees.

I returned to the boat, and then to dinner on the island, which we
named Traitor’s Island, from the suspicious behaviour of that only
man we had seen near it. This excursion lost me the time of making my
observation; all the use I made of it was to gather some sticks and
camel’s dung, which I heaped up, and made the men carry to the boat, to
serve us for firing, if we should be detained. The wind was very fair,
and we got under weigh by two o’clock.

About four we passed a rocky island with breakers on its south end,
we left it about a mile to the windward of us. The Rais called it
Crab-island. About five o’clock we came to an anchor close to a cape
of no height, in a small bay, in three fathom of water, and leaving
a small island just on our stern. We had not anchored here above ten
minutes, before an old man and a boy came down to us. As they had no
arms, I went ashore, and bought a skin of water. The old man had a very
thievish appearance, was quite naked, and laughed or smiled at every
word he said. He spoke Arabic, but very badly; told me there was great
plenty of every thing in the country whither he would carry me. He
said, moreover, that there was a king there, and a people that, loved
strangers.

The murder of the boat’s crew of the Elgin East-Indiaman, in that
very spot where he was then sitting and praising his countrymen, came
presently into my mind. I found my hand involuntarily take hold of my
pistol, and I was, for the only time in my life, strongly tempted to
commit murder. I thought I saw in the looks of that old vagrant, one of
those who had butchered so many Englishmen in cold blood.

From his readiness to come down, and being so near the place, it
was next to impossible that he was not one of the party. A little
reflection, however, saved his life; and I asked him if he could sell
us a sheep, when he said they were coming. These words put me on my
guard, as I did not know how many people might accompany them. I
therefore desired him to bring me the water to the boat, which the boy
accordingly did, and we paid him, in cohol, or stibium, to his wishes.

Immediately upon this I ordered them to put the boat afloat, demanding,
all the time, where were the sheep? A few minutes afterwards, four
stout young men came down, dragging after them two lean goats, which
the old man maintained to me were sheep. Each man had three light
javelins in his hand, and they began to wrangle exceedingly about the
animals, whether they were sheep or goats, though they did not seem to
understand one word of our language, but the words _sheep_ and _goat_
in Arabic. In five minutes after, their number increased to eleven, and
I thought it was then full time for me to go on board, for every one of
them seemed, by his discourse and gestures, to be violently agitated,
but what they said I could not comprehend. I drew to the shore, and
then put myself on board as soon as possible. They seemed to keep at
a certain distance, crying out _Belled, belled!_ and pointing to the
land, invited me to come ashore; the old hypocrite alone seemed to have
no fear, but followed me close to the boat. I then resolved to have
a free discourse with him. “There is no need, said I to the old man,
to send for thirteen men to bring two goats. We bought the water from
people that had no lances, and we can do without the sheep, though we
could not want the water, therefore, every man that has a lance in his
hand let him go away from me, or I will fire upon him.”

They seemed to take no sort of notice of this, and came rather nearer.
“You old-grey headed traitor, said I, do you think I don’t know what
you want, by inviting me on shore; let all those about you with arms go
home about their business, or I will in a minute blow them all off the
face of the earth.” He then jumped up, with rather more agility than
his age seemed to promise, and went to where the others were sitting in
a cluster, and after a little conversation the whole of them retired.

The old fellow and the boy now came down without fear to the boat, when
I gave them tobacco, some beads, and antimony, and did every thing to
gain the father’s confidence. But he still smiled and laughed, and
I saw clearly he had taken his resolution. The whole burden of his
song was, to persuade me to come on shore, and he mentioned every
inducement, and all the kindness that he would shew me. “It is fit,
you old rogue, said I, that, now your life is in my hands, you should
know how much better men there are in the world than you. They were my
_countrymen_, eleven or twelve of whom you murdered about three years
ago, in the very place where you are now sitting, and though I could
have killed the same number to-day, without any danger to myself, I
have not only let them go away, but have bought and sold with you, and
given you presents, when, according to your own law, I should have
killed both you and your son. Now do not imagine, knowing what I know,
that ever you shall decoy me ashore; but if you will bring me a branch
of the myrrh tree, and of the incense tree to-morrow, I will give you
two fonduclis for each of them.” He said, he would do it that night.
“The sooner the better, said I, for it is now becoming dark.” Upon this
he sent away his boy, who in less than a quarter of an hour came back
with a branch in his hand.

I could not contain my joy, I ordered the boat to be drawn upon the
shore, and went out to receive it; but, to my great disappointment,
I found that it was a branch of Acacia, or Sunt, which we had every
where met with in Egypt, Syria, and Arabia. I told him, this was of no
use, repeating the word _Gerar_, _Saiél_, _Sunt_. He answered Eh owah
_Saiél_; but being asked for the myrrh (mour), he said it was far up
in the mountains, but would bring it to me if I would go to the town.
Providence, however, had dealt more kindly with us in the moment than
we expected. For, upon going ashore out of eagerness to get the myrrh,
I saw, not a quarter of a mile from us, sitting among the trees, at
least thirty men, armed with javelins, who all got up the moment they
saw me landed. I called to the boatmen to set the boat afloat, which
they immediately did, and I got quickly on board, near up to the middle
in water; but as I went by the old man, I gave him so violent a blow
upon the face with the thorny branch in my hand, that it felled him to
the ground. The boy fled, and we rowed off; but before we took leave of
these traitors, we gave them a discharge of three blunderbusses loaded
with pistol-shot, in the direction where, in all probability, they were
lying to see the boat go off.

I directed the Rais to stand out towards Crab-island, and there being
a gentle breeze from the shore, carrying an easy sail, we stood over
upon Mocha town, to avoid some rocks or islands, which he said were to
the westward. While lying at Crab-island, I observed two stars pass the
meridian, and by them I concluded the latitude of that island to be 13°
2´ 45´´ North.

The wind continuing moderate, but more to the southward, at three
o’clock in the morning of the 3d, we passed Jibbel el Ourèe, then
Jibbel Zekir; and having a steady gale, with fair and moderate weather,
passing to the westward of the island Rasab, between that and some
other islands to the north-east, where the wind turned contrary, we
arrived at Loheia, the 6th, in the morning, being the third day from
the time we quitted Azab. We found every thing well on our arrival at
Loheia; but no word of Mahomet Gibberti, and I began now to be uneasy.
The rains in Abyssinia were to cease the 6th of next month, September,
and then was the proper time for our journey to Gondar.

The only money in the country of the [201]Imam, is a small piece
less than a sixpence, and by this the value of all the different
denominations of foreign coin is ascertained. It has four names,
Commesh, Loubia, Muchsota, and Harf, but the first two of these are
most commonly used.

This money is very base adulterated silver, if indeed there is any
in it. It has the appearance of pewter; on the one side is written
_Olmass_, the name of the Imam; on the other, _Emir el Moumeneen_,
Prince of the Faithful, or True Believers; a title, first taken by Omar
after the death of Abou Becr; and since, borne by all the legitimate
Caliphs. There are likewise Half-commeshes, and these are the smallest
specie current in Yemen.

  1 VENETIAN SEQUIN,                 90 }
  1 FONDUCLI,                        80 } COMMESHES.
  1 BARBARY SEQUIN,                  80 }
  1 PATAKA, _or_ IMPERIAL DOLLAR,    40 }

When the Indian merchants or vessels are here, the fonducli is raised
three commeshes more, though all specie is scarce in the Imam’s
country, notwithstanding the quantity continually brought hither for
coffee, in silver patakas, that is, dollars, which is the coin in which
purchases of any amount are paid. When they are to be changed into
commeshes, the changer or broker gives you but 39 instead of 40, so he
gains 2½ _per cent._ for all money he changes, that is, by giving bad
coin for good.

The long measure in Yemen is the peek of Stamboul, as they call it;
but, upon measuring it with a standard of a Stamboul peek, upon a
brass rod made on purpose, I found it 26⅝ inches, which is neither the
Stambouline peek, the Hendaizy peek, nor the el Belledy peek. The peek
of Stamboul is 23⅗ inches, so this of Loheia is a distinct peek, which
may be called [202]Yemani.

The weights of Loheia are the rotolo, which are of two sorts, one of
140 drachms, and used in selling fine, the other 160 drachms, for
ordinary and coarser goods. This last is divided into 16 ounces,
each ounce into 10 drachms; 100 of these rotolos are a _kantar_, or
_quintal_. The quintal of Yemen, carried to Cairo or Jidda, is 113
rotolo, because the rotolo of these places is 144 drachms. Their
weights appear to be of Italian origin, and were probably brought
hither when the Venetians carried on this trade. There is another
weight, called _faranzala_, which I take to be the native one of the
country. It is equal to 20 rotolo, of 160 drachms each.

The customs, which at Mocha are three _per cent._ upon India goods, are
five here, when brought directly from India; but all goods whatever,
brought from Jidda by merchants, whether Turks or natives, pay seven
_per cent._ at Loheia.

Loheia is in lat. 15° 40´ 52´´ north, and in long. 42° 58´ 15´´ east
of the meridian of Greenwich.--The barometer, at its highest on the
7th day of August, was 26° 9´, and its lowest 26° 1´, on the 30th of
July.--The thermometer, when at its highest, was 99° on the 30th of
the same month, wind north-east; and its lowest was 81° on the 9th of
August, wind south by east.

On the 31st of August, at four o’clock in the morning, I saw a comet
for the first time. The head of it was scarcely visible in the
telescope, that is, its precise form, which was a pale indistinct
luminous body, whose edges were not at all defined. Its tail extended
full 20°. It seemed to be a very thin vapour, for through it I
distinguished several stars of the fifth magnitude, which seemed to
be increased in size. The end of its tail had lost all its fiery
colour, and was very thin and white. I could distinguish no nucleus,
nor any part that seemed redder or deeper than the rest; for all was a
dim-ill-defined spot. At 4^{hrs.} 1´ 24´´, on the morning of the 31st,
it was distant 20° 40´ from Rigel; its tail extended to three stars in
Eridanus.

The 1st of September Mahomet Gibberti arrived, bringing with him
the firman for the Naybe of Masuah, and letters from Metical Aga
to [203]Ras Michael. He also brought a letter to me, and another
to Achmet, the Naybe’s nephew, and future successor, from Sidi Ali
Zimzimia, that is, ‘the keeper of Ishmael’s well at Mecca, called
_Zimzim_.’ In this letter, Sidi Ali desires me to put little trust in
the Naybe, but to keep no secret from Achmet his nephew, who would
certainly be my friend.




CHAP. XIII.

    _Sails for Masuah--Passes a Volcano--Comes to Dahalac--Troubled
    with a Ghost--Arrives at Masuah._


All being prepared for our departure, we sailed from Loheia on the 3d
of September 1769, but the wind failing, we were obliged to warp the
vessel out upon her anchors. The harbour of Loheia, which is by much
the largest in the Red Sea, is now so shallow, and choked up, that,
unless by a narrow canal through which we enter and go out, there
is no where three fathom of water, and in many places not half that
depth. This is the case with all the harbours on the east-coast of the
Red Sea, while those on the west are deep, without any banks or bars
before them, which is probably owing, as I have already said, to the
violence of the north-west winds, the only constant strong winds to be
met with in this Gulf. These occasion strong currents to set in upon
the east-coast, and heap up the land and gravel which is blown in from
Arabia.

All next day, the 4th, we were employed at warping out our vessel
against a contrary wind. The 5th, at three quarters past five in the
morning, we got under sail with little wind. At half past nine, Loheia
bore east north-east about four leagues distant; and here we came in
sight of several small, barren, and uninhabited islands. Booarish bore
south-west two miles off; Zebid one mile and a half distant, east
and by north; Amar, the smallest of all, one mile south; and Ormook,
south-east by east two miles.

The Arabs of the mountain, who had attempted to surprise Loheia in the
spring, now prepared for another attack against it, and had advanced
within three days journey. This obliged the Emir to draw together all
his troops from the neighbourhood; all the camels were employed to lay
in an extraordinary stock of water.

Our Rais, who was a stranger, and without connections in this place,
found himself under great difficulties to provide water enough for the
voyage, for we had but a scanty provision left, and though our boat was
no more than sixty feet long, we had about forty people on board of
her. I had indeed hired the vessel for myself, but gave the Rais leave
to take some known people passengers on board, as it was very dangerous
to make enemies in the place to which I was going, by frustrating any
person of his voyage home, even though I paid for the boat, and still
as dangerous to take a person unknown, whose end in the voyage might be
to defeat my designs. We were resolved, therefore, to bear away for an
island to the northward, where they said the water was both good, and
in plenty.

In the course of this day, we passed several small islands, and, in the
evening, anchored in seven fathom and a half of water, near a shoal
distant four leagues from Loheia. We there observed the bearings and
distances of several islands, with which we were engaged; Foosht,
W.b.N.¼ north, four leagues; Baccalan N.W.b.W. three leagues; Baida, a
large high rock above the water, with white steep cliffs, and a great
quantity of sea-fowl; Djund, and Mufracken, two large rocks off the
west point off Baccalan, W.N.W.¼ west, eleven miles; they appear, at a
distance, like a large heap of ruins: Umsegger, a very small island,
nearly level with the water, W.N.W.¼ west four miles distant; Nachel,
S.E.¼E. one league off; Ajerb S.E.b.E.½ south, two leagues; Surbat, an
island S.E.b.E.¾ south, distant ten miles; it has a marabout or Shekh’s
tomb upon it: Dahu and Dee, two small islands, close together, N.W.¼
west, about eleven miles distant; Djua S.E.½ south; it is a small white
island four leagues and a half off: Sahar, W.¼ north, nine miles off.

On the 6th, we got under sail at five o’clock in the morning. Our water
had failed us as we foresaw, but in the evening we anchored at Foosht,
in two fathoms water east of the town, and here staid the following
day, our sailors being employed in filling our skins with water, for
they make no use of casks in this sea.

Foosht is an island of irregular form. It is about five miles from
south to north, and about nine in circumference. It abounds in good
fish. We did not use our net, as our lines more than supplied us. There
were many kinds, painted with the most beautiful colours in the world,
but I always observed, the more beautiful they were, the worse for
eating. There were indeed none good but those that resembled the fish
of the north in their form, and plainness of their colours. Foosht is
low and sandy on the south, and on the north is a black hill or cape
of no considerable height, that may be seen at four leagues off. It
has two watering-places; one on the east of the island, where we now
were, the other on the west. The water there is bitter, but it had been
troubled by a number of little barks, that had been taking in water
just before us. The manner of filling their goat skins being a very
slovenly one, they take up much of the mud along with it, but we found
the water excellent, after it had settled two or three days; when it
came on board, it was as black as ink. It was incomparably the best
water we had drank since that of the Nile.

This island is covered with a kind of bent grass, which want of rain,
and the constant feeding of the few goats that are kept here, prevent
from growing to any height. The end of the island, near the north cape,
sounds very hollow, underneath, like Solfaterra, near Naples; and as
quantities of pumice stones are found here, there is great appearance
that the black hill was once a volcano. Several large shells from the
fish called Bisser, some of them twenty inches long, are seen turned
upon their faces, on the surface of large stones, of ten or twelve ton
weight. These shells are sunk into the stones, as if they were into
paste, and the stone raised round about, so as to conceal the edge of
the shell; a proof that this stone has, some time lately, been soft or
liquified. For, had it been long ago, the weather and sun would have
worn the surface of the shell, but it seems perfectly entire, and is
set in that hard brown rock, as the stone of a ring is in a golden
chasing.

The inhabitants of Foosht are poor fishermen, of the same degree of
blackness as those between Heli and Djezan; like them too, they were
naked, or had only a rag about their waist. Their faces are neither
stained nor painted. They catch a quantity of fish called Seajan, which
they carry to Loheia, and exchange for Dora and Indian corn, for they
have no bread, but what is procured this way. They also have a flat
fish, with a long tail to it, whose skin is a species of shagreen, with
which the handles of knives and swords are made. Pearls too are found
here, but neither large nor of a good water, on the other hand, they
are not dear; they are the produce of various species of shells, all
Bivalves[204].

The town consists of about thirty huts, built with faggots of bent
grass or spartum, and these are supported within with a few sticks,
and thatched with the grass, of which they are built. The inhabitants
seemed to be much terrified at seeing us come a-shore all armed; this
was not done out of fear of them, but, as we intended to stay on shore
all night, we wished to be in a situation to defend ourselves against
boats of strollers from the main. The saint, or Marabout, upon seeing
me pass near him, fell flat upon his face, where he lay for a quarter
of an hour; nor would he get up till the guns, which I was told had
occasioned his fears, were ordered by me to be immediately sent on
board.

On the 7th, by an observation of the meridian altitude of the sun, I
found the latitude of Foosht to be 15° 59´ 43´´ north. There are here
many beautiful shell-fish; the concha veneris, of several sizes and
colours, as also sea urchins, or sea-eggs. I found, particularly, one
of the pentaphylloid kind, of a very particular form. Spunges of the
common sort are likewise found all along this coast. The bearings and
distances of the principal islands from Foosht are:

  Baccalan, and the two rocks Djund and Mufracken, E. N. E. 4 miles.
  Baida rock,  E. by N. 4 miles.
  Sahar, - -   S. E.    3  do.
  Ardaina, -   W.N.W.   8  do.
  Aideen, - -  N.½E.    9  do.

Baccalan is an island, low, long, and as broad as Foosht, inhabited by
fishermen; without water in summer, which is then brought from Foosht,
but in winter they preserve the rain-water in cisterns. These were
built in ancient times, when this was a place of importance for the
fishing of pearls, and they are in perfect repair to this day; neither
the cement of the work, nor the stucco within, having at all suffered.
Very violent showers fall here from the end of October to the beginning
of March, but at certain intervals.

All the islands on this east-side of the channel belong to the
Sherriffe Djezan Booarish, but none are inhabited except Baccalan and
Foosht. This last island is the most convenient watering-place for
ships, bound up the channel from Jibbel Teir, from which it bears N.
E. by E. ¾ E. by the compass, nineteen leagues distant. It should be
remembered, however, that the western watering-place is most eligible,
because, in that case, navigators need not engage themselves among the
islands to the eastward, where they will have uneven soundings two
leagues from the land; but, though they should fall to the eastward
of this island, they will have good anchorage, from nine to eighteen
fathoms water; the bottom being good sand, between the town and the
white rock Baida.

Having supplied our great and material want of water, we all repaired
on board in the evening of the 7th; we then found ourselves unprovided
with another necessary, namely fire; and my people began to remember
how cold our stomachs were from the drammock at Babelmandeb. Firewood
is a very scarce article in the Red Sea. It is, nevertheless, to be
found in small quantities, and in such only it is used. Zimmer, an
island to the northward, was known to afford some; but, from the time
I had landed at Foosht, on the 6th, a trouble of a very particular
kind had fallen upon our vessel, of which I had no account till I had
returned on board.

An Abyssinian, who had died on board, and who had been buried upon our
coming out from Loheia bay, had been seen upon the boltsprit for two
nights, and had terrified the sailors very much; even the Rais had
been not a little alarmed; and, though he could not directly say that
he had seen him, yet, after I was in bed on the 7th, he complained
seriously to me of the bad consequences it would produce if a gale
of wind was to rise, and the ghost was to keep his place there, and
desired me to come forward and speak to him. “My good Rais,” said I, “I
am exceedingly tired, and my head achs much with the sun, which hath
been violent to-day. You know the Abyssinian paid for his passage,
and, if he does not overload the ship, (and I apprehend he should
be lighter than when we took him on board) I do not think, that in
justice or equity, either you or I can hinder the ghost from continuing
his voyage to Abyssinia, as we cannot judge what serious business he
may have there.” The Rais began to bless himself that he did not know
any thing of his affairs.--“Then,” said I, “if you do not find he makes
the vessel too heavy before, do not molest him; because, certainly if
he was to come into any other part of the ship, or if he was to insist
to sit in the middle of you (in the disposition that you all are) he
would be a greater inconvenience to you than in his present post.” The
Rais began again to bless himself, repeating a verse of the Koran;
“bismilla sheitan rejem,” in the name of God keep the devil far from
me. “Now, Rais,” said I, “if he does us no harm, you will let him ride
upon the boltsprit till he is tired, or till he comes to Masuah, for I
swear to you, unless he hurts or troubles us, I do not think I have any
obligation to get out of my bed to molest him, only see that he carries
nothing off with him.”

The Rais now seemed to be exceedingly offended, and said, for his part
he did not care for his life more than any other man on board; if it
was not from fear of a gale of wind, he might ride on the boltsprit and
be d----n’d; but that he had always heard learned people could speak to
ghosts. Will you be so good, Rais, said I, to step forward, and tell
him, that I am going to drink coffee, and should be glad if he would
walk into the cabbin, and say any thing he has to communicate to me, if
he is a Christian, and if not, to Mahomet Gibberti. The Rais went out,
but, as my servant told me, he would neither go himself, nor could get
any person to go to the ghost for him. He came back, however, to drink
coffee with me. I was very ill, and apprehensive of what the French
call a _Coup de soleil_. “Go, said I to the Rais, to Mahomet Gibberti,
who was lying just before us, tell him that I am a Christian, and have
no jurisdiction over ghosts in these seas.”

A moor called _Yasine_, well known to me afterwards, now came forward,
and told me, that Mahomet Gibberti had been very bad ever since we
failed, with sea-sickness, and begged that I would not laugh at the
spirit, or speak so familiarly of him, because it might very possibly
be the devil, who often appeared in these parts. The Moor also desired
I would send Gibberti some coffee, and order my servant to boil him
some rice with fresh water from Foosht; for hitherto our fish and our
rice had been boiled in sea water, which I constantly preferred. This
bad news of my friend Mahomet banished all merriment, I gave therefore
the necessary orders to my servant to wait upon him, and at the same
time recommended to Yasine to go forward with the Koran in his hand,
and read all night, or till we should get to Zimmer, and then, or in
the morning, bring me an account of what he had seen.

The 8th, early in the morning, we sailed from Foosht, but the wind
being contrary, we did not arrive at our destination till near mid-day,
when we anchored in an open road about half a mile from the island,
for there is no harbour in Baccalan, Foosht, nor Zimmer. I then took
my quadrant, and went with the boat ashore, to gather wood. Zimmer is
a much smaller island than Foosht, without inhabitants, and without
water; though, by the cisterns which still remain, and are sixty yards
square, hewed out of the solid rock, we may imagine this was once a
place of consequence: rain in abundance, at certain seasons, still
falls there. It is covered with young plants of rack tree, whose
property it is, as I have already said, to vegetate in salt water. The
old trees had been cut down, but there was a considerable number of
Saiel, or Acacia trees, and of these we were in want.

Although Zimmer is said to be without water, yet there are antelopes
upon it, as also hyænas in number, and it is therefore probable that
there is water in some subterraneous caves or clefts of the rocks,
unknown to the Arabs or fishermen, without which these animals could
not subsist. It is probable the antelopes were brought over from Arabia
for the Sherriffe’s pleasure, or those of his friends, if they did
not swim from the main, and an enemy afterwards brought the hyæna to
disappoint that amusement. Be that as it will, though I did not myself
see the animals, yet I observed the dung of each of them upon the
sand, and in the cisterns; so the fact does not rest wholly upon the
veracity of the boatman. We found at Zimmer plenty of the large shell
fish called Bisser and Surrumbac, but no other. I found Zimmer, by an
observation of the sun at noon, to be in lat. 16° 7´ North, and from it
we observed the following bearings and distances.

  Sahaanah,   dist. 9 miles,  S. by W.
  Foosht,      do.  8  do.    N. W. by N.¼ W.
  Aideen,      do.  7  do.    E.
  Ardaina,     do.  2  do.    E. by S.
  Rahha,       do.  6  do.    N. W.¼ N.
  Doohaarab,   do.  21 do.    W. N. W.¼ W.

We sailed in the night from Zimmer. When we came nearer the channel,
the islands were fewer, and we had never less than twenty-five fathom
water. The wind was constantly to the north and west, and, during all
the heat of the day, N. N. W. At the same time we had visibly a strong
current to the northward.

The 9th, at six o’clock in the morning, the island Rapha bore N. E. by
east, distant about two leagues, and in the same direction we saw the
tops of very high mountains in Arabia Felix, which we imagined to be
those above Djezan; and though these could not be less than twenty-six
leagues distance, yet I distinguished their tops plainly, some minutes
before sun-rise. At noon I observed our latitude to be 16° 10´ 3´´
north, so we had made very little way this day, it being for the most
part calm. Rapha then bore E. ¾ north, distant thirteen miles, and
Doohaarab N. N. W. five miles off. We continued under sail all the
evening, but made little way, and still less during the night.

On the 10th, at seven in the morning, I first saw Jibbel Teir, till
then it had been covered with a mist. I ordered the pilot to bear down
directly upon it. All this forenoon our vessel had been surrounded with
a prodigious number of sharks. They were of the hammer-headed kind, and
two large ones seemed to vie with each other which should come nearest
our vessel. The Rais had fitted a large harpoon with a long line for
the large fish in the channel, and I went to the boltsprit to wait for
one of the sharks, after having begged the Rais, first to examine if
all was tight there, and if the ghost had done it no harm by sitting
so many nights upon it. He shook his head, laughing, and said, “The
sharks seek something more substantial than ghosts.” “If I am not
mistaken, Rais, said I, this ghost seeks something more substantial
too, and you shall see the end of it.”

I struck the largest shark about a foot from the head with such force,
that the whole iron was buried in his body. He shuddered, as a person
does when cold, and shook the shaft of the harpoon out of the socket,
the weapon being made so on purpose; the shaft fell across, kept fixt
to the line, and served as a float to bring him up when he dived, and
impeded him when he swam. No salmon fisher ever saw finer sport with
a fish and a rod. He had thirty fathom of line out, and we had thirty
fathom more ready to give him. He never dived, but sailed round the
vessel like a ship, always keeping part of his back above water. The
Rais, who directed us, begged we would not pull him, but give him as
much more line as he wanted; and indeed we saw it was the weight of the
line that galled him, for he went round the vessel without seeking to
go farther from us. At last he came nearer, upon our gathering up the
line, and upon gently pulling it after, we brought him along-side, till
we fastened a strong boat-hook in his throat: a man swung upon a cord
was now let down to cut his tail, while hanging on the ship’s side,
but he was, if not absolutely dead, without the power of doing harm.
He was eleven feet seven inches from his snout to his tail, and nearly
four feet round in the thickest part of him. He had in him a dolphin
very lately swallowed, and about half a yard of blue cloth. He was the
largest, the Rais said, he had ever seen, either in the Red Sea or the
Indian Ocean.

About twenty minutes before twelve o’clock we were about four leagues
distant from the island, as near as I could judge upon a parallel.
Having there taken my observation, and all deductions made, I concluded
the latitude of the north end of Jibbel Teir to be 15° 38´ north;
thirty-two leagues west longitude from Loheia, fifty-three east
longitude from Masuah, and forty-six leagues east of the meridian
of Jidda. Jibbel Teir, or the Mountain of the Bird, is called by
others, Jibbel Douhan, or the Mountain of Smoke. I imagine that the
fame was the origin of our name of[205]_Gibraltar_, rather than from
_Tarik_, who first landed in Spain; and one of my reasons is, that so
conspicuous a mountain, near, and immediately in the face of the moors
of Barbary, must have been known by some name, long before Tarik with
his Arabs made his descent into Spain.

The reason of its being called Jibbel Douhan, the Mountain of Smoke,
is, that though, in the middle of the sea, it is a volcano, which
throws out fire, and though nearly extinguished, smokes to this day.
It probably has been the occasion of the creation of great part of the
neighbouring islands. Did it burn now, it would be of great use to
shipping in the night, but in the earliest history of the trade of that
sea, no mention is made of it, as in a state of conflagration. It was
called _Orneón_ in Ptolemy, the Bird-Island, the name as Jibbel Teir.
It is likewise called Sheban, from the white spot at the top of it,
which seems to be sulphur, and a part seems to have fallen in, and to
have enlarged the crater on this side. The island is four miles from
south to north, has a peek in form of a pyramid in the middle of it,
and is about a quarter of a mile high. It descends, equally, on both
sides, to the sea; has four openings at the top, which vent smoke, and
sometimes, in strong southerly winds it is said to throw out fire.
There was no such appearance when we passed it. The island is perfectly
desert, being covered with sulphur and pumice stones.

Some journals that I have seen are full of indraughts, whirlpools,
and unfathomable depths, all around this island. I must however take
the liberty of saying to these gentlemen, who are otherwise so very
fond of soundings as to distribute them all over the channel, that
they have been unfortunate in placing their unfathomable depths
here, and even soundings. It is probable these are occasioned by the
convulsions in the earth made by this volcano; but the only indraught
we saw was a strong current setting northward, and there are soundings
as far as three leagues east of it, in 33 fathom water, with a sandy
bottom. Between this and the island Rafab you have soundings from 20
to 35 fathom, with sand and rocks; and on the north-east side you
have good anchoring, from a league’s distance, till within a cable’s
length of the shore, and there is anchorage five leagues S. W. by W.
in twenty-five fathoms, and I believe also, in the line from Loheia
to Dahalac, the effects of the convulsions of this volcano. Such, at
least, is the information I procured at Masuah from the pilots used to
this navigation in search of sulphur; such was the information also of
my Rais, who went twice loaded with that commodity to his own country
at Mascatte; no other people go there. Both Abyssinians and Arabians
believe that this is the entry or passage by which the devil comes up
to this world.

Six leagues E. by S. of this island there is a dangerous shoal with
great overfalls, on which a French ship struck in the year 1751, and
was saved with very great difficulty. Jibbel Teir is the point from
which all our ships, going to Jidda, take their departure, after
sailing from Mocha, and passing the islands to the southward.

We left Jibbel Teir on the 11th with little wind at west, but towards
mid-day it freshened as usual, and turned northward to N. N. east.
We were now in mid-channel, so that we stood on straight for Dahalac
till half past four, when a boy, who went aloft, saw four islands
in a direction N. W. by W.¼ west. We were standing on with a fresh
breeze, and all our sails full, when I saw, a little before sun-set,
a white-fringed wave of the well-known figure of a breaker. I cried
to the Rais for God’s sake to shorten sail, for I saw a breaker
a-head, straight in our way. He said there was no such thing; that I
had mistaken it, for it was a sea-gull. About seven in the evening we
struck upon a reef of coral rocks. Arabs are cowards in all sudden
dangers, which they consider as particular directions or mandates of
providence, and therefore not to be avoided. Few uncultivated minds
indeed have any calmness, or immediate resource in themselves when in
unexpected danger. The Arab sailors were immediately for taking the
boat, and sailing to the islands the boy had seen. The Abyssinians were
for cutting up the planks and wood of the inside of the vessel, and
making her a raft.

A violent dispute ensued, and after that a battle, when night overtook
us, still fast upon the rock. The Rais and Yasine, however, calmed the
riot, when I begged the passengers would hear me. I told them, “You
all know, or should know, that the boat is mine, as I bought it with
my money, for the safety and accommodation of myself and servants; you
know, likewise, that I and my men are all well armed, while you are
naked; therefore do not imagine that we will suffer any of you to enter
that boat, and save your lives at the expence of ours. On this vessel
of the Rais is your dependence, in it you are to be saved or to perish;
therefore all hands to work, and get the vessel off, while it is calm;
if she had been materially damaged, she had been sunk before now.” They
all seemed on this to take courage, and said, they hoped I would not
leave them. I told them, if they would be men, I would not leave them
while there was a bit of the vessel together.

The boat was immediately launched, and one of my servants, the Rais,
and two sailors, were put on board. They were soon upon the bank, where
the two sailors got out, who cut their feet at first upon the white
coral, but afterwards got firmer footing. They attempted to push the
ship backwards, but she would not move. Poles and handspikes were tried
in order to stir her, but these were not long enough. In a word, there
was no appearance of getting her off before morning, when we knew the
wind would rise, and it was to be feared she would then be dashed to
pieces. Mahomet Gibberti, and Yasine, had been reading the Koran aloud
ever since the vessel struck. I said to them in passing, “Sirs, would
it not be as wise for you to leave your books till you get a-shore, and
lend a hand to the people?” Mahomet answered, “that he was so weak and
sick, that he could not stand.” But Yasine did not slight the rebuke,
he stripped himself naked, went forward on the vessel, and then threw
himself into the sea. He, first, very judiciously, felt what room there
was for standing, and found the bank was of considerable breadth, and
that we were stuck upon the point of it; that it rounded, slanting away
afterwards, and seemed very deep at the sides, so the people, standing
on the right of it, could not reach the vessel to push it, only those
upon the point. The Rais and Yasine now cried for poles and handspikes,
which were given them; two more men let themselves down by the side,
and stood upon the bank. I then desired the Rais to get out a line,
come a-stern with the boat, and draw her in the same direction that
they pushed.

As soon as the boat could be towed a-stern, a great cry was set up,
that she began to move. A little after, a gentle wind just made itself
felt from the east, and the cry from the Rais was, Hoist the fore-sail
and put it a-back. This being immediately done, and a gentle breeze
filling the fore-sail at the time, they all pushed, and the vessel slid
gently off, free from the shoal. I cannot say I partook of the joy so
suddenly as the others did. I had always some fears a plank might have
been started; but we saw the advantage of a vessel being sewed, rather
than nailed together, as she not only was unhurt, but made very little
water. The people were all exceedingly tired, and nobody thought they
could enough praise the courage and readiness of Yasine. From that day
he grew into consideration with me, which increased ever after, till my
departure from Abyssinia.

The latitude of our place, at noon, had been 15° 32´ 12´´. I rectified
my quadrant, and hung it up. Seeing the clear of the _Lyre_ not far
from the meridian, I was willing to be certain of that dangerous place
we had fallen upon. By two observations of _Lucida Lyræ_, and _Lucida
Aquilæ_, and by a mean of both, I found the bank to be in lat. 15° 28´
15´´ north.

There was a circumstance, during the hurry of this transaction, that
gave us all reason to be surprised. The ghost was supposed to be again
seen on the boltsprit, as if pushing the vessel ashore; and as this was
breaking covenant with me, as a passenger, I thought it was time some
notice should be taken of him, since the Rais had referred it entirely
to me. I inquired who the persons were that had seen him. Two moors of
Hamazen were the first that perceived him, and afterwards a great part
of the crew had been brought to believe the reality of this vision.
I called them forward to examine them before the Rais, and Mahomet
Gibberti, and they declared that, during the night, they had seen him
go and come several times; once, he was pushing against the boltsprit,
another time he was pulling upon the rope, as if he had an anchor
ashore; after this he had a very long pole, or stick, in his hand, but
it seemed heavy and stiff, as if it had been made of iron, and when
the vessel began to move, he turned into a small blue flame, ran along
the gunnel on the larboard side of the ship, and, upon the vessel
going off, he disappeared. “Now,” said I, “it is plain by this change
of shape, that he has left us for ever, let us therefore see whether
he has done us any harm or not. Hath any of you any baggage stowed
forwards?” The strangers answered, “Yes, it is all there.” Then said
I, go forward, and see if every man has got his own. They all did this
without loss of time, when a great noise and confusion ensued; every
one was plundered of something, stibium, nails, brass wire, incense
and beads; in short, all the precious part of their little stores was
stolen.

All the passengers were now in the utmost despair, and began to charge
the sailors. “I appeal to you, Yasine and Mahomet Gibberti, said I,
whether these two moors who saw him oftenest, and were most intimate
with him, have not a chance of knowing where the things are hid; for in
my country, where ghosts are very frequent, they are always assisted
in the thefts they are guilty of, by those that see and converse with
them. I suppose therefore it is the same with Mahometan ghosts.” “The
very same, said Mahomet Gibberti and Yasine, as far as ever we heard.”
“Then go, Yasine, with the Rais, and examine that part of the ship
where the moors slept, while I keep them here; and take two sailors
with you, that know the secret places.” Before the search began,
however, one of them told Yasine where every thing was, and accordingly
all was found and restored. I would not have the reader imagine, that I
here mean to value myself, either upon any supernatural knowledge, or
extreme sagacity, in supposing that it was a piece of roguery from the
beginning, of which I never doubted. But while Yasine and the sailors
were busy pushing off the vessel, and I a-stern at an observation,
Mahomet Gibberti’s servant, sitting by his master, saw one of the moors
go to the repository of the baggage, and, after staying a little, come
out with a box and package in his hand. This he told his master, who
informed me, and the ghost finding his associates discovered, never was
seen any more.

The 12th, in the morning, we found that this shoal was a sand bank,
with a ridge of coral rocks upon it, which stretches hither from Selma,
and ends a little farther to the northward in deep water. At sun-rise
the islands bore as follow:--

  Wowcan,    distant  5 miles,    S. S. E. ¼ E.
  Selma,       do.    3  do.      S.
  Megaida,     do.    4  do.      S. W.½ S.
  Zober,       do.    4  do.      W. by S.¼ S.
  Racka,       do.    5  do.      N. N. W.
  Fursh,       do.    4  do.      N. W. by N.¼ N.

These islands lie in a semi-circle round this shoal. There were no
breakers upon it, the sea being so perfectly calm. I suppose if there
had been wind, it would have broken upon it, as I certainly saw it do
before we struck; between Megaida and Zober is a small sharp rock above
the surface of the sea.

We got under sail at six in the morning, but the wind was very fast
decaying, and soon after fell dead-calm. Towards eleven, as usual, it
freshened, and almost at due north. At noon I found our lat. to be 15°
29´ 33´´ north, from which we had the following bearings:--

  Selma,    distant  5 miles,    S. E.½S.
  Megaida,    do.    4  do.      S. S. E.
  Zober,      do.    2  do.      S.
  Dubia,      do.    5  do.      W. by S.¼S.
  Racka,      do.    1  do.      N. W.
  Beyoume,    do.    5  do.      N. W. by N.
  Cigala,     do.    6  do.      N.
  Fursh,      do.    3  do.      N. E. by N.¼N.

--and the rocks upon which we struck, E. by S.½S. something less than
five miles off.

At four o’clock in the afternoon we saw land, which our pilot told us
was the south end of Dahalac. It bore west by south, and was distant
about nine leagues. As our course was then west by north, I found that
we were going whither I had no intention to land, as my agreement was
to touch at Dahalac el Kibeer, which is the principal port, and on
the south end of the island, where the India ships formerly used to
resort, as there is deep water, and plenty of sea-room between that and
the main. But the freight of four sacks of dora, which did not amount
to ten shillings, was sufficient to make the Rais break his word, and
run a risk of cancelling all the meritorious services he had so long
performed for me. So certain is it, that none of these people can ever
do what is right, where the smallest trifle is thrown into the scale to
bias them from their duty.

At six in the evening we anchored near a small island called _Racka
Garbia_, or West Racka, in four fathom of stony-ground. By a meridian
altitude of _Lucida Aquilæ_, I concluded the lat. to be 15° 31´ 30´´
north, and our bearings as follow:--

  Dallacken,    distant   3 miles,    N. E.¾E.
  Dalgrousht,     do.     5  do.      S. E. by E.½S.
  Dellesheb,      do.     6  do.      E. N. E.¾E.
  Dubia,          do.    11  do.      E. by S.½S.
  Racka Garbia,   do.     2  do.      S. W. by W.¼S.

On the 13th, a little after sun-rise, we continued our course west, and
a very little southerly, with little wind. At eight o’clock we passed
Dalgrousht, north by east about a league distance, and a new island,
Germ Malco west by north. At noon, I observed our latitude to be 15°
33´ 13´´ north; and our bearings as follow:--

  Dallacken,    distant  6  miles,    E. by S.
  Racka,          do.    6   do.      S. E. by S.
  Germ Malco,     do.    6   do.      S. S. W.
  Dalgrousht,     do.    4   do.      E. N. E.
  Dennifarek,     do.    7   do.      N. N. W.
  Seide el Arabi, do.    4   do.      W. by S.
  Dahal Couss,    do.    9   do.      N. W. by N.

The south cape of the island of Dahalac is called _Ras Shouke_, which,
in Arabic, means the Cape of Thorns, because upon it are a quantity
of sunt, or acacia, the thorny-tree which bears the gum-arabic. We
continued our course along the east side of Dahalac, and, at four
o’clock in the afternoon, saw Irwée, which is said to answer to the
centre of the island. It bore then south-west of us four miles. We
also saw two small islands, Tarza and Siah el Sezan; the first, north
by west three miles; the second, north-east by east, but something
farther. After having again violently struck on the coral rocks in the
entry, at sun-set we anchored in the harbour of Dobelew.

This harbour is in form circular, and sufficiently defended from all
winds, but its entrance is too narrow, and within, it is full of rocks.
The bottom of the whole port is covered with large ramifications of
white coral, with huge black stones; and I could no where observe
there were above three fathom water, when it was full sea. The pilot
indeed said there were seven, or twelve at the mouth; but so violent a
tide rushed in through the entrance, that no vessel could escape being
driven upon the rocks, therefore I made no draught of it.

Dobelew is a village three miles south-west of the harbour. It
consists of about eighty houses, built of stone drawn from the sea;
these calcine like shells, and make good enough morter, as well as
materials for building before burning. All the houses are covered with
bent-grass, like those of Arabia. The 17th, I got my large quadrant
a-shore, and observed the sun in the meridian in that village, and
determined the lat. of its south-west extremity, to be 15° 42´ 22´´
north.

Irwee is a village still smaller than Dobelew, about four miles
distant. From this observation, compared with our account, we computed
the southern cape of Dahalac, called _Ras Shouke_, to be in lat. 15°
27´ 30´´; and Ras Antalou, or the north cape, to be in lat. 15° 54´
30´´ north.

The whole length of the island, whose direction is from north-west to
south-east is thirty-seven miles, and its greatest breadth eighteen,
which did within a very little agree with the account the inhabitants
gave us, who made its length indeed something more.

Dahalac is by far the largest island in the Red Sea, as none, that we
had hitherto seen, exceeded five miles in length. It is low and even,
the soil fixed gravel and white sand, mixed with shells and other
marine productions. It is destitute of all sorts of herbage, at least
in summer, unless a small quantity of bent grass, just sufficient
to feed the few antelopes and goats that are on the island. There
is a very beautiful species of this last animal found here, small,
short-haired, with thin black sharp horns, having rings upon them, and
they are very swift of foot.

This island is, in many places, covered with large plantations of
Acacia trees, which grow to no height, seldom above eight feet, but
spread wide, and turn flat at top, probably by the influence of the
wind from the sea. Though in the neighbourhood of Abyssinia, Dahalac
does not partake of its seasons: no rain falls here, from the end of
March to the beginning of October; but, in the intermediate months,
especially December, January, and February, there are violent showers
for twelve hours at a time, which deluge the island, and fill the
cisterns so as to serve all next summer; for there are no hills nor
mountains in Dahalac, and consequently no springs. These cisterns
alone preserve the water, and of them there yet remain three hundred
and seventy, all hewn out of the solid rock. They say these were the
works of the Persians; it is more probable they were those of the first
Ptolemies. But whoever were the constructors of these magnificent
reservoirs, they were a very different people from those that now
possess them, who have not industry enough to keep one of the three
hundred and seventy clear for the use of man. All of them are open to
every sort of animal, and half full of the filth they leave there,
after drinking and washing in them. The water of Dobelew, and Irwée,
tasted strong of musk, from the dung of the goats and antelopes, and
the smell before you drink it is more nauseous than the taste; yet one
of these cisterns, cleaned and shut up with a door, might afford them
wholesome sweet water all the year over.

After the rains fall, a prodigious quantity of grass immediately
springs up; and the goats give the inhabitants milk, which in winter
is the principal part of their subsistence, for they neither plow nor
sow. All their employment is to work the vessels which trade to the
different parts of the coast. One half of the inhabitants is constantly
on the Arabian side, and by their labour is enabled to furnish with
[206]dora, and other provisions, the other half who stay at home;
and when their time is expired, they are relieved by the other half,
and supplied with necessaries in their turn. But the sustenance of
the poorer sort is entirely shell and other fish. Their wives and
daughters are very bold, and expert fisher-women. Several of them,
entirely naked, swam off to our vessel before we came to an anchor,
begging handfuls of wheat, rice, or dora. They are very importunate and
sturdy beggars, and not easily put off with denials. These miserable
people, who live in the villages not frequented by barks from Arabia,
are sometimes a whole year without tasting bread. Yet such is the
attachment to the place of their nativity, they prefer living in this
bare, barren, parched spot, almost in want of necessaries of every
kind, especially of these essential ones, bread and water, to those
pleasant and plentiful countries on both sides of them. This preference
we must not call strange, for it is universal: A strong attachment to
our native country, whatever is its condition, has been impressed by
Providence, for wise ends, in the breasts of all nations; from Lapland
to the Line, you find it written precisely in the same character.

There are twelve villages, or towns, in Dahalac, little different
in size from Dobelew; each has a plantation of doom-trees round it,
which furnish the only manufacture in the island. The leaves of this
tree, when dried, are of a glossy white, which might very easily be
mistaken for sattin; of these they make baskets of surprising beauty
and neatness, staining part of the leaves with red or black, and
working them into figures very artificially. I have known some of
these, resembling straw-baskets, continue full of water for twenty-four
hours, without one drop coming through. They sell these at Loheia
and Jidda, the largest of them for four commesh, or sixpence. This
is the employment, or rather amusement of the men who stay at home;
for they work but very moderately at it, and all of them indeed take
special care, not to prejudice their health by any kind of fatigue from
industry.

People of the better sort, such as the Shekh and his relations, men
privileged to be idle, and never exposed to the sun, are of a brown
complexion, not darker than the inhabitants of Loheia. But the common
sort employed in fishing, and those who go constantly to sea, are
not indeed black, but red, and little darker than the colour of new
mahogany. There are, besides, blacks among them, who come from Arkeeko
and the Main, but even these, upon marrying, grow less black in a
generation.

The inhabitants of Dahalac seemed to be a simple, fearful, and
inoffensive people. It is the only part of Africa, or Arabia, (call it
which you please) where you see no one carry arms of any kind; neither
gun, knife, nor sword, is to be seen in the hands of any one. Whereas,
at Loheia, and on all the coast of Arabia, and more particularly at
Yambo, every person goes armed; even the porters, naked, and groaning
under the weight of their burden, and heat of the day, have yet a
leather belt, in which they carry a crooked knife, so monstrously
long, that it needs a particular motion and address in walking, not to
lame the bearer. This was not always the case at Dahalac; several of
the Portuguese, on their first arrival here, were murdered, and the
island often treated ill, in revenge, by the armaments of that nation.
The men seem healthy. They told me they had no diseases among them,
unless sometimes in Spring, when the boats of Yemen and Jidda bring the
small-pox among them, and very few escape with life that are infected.
I could not observe a man among them that seemed to be sixty years old,
from which I infer, they are not long livers, though the air should be
healthy, as being near the channel, and as they have the north wind all
summer, which moderates the heat.

Of all the islands we had passed on this side the channel, Dahalac
alone is inhabited. It depends, as do all the rest, upon Masuah, and is
conferred by a firman from the Grand Signior, on the Basha of Jidda;
and, from him, on Metical Aga, then on the Naybe and his servants. The
present governor’s name was Hagi Mahomet Abdel cader, of whom I have
before spoken, as having sailed from Jidda to Masuah before me, where
he did me all the dis-service in his power, and nearly procured my
assassination. The revenue of this governor consists in a goat brought
to him monthly by each of the twelve villages. Every vessel, that puts
in there for Masuah, pays him also a pound of coffee, and every one
from Arabia, a dollar or pataka. No sort of small money is current at
Dahalac, excepting Venetian glass-beads, old and new, of all sizes and
colours, broken and whole.

Although this is the miserable state of Dahalac at present, matters
were widely different in former times. The pearl fishery flourished
greatly here, under the Ptolemies; and even long after, in the time
of the Caliphs, it produced a great revenue, and, till the sovereigns
of Cairo, of the present miserable race of slaves, began to withdraw
themselves from their dependency on the port (for even after the
reign of Selim, and the conquests of Arabia, under Sinan Basha, the
Turkish gallies were still kept up at Suez, whilst Masuah and Suakem
had Bashas) Dahalac was the principal island that furnished the pearl
fishers, or divers. It was, indeed, the chief port for the fishery on
the southern part of the Red Sea, as Suakem was on the north; and the
Basha of Masuah passed part of every summer here, to avoid the heat at
his place of residence on the Continent.

The fishery extended from Dahalac and its islands nearly to lat. 20°.
The inhabited islands furnished each a bark, and so many divers, and
they were paid in wheat, flour, &c. such a portion to each bark,
for their use, and so much to leave with their family, for their
subsistence; so that a few months employment furnished them with every
thing necessary for the rest of the year. The fishery was rented, in
latter times, to the Basha of Suakem, but there was a place between
Suakem, and the supposed river Frat, in lat. 21° 28´ north, called
_Gungunnah_, which was reserved to the Grand Signior in particular, and
a special officer was appointed to receive the pearls on the spot, and
send them to Constantinople. The pearls found there were of the largest
size, and inferior to none in water, or roundness. Tradition says, that
this was, exclusively, the property of the Pharaohs, by which is meant,
in Arabian manuscrip’s, the old kings of Egypt before Mahomet.

In the same extent, between Dahalac and Suakem, was another very
valuable fishery, that of[207] tortoises, from which the finest shells
of that kind were produced, and a great trade was carried on with
the East Indies, (China especially) at little expence, and with very
considerable profits. The animal itself (the turtle) was in great
plenty, between lat. 18° and 20°, in the neighbourhood of those low
sandy islands, laid down in my chart.

The India trade flourished exceedingly at Suakem and Masuah, as it had
done in the prosperous time of the Caliphs. The Banians, (then the
only traders from the East Indies) being prohibited by the Mahometans
to enter the Holy Land of the Hejaz, carried all their vessels to
Konfodah in Yemen, and from these two ports had, in return, at the
first hand, pearls, tortoise-shell, which sold for its weight of gold,
in China; Tibbar, or pure gold of Sennaar, (that from Abyssinia being
less so) elephant’s teeth, rhinoceros horns for turning, plenty of gum
Arabic, cassia, myrrh, frankincense, and many other precious articles;
these were all bartered, at Masuah and Suakem, for India goods. But
nothing which violence and injustice can ruin, ever can subsist under
Turkish government. The Bashas paying dearly for their confirmation
at Constantinople, and uncertain if they should hold this office long
enough to make reimbursements for the money they had already advanced,
had not patience to stay till the course of trade gradually indemnified
them, but proceeding from extortion to extortion, they at last became
downright robbers, seizing the cargo of the ships wherever they could
find them, and exercising the most shocking cruelties on the person
they belonged to, slaying the factors alive, and impaling those that
remained in their hands, to obtain, by terror, remittances from India.
The trade was thus abandoned, and the revenue ceased. There were no
bidders at Constantinople for the farm, nobody had trade in their heads
when their lives were every hour in danger. Dahalac became therefore
dependent on the Basha of Jidda, and he appointed an[208] Aga, who paid
him a moderate sum, and appropriated to himself the provisions and
salary allowed for the pearl fishery, or the greatest part of them.

The Aga at Suakem endeavoured, in vain, to make the Arabs and people
near him work without salary, so they abandoned an employment which
produced nothing but punishment; and, in time, they grew ignorant of
the fishery in which they once were so well skilled and had been
educated. This great nursery of seamen therefore was lost, and the
gallies, being no longer properly manned, were either given up to rot,
or turned into merchant-ships for carrying the coffee between Yemen and
Suez, these vessels were unarmed, and indeed incapable of armament, and
unserviceable by their construction; besides, they were ill-manned, and
so carelessly and ignorantly navigated, that there was not a year, that
one or more did not founder, not from stress of weather, (for they were
sailing in a pond) or from any thing, but ignorance, or inattention.

Trade took again its ancient course towards Jidda. The Sherriffe of
Mecca, and all the Arabs, were interested to get it back to Arabia, and
with it the government of their own countries. That the pearl fishing
might, moreover, no longer be an allurement for the Turkish power to
maintain itself here, and oppress them, they discouraged the practice
of diving, till it grew into desuetude; this brought insensibly all the
people of the islands to the continent, where they were employed in
coasting vessels, which continues their only occupation to this day.
This policy succeeded; the princes of Arabia became again free from
the Turkish power, now but a shadow, and Dahalac, Masuah, and Suakem,
returned to their ancient masters, to which they are subject at this
instant, governed indeed by Shekhs of their own country, and preserving
only the name of Turkish government, each being under the command of a
robber and assassin.

The immense treasures in the bottom of the Red Sea, have thus been
abandoned for near two hundred years, though they never were richer
in all probability than at present. No nation can now turn them to any
profit, but the English East India Company, more intent on multiplying
the number of their enemies, and weakening themselves by spreading
their inconsiderable force over new conquests, than creating additional
profit by engaging in new articles of commerce. A settlement upon the
river Frat, which never yet has belonged to any one but wandering
Arabs, would open them a market both for coarse and fine goods from
the southern frontiers of Morocco, to Congo and Angola, and set the
commerce of pearls and tortoise shell on foot again. All this section
of the Gulf from Suez, as I am told, is in their charter, and twenty
ships might be employed on the Red Sea, without any violation of
territorial claims. The myrrh, the frankincense, some cinnamon, and
variety of drugs, are all in the possession of the weak king of Adel,
an usurper, tyrant, and Pagan, without protection, and willing to
trade with any superior power, that only would secure him a miserable
livelihood.

If this does not take place, I am persuaded the time is not far off,
when these countries shall, in some shape or other, be subjects of a
new master. Were another Peter, another Elizabeth, or, better than
either, another Catharine to succeed the present, in an empire already
extended to China;--were such a sovereign, unfettered by European
politics, to prosecute that easy task of pushing those mountebanks of
sovereigns and statesmen, these stage-players of government, the Turks,
into Asia, the inhabitants of the whole country, who in their hearts
look upon her already as their sovereign, because she is the head of
their religion, would, I am persuaded, submit without a blow that
instant the Turks were removed on the other side of the Hellespont.

There are neither horses, dogs, sheep, cows, nor any sort of quadruped,
but goats, asses, a few half-starved camels and antelopes at Dahalac,
which last are very numerous. The inhabitants have no knowledge of
fire-arms, and there are no dogs, nor beasts of prey in the island to
kill them; they catch indeed some few of them in traps.

On our arrival at Dahalac, on the 14th, we saw swallows there, and, on
the 16th, they were all gone. On our landing at Masuah, on the 19th,
we saw a few; the 21st and 22d they were in great flocks; on the 2d of
October they were all gone. It was the blue long-tailed swallow, with
the flat head; but there was, likewise, the English martin, black, and
darkish grey in the body, with a white breast.

The language at Dahalac is that of the _Shepherds_; Arabic too is
spoken by most of them. From this island we see the high mountains of
_Habesh_, running in an even ridge like a wall, parallel to the coast,
and down to Suakem.

Before I leave Dahalac, I must observe, that, in a wretched chart,
in the hands of some of the English gentlemen at Jidda, there were
soundings marked all along the east-coast of Dahalac, from thirteen
to thirty fathoms, within two leagues of the shore. Now, the islands
I have mentioned occupy a much larger space than that; yet none of
them are set down in the chart; and, where the soundings are marked
thirty, forty, and even ninety fathom, all is full of shoals under
water, with islands and sunken coral rocks, some of them near the
surface, though the breakers do not appear upon them, partly owing to
the waves being steadied by the violence of the current, and somewhat
kept off by the island. This dangerous error is, probably, owing to the
draughts being composed from different journals, where the pilot has
had different ways of measuring his distance; some using forty-two feet
to a thirty-second glass, and some twenty-eight, both of them being
considered as one competent division of a degree; the distances are all
too short, and the soundings, and every thing else, consequently out of
their places.

Whoever has to navigate in the Abyssinian side of the channel, will do
well to pass the island Dahalac on the east side, or, at least, not
approach the outmost island, Wowcan, nearer than ten leagues; but,
keeping about twelve leagues meridian distance west of Jibbel Teir, or
near mid-channel between that and the island, they will then be out
of danger; being between lat. 15° 20´ and 15° 40´, which last is the
latitude, as I observed, of Saiel Noora, and which is the northern
island, we saw, three leagues off Ras Antalou, the northmost cape of
Dahalac.

Both at our entering into the port of Dobelew on the 14th, and our
going out of it on the 17th, we found a tide running like a sluice,
which we apprehended, in spite of our sails being full, would force us
out of our course upon the rocks. I imagine it was then at its greatest
strength, it now being near the equinoctial full moon. The channel
between Terra Firma and the island being very narrow, and the influence
of the sun and moon then nearly in the equator, had occasioned this
unusual violence of the tide, by forcing a large column of water
through so narrow a space.

On the 17th, after we had examined our vessel, and found she had
received no damage, and provided water (bad as it was) for the
remainder of our voyage, we sailed from Dobelew, but, the wind being
contrary, we were obliged to come to an anchor, at three quarters past
four o’clock, in ten fathom water, about three leagues from that port,
which was to the south-west of us; the bearings and distances are as
follow:--

  Derghiman Kibeer,    distant  10 miles,    W. S. W.
  Deleda,                do.     7  do.      W. by N.
  Saiel Sezan,           do.     4  do.      S. E.
  Zeteban,               do.     5  do.      N. E.
  Dahalac,               do.    12  do.      S. S. W.
  Dahalhalem,            do.    12  do.      N. W. by N.

On the 18th, we sailed, standing off and on, with a contrary wind at
north-west, and a strong current in the same direction. At half past
four in the morning we were forced to come to an anchor. There is
here a very shallow and narrow passage, which I sounded myself in the
boat, barely one and a half fathom, or nine feet of water, and we were
obliged to wait the filling of the tide. This is called the _Bogaz_,
which signifies, as I have before observed, the narrow and shallow
passage. It is between the island Dahalac and the south point of the
island of Noora, about forty fathom broad, and, on each side full of
dangerous rocks. The islands then bore,

  Derghiman Seguier,    distant  3 miles,    S. W.
  Derghiman Kibeer,       do.    5  do.      S.
  Dahalhalem,             do.    4  do.      E. N. E.
  Noora,                  do.    2  do.      N. E. by N.

The tide now entered with an unusual force, and ran more like the Nile,
or a torrent, or stream conducted to turn a mill, than the sea, or the
effects of a tide. At half past one o’clock, there was water enough
to pass, and we soon were hurried through it by the violence of the
current, driving us in a manner truly tremendous.

At half after three, we passed between Ras Antalou, the North Cape of
Dahalac, and the small island Dahalottom, which has some trees upon
it. On this island is the tomb of Shekh[209] Abou Gafar, mentioned by
Poncet, in his voyage, who mistakes the name of the saint for that of
the island. The strait between the Cape and the island is a mile and
a half broad. At four in the afternoon, we anchored near a small
island called _Surat_. All between this and Dahalac, there is no
water exceeding seven fathom, till you are near Dahalac Kibeer, whose
port has water for large vessels, but is open to every point, from
south-west to north-west, and has a great swell.

All ships coming to the westward of Dahalac had better keep within the
island Drugerut, between that and the main, where there is plenty of
water, and room enough to work, tho’, even here, there are islands
a-head; and clear weather, as well as a good look-out, will always be
necessary.

On the 19th of September, at three quarters past six in the morning, we
sailed from our anchorage near Surat. At a quarter past nine, Dargeli,
an island with trees upon it, bore N. W. by W. two miles and a half
distant; and Drugerut three leagues and a half north and by east, when
it fell calm.

At eleven o’clock, we passed the island of Dergaiham, bearing N. by
East, three miles distant, and at five in the afternoon we came to an
anchor in the harbour of Masuah, having been[210] seventeen days on our
passage, including the day we first went on board, though this voyage,
with a favourable wind, is generally made in three days; it often has,
indeed, been sailed in less.

The reader will observe, that many of the islands begin with Dahal,
and some with Del, which last is only an abbreviation of the former,
and both of them signify _island_ in the language of Beja, otherwise
called _Geez_, or the language of the shepherds. Massowa, too, though
generally spelled in the manner I have here expressed it, should
properly be written _Masuah_, which is the harbour or water of the
_Shepherds_. Of this nation, so often mentioned already in this work,
as well as the many other people less powerful and numerous than they
that inhabit the countries between the tropics, or frontiers of Egypt
and the Line, it will be necessary now to speak in some detail,
although the connection they all have with the trade of the Red Sea,
and with each other, will oblige me to go back to very early times,
to the invention of letters, and all the useful arts, which had their
beginning here, were carefully nourished, and came probably to as great
a perfection as they did ever since arrive at any other period.




TRAVELS TO DISCOVER THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.




BOOK II.

    ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST AGES OF THE INDIAN AND AFRICAN TRADE--THE
    FIRST PEOPLING OF ABYSSINIA AND ATBARA--SOME CONJECTURES
    CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE THERE.




CHAP. I.

    _Of the India trade in its earliest ages--Settlement of
    Ethiopia--Troglodytes--Building of the first Cities._


The farther back we go into the history of Eastern nations, the more
reason we have to be surprised at the accounts of their immense
riches and magnificence. One who reads the history of Egypt is like
a traveller walking through its ancient, ruined, and deserted towns,
where all are palaces and temples, without any trace of private or
ordinary habitation. So in the earliest though now mutilated, accounts
which we have of them, all is power, splendour, and riches, attended
by the luxury which was the necessary consequence, without any clue
or thread left us by which we can remount, or be conducted, to the
source or fountain whence this variety of wealth had flowed; without
ever being able to arrive at a period, when these people were poor and
mean, or even in a state of mediocrity, or upon a footing with European
nations.

The sacred scriptures, the most ancient, as well as the most credible
of all histories, represent Palestine, of which they particularly
treat, in the earliest ages, as not only full of polished, powerful,
and orderly states, but abounding also in silver and gold[211], in a
greater proportion than is to be found this day in any state in Europe,
though immensely rich dominions in a new world have been added to the
possession of that territory, which furnished the greatest quantity
of gold and silver to the old. Palestine, however, is a poor country,
left to its own resources and produce merely. It must have been always
a poor country, without some extraordinary connection with foreign
nations. It never contained either mines of gold or silver, and though,
at most periods of its history, it appears to have been but thinly
inhabited, it never of itself produced wherewithal to support and
maintain the few that dwelt in it.

Mr de Montesquieu[212], speaking of the wealth of Semiramis, imagines
that the great riches of the Assyrian empire in her reign, arose from
this queen’s having plundered some more ancient and richer nation,
as they, in their turn, fell afterwards a prey to a poorer, but more
warlike enemy. But however true this fact may be with regard to
Semiramis, it does not solve the general difficulty, as still the same
question recurs, concerning the wealth of that prior nation, which the
Assyrians plundered, and from which they received their treasure. I
believe the example is rare, that a large kingdom has been enriched by
war. Alexander conquered all Asia, part of Africa, and a considerable
portion of Europe; he plundered Semiramis’s kingdom, and all those that
were tributary to her; he went farther into the Indies than ever she
did, though her territories bordered upon the river Indus itself; yet
neither Macedon, nor any of the neighbouring provinces of Greece, could
ever compare with the small districts of Tyre and Sidon for riches.

War disperses wealth in the very instant it acquires it; but commerce,
well regulated, constantly and honestly supported, carried on with
œconomy and punctuality, is the only thing that ever did enrich
extensive kingdoms; and one hundred hands employed at the loom will
bring to a country more riches and abundance, than ten thousand bearing
spears and shields. We need not go far to produce an example that will
confirm this. The subjects and neighbours of Semiramis had brought
spices by land into Assyria. The Ishmaelites and Midianites, the
merchants and carriers of gold from Ethiopia, and more immediately from
Palestine, met in her dominions; and there was, for a time, the mart of
the East India trade. But, by an absurd expedition with an army into
India, in hopes to enrich herself all at once, she effectually ruined
that commerce, and her kingdom fell immediately afterwards.

Whoever reads the history of the most ancient nations, will find the
origin of wealth and power to have risen in the east; then to have
gradually advanced westward, spreading itself at the same time north
and south. They will find the riches and population of those nations
decay in proportion as this trade forsakes them; which cannot but
suggest to a good understanding, this truth constantly to be found in
the disposition of all things in this universe, that God makes use of
the smallest means and causes to operate the greatest and most powerful
effects. In his hand a pepper-corn is the foundation of the power,
glory, and riches of India; he makes an acorn, and by it communicates
power and riches to nations divided from India by thousands of leagues
of sea.

Let us pursue our consideration of Egypt. Sesostris, before the time
we have been just speaking of, passed with a fleet of large ships
from the Arabian Gulf into the Indian Ocean; he conquered part of
India, and opened to Egypt the commerce of that country by sea. I
enter not into the credibility of the number of his fleet, as there is
scarce any thing credible left us about the shipping and navigation
of the ancients, or, at least, that is not full of difficulties and
contradictions; my business is with the expedition, not with the number
of the ships. It would appear he revived, rather than first discovered,
this way of carrying on the trade to the East Indies, which, though
it was at times intermitted, (perhaps forgot by the Princes who
were contending for the Sovereignty of the continent of Asia), was,
nevertheless, perpetually kept up by the trading nations themselves,
from the ports of India and Africa, and on the Red Sea from Edom.

The pilots from these ports alone, of all the world, had a secret
confined to their own knowledge, upon which the success of these
voyages depended. This was the phænomena of the trade-winds[213]
and monsoons, which the pilots of Sesostris knew; and which those
of Nearchus seem to have taught him only in part, in his voyage
afterwards, and of which we are to speak in the sequel. History says
further of Sesostris, that the Egyptians considered him as their
greatest benefactor, for having laid open to them the trade both of
India and Arabia, for having overturned the dominion of the _Shepherd_
kings; and, lastly, for having restored to the Egyptian individuals
each their own lands, which had been wrested from them by the violent
hands of the Ethiopian _Shepherds_, during the first usurpation of
these princes.

In memory of his having happily accomplished these events, Sesostris
is said to have built a ship of cedar of a hundred and twenty yards
in length, the outside of which he covered with plates of gold, and
the inside with plates of silver, and this he dedicated in the temple
of Isis. I will not enter into the defence of the probability of his
reasons for having built a ship of this size, and for such a purpose,
as one of ten yards would have sufficiently answered. The use it was
made for, was apparently to serve for a hieroglyphic, of what he had
accomplished, viz. that he had laid open the gold and silver trade from
the mines in Ethiopia, and had navigated the ocean in ships made of
wood, which were the only ones, he thereby insinuated, that could be
employed in that trade. The Egyptian ships, at that time, were all made
of the reed papyrus[214], covered with skins or leather, a construction
which no people could venture to present to the ocean.

There is much to be learned from a proper understanding of these last
benefits conferred by Sesostris upon his Egyptian subjects. When
we understand these, which is very easy to any that have travelled
in the countries we are speaking of, (for nations and causes have
changed very little in these countries to this day), it will not be
difficult to find a solution of this problem, What was the commerce
that, progressively, laid the foundation of all that immense grandeur
of the east; what polished them, and cloathed them with silk, scarlet,
and gold; and what carried the arts and sciences among them, to a
pitch, perhaps, never yet surpassed, and this some thousands of years
before the nations in Europe had any other habitation than their native
woods, or cloathing than the skins of beasts, wild and domestic, or
government, but that first, innate one, which nature had given to the
strongest?

Let us inquire what was the connection Sesostris brought about between
Egypt and India; what was that commerce of Ethiopia and Arabia,
by which he enriched Egypt, and what was their connection with the
peninsula of India; who were those kings who bore so opposite an
office, as to be at the same time _Shepherds_; and who were those
_Shepherds_, near, and powerful enough to wrest the property of their
lands from four million of inhabitants.

To explain this, it will be necessary to enter into some detail,
without which no person dipping into the ancient or modern history
of this part of Africa, can have any precise idea of it, nor of the
different nations inhabiting the peninsula, the source of whose wealth
consisted entirely in the early, but well-established commerce between
Africa and India. What will make this subject of more easy explanation
is, that the ancient employment and occupations of these people in the
first ages, were still the same that subsist at this day. The people
have altered a little by colonies of strangers being introduced among
them, but their manners and employments are the same as they originally
were. What does not relate to the ancient history of these people, I
shall only mention in the course of my travels when passing through, or
sojourning amongst them.

Providence had created the inhabitants of the peninsula of India under
many disadvantages in point of climate. The high and wholesome part
of the country was covered with barren and rugged mountains; and, at
different times of the year, violent rains fell in large currents
down the sides of these, which overflowed all the fertile land below;
and these rains were no sooner over, than they were succeeded by
a scorching sun, the effect of which upon the human body, was to
render it feeble, enervated, and incapable of the efforts necessary
for agriculture. In this flat country, large rivers, that scarce
had declivity enough to run, crept slowly along, through meadows of
fat black earth, stagnating in many places as they went, rolling
an abundance of decayed vegetables, and filling the whole air with
exhalations of the most corrupt and putrid kind. Even rice, the general
food of man, the safest and most friendly to the inhabitants of that
country, could not grow but by laying under water the places where it
was sown, and thereby rendering them, for several months, absolutely
improper for man’s dwelling. Providence had done this, but, never
failing in its wisdom, had made to the natives a great deal more than a
sufficient amends.

Their bodies were unfit for the fatigues of agriculture, nor was the
land proper for common cultivation. But this country produced spices
of great variety, especially a small berry called Pepper, supposed, of
all others, and with reason, to be the greatest friend to the health
of man. This grew spontaneously, and was gathered without toil. It
was, at once, a perfect remedy for the inclemencies and diseases of
the country, as well as the source of its riches, from the demand of
foreigners. This species of spice is no where known but in India,
though equally useful in every putrid region, where, unhappily, these
diseases reign. Providence has not, as in India, placed remedies so
near them, thus wisely providing for the welfare of mankind in general,
by the dependency it has forced one man to have upon another. In India,
and similar climates, this spice is not used in small quantities, but
in such, as to be nearly equal to that of bread.

In cloathing, Providence had not been less kind to India. The silk
worm, with little fatigue and trouble to man, almost without his
interference, provided for him a stuff, at once the softest, the
most light and brilliant, and consequently the best adapted to warm
countries; and cotton, a vegetable production, growing every where
in great abundance, without care, which may be considered as almost
equal to silk, in many of its qualities, and superior to it in some,
afforded a variety still cheaper for more general use. Every tree
without culture produced them fruit of the most excellent kind; every
tree afforded them shade, under which, with a very light and portable
_loom_ of cane, they could pass their lives delightfully in a calm
and rational enjoyment, by the gentle exercise of weaving, at once
providing for the health of their bodies, the necessities of their
families, and the riches of their country.

But however plentifully their spices grew, in whatever quantity the
Indians consumed them, and however generally they wore their own
manufactures, the superabundance of both was such, as naturally led
them to look out for articles against which they might barter their
superfluities. This became necessary to supply the wants of those
things that had been with-held from them, for wise ends, or which, from
wantonness, luxury, or slender necessity, they had created in their own
imaginations.

Far to the westward of them, but part of the same continent, connected
by a long desert, and dangerous coast, was the peninsula of Arabia,
which produced no spices, tho’ the necessities of its climate subjected
its inhabitants to the same diseases as those in India. In fact, the
country and climate were exactly similar, and, consequently, the
plentiful use of these warm productions was as necessary there, as in
India, the country where they grew.

It is true, Arabia was not abandoned wholly to the inclemency of its
climate, as it produced myrrh and frankincense, which, when used as
perfumes or fumigations, were powerful antiseptics of their kind, but
administered rather as preventatives, than to remove the disorder
when it once prevailed. These were kept up at a price, of which, at
this day, we have no conception, but which never diminished from any
circumstance, under which the country where they grew, laboured.

The silk and cotton of India were white and colourless, liable to soil,
and without any variety; but Arabia produced gum and dyes of various
colours, which were highly agreeable to the taste of the Asiatics.
We find the sacred scriptures speak of the party-coloured garment as
the mark of the greatest honour[215]. Solomon, in his proverbs, too,
says, that he decked his bed with coverings of tapestry of Egypt[216].
But Egypt had neither silk nor cotton manufactory, no, nor even wool.
Solomon’s coverings, though he had them from Egypt, were therefore an
article of barter with India.

Balm, or Balsam[217], was a commodity produced in Arabia, sold at a
very high price, which it kept up till within these few centuries in
the east; when the Venetians carried on the India trade by Alexandria,
this Balsam then sold for its weight in gold; it grows in the same
place, and, I believe, nearly in the same quantity as ever, but, for
very obvious reasons[218], it is now of little value.

The basis of trade, or a connection between these two countries, was
laid, then, from the beginning, by the hand of Providence. The wants
and necessities of the one found a supply, or balance from the other.
Heaven had placed them not far distant, could the passage be made by
sea; but violent, steady, and unconquerable winds presented themselves
to make that passage of the ocean impossible, and we are not to doubt,
but, for a very considerable time, this was the reason why the commerce
of India was diffused through the continent, by land only, and from
this arose the riches of Semiramis.

But, however precious the merchandise of Arabia was, it was neither in
quantity, nor quality, capable of balancing the imports from India.
Perhaps they might have paid for as much as was used in the peninsula
of Arabia itself, but, beyond this there was a vast continent called
Africa, capable of consuming many hundred fold more than Arabia; which
lying under the same parallel with India, part of it still farther
south, the diseases of the climate, and the wants of its numerous
inhabitants, were, in many parts of it, the same as those of Arabia and
India; besides which there was the Red Sea, and divers communications
to the northward.

Neither their luxuries nor necessaries were the same as those of
Europe. And indeed Europe, at this time, was probably inhabited by
shepherds, hunters, and fishers, who had no luxury at all, or such as
could not be supplied from India; they lived in woods and marshes, with
the animals which made their sport, food, and cloathing.

The inhabitants of Africa then, this vast Continent, were to be
supplied with the necessaries, as well as the luxuries of life, but
they had neither the articles Arabia wanted, nor those required in
India, at least, for a time they thought so; and so long they were not
a trading people.

It is a tradition among the Abyssinians, which they say they have had
from time immemorial, and which is equally received among the Jews and
Christians, that almost immediately after the flood, Cush, grandson of
Noah, with his family, passing through Atbara from the low country of
Egypt, then without inhabitants, came to the ridge of mountains which
still separates the flat country of Atbara from the more mountainous
high-land of Abyssinia.

By casting his eye upon the map, the reader will see a chain of
mountains, beginning at the Isthmus of Suez, that runs all along like
a wall, about forty miles from the Red Sea, till it divides in lat.
13°, into two branches. The one goes along the northern frontiers of
Abyssinia, crosses the Nile, and then proceeds westward, through Africa
towards the Atlantic Ocean. The other branch goes southward, and then
east, taking the form of the Arabian Gulf; after which, it continues
southward all along the Indian Ocean, in the same manner as it did in
the beginning all along, the Red Sea, that is parallel to the coast.

Their tradition says, that, terrified with the late dreadful event the
flood, still recent in their minds, and apprehensive of being again
involved in a similar calamity, they chose for their habitation caves
in the sides of these mountains, rather than trust themselves again on
the plain. It is more than probable, that, soon after their arrival,
meeting here with the tropical rains, which, for duration, still exceed
the days that occasioned the flood, and observing, that going through
Atbara, that part of Nubia between the Nile and Astaboras, afterwards
called Meroë, from a dry climate at first, they had after fallen
in with rains, and as those rains increased in proportion to their
advancing southward, they chose to stop at the first mountains, where
the country was fertile and pleasant, rather than proceed farther at
the risk of involving themselves, perhaps in a land of floods, that
might prove as fatal to their posterity as that of Noah had been to
their ancestors.

This is a conjecture from probability, only mentioned for illustration,
for the motives that guided them cannot certainly be known; but it is
an undoubted fact, that here the Cushites, with unparalleled industry,
and with instruments utterly unknown to us, formed for themselves
commodious, yet wonderful habitations in the heart of mountains of
granite and marble, which remain entire in great numbers to this day,
and promise to do so till the consummation of all things. This original
kind of dwellings soon extended themselves through the neighbouring
mountains. As the Cushites grew populous, they occupied those that were
next them, spreading the industry and arts which they cultivated, as
well to the eastern as to the western ocean, but, content with their
first choice, they never descended from their caves, nor chose to
reside at a distance on the plain.

It is very singular that St Jerome does not know where to look for
this family, or descendents of Cush; though they are as plainly
pointed out, and as often alluded to by scripture, as any nation in
the Old Testament. They are described, moreover, by the particular
circumstances of their country, which have never varied, to be in the
very place where I now fix them, and where, ever since, they have
remained, and still do to this present hour, in the same mountains, and
the same houses of stone they formed for themselves in the beginning.
And yet Bochart[219], professedly treating this subject, as it were
industriously, involves it in more than Egyptian darkness. I rather
refer the reader to his work, to judge for himself, than, quoting it by
extracts, communicate the confusion of his ideas to my narrative.

The Abyssinian tradition further says, they built the city of Axum some
time early in the days of Abraham. Soon after this, they pushed their
colony down to Atbara, where we know from Herodotus[220], they early
and successfully pursued their studies, from which, Josephus says[221],
they were called Meroëtes, or inhabitants of the island of Meroë.

The prodigious fragments of colossal statues of the dog-star, still
to be seen at Axum, sufficiently shew what a material object of their
attention they considered him to be; and Seir, which in the language
of the Troglodytes, and in that of the low country of Meroë, exactly
corresponding to it, signifies a _dog_, instructs us in the reason why
this province was called _Sirè_, and the large river which bounds it,
_Siris_.

I apprehend the reason why, without forsaking their ancient domiciles
in the mountains, they chose this situation for another city, Meroë,
was owing to an imperfection they had discovered (both in Sirè and in
their caves below it) to result from their climate. They were within
the tropical rains; and, consequently, were impeded and interrupted in
the necessary observations of the heavenly bodies, and the progress
of astronomy which they so warmly cultivated. They must have seen,
likewise, a necessity of building Meroë farther from them than perhaps
they wished, for the same reason they built Axum in the high country
of Abyssinia in order to avoid the fly (a phænomenon of which I shall
afterwards speak) which pursued them everywhere within the limits of
the rains, and which must have given an absolute law in those first
times to the regulations of the Cushite settlements. They therefore
went the length of lat. 16°, where I saw the ruins supposed to be
those of Meroë[222], and caves in the mountains immediately above that
situation, which I cannot doubt were the temporary habitation of the
builders of that first seminary of learning.

It is probable that, immediately upon their success at Meroë, they lost
no time in stretching on to Thebes. We know that it was a colony of
Ethiopians, and probably from Meroë, but whether directly, or not, we
are not certain. A very short time might have passed between the two
establishments, for we find above Thebes, as there are above Meroë, a
vast number of caves, which the colony made provisionally, upon its
first arrival, and which are very near the top of the mountain, all
inhabited to this day.

Hence we may infer, that their ancient apprehensions of a deluge
had not left them whilst, they saw the whole land of Egypt could be
overflowed every year without rain falling upon it; that they did not
absolutely, as yet, trust to the liability of towns like those of Sirè
and Meroë, placed upon columns or stones, one laid upon the other, or
otherwise, that they found their excavations in the mountains were
finished with less trouble, and more comfortable when complete, than
the houses that were built. It was not long before they assumed a
greater degree of courage.




CHAP. II.

    _Saba and the South of Africa peopled--Shepherds, their
    particular Employment and Circumstances--Abyssinia occupied
    by seven stranger Nations--Specimens of their several
    Languages--Conjectures concerning them._


While these improvements were going on so prosperously in the central
and northern territory of the descendents of Cush, their brethren
to the south were not idle, they had extended themselves along the
mountains that run parallel to the Arabian Gulf; which was in all
times called Saba, or Azabo, both which signify _South_, not because
Saba was south of Jerusalem, but because it was on the south coast
of the Arabian Gulf, and, from Arabia and Egypt, was the first land
to the southward which bounded the African Continent, then richer,
more important, and better known, than the rest of the world. By that
acquisition, they enjoyed all the perfumes and aromatics in the east,
myrrh, and frankincense, and cassia; all which grow spontaneously in
that stripe of ground, from the Bay of Bilur west of Azab, to Cape
Gardefan, and then southward up in the Indian Ocean, to near the coast
of Melinda, where there is cinnamon, but of an inferior kind.

Arabia probably had not then set itself up as a rival to this side
of the Red Sea, nor had it introduced from Abyssinia the myrrh and
frankincense, as it did afterwards, for there is no doubt that the
principal mart, and growth of these gums, were always near Saba. Upon
the consumption increasing, they, however, were transplanted thence
into Arabia, where the myrrh has not succeeded.

The Troglodyte extended himself still farther south. As an astronomer,
he was to disengage himself from the tropical rains and cloudy skies
that hindered his correspondent observations with his countrymen at
Meroë and Thebes. As he advanced within the southern tropic, he,
however, still found rains, and made his houses such as the fears
of a deluge had instructed him to do. He found there solid and high
mountains, in a fine climate; but, luckier than his countrymen to
the northward, he found gold and silver in large quantities, which
determined his occupation, and made the riches and consequence of his
country. In these mountains, called _the Mountains of Sofala_, large
quantities of both metals were discovered in their pure unmixed state,
lying in globules without alloy, or any necessity of preparation or
separation.

The balance of trade, so long against the Arabian and African
continents, turned now in their favour from the immense influx of these
precious metals, found in the mountains of Sofala, just on the verge of
the southern tropical rains.

Gold and silver had been fixed upon in India as proper returns for
their manufactures and produce. It is impossible to say whether it was
from their hardness or beauty, or what other reason governed the mind
of man in making this standard of barter. The history of the particular
transactions of those times is lost, if, indeed, there ever was such
history, and, therefore, all further inquiries are in vain. The choice,
it seems, was a proper one, since it has continued unaltered so many
ages in India, and has been universally adopted by all nations pretty
much in the proportion or value as in India, into which continent gold
and silver, from this very early period, began to flow, have continued
so to do to this day, and in all probability will do to the end of
time. What has become of that immense quantity of bullion, how it is
consumed, or where it is deposited, and which way, if ever it returns,
are doubts which I never yet found a person that could satisfactorily
solve.

The Cushite then inhabited the mountains, whilst the northern colonies
advanced from Meroë to Thebes, busy and intent upon the improvement of
architecture, and building of towns, which they began to substitute
for their caves; they thus became traders, farmers, artificers of all
kinds, and even practical astronomers, from having a meridian night and
day free from clouds, for such was that of the Thebaid. As this was
impossible to their brethren, and six months continual rain confined
them to these caves, we cannot doubt but that their sedentary life made
them useful in reducing the many observations daily made by those of
their countrymen who lived under a purer sky. Letters too, at least one
sort of them, and arithmetical characters, we are told, were invented
by this middle part of the Cushites, while trade and astronomy, the
natural history of the winds and seasons, were what necessarily
employed the part of the colony established at Sofala most to the
southward.

The very nature of the Cushites commerce, the collecting of gold, the
gathering and preparing his spices, necessarily fixed him perpetually
at home; but his profit lay in the dispersing of these spices through
the continent, otherwise his mines, and the trade produced by the
possession of them, were to him of little avail.

A carrier was absolutely necessary to the Cushite, and Providence had
provided him one in a nation which were his neighbours. These were in
most respects different, as they had long hair, European features, very
dusky and dark complexion, but nothing like the black-moor or negro;
they lived in plains, having moveable huts or habitations, attended
their numerous cattle, and wandered from the necessities and particular
circumstances of their country. These people were in the Hebrew called
_Phut_, and, in all other languages, _Shepherds_; they are so still,
for they still exist; they subsist by the same occupation, never had
another, and therefore cannot be mistaken; they are called Balous,
Bagla, Belowee, Berberi, Barabra, Zilla and Habab[223], which all
signify but one thing, namely that of _Shepherd_. From their place of
habitation, the territory has been called _Barbaria_ by the Greeks
and Romans, from Berber, in the original signifying _shepherd_. The
authors that speak of the Shepherds seem to know little of those of
the _Thebaid_, and still less of those of _Ethiopia_, whilst they
fall immediately upon the shepherds of the Delta, that they may get
the sooner rid of them, and thrust them into Assyria, Palestine, and
Arabia. They never say what their origin was; how they came to be
so powerful; what was their occupation; or, properly, the land they
inhabited; or what is become of them now, though they seem inclined to
think the race extinct.

The whole employment of the shepherds had been the dispersing of the
Arabian and African goods all over the continent; they had, by that
employment, risen to be a great people: as that trade increased, their
quantity of cattle increased also, and consequently their numbers, and
the extent of their territory.

Upon looking at the map, the reader will see a chain of mountains
which I have described, and which run in a high ridge nearly straight
north, along the Indian Ocean, in a direction parallel to the coast,
where they end at Cape Gardefan. They then take the direction of the
coast, and run west from Cape Gardefan to the Straits of Babelmandeb,
inclosing the frankincense and myrrh country, which extends
considerably to the west of Azab. From Babelmandeb they run northward,
parallel to the Red Sea, till they end in the sandy plain at the
Isthmus of Suez, a name probably derived from Suah, _Shepherds_.

Although this stripe of land along the Indian Ocean, and afterwards
along the Red Sea, was necessary to the shepherds, because they carried
their merchandise to the ports there, and thence to Thebes and Memphis
upon the Nile, yet the principal seat of their residence and power
was that flat part of Africa between the northern tropic and the
mountains of Abyssinia. This is divided into various districts; it
reaches from Masuah along the sea-coast to Suakem, then turns westward,
and continues in that direction, having the Nile on the south, the
tropic on the north, to the deserts of Selima, and the confines of
Libya on the west. This large extent of country is called _Beja_. The
next is that district[224] in form of a shield, as Meroë is said to
have been; this name was given it by Cambyses. It is between the Nile
and Astaboras, and is now called Atbara. Between the river Mareb, the
ancient Astusaspes on the east, and Atbara on the west, is the small
plain territory of Derkin, another district of the shepherds. All that
range of mountains running east and west, inclosing Derkin and Atbara
on the south, and which begins the mountainous country of Abyssinia,
is inhabited by the negro woolly-headed Cushite, or Shangalla, living
as formerly in caves, who, from having been the most cultivated and
instructed people in the world, have, by a strange reverse of fortune,
relapsed into brutal ignorance, and are hunted by their neighbours like
wild beasts in those forests, where they used to reign in the utmost
luxury, liberty, and splendour. But the noblest, and most warlike of
all the shepherds, were those that inhabited the mountains of the
Habab, a considerable ridge reaching from the neighbourhood of Masuah
to Suakem, and who, still dwell there.

In the ancient language of this country, _So_, or _Suah_, signified
shepherd, or shepherds; though we do not know any particular rank or
degrees among them, yet we may suppose these called simply _shepherds_
were the common sort that attended the flocks. Another denomination,
part of them bore, was _Hycsos_, sounded by us Agsos, which signifies
_armed shepherds_, or such as wore harness, which may be supposed the
soldiers, or armed force of that nation. The third we see mentioned
is Ag-ag, which is thought to be the nobles or chiefs of those armed
shepherds, whence came their title _King of Kings_[225]. The plural of
this is Agagi, or, as it is written in the Ethiopic, Agaazi.

This term has very much puzzled both Scaliger and Ludolf; for, finding
in the Abyssinian books that they are called Agaazi, they torment
themselves about finding the etymology of that word. They imagine them
to be Arabs from near the Red Sea, and Mr Ludolf[226] thinks the term
signifies _banished men_. Scaliger, too, has various guesses about them
nearly to the same import. All this, however, is without foundation;
the people assert themselves at this day to be Agaazi, that is, a race
of Shepherds inhabiting the mountains of the Habab, and have by degrees
extended themselves through the whole province of Tigré, whose capital
is called Axum, from Ag and Suah, the metropolis, or principal city of
the shepherds that wore arms.

Nothing was more opposite than the manners and life of the Cushite,
and his carrier the shepherd. The first, though he had forsaken his
caves, and now lived in cities which he had built, was necessarily
confined at home by his commerce, amassing gold, arranging the invoices
of his spices, hunting in the season to provide himself with ivory,
and food throughout the winter. His mountains, and the cities he built
afterwards, were situated upon a loomy, black earth, so that as soon
as the tropical rains began to fall, a wonderful phænomenon deprived
him of his cattle. Large swarms of flies appeared wherever that loomy
earth was, which made him absolutely dependent in this respect upon the
shepherd, but this affected the shepherd also.

This insect is called _Zimb_; it has not been described by any
naturalist. It is in size very little larger than a bee, of a thicker
proportion, and his wings, which are broader than those of a bee,
placed separate like those of a fly; they are of pure gauze, without
colour or spot upon them; the head is large, the upper jaw or lip
is sharp, and has at the end of it a strong-pointed hair of about a
quarter of an inch long; the lower jaw has two of these pointed hairs,
and this pencil of hairs, when joined together, makes a resistance to
the finger nearly equal to that of a strong hog’s bristle. Its legs are
serrated in the inside, and the whole covered with brown hair or down.
As soon as this plague appears, and their buzzing is heard, all the
cattle forsake their food, and run wildly about the plain, till they
die, worn out with fatigue, fright, and hunger. No remedy remains, but
to leave the black earth, and hasten down to the sands of Atbara, and
there they remain while the rains last, this cruel enemy never daring
to pursue them farther.

What enables the shepherd to perform the long and toilsome journies
across Africa is the camel, emphatically called by the Arabs, the _ship
of the desert_. He seems to have been created for this very trade,
endued with parts and qualities adapted to the office he is employed
to discharge. The driest thistle, and the barest thorn, is all the
food this useful quadruped requires, and even these, to save time, he
eats while advancing on his journey, without stopping, or occasioning
a moment of delay. As it is his lot to cross immense deserts, where no
water is found, and countries not even moistened by the dew of heaven,
he is endued with the power at one watering-place to lay in a store,
with which he supplies himself for thirty days to come. To contain this
enormous quantity of fluid, Nature has formed large cisterns within
him, from which, once filled, he draws at pleasure the quantity he
wants, and pours it into his stomach with the same effect as if he
then drew it from a spring, and with this he travels, patiently and
vigorously, all day long, carrying a prodigious load upon him, through
countries infected with poisonous winds, and glowing with parching and
never-cooling sands. Though his size is immense, as is his strength,
and his body covered with a thick skin, defended with strong hair, yet
still he is not capable to sustain the violent punctures the fly makes
with his pointed proboscis. He must lose no time in removing to the
sands of Atbara; for, when once attacked by this fly, his body, head,
and legs break out into large bosses, which swell, break, and putrify,
to the certain destruction of the creature.

Even the elephant and rhinoceros, who, by reason of their enormous
bulk, and the vast quantity of food and water they daily need, cannot
shift to desert and dry places as the season may require, are obliged
to roll themselves in mud and mire, which, when dry, coats them over
like armour, and enables them to stand their ground against this winged
assassin; yet I have found some of these tubercles upon almost every
elephant and rhinoceros that I have seen, and attribute them to this
cause.

All the inhabitants of the sea-coast of Melinda, down to Cape Gardefan,
to Saba, and the south coast of the Red Sea, are obliged to put
themselves in motion, and remove to the next sand in the beginning
of the rainy season, to prevent all their stock of cattle from being
destroyed. This is not a partial emigration; the inhabitants of all the
countries from the mountains of Abyssinia northward, to the confluence
of the Nile and Astaboras, are once a-year obliged to change their
abode, and seek protection in the sands of Beja; nor is there any
alternative, or means of avoiding this, though a hostile band was in
their way, capable of spoiling them of half their substance; and this
is now actually the case, as we shall see when we come to speak of
Sennaar.

Of all those that have written upon these countries, the prophet
Isaiah alone has given an account of this animal, and the manner of
its operation. Isa. vii. ch. 18. and 19. ver. “And it shall come to
pass, in that day, that the Lord shall _hiss_ for the fly that is in
the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt,”--“And they shall come, and
shall rest all of them in the desolate vallies[227], and in the holes
of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.”

The mountains that I have already spoken of, as running through the
country of the Shepherds, divide the seasons by a line drawn along
their summit, so exactly, that, while the eastern side, towards the
Red Sea, is deluged with rain for the six months that constitute our
_winter_ in Europe, the western side toward Atbara enjoys a perpetual
sun, and active vegetation. Again, the six months, when it is our
_summer_ in Europe, Atbara, or the western side of these mountains, is
constantly covered with clouds and rain, while, for the same time, the
shepherd on the eastern side, towards the Red Sea, feeds his flocks
in the most exuberant foliage and luxuriant verdure, enjoying the
fair weather, free from the fly or any other molestation. These great
advantages have very naturally occasioned these countries of Atbara and
Beja to be the principal residence of the shepherd and his cattle, and
have entailed upon him the necessity of a perpetual change of places.
Yet so little is this inconvenience, so short the peregrination, that,
from the rain on the west side, a man, in the space of four hours, will
change to the opposite season, and find himself in sun-shine to the
eastward.

When Carthage was built, the carriage of this commercial city fell
into the hands of Lehabim, or Lubim, the Libyan peasants, and became
a great accession to the trade, power, and number of the shepherds.
In countries to which there was no access by shipping, the end of
navigation was nearly answered by the immense increase of camels; and
this trade, we find, was carried on in the very earliest ages on the
Arabian side, by the Ishmaelite merchants trading to Palestine and
Syria, from the south end of the peninsula, with camels. This we learn
particularly from Genesis, they brought myrrh and spices, or pepper,
and sold them for silver; they had also balm, or balsam, but this it
seems, in those days, they brought from Gilead.

We are sorry, in reading this curious anecdote preserved to us in
scripture, to find, in those early ages of the India trade, that
another species of commerce was closely connected with it, which modern
philanthropy has branded as the disgrace of human nature. It is plain,
from the passage, the commerce of selling men was then universally
established. Joseph[228] is bought as readily, and sold as currently
immediately after, as any ox or camel could be at this day. Three
nations, Javan, Tubal, and Meshech[229], are mentioned as having their
principal trade at Tyre in the selling of men; and, as late as St
John’s time[230], this is mentioned as a principal part of the trade
of Babylon; notwithstanding which, no prohibition from God, or censure
from the prophets, have ever stigmatized it either as irreligious or
immoral; on the contrary, it is always spoken of as favourably as any
species of commerce whatever. For this, and many other reasons which I
could mention, I cannot think, that purchasing slaves is, in itself,
either cruel or unnatural. To purchase any living creature to abuse
it afterwards, is certainly both base and criminal; and the crime
becomes still of a deeper dye, when our fellow-creatures come to be the
sufferers. But, although this is an abuse which accidentally follow
the trade, it is no necessary part of the trade itself; and, it is
against this abuse the wisdom of the legislature should be directed,
not against the trade itself.

On the eastern side of the peninsula of Africa, many thousand slaves
are sold to Asia, perfectly in the same manner as those on the west
side are sent to the West Indies; but no one, that ever I heard, has
as yet opened his mouth against the sale of Africans to the East
Indies; and yet there is an aggravation in this last sale of slaves
that should touch us much more than the other, where no such additional
grievance can be pretended. The slaves sold into Asia are most of them
Christians; they are sold to Mahometans, and, with their liberty, they
are certainly deprived of their religion likewise. But the treatment
of the Asiatics being much more humane than what the Africans, sold
to the West Indies, meet with, no clamour has yet been raised against
this commerce in Asia, because its only bad consequence is apostacy; a
proof to me that religion has no part in the present dispute, or, as
I have said, it is the abuse that accidentally follows the purchasing
of slaves, not the trade itself, that should be considered as the
grievance.

It is plain from all history, that two abominable practices, the
one the eating of men, the other of sacrificing them to the devil,
prevailed all over Africa. The India trade, as we have seen in very
early ages, first established the buying and selling of slaves; since
that time, the eating of men, or sacrificing them, has so greatly
decreased on the eastern side of the peninsula, that now we scarcely
hear of an instance of either of these that can be properly vouched. On
the western part, towards the Atlantic Ocean, where the sale of slaves
began a considerable time later, after the discovery of America and the
West Indies, both of these horrid practices are, as it were, general,
though, I am told, less so to the northward since that event.

There is still alive a man of the name of Matthews, who was present at
one of those bloody banquets on the west of Africa, to the northward of
Senega. It is probable the continuation of the slave-trade would have
abolished these, in time, on the west side also. Many other reasons
could be alledged, did my plan permit it. But I shall content myself
at present, with saying, that I very much fear that a relaxation and
effeminacy of manners, rather than genuine tenderness of heart, has
been the cause of this violent paroxysm of philanthropy, and of some
other measures adopted of late to the discouragement of discipline,
which I do not doubt will soon be felt to contribute their mite to the
decay both of trade and navigation that will necessarily follow.

The Ethiopian shepherds at first carried on the trade on their own
side of the Red Sea; they carried their India commodities to Thebes,
likewise to the different black nations to the south-west; in return,
they brought back gold, probably at a cheaper rate, because certainly
by a shorter carriage than by that from Ophir.

Thebes became exceedingly rich and proud, though, by the most extensive
area that ever was assigned to it, it never could be either large or
populous. Thebes is not mentioned in scripture by that name; it was
destroyed before the days of Moses by Salatis prince of the Agaazi,
or Ethiopian shepherds; at this day it has assumed a name very like
the ancient one. The first signification of its name, Medinet Tabu, I
thought was the Town of our Father. This, history says, was given it by
Sesostris in honour of his father; in the ancient language, its name
was _Ammon No_. The next that presented itself was Theba, which was the
Hebrew name for the Ark when Noah was ordered to build it--Thou shalt
“make thee an Ark (Theba) of gopher-wood[231].”

The figure of the temples in Thebes do not seem to be far removed from
the idea given us of the Ark. The third conjecture is, that being
the first city built and supported on pillars, and, on different and
separate pieces of stone, it got its name from the architects first
expression of approbation or surprise, Tabu, that it stood insulated
and alone, and this seems to me to be the most conformable both to the
Hebrew and Ethiopic.

The shepherds, for the most part, friends and allies of the Egyptians,
or Cushite, at times were enemies to them. We need not, at this time
of day, seek the cause; there are many very apparent, from opposite
manners, and, above all, the difference in the dietetique regimen. The
Egyptians worshipped the cow, the Shepherds killed and ate her. The
Shepherds were Sabeans, worshipping the host of heaven--the sun, moon,
and stars. Immediately upon the building of Thebes and the perfection
of sculpture, idolatry and the grossest materialism greatly corrupted
the more pure and speculative religion of the Sabeans. Soon after the
building of Thebes, we see that Rachel, Abraham’s wife, had idols[232];
we need seek no other probable cause of the devastation that followed,
than difference of religion.

Thebes was destroyed by Salatis, who overturned the first Dynasty
of Cushite, or Egyptian kings, begun by Menes, in what is called
the second age of the world, and founded the first Dynasty of the
Shepherds, who behaved very cruelly, and wrested the lands from their
first owners; and it was this Dynasty that Sesostris destroyed, after
calling Thebes by his father’s name, Ammon No, making those decorations
that we have seen of the harp in the sepulchres on the west, and
building Diospolis on the opposite side of the river. The second
conquest of Egypt by the Shepherds was that under Sabaco, by whom it
has been imagined Thebes was destroyed, in the reign of Hezekiah king
of Judah, who is said to have made peace with So[233] king of Egypt, as
the translator has called him, mistaking So for the name of the king,
whereas it only denoted his quality of shepherd.

From this it is plain, all that the scripture mentions about Ammon
No, applies to Diospolis on the other side of the river. Ammon No and
Diospolis, though they were on different sides of the river, were
considered as one city, thro’ which the Nile flowed, dividing it into
two parts. This is plain from profane history, as well as from the
prophet Nahum[234], who describes it very exactly, if in place of the
word _sea_ was substituted _river_, as it ought to be.

There was a third invasion of the Shepherds after the building of
Memphis, where a [235]king of Egypt[236] is said to have inclosed two
hundred and forty thousand of them in a city called _Abaris_; they
surrendered upon capitulation, and were banished the country into the
land of Canaan. That two hundred and forty thousand men should be
inclosed in one city, so as to bear a siege, seems to me extremely
improbable; but be it so, all that it can mean is, that Memphis, built
in Lower Egypt near the Delta, had war with the Shepherds of the
Isthmus of Suez, or the districts near them, as those of Thebes had
before with the Shepherds of the Thebaid. But, however much has been
written upon the subject, the total expulsion of the Shepherds at any
one time by any King of Egypt, or at any one place, must be fabulous,
as they have remained in their ancient seats, and do remain to this
day; perhaps in not so great a number as when the India trade was
carried on by the Arabian Gulf, yet still in greater numbers than any
other nation of the Continent.

The mountains which the Agaazi inhabit, are called _Habab_, from which
it comes, that they themselves have got that name. Habab, in their
language, and in Arabic likewise, signifies a _serpent_, and this I
suppose explains that historical fable in the book of Axum, which says,
a serpent conquered the province of Tigré, and reigned there.

It may be asked, Is there no other people that inhabit Abyssinia, but
these two nations, the Cushites and the Shepherds? Are there no other
nations, whiter or fairer than them, living to the southward of the
Agaazi? Whence did these come? At what time, and by what name are they
called? To this I answer, That there are various nations which agree
with this description, who have each a particular name, and who are all
known by that of _Habesh_, in Latin _Convenæ_, signifying a number of
distinct people meeting accidentally in one place. The word has been
greatly misunderstood, and misapplied, both by Scaliger and Ludolf,
and a number of others; but nothing is more consonant to the history
of the country than the translation I have given it, nor will the word
itself bear any other.

The Chronicle of Axum, the most ancient repository of the antiquities
of that country, a book esteemed, I shall not say how properly, as the
first in authority after the holy scriptures, says, that between the
creation of the world and the birth of our Saviour there were 5500
years[237]; that Abyssinia had never been inhabited till 1808 years
before Christ[237]; and 200 years after that, which was in the 1600,
it was laid waste by a flood, the face of the country much changed
and deformed, so that it was denominated at that time Ourè Midre, or,
_the country laid waste_, or, as it is called in scripture itself, a
land which the waters or floods had spoiled[238]; that about the 1400
year before Christ it was taken possession of by a variety of people
speaking different languages, who, as they were in friendship with the
Agaazi, or Shepherds, possessing the high country of Tigrè, came and
sat down beside them in a peaceable manner, each occupying the lands
that were before him. This settlement is what the Chronicle of Axum
calls _Angaba_, the entry and establishment of these nations, which
finished the peopling of Abyssinia.

Tradition further says, that they came from Palestine. All this seems
to me to wear the face of truth. Some time after the year 1500, we know
there happened a flood which occasioned great devastation. Pausanius
says, that this flood happened in Ethiopia in the reign of Cecrops;
and, about the 1490 before Christ, the Israelites entered the land of
promise, under Caleb and Joshua. We are not to wonder at the great
impression that invasion made upon the minds of the inhabitants of
Palestine. We see by the history of the harlot, that the different
nations had been long informed by prophecies, current and credited
among themselves, that they were to be extirpated before the face
of the Israelites, who for some time had been hovering about their
frontiers. But now when Joshua had passed the Jordan, after having
miraculously dried up the river[239] before his army had invaded
Canaan, and had taken and destroyed Jericho, a panic seized the whole
people of Syria and Palestine.

These petty states, many in number, and who had all different
languages, seeing a conqueror with an immense army already in
possession of part of their country, and who did not conduct himself
according to the laws of other conquerors, but put the vanquished under
saws and harrows of iron, and destroyed the men, women, and children;
and sometimes even the cattle, by the sword, no longer could think of
waiting the arrival of such an enemy, but sought for safety by speedy
flight or emigration. The Shepherds in Abyssinia and Atbara were the
most natural refuge these fugitives could seek; commerce must have long
made them acquainted with each others manners, and they must have been
already entitled to the rights of hospitality by having often passed
through each other’s country.

Procopius[240] mentions that two pillars were standing in his time
on the coast of Mauritania, opposite to Gibraltar, upon which were
inscriptions in the Phœnician tongue: “We are Canaanites, flying from
the face of Joshua, the son of Nun, the _robber_:” A character they
naturally gave him from the ferocity and violence of his manners. Now,
if what these inscriptions contain is true, it is much more credible,
that the different nations, emigrating at that time, should seek their
safety near hand among their friends, rather than go to an immense
distance to Mauritania, to risk a precarious reception among strangers,
and perhaps that country not yet inhabited.

Upon viewing the several countries in which these nations have their
settlements, it seems evident they were made by mutual consent, and in
peace; they are not separated from each other by chains of mountains,
or large and rapid rivers, but generally by small brooks, dry the
greatest part of the year; by hillocks, or small mounds of earth, or
imaginary lines traced to the top of some mountain at a distance; these
boundaries have never been disputed or altered, but remain upon the old
tradition to this day. These have all different languages, as we see
from scripture all the petty states of Palestine had, but they have no
letters, or written character, but the Geez, the character
of the Cushite shepherd by whom they were first invented and used, as
we shall see hereafter. I may add in further proof of their origin,
that the curse[241] of Canaan seems to have followed them, they have
obtained no principality, but served the kings of the Agaazi or
Shepherds, have been hewers of wood and drawers of water, and so they
still continue.

[Illustration: Geez]

[Illustration: Amhara]

[Illustration: Falasha]

[Illustration: Damot Agow]

[Illustration: Tcheratz Agow]

[Illustration: Gafat]

[Illustration: Galla]

The first and most considerable of these nations settled in a province
called _Amhara_; it was, at first coming, as little known as the
others; but, upon a revolution in the country, the king fled to that
province, and there the court staid many years, so that the Geez, or
language of the Shepherds, was dropt, and retained only in writing,
and as a dead language; the sacred scriptures being in that language
only, saved the Geez from going totally into disuse. The second were
the Agows of Damot, one of the southern provinces of Abyssinia, where
they are settled immediately upon the sources of the Nile. The third
are the Agows of Lasta, or Tcheratz Agow, from Tchera, their principal
habitation; theirs too is a separate language; they are Troglodytes
that live in caverns, and seem to pay nearly the same worship to the
Siris, or Tacazzè, that those of Damot pay to the Nile.

I take the old names of these two last-mentioned nations, to be sunk in
the circumstances of this their new settlement, and to be a compound of
two words Ag-oha, the Shepherds of the River, and I also imagine, that
the idolatry they introduced in the worship of the Nile, is a further,
proof that they came from Canaan, where they imbibed materialism in
place of the pure Sabean worship of the Shepherds, then the only
religion of this part of Africa.

The fourth is a nation bordering upon the southern banks of the
Nile near Damot. It calls itself Gafat, which signifies oppressed
by violence, torn, expelled, or chaced away by force. If we were to
follow the idea arising merely from this name, we might be led to
imagine, that these were part of the tribes torn from Solomon’s son
and successor, Rehoboam. This, however, we cannot do confident with
the faith to be kept by a historian with his reader. The evidence of
the people themselves, and the tradition of the country, deny they
ever were Jews, or ever concerned with that colony, brought with
Menilek and the queen of Saba, which established the Jewish hierarchy.
They declare, that they are now Pagans, and ever were so; that they
are partakers with their neighbours the Agows in the worship of the
river Nile, the extent or particulars of which I cannot pretend to
explain.--The fifth is a tribe, which, if we were to pay any attention
to similarity of names, we should be apt to imagine we had found here
in Africa a part of that great Gaulish nation so widely extended in
Europe and Asia. A comparison of their languages, with what we know
exists of the former, cannot but be very curious.--These are the
Galla, the most considerable of these nations, specimens of whose
language I have cited. This word, in their own language, signifies
_Shepherd_[242]; they say that formerly they lived on the borders of
the southern rains, within the southern tropic; and that, like these in
Atbara, they were carriers between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, and
supplied the interior part of the peninsula with Indian commodities.

The history of this trade is unknown; it must have been little less
ancient, and nearly as extensive, as the trade to Egypt and Arabia.
It probably suffered diminution, when the mines of Sofala were given
up, soon after the discovery of the new world. The Portuguese found
it still flourishing, when they made their first conquests upon that
coast; and they carry it on still in an obscure manner, but in the same
tract to their settlements near Cape Negro on the western ocean. From
these settlements would be the proper place to begin to explore the
interior parts of the peninsula, on both sides of the southern tropic,
as protection and assistance could probably be got through the whole
course of it, and very little skill in language would be necessary.

When no employment was found for this multitude of men and cattle,
they left their homes, and proceeding northward, they found themselves
involved near the Line, in rainy, cold, and cloudy weather, where they
scarcely ever saw the sun. Impatient of such a climate, they advanced
still farther, till about the year 1537, they appeared in great numbers
in the province of Bali, abandoning the care of camels for the breeding
of horses. At present they are all cavalry. I avoid to say more of them
in this place, as I shall be obliged to make frequent mention of them
in the course of my narrative.

The Falasha, too, are a people of Abyssinia, having a particular
language of their own; a specimen of which I have also published, as
the history of the people seems to be curious. I do not, however, mean
to say of them, more than of the Galla, that this was any part of those
nations who fled from Palestine on the _invasion_ of Joshua. For they
are now, and ever were, Jews, and have traditions of their own as to
their origin, and what reduced them to the present state of separation,
as we shall see hereafter, when I come to speak of the translation of
the holy scripture.

In order to gratify such as are curious in the study and history of
language, I, with great pains and difficulty, got the whole book of the
Canticles translated into each of these languages, by priests esteemed
the most versant in the language of each nation. As this barbarous
polyglot is of too large a size to print, I have contented myself with
copying six verses of the first chapter in each language; but the whole
book is at the service of any person of learning that will bestow his
time in studying it, and, for this purpose, I left it in the British
Museum, under the direction of Sir Joseph Banks, and the Bishop of
Carlisle.

These _Convenæ_, as we have observed, were called _Habesh_, a number
of distinct nations meeting in one place. Scripture has given them a
name, which, though it has been ill translated, is precisely _Convenæ_,
both in the Ethiopic and Hebrew. Our English translation calls
them the _mingled people_[243], whereas it should be the _separate
nations_, who, though met and settled together, did not mingle, which
is strictly _Convenæ_. The inhabitants then who possessed Abyssinia,
from its southern boundary to the tropic of Cancer, or frontiers of
Egypt, were the Cushites, or polished people, living in towns, first
Troglodytes, having their habitations in caves. The next were the
Shepherds; after these were the nations who, as we apprehend, came from
Palestine--Amhara, Agow of Damot, Agow of Tchera, and Gafat.

Interpreters, much less acquainted with the historical circumstances
of these countries than the prophets, have, either from ignorance
or inattention, occasioned an obscurity which otherwise did not
arise from the text. All these people are alluded to in scripture by
descriptions that cannot be mistaken. If they have occasioned doubts or
difficulties, they are all to be laid at the door of the translators,
chiefly the Septuagint. When Moses returned with his wife Zipporah,
daughter of the sovereign of the Shepherds of Midian, carriers of
the India trade from Saba into Palestine, and established near their
principal mart Edom, in Idumea or Arabia, Aaron, and Miriam his sister,
quarrelled with Moses, because he had married one who was, as the
translator says, an Ethiopian[244]. There is no sense in this cause;
Moses was a fugitive when he married Zipporah; she was a noble-woman,
daughter of the priest of Midian, head of a people. She likewise, as
it would seem, was a Jewess[245], and more attentive, at that time, to
the preservation of the precepts of the law, than Moses was himself;
no exception, then, could lie against Zipporah, as she was surely,
in every view, Moses’s superior. But if the translator had rendered
it, that Aaron and Miriam had quarrelled with Moses, because he had
married a _negro_, or _black-moor_, the reproach was evident; whatever
intrinsic merit Zipporah might have been found to have possessed
afterwards, she must have appeared before the people, at first sight,
as a _strange_ woman, or Gentile, whom it was prohibited to marry.
Besides, the innate deformity of the complexion, negroes were, at all
times, rather coveted for companions of men of luxury or pleasure, than
sought after for wives of sober legislators, and governors of a people.

The next instance I shall give is, Zerah of Gerar[246], who came out
to fight Asa king of Israel with an army of a million of men, and
three hundred chariots, whilst both the quarrel and the decision are
represented as immediate.

Gerar was a small district, producing only the Acacia or gum-arabic
trees, from which it had its name; it had no water but what came from
a few wells, part of which had been dug by Abraham[247], after much
strife with the people of the country, who sought to deprive him of
them, as of a treasure.

Abraham and his brother Lot returning from Egypt, though poor
shepherds, could not subsist there for want of food, and water, and
they separated accordingly, by consent[248]. Now it must be confessed,
as it is not pretended there was any miracle here, that there is not
a more unlikely tale in all Herodotus, than this must be allowed to
be upon the footing of the translation. The translator calls Zerah an
Ethiopian, which should either mean he dwelt in Arabia, as he really
did, and this gave him no advantage, or else that he was a stranger,
who originally came from the country above Egypt; and, either way,
it would have been impossible, during his whole life-time, to have
collected a million of men, one of the greatest armies that ever stood
upon the face of the earth, nor could he have fed them though they had
ate the whole trees that grew in his country, nor could he have given
every hundredth man one drink of water in a day from all the wells he
had in his country.

Here, then, is an obvious triumph for infidelity, because, as I have
said, no supernatural means are pretended. But had it been translated,
that Zerah was a _black-moor_, a _Cushite-negro_, and prince of the
Cushites, that were carriers in the Isthmus, an Ethiopian shepherd,
then the wonder ceased. Twenty camels, employed to carry couriers upon
them, might have procured that number of men to meet in a short space
of time, and, as Zerah was the aggressor, he had time to choose when
he should attack his enemy; every one of these shepherds carrying with
them their provision of flour and water, as is their invariable custom,
might have fought with Asa at Gerar, without eating a loaf of Zerah’s
bread, or drinking a pint of his water.

The next passage I shall mention is the following: “The labour of
Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia, and of the Sabeans, men of
stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine[249].” Here
the several nations are distinctly and separately mentioned in their
places, but the whole meaning of the passage would have been lost,
had not the situation of these nations been perfectly known; or, had
not the Sabeans been mentioned separately, for both the Sabeans and
the Cushite were certainly Ethiopians. Now, the meaning of the verse
is, that the fruit of the agriculture of Egypt, which is wheat, the
commodities of the negro, gold, silver, ivory, and perfumes, would be
brought by the Sabean shepherds, their carriers, a nation of great
power, which should join themselves with you.

Again, Ezekiel says,[250] “And they shall know that I am the Lord,
when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be
destroyed.”--“In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships,
to make the careless Ethiopians afraid.” Now, Nebuchadnezzar was to
destroy Egypt[251], from the frontiers of Palestine, to the mountains
above Atbara, where the Cushite dwelt. Between this and Egypt is a
great desert; the country beyond it, and on both sides, was possessed
by half a million of men. The Cushite, or negro merchant, was secure
under these circumstances from any insult by land, but they were open
to the sea, and had no defender, and messengers, therefore, in ships
or a fleet had easy access to them, to alarm and keep them at home,
that they did not fall into danger by marching into Egypt against
Nebuchadnezzar, or interrupting the service upon which God had sent
him. But this does not appear from translating Cush, _Ethiopian_; the
nearest Ethiopian to Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful and capable of
opposing him, were the Ethiopian shepherds of the Thebaid, and these
were not accessible to ships; and the shepherds, so posted near to the
scene of destruction to be committed by Nebuchadnezzar, were enemies
to the Cushites living in towns, and they had repeatedly themselves
destroyed them, and therefore had no temptation to be other than
spectators.

In several other places, the same prophet speaks of Cush as the
commercial nation, sympathising with their countrymen dwelling in the
towns in Egypt, independent of the shepherds, who were really their
enemies, both in civil and religious matters. “And the sword shall come
upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall
fall in Egypt[252].” Now Ethiopia, as I have before said, that is, the
low country of the shepherds, nearest Egypt, had no common cause with
the Cushites that lived in towns there; it was their countrymen, the
Cushites in Ethiopia, who mourned for those that fell in Egypt, who
were merchants, traders, and dwelt in cities like themselves.

I shall mention but one instance more: “Can the Ethiopian change his
skin, or the leopard his spots?[253]” Here Cush is rendered Ethiopian,
and many Ethiopians being white, it does not appear why they should be
fixed upon, or chosen for the question more than other people. But had
Cush been translated Negro, or Black-moor, the question would have
been very easily understood, Can the negro change his skin, or the
leopard his spots?

Jeremiah[254] speaks of the chiefs of the mingled people that dwell
in the deserts. And Ezekiel[255] also mentions them independent of
all the others, whether Shepherds, or Cushites, or Libyans their
neighbours, by the name of the Mingled People. Isaiah[256] calls them
“a nation scattered and peeled; a people terrible from their beginning
hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers
have spoiled:” which is a sufficient description of them, as having
been expelled their own country, and settled in one that had suffered
greatly by a deluge a short time before.




CHAP. III.

    _Origin of Characters or Letters--Ethiopic the first
    Language--How and why the Hebrew Letter was formed._


The reader will observe what I have already said concerning the
language of Habesh, or the Mingled Nations, that they have not
characters of their own; but when written, which is very seldom, it
must be by using the Geez alphabet. Kircher, however, says, there are
two characters to be found in Abyssinia; one he calls the Sacred Old
Syrian, the other the Vulgar, or Common Geez character, of which we are
now speaking. But this is certainly a mistake; there never was, that I
know, but two original characters which obtained in Egypt. The first
was the Geez, the second the Saitic, and both these were the oldest
characters in the world, and both derived from hieroglyphics.

Although it is impossible to avoid saying something here of the origin
of languages, the reader must not expect that I should go very deep
into the fashionable opinions concerning them, or believe that all
the old deities of the Pagan nations were the patriarchs of the Old
Testament. With all respect to Sanchoniatho and his followers, I can
no more believe that Osiris, the first king of Egypt, was a real
personage, and that Tot was his secretary, than I can believe Saturn
to be the patriarch Abraham, and Rachel and Leah, Venus and Minerva. I
will not fatigue the reader with a detail of useless reasons; if Osiris
is a real personage, if he was king of Egypt, and Tot his secretary,
they surely travelled to very good purpose, as all the people of Europe
and Asia seem to be agreed, that in person they first communicated
letters and the art of writing to them, but at very different, and very
distant periods.

Thebes was built by a colony of Ethiopians from Sirè, the city of Seir,
or the Dog Star. Diodorus Siculus says, that the Greeks, by putting O
before Siris, had made the word unintelligible to the Egyptians: Siris,
then, was Osiris; but he was not the Sun, no more than he was Abraham,
nor was he a real personage. He was Syrius, or the dog-star, designed
under the figure of a dog, because of the warning he gave to Atbara,
where the first observations were made at his heliacal rising, or his
disengaging himself from the rays of the sun, so as to be visible to
the naked eye. He was the Latrator Anubis, and his first appearance
was figuratively compared to the barking of a dog, by the warning it
gave to prepare for the approaching inundation. I believe, therefore,
this was the first hieroglyphic; and that Isis, Osiris, and Tot, were
all after inventions relating to it; and, in saying this, I am so far
warranted, because there is not in Axum (once a large city) any other
hieroglyphic but of the dog-star, as far as I can judge from the huge
fragments of figures of this animal, remains of which, in differrent
postures, are still distinctly to be seen upon the pedestals everywhere
among the ruins.

It is not to be doubted, that hieroglyphics then, but not astronomy,
were invented at Thebes, where the theory of the dog-star was
particularly investigated, because connected with their rural year.
Ptolemy[257] has preserved us an observation of an helaical rising of
Sirius on the 4th day after the summer solstice, which answers to the
2250 year before Christ; and there are great reasons to believe the
Thebans were good practical astronomers long before that period[258];
early, as it may be thought, this gives to Thebes a much greater
antiquity than does the chronicle of Axum just cited.

As such observations were to be of service for ever, they became more
valuable and useful in proportion to their priority. The most ancient
of them would be of use to the astronomers of this day, for Sir Isaac
Newton appeals to these of Chiron the Centaur. Equations may indeed be
discovered in a number of centuries, which, by reason of the smallness
of their quantities, may very probably have escaped the most attentive
and scrupulous care of two or three generations; and many alterations
in the starry firmament, old stars being nearly extinguished, and new
emerging, would appear from a comparative slate of the heavens made
for a series of ages. And a Theban _Herschel_[259] would have given us
the history of planets he then observed, which, after appearing for
ages, are now visible no more, or have taken a different form.

The dial, or gold circle of Osimandyas, shews what an immense progress
they had made in astronomy in so little time. This, too, is a proof
of an early fall and revival of the arts in Egypt, for the knowledge
and use of Armillæ had been lost with the destruction of Thebes, and
were not again discovered, that is, revived, till the reign of Ptolemy
Soter, 300 years before the Christian æra. I consider that immense
quantity of hieroglyphics, with which the walls of the temples, and
faces of the obelisks, are covered, as containing so many astronomical
observations.

I look upon these as the ephemerides of some thousand years, and that
sufficiently accounts for their number. Their date and accuracy were
indisputable; they were exhibited in the most public places, to be
consulted as occasion required; and, by the deepness of the engraving,
and hardness of the materials, and the thickness and solidity of the
block itself upon which they were carved, they bade defiance at once to
violence and time.

I know that most of the learned writers are of sentiments very
different from mine in these respects. They look for mysteries and
hidden meanings, moral and philosophical treatises, as the subjects
of these hieroglyphics. A sceptre, they say, is the hieroglyphic of a
king. But where do we meet a sceptre upon an antique Egyptian monument?
or who told us this was an emblem of royalty among the Egyptians at
the time of the first invention of this figurative writing? Again, the
serpent with the tail in its mouth denotes the eternity of God, that
he is without beginning and without end. This is a Christian truth,
and a Christian belief, but no where to be found in the polytheism
of the inventors of hieroglyphics. Was Cronos or Ouranus without
beginning and without end? Was this the case with Osiris and Tot,
whose fathers and mothers births and marriages are known? If this was
a truth, independent of revelation, and imprinted from the beginning
in the minds of men; if it was destined to be an eternal truth, which
must have appeared by every man finding it in his own breast, from the
beginning, how unnecessary must the trouble have been to write a common
known truth like this, at the expence of six weeks labour, upon a table
of porphyry or granite.

It is not with philosophy as with astronomy; the older the
observations, the more use they are of to posterity. A lecture of an
Egyptian priest upon divinity, morality, or natural history, would
not pay the trouble, at this day, of engraving it upon stone; and
one of the reasons that I think no such subjects were ever treated
in hieroglyphics is, that in all those I ever had an opportunity of
seeing, and very few people have seen more, I have constantly found the
same figures repeated, which obviously, and without dispute, allude to
the history of the Nile, and its different periods of increase; the
mode of measuring it, the Etesian winds; in short, such observations
as we every day see in an almanack, in which we cannot suppose, that
forsaking the obvious import, where the good they did was evident, they
should ascribe different meanings to the hieroglyphic, to which no key
has been left, and therefore their future inutility must have been
foreseen.

I shall content myself in this wide field, to fix upon one famous
hieroglyphical personage, which is _Tot_, the secretary of Osiris,
whose function I shall endeavour to explain; if I fail, I am in good
company; I give it only as my opinion, and submit it chearfully to the
correction of others. The word _Tot_ is Ethiopic, and there can be
little doubt it means the dog-star. It was the name given to the first
month of the Egyptian year. The meaning of the name, in the language of
the province of Siré, is an _idol_, composed of different heterogeneous
pieces; it is found having this signification in many of their books.
Thus a naked man is not a _Tot_, but the body of a naked man, with a
dog’s head, an ass’s head, or a serpent instead of a head, is a _Tot_.
According to the import of that word, it is, I suppose, an almanack,
or section of the phænomena in the heavens which are to happen in the
limited time it is made to comprehend, when exposed for the information
of the public; and the more extensive its use is intended to be, the
greater number of emblems, or signs of observation, it is charged with.

Besides many other emblems or figures, the common Tot, I think, has
in his hand a cross with a handle, as it is called _Crux Ansata_,
which has occasioned great speculation among the decypherers. This
cross, fixed to a circle, is supposed to denote the _four elements_,
and to be the symbol of the influence the sun has over them.
Jamblichus[260] records, that this cross, in the hand of Tot, is the
name of the _divine Being_ that travels through the world. Sozomen[261]
thinks it means the _life_ to come, the same with the ineffable image
of eternity. Others, strange difference! say it is the _phallus_,
or human genitals, while a later[262] writer maintains it to be the
mariner’s compass. My opinion, on the contrary is, that, as this figure
was exposed to the public for the reason I have mentioned, the Crux
Ansata in his hand was nothing else but a monogram of his own name TO,
and [TOT] signifying TOT, or as we write Almanack upon a collection
published for the same purpose.

[Illustration: _London Published December 1^{st}. 1789 by G. Robinson &
Co_]

The changing of these emblems, and the multitude of them, produced the
necessity of contrasting their size, and this again a consequential
alteration in the original forms; and a stile, or small portable
instrument, became all that was necessary for finishing these small
_Tots_, instead of a large graver or carving tool, employed in making
the large ones. But men, at last, were so much used to the alteration,
as to know it better than under its primitive form, and the engraving
became what we may call the first elements, or root, in preference to
the original.

The reader will see, that, in my history of the civil wars in
Abyssinia, the king, forced by rebellion to retire to the province of
Tigré, and being at Axum, found a stone covered with hieroglyphics,
which, by the many inquiries I made after inscriptions, and some
conversations I had had with him, he guessed was of the kind which I
wanted. Full of that princely goodness and condescension that he ever
honoured me with, throughout my whole stay, he brought it with him when
he returned from Tigré, and was restored to his throne at Gondar.

It seems to me to be one of those private Tots, or portable almanacks,
of the most curious kind. The length of the whole stone is fourteen
inches, and six inches broad, upon, a base three inches high,
projecting from the block itself, and covered with hieroglyphics. A
naked figure of a man, near six inches, stands upon two crocodiles,
their heads turned different ways. In each of his hands he holds two
serpents, and a scorpion, all by the tail, and in the right hand hangs
a noose, in which is suspended a ram or goat. On the left hand he holds
a lion by the tail. The figure is in great relief; and the head of it
with that kind of cap or ornament which is generally painted upon the
head of the figure called Isis, but this figure is that of a man. On
each side of the whole-length figure, and above it, upon the face of
the stone where it projects, are marked a number of hieroglyphics of
all kinds. Over this is a very remarkable representation; it is an old
head, with very strong features, and a large bushy beard, and upon it
a high cap ribbed or striped. This I take to be the Cnuph, or Animus
Mundi, though Apuleus, with very little probability, says this was
made in the likeness of no creature whatever. The back of the stone is
divided into eight compartments[263], from the top to the bottom,
and these are filled with hieroglyphics in the last stage, before they
took the entire resemblance of letters. Many are perfectly formed; the
Crux Ansata appears in one of the compartments, and Tot in another.
Upon the edge, just above where it is broken, is 1119, so fair and
perfect in form, that it might serve as an example of caligraphy, even
in the present times; 45 and 19, and some other arithmetical figures,
are found up and down among the hieroglyphics.

[Illustration: _N^o. 2_

A TABLE OF _HIEROGLYPHICS_, FOUND AT AXUM 1771.

London Publish’d Dec^r. 1. 1789. by G. Robinson & Co.]

This I suppose was what formerly the Egyptians called a book,
or almanack; a collection of these was probably hung up in some
conspicuous place, to inform the public of the state of the heavens,
and seasons, and diseases, to be expected in the course of them, as is
the case in the English almanacks at this day. Hermes is said to have
composed 36,535 books, probably of this sort, or they might contain
the correspondent astronomical observations made in a certain time at
Meroë, Ophir, Axum, or Thebes, communicated to be hung up for the use
of the neighbouring cities. Porphyry[264] gives a particular account of
the Egyptian almanacks. “What is comprised in the Egyptian almanacks,
says he, contains but a small part of the Hermaic institutions; all
that relates to the rising and setting of the moon and planets, and of
the stars and their influence, and also some advice upon diseases.”

It is very remarkable, that, besides my Tot here described, there
are five or six, precisely the same in all respects, already in the
British Museum; one of them, the largest of the whole, is made of
sycamore, the others are of metal. There is another, I am told, in
Lord Shelburn’s collection; this I never had an opportunity of seeing;
but a very principal attention seems to have been paid to make all of
them light and portable, and it would seem that by these having been
formed so exactly similar, they were the Tots intended to be exposed
in different cities or places, and were neither more nor less than
Egyptian almanacks.

Whether letters were known to Noah before the flood, is no where said
from any authority, and the inquiry into it is therefore useless. It
is difficult, in my opinion, to imagine, that any society, engaged in
different occupations, could subsist long without them. There seems to
be less doubt, that they were invented, soon after the dispersion, long
before Moses, and in common use among the Gentiles of his time.

It seems also probable, that the first alphabet was Ethiopic, first
founded on hieroglyphics, and afterwards modelled into more current,
and less laborious figures, for the sake of applying them to the
expedition of business. Mr Fourmont is so much of this opinion, that
he says it is evident the three first letters of the Ethiopic alphabet
are hieroglyphics yet, and that the Beta resembles the door of a house
or temple. But, with great submission, the doors of houses and temples,
when first built, were square at the top, for arches were not known.
The Beta was taken from the doors of the first Troglodytes in the
mountains, which were rounded, and gave the hint for turning the arch,
when architecture advanced nearer to perfection.

Others are for giving to letters a divine original: they say they
were taught to Abraham by God himself; but this is no where vouched;
though it cannot be denied, that it appears from scripture there were
two sorts of characters known to Moses, when God spoke to him on Mount
Sinai. The first two tables, we are told, were wrote by the finger of
God, in what character is not said, but Moses received them to read
to the people, so he surely understood them. But, when he had broken
these two tables, and had another meeting with God on the mount on
the subject of the law, God directs him specially not to write in the
Egyptian character or hieroglyphics, but in the current hand used by
the Ethiopian merchants, _like the letters_ upon a signet; that is,
he should not write in hieroglyphics by a _picture_, representing the
_thing_, for that the law forbids; and the bad consequences of this
were evident; but he should write the law in the current hand, by
characters representing sounds, (though nothing else in heaven or on
earth,) or by the letters that the Ishmaelites, Cushites, and India
trading nations had long used in business for signing their invoices,
engagements, &c. and this was the meaning of being _like the letters of
a signet_.

Hence, it is very clear, God did not invent letters, nor did Moses,
who understood both characters before the promulgation of the law upon
Mount Sinai, having learned them in Egypt, and during his long stay
among the Cushites, and Shepherds in Arabia Petrea. Hence it should
appear also, that the sacred character of the Egyptian was considered
as profane, and forbid to the Hebrews, and that the common Ethiopic was
the Hebrew sacred character, in which the copy of the law was first
wrote. The text is very clear and explicit: “And the stones shall be
with the _names_ of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their
_names, like_ the engravings of _signet_; every one with his _name_,
shall they be according to the twelve tribes[265].” Which is plainly,
You shall not write in the way used till this day, for it leads the
people into idolatry; you shall not type Judah by a _lion_, Zebulun by
_ship_, Issachar by an _ass_ couching between two burdens; but, instead
of writing by pictures, you shall take the other known hand, the
merchants writing, which signifies _sounds_, not _things_; write the
names Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, in the letters, such as the merchants
use upon their signets. And, on Aaron’s breast-plate of pure gold, was
to be written, in the same alphabet, like the engravings of a signet,
HOLINESS TO THE LORD[266].

These signets, of the remotest antiquity in the East, are worn still
upon every man’s hand to this day, having the name of the person that
wears them, or some sentence upon it always religious. The Greeks,
after the Egyptians, continued the other method, and described figures
upon their signet; the use of both has been always common in Britain.

We find afterwards, that, in place of stone or gold, for greater
convenience Moses wrote in a book, “And it came to pass, when Moses had
made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were
finished;[267]”--

Although, then, Moses certainly did not invent either, or any
character, it is probable that he made two, perhaps more, alterations
in the Ethiopic alphabet as it then stood, with a view to increase
the difference still more between the writing then in use among the
nations, and what he intended to be peculiar to the Jews. The first
was altering the direction, and writing from right to left, whereas,
the Ethiopian was, and is to this day, written from left to right, as
was the hieroglyphical alphabet[268]. The second was taking away the
points, which, from all times, must have existed and been, as it were,
a part of the Ethiopic letters invented with them, and I do not see
how it is possible it ever could have been read without them; so that,
which way soever the dispute may turn concerning the antiquity of the
application of the Masoretic points, the invention was no new one, but
did exist as early as language was written. And I apprehend, that these
alterations were very rapidly adopted after the writing of the law, and
applied to the new character as it then stood; because, not long after,
Moses was ordered to submit the law itself to the people, which would
have been perfectly useless, had not reading and the character been
familiar to them at that time.

It appears to me also, that the Ethiopic words were always separated,
and could not run together, or be joined as the Hebrew, and that the
running the words together into one must have been matter of choice in
the Hebrew, to increase the difference in writing the two languages,
as the contrary had been practised in the Ethiopian language. Though
there is really little resemblance between the Ethiopic and the
Hebrew letters, and not much more between that and the Samaritan,
yet I have a very great suspicion the languages were once much nearer
a-kin than this disagreement of their alphabet promises, and, for
this reason, that a very great number of words are found throughout
the Old Testament that have really no root, nor can be derived from
any Hebrew origin, and yet all have, in the Ethiopic, a plain, clear,
unequivocal origin, to and from which they can be traced without force
or difficulty.

I shall now finish what I have to say upon this subject, by observing,
that the Ethiopic alphabet consists of twenty-six letters, each of
these, by a virgula, or point annexed, varying in sound, so as to
become, in effect, forty-two distinct letters. But I must further add,
that at first they had but twenty-five of these original letters,
the Latin P being wanting, so that they were obliged to substitute
another letter in the place of it. Paulus, for example, they called
Taulus, Oulus, or Caulus. Petros they pronounced Ketros. At last they
substituted T, and added this to the end of their alphabet, giving
it the force of P, though it was really a repetition of a character,
rather than invention. Besides these there are twenty others of the
nature of diphthongs, but I should suppose some of these are not of the
same antiquity with the letters of the alphabet, but have been invented
in later times by the scribes for convenience.

The reader will understand, that, speaking of the Ethiopic at present,
I mean only the Geez language, the language of the Shepherds, and of
the books. None of the other many languages spoken in Abyssinia have
characters for writing. But when the Amharic became substituted, in
common use and conversation, to the Geez, after the restoration of the
Royal family, from their long banishment in Shoa, seven new characters
were necessarily added to answer the pronunciation of this new
language, but no book was ever yet written in any other language except
Geez. On the contrary, there is an old law in this country, handed down
by tradition only, that whoever should attempt to translate the holy
scripture into Amharic, or any other language, his throat should be cut
after the manner in which they kill sheep, his family sold to slavery,
and his house razed to the ground; and, whether the fear of this law
was true or feigned, it was a great obstacle to me in getting those
translations of the Song of Solomon made which I intend for specimens
of the different languages of those distinct nations.

The Geez is exceedingly harsh and unharmonious. It is full of these
two letters, D and T, on which an accent is put that nearly resembles
stammering. Considering the small extent of sea that divides this
country from Arabia, we are not to wonder that it has great affinity to
the Arabic. It is not difficult to be acquired by those who understand
any other of the oriental languages; and, for a reason I have given
some time ago, that the roots of many Hebrew words are only to be found
here, I think it absolutely necessary to all those that would obtain a
critical skill in that language.

Wemmers, a Carmelite, has wrote a small Ethiopic dictionary in thin
quarto, which, as far as it goes, has considerable merit; and I am told
there are others of the same kind extant, written chiefly by Catholic
priests. But by far the most copious, distinct, and best-digested work,
is that of Job Ludolf, a German of great learning in the Eastern
languages, and who has published a grammar and dictionary of the Geez
in folio. This read with attention is more than sufficient to make
any person of very moderate genius a great proficient in the Ethiopic
language. He has likewise written a short essay towards a dictionary
and grammar of the Amharic, which, considering the very small help
he had, shews his surprising talents and capacity. Much, however,
remains still to do; and it is indeed scarcely possible to bring this
to any tolerable degree of forwardness for want of books, unless a
man of genius, while in the country itself, were to give his time and
application to it: It is not much more difficult than the former, and
less connected with the Hebrew or Arabic, but has a more harmonious
pronunciation.




CHAP. IV.

    _Some Account of the Trade Winds and Monsoons--Application of
    this to the Voyage to Ophir and Tarshish._


It is a matter of real affliction, which shews the vanity of all
human attainments, that the preceding pages have been employed in
describing, and, as it were, drawing from oblivion, the history of
those very nations that first conveyed to the world, not the elements
of literature only, but all sorts of learning, arts, and sciences in
their full detail and perfection. We see that these had taken deep
root, and were not easily extirpated. The first great and fatal blow
they received was from the destruction of Thebes, and its monarchy, by
the first invasion of the Shepherds under Salatis, which shook them to
the very foundation. The next was in the conquest of the Thebaid under
Sabaco and his Shepherds. The third was when the empire of Lower Egypt
(I do not think of the Thebaid) was transferred to Memphis, and that
city taken, as writers say, by the Shepherds of Abaris only, or of the
Delta, though it is scarcely probable, that, in so favourite a cause
as the destruction of cities, the whole Shepherds did not lend their
assistance.

These were the calamities, we may suppose, under which the arts in
Egypt fell; for, as to the foreign conquests of Nebuchadnezzar and
his Babylonians, they affected cities and the persons of individuals
only. They were temporary, never intended to have lasting consequences;
their beginning and end were prophesied at the same time. That of the
Assyrians was a plundering expedition only, as we are told by scripture
itself, intended to last but forty years[269], half the life of man,
given, for a particular purpose, for the indemnification of the king
Nebuchadnezzar, for the hardships he sustained at the siege of Tyre,
where the obstinacy of the inhabitants, in destroying their wealth,
deprived the conqueror of his expected booty. The Babylonians were a
people the most polished after the Egyptians. Egypt under them suffered
by rapacity, but not by ignorance, as it did in all the conquests of
the Shepherds.

After Thebes was destroyed by the first Shepherds, commerce, and it is
probable the arts with it, fled for a time from Egypt, and centered
in Edom, a city and territory, tho’ we know little of its history, at
that period the richest in the world. David, in the very neighbourhood
of Tyre and Sidon, calls Edom the strong city; “Who will bring me into
the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom[270]?” David, from an old
quarrel, and probably from the recent instigations of the Tyrians his
friends, invaded Edom[271], destroyed the city, and dispersed the
people. He was the great military power then upon the continent; Tyre
and Edom were rivals; and his conquest of that last great and trading
state, which he united to his empire, would yet have lost him the trade
he sought to cultivate, by the very means he used to obtain it, had not
Tyre been in a capacity to succeed to Edom, and to collect its mariners
and artificers, scattered abroad by the conquest.

David took possession of two ports, Eloth and Ezion-gaber[272], from
which he carried on the trade to Ophir and Tarshish, to a very great
extent, to the day of his death. We are struck with astonishment when
we reflect upon the sum that Prince received in so short a time from
these mines of Ophir. For what is said to be given by King David[273]
and his Princes for the building of the Temple of Jerusalem, exceeds in
value eight hundred millions of our money, if the talent there spoken
of is a Hebrew talent[274], and not a weight of the same denomination,
the value of which was less, and peculiarly reserved for and used
in the traffic of these precious metals, gold and silver. It was,
probably, an African or Indian weight, proper to the same mines, whence
was gotten the gold appropriated to fine commodities only, as is the
case with our ounce Troy different from the Averdupoise.

Solomon, who succeeded David in his kingdom, was his successor likewise
in the friendship of Hiram king of Tyre. Solomon visited Eloth and
Ezion-gaber[275] in person, and fortified them. He collected a number
of pilots, shipwrights, and mariners, dispersed by his father’s
conquest of Edom, most of whom had taken refuge in Tyre and Sidon, the
commercial states in the Mediterranean. Hiram supplied him with sailors
in abundance; but the sailors so furnished from Tyre were not capable
of performing the service which Solomon required, without the direction
of pilots and mariners used to the navigation of the Arabian Gulf and
Indian Ocean. Such were those mariners who formerly lived in Edom, whom
Solomon had now collected in Eloth and Ezion-gaber.

This last-mentioned navigation was very different in all respects from
that of the Mediterranean, which, in respect to the former, might
be compared to a pond, every side being confined with shores little
distant the one from the other; even that small extent of sea was so
full of islands, that there was much greater art required in the pilot
to avoid land than to reach it. It was, besides, subject to variable
winds, being to the northward of 30° of latitude, the limits to which
Providence hath confined those winds all over the globe; whereas the
navigation of the Indian Ocean was governed by laws more convenient and
regular, though altogether different from those that obtained in the
Mediterranean. Before I proceed, it will be necessary to explain this
phænomenon.

It is known to all those who are ever so little versant in the history
of Egypt, that the wind from the north prevails in that valley all the
summer months, and is called the _Etesian winds_; it sweeps the valley
from north to south, that being the direction of Egypt, and of the
Nile, which runs through the midst of it. The two chains of mountains,
which confine Egypt on the east and on the west, constrain the wind to
take this precise direction.

It is natural to suppose the same would be the case in the Arabian
Gulf, had that narrow sea been in a direction parallel to the land of
Egypt, or due north and south. The Arabian Gulf, however, or what we
call the Red Sea, lies from nearly north-west to south-east, from Suez
to Mocha. It then turns nearly east and west till it joins the Indian
Ocean at the Straits of Babelmandeb, as we have already said, and may
be further seen by consulting the map. Now, the Etesian winds, which
are due north in Egypt, here take the direction of the Gulf, and blow
in that direction steadily all the season, while it continues north
in the valley of Egypt; that is, from April to October the wind blows
north-west up the Arabian Gulf towards the Straits; and, from November
till March, directly contrary, down the Arabian Gulf, from the Straits
of Babelmandeb to Suez and the isthmus.

These winds are by some corruptly called the _trade-winds_; but this
name given to them is a very erroneous one, and apt to confound
narratives, and make them unintelligible. A trade-wind is a wind which,
all the year through, blows, and has ever blown, from the same point of
the horizon; such is the south-west, south of the Line, in the Indian
and Pacific Ocean. On the contrary, these winds, of which we have now
spoken, are called _monsoons_; each year they blow six months from the
northward, and the other six months from the southward, in the Arabian
Gulf: While in the Indian Ocean, without the Straits of Babelmandeb,
they blow just the contrary at the same seasons; that is, in summer
from the southward, and in winter from the northward, subject to a
small inflexion to the east and to the west.

The reader will observe, then, that, a vessel sailing from Suez or the
Elanitic Gulf, in any of the summer months, will find a steady wind at
north-west, which will carry it in the direction of the Gulf to Mocha.
At Mocha, the coast is east and west to the Straits of Babelmandeb, so
that the vessel from Mocha will have variable winds for a short space,
but mostly westerly, and these will carry her on to the Straits. She
is then done with the monsoon in the Gulf, which was from the north,
and, being in the Indian Ocean, is taken up by the monsoon which blows
in the summer months there, and is directly contrary to what obtains
in the Gulf. This is a south-wester, which carries the vessel with a
flowing sail to any part in India, without delay or impediment.

The same happens upon her return home. She sails in the winter months
by the monsoon proper to that sea, that is, with a north-east, which
carries her through the Straits of Babelmandeb. She finds, within the
Gulf, a wind at south-east, directly contrary to what was in the ocean;
but then her course is contrary likewise, so that a south-easter,
answering to the direction of the Gulf, carries her directly to Suez,
or the Elanitic Gulf, to whichever way she proposes going. Hitherto all
is plain, simple, and easy to be understood; and this was the reason
why, in the earliest ages, the India trade was carried on without
difficulty.

Many doubts, however, have arisen about a port called _Ophir_, whence
the immense quantities of gold and silver came, which were necessary
at this time, when provision was making for building the Temple of
Jerusalem. In what part of the world this Ophir was has not been yet
agreed. Connected with this voyage, too, was one to Tarshish, which
suffers the same difficulties; one and the same fleet performed them
both in the same season.

In order to come to a certainty where this Ophir was, it will be
necessary to examine what scripture says of it, and to keep precisely
to every thing like description which we can find there, without
indulging our fancy farther. _First_, then, the trade to Ophir was
carried on from the Elanitic Gulf through the Indian Ocean. _Secondly_,
The returns were gold, silver, and ivory, but especially silver[276].
_Thirdly_, The time of the going and coming of the fleet was precisely
three years[277], at no period more nor less.

Now, if Solomon’s fleet sailed from the Elanitic Gulf to the Indian
Ocean, this voyage of necessity must have been made by monsoons, for no
other winds reign in that ocean. And, what certainly shews this was the
case, is the precise term of three years, in which the fleet went and
came between Ophir and Ezion-gaber. For it is plain, so as to supersede
the necessity of proof or argument, that, had this voyage been made
with variable winds, no limited term of years ever could have been
observed in its going and returning. The fleet might have returned from
Ophir in two years, in three, four, or five years; but, with variable
winds, the return precisely in three years was not possible, whatever
part of the globe Ophir might be situated in.

Neither Spain nor Peru could be Ophir; part of these voyages must have
been made by variable winds, and the return consequently uncertain. The
island of Ceylon, in the East Indies, could not be Ophir; the voyage
thither is indeed made by monsoons, but we have shewed that a year is
all that can be spent in a voyage to the East Indies; besides, Ceylon
has neither gold nor silver, though it has ivory. St. Domingo has
neither gold, nor silver, nor ivory. When the Tyrians discovered Spain,
they found a profusion of silver in huge masses, but this they brought
to Tyre by the Mediterranean, and then sent it to the Red Sea over land
to answer the returns from India. Tarshish, too, is not found to be a
port in any of these voyages, so that part of the description fails,
nor were there ever elephants bred in Spain.

These mines of Ophir were probably what furnished the East with gold
in the earliest times; great traces of excavation must, therefore,
have appeared; yet in none of the places just mentioned are there
great remains of any mines that have been wrought. The ancient traces
of silver-mines in Spain are not to be found, and there never were
any of gold. John Dos Santos[278], a Dominican friar, says, that on
the coast of Africa, in the kingdom of Sofala, the main-land opposite
to Madagascar, there are mines of gold and silver, than which none
can be more abundant, especially in silver. They bear the traces of
having been wrought from the earliest ages. They were actually open and
working when the Portuguese conquered that part of the peninsula, and
were probably given up since the discovery of the new world, rather
from political than any other reasons.

John Dos Santos says, that he landed at Sofala in the year 1586; that
he sailed up the great river Cuama as far as Tetè, where, always
desirous to be in the neighbourhood of gold, his Order had placed
their convent. Thence he penetrated for above two hundred leagues
into the country, and saw the gold mines then working, at a mountain
called Afura[279]. At a considerable distance from these are the silver
mines of Chicoua; at both places there is great appearance of ancient
excavations; and at both places the houses of the kings are built with
mud and straw, whilst there are large remains of massy buildings of
stone and lime.

It is a tradition which generally obtains in that country, that these
works belonged to the Queen of Saba, and were built at the time, and
for the purpose of the trade on the Red Sea: this tradition is common
to all the Cafrs in that country. Eupolemus, an ancient author quoted
by Eusebius[280], speaking of David, says, that he built ships at
calls them, _metal-men_, to Orphi, or Ophir, an island in the Red Sea.
Now, by the Red Sea, he understands the Indian Ocean[281]; and by
Orphi, he probably meant the island of Madagascar; or Orphi (or Ophir)
might have been the name of the Continent, instead of Sofala, that is,
Sofala where the mines are might have been the main-land of Orphi.

The kings of the isles are often mentioned in this voyage; Socotra,
Madagascar, the Commorras, and many other small islands thereabout,
are probably those the scripture calls the _Isles_. All, then, at last
reduces itself to the finding a place, either Sofala, or any other
place adjoining to it, which avowedly can furnish gold, silver, and
ivory in quantity, has large tokens of ancient excavations, and is at
the same time under such restrictions from monsoons, that three years
are absolutely necessary to perform the voyage, that it needs no more,
and cannot be done in less, and this is Ophir.

Let us now try these mines of Dos Santos by the laws of the monsoons,
which we have already laid down in describing the voyage to India.
The fleet, or ship, for Sofala, parting in June from Ezion-gaber,
would run down before the northern monsoon to Mocha. Here, not the
monsoon, but the direction of the Gulf changes, and the violence of the
south-westers, which then reign in the Indian Ocean, make themselves
at times felt even in Mocha Roads. The vessel therefore comes to an
anchor in the harbour of Mocha, and here she waits for moderate weather
and a fair wind, which carries her out of the Straits of Babelmandeb,
through the few leagues where the wind is variable. If her course was
now to the East Indies, that is east-north-east, or north-east and by
north, she would find a strong south-west wind that would carry her to
any part of India, as soon as she cleared Cape Gardefan, to which she
was bound.

But matters are widely different if she is bound for Sofala; her
course is nearly south-west, and she meets at Cape Gardefan a strong
south-wester that blows directly in her teeth. Being obliged to return
into the gulf, she mistakes this for a trade-wind, because she is not
able to make her voyage to Mocha but by the summer monsoon, which
carries her no farther than the Straits of Babelmandeb, and then leaves
her in the face of a contrary wind, a strong current to the northward,
and violent swell.

The attempting this voyage with sails, in these circumstances, was
absolutely impossible, as their vessels went only before the wind: if
it was performed at all, it must have been by oars[282], and great
havock and loss of men must have been the consequence of the several
trials. This is not conjecture only; the prophet Ezekiel describes the
very fact. Speaking of the Tyrian voyages probably of this very one he
says, “Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters (the ocean): the
east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas[283].” In short,
the east, that is the north-east wind, was the very monsoon that was
to carry them to Sofala, yet having no sails, being upon a lee-shore,
a very bold coast, and great swell, it was absolutely impossible with
oars to save themselves from destruction.

At last philosophy and observation, together with the unwearied
perseverance of man bent upon his own views and interest, removed
these difficulties, and shewed the mariners of the Arabian Gulf, that
these periodical winds, which, in the beginning, they looked upon as
invincible barriers to the trading to Sofala, when once understood,
were the very means of performing this voyage safely and expeditiously.

The vessel trading to Sofala sailed, as I have said, from the bottom
of the Arabian Gulf in summer, with the monsoon at north, which
carried her to Mocha. There the monsoon failed her by the change of
the direction of the Gulf. The south-west winds, which blow without
Cape Gardefan in the Indian Ocean, forced themselves round the Cape
so as to be felt in the road of Mocha, and make it uneasy riding
there. But these soon changed, the weather became moderate, and the
vessel, I suppose in the month of August, was safe at anchor under Cape
Gardefan, where was the port which, many years afterwards, was called
Promontorium Aromatum. Here the ship was obliged to stay all November,
because all these summer months the wind south of the Cape was a strong
south-wester, as hath been before said, directly in the teeth of the
voyage to Sofala. But this time was not lost; part of the goods bought
to be ready for the return was ivory, frankincense, and myrrh; and the
ship was then at the principal mart for these.

I suppose in November the vessel sailed with the wind at north-east,
with which she would soon have made her voyage: But off the coast
of Melinda, in the beginning of December, she there met an anomalous
monsoon at south-west, in our days first observed by Dr Halley, which
cut off her voyage to Sofala, and obliged her to put in to the small
harbour of _Mocha_, near Melinda, but nearer still to Tarshish, which
we find here by accident, and which we think a strong corroboration
that we are right as to the rest of the voyage. In the Annals of
Abyssinia, we see that Amda Sion, making war upon that coast in the
14th century, in a list of the rebellious Moorish vassals, mentions the
Chief of Tarshish as one of them, in the very situation where we have
now placed him.

Solomon’s vessel, then, was obliged to stay at Tarshish till the month
of April of the second year. In May, the wind set in at north-east,
and probably carried her that same month to Sofala. All the time she
spent at Tarshish was not lost, for part of her cargo was to be brought
from that place, and she probably bought, bespoke, or left it there.
From May of the second year, to the end of that monsoon in October, the
vessel could not stir; the wind was north-east. But this time, far from
being lost, was necessary to the traders for getting in their cargo,
which we shall suppose was ready for them.

The ship sails, on her return, in the month of November of the second
year, with the monsoon south-west, which in a very few weeks would have
carried her into the Arabian Gulf. But off Mocha, near Melinda and
Tarshish, she met the north-east monsoon, and was obliged to go into
that port and stay there till the end of that monsoon; after which a
south-wester came to her relief in May of the third year. With the May
monsoon she ran to Mocha within the Straits, and was there confined by
the summer monsoon blowing up the Arabian Gulf from Suez, and meeting
her. Here she lay till that monsoon, which in summer blows northerly
from Suez, changed to a south-east one in October or November, and that
very easily brought her up into the Elanitic Gulf, the middle or end of
December of the third year. She had no need of more time to complete
her voyage, and it was not possible she could do it in less. In short,
she changed the monsoon six times, which is thirty-six months, or three
years exactly; and there is not another combination of monsoons over
the globe, as far as I know, capable to effect the same. The reader
will please to consult the map, and keep it before him, which will
remove any difficulties he may have. It is for his instruction this map
has been made, not for that of the learned prelate[284] to whom it is
inscribed, much more capable of giving additional lights, than in need
of receiving any information I can give, even on this subject.

The celebrated Montesquieu conjectures, that Ophir was really on the
coast of Africa; and the conjecture of that great man merits more
attention than the assertions of ordinary people. He is too sagacious,
and too enlightened, either to doubt of the reality of the voyage
itself, or to seek for Ophir and Tarshish in China. Uninformed,
however, of the particular direction of the monsoons upon the coast,
first very slightly spoken of by Eudoxus, and lately observed and
delineated by Dr Halley, he was staggered upon considering that the
whole distance, which employed a vessel in Solomon’s time for three
years, was a thousand leagues, scarcely more than the work of a month.
He, therefore, supposes, that the reason of delay was owing to the
imperfection of the vessels, and goes into very ingenious calculations,
reasonings, and conclusions thereupon. He conjectures, therefore, that
the ships employed by Solomon were what he calls _junks_[285] of the
Red Sea, made of papyrus, and covered with hides or leather.

Pliny[286] had said, that one of these junks of the Red Sea was twenty
days on a voyage, which a Greek or Roman vessel would have performed in
seven; and Strabo[287] had said the same thing before him.

This relative slowness, or swiftness, will not solve the difficulty.
For, if these junks[288] were the vessels employed to Ophir, the long
voyage, much more they would have been employed on the short one, to
and from India; now they performed this within a year, which was all
a Roman or Greek vessel could do, therefore this was not the cause.
Those employed by Solomon were Tyrian and Idumean vessels, the best
ships and sailers of their age. Whoever has seen the prodigious swell,
the violent currents, and strong south-westers beyond the Straits
of Babelmandeb, will not need any argument to persuade him, that no
vessel made of papyrus, or leather, could live an hour upon that sea.
The junks, indeed, were light and convenient boats, made to cross
the narrow gulf between the Sabeans and Homerites, or Cushites, at
Azab upon the Red Sea, and carry provisions from Arabia Felix to the
more desert coast of Azab. I have hinted, that the names of places
sufficiently demonstrate the great loss of men that happened to the
traders to Sofala before the knowledge of the monsoons, and the
introduction of the use of sails.

I shall now consider how far the thing is confirmed by the names of
places in the language of the country, such as they have retained among
them to the present day.

There are three Mochas mentioned in this voyage, situated in countries
very dissimilar to, and distant from, each other. The first is in
Arabia Deserta, in lat. 30° nearly, not far from the bottom of the Gulf
of Suez. The second is in lat. 13°, a small distance from the Straits
of Babelmandeb. The third Mocha is in lat. 3° south, near Tarshish, on
the coast of Melinda. Now, the meaning of Mocha, in the Ethiopic, is
_prison_; and is particularly given to these three places, because, in
any of them, a ship is forced to stay or be detained for months, till
the changing of the monsoon sets her at liberty to pursue her voyage.
At Mocha, near the bottom of the Gulf of Suez, a vessel, wanting to
proceed southward to Babelmandeb, is kept here in prison all winter,
till the summer monsoon sets her at liberty. At Mocha, in Arabia Felix,
the same happens to any vessel wanting to proceed to Suez in the summer
months; she may come up from the Straits of Babelmandeb to Mocha Road
by the accidental direction of the head of the Gulf; but, in the
month of May, the north-west wind obliges her to put into Mocha, and
there to stay till the south-easter relieves her in November. After
you double Gardefan, the summer monsoon, at north-east, is carrying
your vessel full sail to Sofala, when the anomalous monsoon takes her
off the coast of Melinda, and forces her into Tarshish, where she is
imprisoned for six months in the Mocha there. So that this word is
very emphatically applied to those places where ships are necessarily
detained by the change of monsoons, and proves the truth of what I have
said.

The last Cape on the Abyssinian shore, before you run into the Straits,
is Cape Defan, called by the Portuguese, _Cape Dafui_. This has no
meaning in any language; the Abyssinians, on whose side it is, call
it _Cape Defan_, the Cape of Burial. It was probably there where the
east wind drove ashore the bodies of such as had been shipwrecked in
the voyage. The point of the same coast, which, stretches out into the
Gulf, before you arrive at Babelmandeb, was, by the Romans, called
_Promontorium Aromatum_, and since, by the Portuguese, _Cape Gardesui_.
But the name given it by the Abyssinians and sailors on the Gulf is,
_Cape Gardesan_, the Straits of Burial.

Still nearer the Straits is a small port in the kingdom of Adel,
called _Mete_, _i. e._ Death, or, he or they are dead. And more to the
westward, in the same kingdom, is Mount Felix, corruptly so called
by the Portuguese. The Latins call it Elephas Mons, the Mountain
of the Elephant; and the natives, Jibbel Feel, which has the same
signification. The Portuguese, who did not know that Jibbel Feel was
Elephas Mons, being misled by the sound, have called it _Jibbel Felix_,
the Happy Mountain, a name to which it has no sort of title.

The Straits by which we enter the Arabian Gulf are by the Portuguese
called Babelmandeb, which is nonsense. The name by which it goes among
the natives is Babelmandeb, the Gate or Port of Affliction. And near
it Ptolemy[289] places a town he calls, in the Greek, Mandaeth, which
appears to me to be only a corruption of Mandeb. The Promontory that
makes the south side of the Straits, and the city thereupon, is _Diræ_,
which means the Hades, or Hell, by Ptolemy[290] called Δηρη. This, too,
is a translation of the ancient name, because Δηρη (or Diræ) has no
signification in the Greek. A cluster of islands you meet in the canal,
after passing Mocha, is called Jibbel Zekir, or, the Islands of Prayer
for the remembrance of the dead. And still, in the same course up the
Gulf, others are called Sebaat Gzier, Praise or Glory be to God, as we
may suppose, for the return from this dangerous navigation.

All the coast to the eastward, to where Gardefan stretches out into the
ocean, is the territory of Saba, which immemorially has been the mart
of frankincense, myrrh, and balsam. Behind Saba, upon the Indian Ocean,
is the _Regio Cinnamonifera_, where a considerable quantity of that
wild cinnamon grows, which the Italian druggists call _canella_.

Inland near to Azab, as I have before observed, are large ruins, some
of them of small stones and lime adhering strongly together. There
is especially an aqueduct, which brought formerly a large quantity
of water from a fountain in the mountains, which must have greatly
contributed to the beauty, health, and pleasure of Saba. This is
built with large massy blocks of marble, brought from the neighbouring
mountains, placed upon one another without lime or cement, but joined
with thick cramps, or bars of brass. There are likewise a number of
wells, not six feet wide, composed of pieces of marble hewn to parts
of a circle, and joined with the same bars of brass also. This is
exceedingly surprising, for Agatharcides[291] tells us, that the
Alileans and Cassandrins, in the southern parts of Arabia, (just
opposite to Azab), had among them gold in such plenty, that they would
give double the weight of gold for iron, triple its weight for brass,
and ten times its weight for silver; that, in digging the earth, they
found pieces of gold as big as olive-stones, but others much larger.

This seems to me extraordinary, if brass was at such a price in Arabia,
that it could be here employed in the meanest and most common uses.
However this be, the inhabitants of the Continent, and of the peninsula
of Arabia opposite to it, of all denominations agree, that this was the
royal seat of the Queen of Saba, famous in ecclesiastical history for
her journey to Jerusalem; that these works belonged to her, and were
erected at the place of her residence; that all the gold, silver, and
perfumes came from her kingdom of Sofala, which was Ophir, and which
reached from thence to Azab, upon the borders of the Red Sea, along the
coast of the Indian Ocean.

It will very possibly be thought, that this is the place in which I
should mention the journey that the Queen of Saba made into Palestine;
but as the dignity of the expedition itself, and the place it holds
in Jewish antiquities, merits that it should be treated in a place
by itself, so the connection that it is supposed to have with the
foundation of the monarchy of Abyssinia, the country whose history
I am going to write, makes this particularly proper for the sake of
connection; and I shall, therefore, continue the history of the trade
of the Arabian Gulf to a period in which I can resume the narrative of
this expedition without occasioning any interruption to either.




CHAP. V.

    _Fluctuating State of the India Trade--Hurt by Military
    Expeditions of the Persians--Revives under the Ptolemies--Falls
    to Decay under the Romans._


The prosperous days of the commerce with the Elanitic Gulf seemed to
be at this time nearly past; yet, after the revolt of the ten tribes,
Edom remaining to the house of David, they still carried on a sort of
trade from the Elanitic Gulf, though attended with many difficulties.
This continued till the reign of Jehosaphat[292]; but, on Jehoram’s
succeeding that prince, the Edomites[293] revolted and chose a king of
their own, and were never after subject to the kings of Judah till the
reign of Uzziah[294], who conquered Eloth, fortified it, and having
peopled it with a colony of his own, revived the old traffic. This
subsisted till the reign of Ahaz, when Rezin king of Damascus took
Eloth[295], and expelled the Jews, planting in their stead a colony
of Syrians. But he did not long enjoy this good fortune, for the
year after, Rezin[296] was conquered by Tilgath-pileser; and one of
the fruits of this victory was the taking of Eloth, which never after
returned to the Jews, or was of any profit to Jerusalem.

The repeated wars and conquest to which the cities on the Elanitic Gulf
had been subject, the extirpation of the Edomites, all the great events
that immediately followed one another, of course disturbed the usual
channel of trade by the Red Sea, whose ports were now consequently
become unsafe by being in possession of strangers, robbers, and
soldiers; it changed, therefore, to a place nearer the center of
police and good government, than fortified and frontier towns could be
supposed to be. The Indian and African merchants, by convention, met in
Assyria, as they had done in Semiramis’s time; the one by the Persian
Gulf and Euphrates, the other through Arabia. Assyria, therefore,
became the mart of the India trade in the East.

The conquests of Nabopollaser, and his son Nebuchadnezzar, had brought
a prodigious quantity of bullion, both silver and gold, to Babylon
his capital. For he had plundered Tyre[297], and robbed Solomon’s
Temple[298] of all the gold that had been brought from Ophir; and
he had, besides, conquered Egypt and laid it waste, and cut off the
communication of trade in all these places, by almost extirpating the
people. Immense riches flowed to him, therefore, on all sides, and
it was a circumstance particularly favourable to merchants in that
country, that it was governed by written laws that screened their
properties from any remarkable violence or injustice.

I suppose the phrase in scripture, “The law of the Medes and Persians,
which altereth not[299],” must mean only written laws, by which those
countries were governed, without being left to the discretion of the
judge, as all the East was, and as it actually now is.

In this situation the country was at the birth of Cyrus, who, having
taken Babylon[300] and slain Belshazzer[301], became master of the
whole trade and riches of the East. Whatever character writers give
of this great Prince, his conduct, with regard to the commerce of the
country, shews him to have been a weak one: For, not content with
the prodigious prosperity to which his dominions had arrived, by the
misfortune of other nations, and perhaps by the good faith kept by his
subjects to merchants, enforced by those written laws, he undertook the
most absurd and disastrous project of molesting the traders themselves,
and invading India, that all at once he might render himself master of
their riches. He executed this scheme just as absurdly as he formed
it; for, knowing that large caravans of merchants came into Persia and
Assyria from India, through the Ariana, (the desert coast that runs all
along the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf, almost entirely destitute
of water, and very nearly as much so of provisions, both which caravans
always carry with them), he attempted to enter India by the very same
road with a large army, the very same way his predecessor Semiramis
had projected 1300 years before; and as her army had perished, so did
his to a man, without having ever had it in his power to take one
pepper-corn by force from any part of India.

The same fortune attended his son and successor Cambyses, who,
observing the quantity of gold brought from Ethiopia into Egypt,
resolved to march to the source, and at once make himself master of
those treasures by rapine, which he thought came too slowly through the
medium of commerce.

Cambyses’s expedition into Africa is too well known for me to dwell
upon it in this place. It hath obtained a celebrity by the absurdity
of the project, by the enormous cruelty and havock that attended the
course of it, and by the great and very just punishment that closed it
in the end. It was one of those many monstrous extravagancies which
made up the life of the greatest madman that ever disgraced the annals
of antiquity. The basest mind is perhaps the most capable of avarice;
and when this passion has taken possession of the human heart, it is
strong enough to excite us to undertakings as great as any of those
dictated by the noblest of our virtues.

Cambyses, amidst the commission of the most horrid excesses during the
conquest of Egypt, was informed that, from the south of that country,
there was constantly brought a quantity of pure gold, independent of
what came from the top of the Arabic Gulf, which was now carried into
Assyria, and circulated in the trade of his country. This supply of
gold belonged properly and exclusively to Egypt; and a very lucrative,
though not very extensive commerce, was, by its means, carried on
with India. He found out that the people, possessing these treasures,
were called _Macrobii_, which signifies _long livers_; and that they
possessed a country divided from him by lakes, mountains, and deserts.
But what still affected him most was, that in his way were a multitude
of warlike Shepherds, with whom the reader is already sufficiently
acquainted.

Cambyses, to flatter, and make peace with them, fell furiously upon all
the gods and temples in Egypt; he murdered the sacred ox, the apis,
destroyed Memphis, and all the public buildings wherever he went. This
was a gratification to the Shepherds, being equally enemies to those
that worshipped beasts, or lived in cities. After this introduction, he
concluded peace with them in the most solemn manner, each nation vowing
eternal amity with the other. Notwithstanding which, no sooner was he
arrived at Thebes (in Egypt) than he detached a large army to plunder
the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, the greatest object of the worship of
these _shepherds_; which army utterly perished without a man remaining,
covered, as I suppose, by the moving sands. He then began his march
against the _Macrobii_, keeping close to the Nile. The country there
being too high to receive any benefit from the inundation of the river,
produced no corn, so that part of his army died for want of provision.

Another detachment of his army proceeded to the country of the
Shepherds, who, indeed, furnished him with food; but, exasperated
at the sacrilege he had committed against their god, they conduced
his troops through places where they could procure no water. After
suffering all this loss, he was not yet arrived beyond 24°, the
parallel of Syené. From hence he dispatched ambassadors, or spies,
to discover the country before him, finding he could no longer rely
upon the Shepherds. These found it full of black warlike people, of
great size, and prodigious strength of body; active, and continually
exercised in hunting the lion, the elephant, and other monstrous beasts
which live in these forests.

The inhabitants so abounded with gold, that the most common utensils
and instruments were made of that metal; whilst, at the same time,
they were utter strangers to bread of any kind whatever; and, not only
so, but their country was, by its nature, incapable of producing any
sort of grain from which bread could be made. They subsisted upon raw
flesh alone, dried in the sun, especially that of the rhinoceros, the
elephant, and giraffa, which they had slain in hunting. On such food
they have ever since lived, and live to this day, and on such food I
myself have lived with them; yet still it appears strange, that people
confined to this diet, without variety or change, should have it for
their characteristic that they were long livers.

They were not at all alarmed at the arrival of Cambyses’s ambassadors.
On the contrary, they treated them as an inferior species of men. Upon
asking them about their diet, and hearing it was upon bread, they
called it _dung_, I suppose as having the appearance of that bread
which I have seen the miserable Agows, their neighbours, make from
seeds of bastard rye, which they collect in their fields under the
burning rays of the sun. They laughed at Cambyses’s requisition of
submitting to him, and did not conceal their contempt of his idea of
bringing an army thither.

They treated ironically his hopes of conquest, even supporting all
difficulties of the desert overcome, and his army ready to enter their
country, and counseled him to return while he was well, at least for a
time, till he should produce a man of his army that could bend the bow
that they then sent him; in which case, he might continue to advance,
and have hope of conquest.--The reason of their reference to the bow
will be seen afterwards. I mention these circumstances of the quantity
of gold, the hunting of elephants, their living upon the raw flesh,
and, above all, the circumstances of the bow, as things which I myself
can testify to have met with among this very people. It is, indeed,
highly satisfactory in travelling, to be able to explain truths which,
from a want of knowledge of the country alone, have been treated as
falsehoods, and placed to the discredit of historians.

The Persians were all famous archers. The mortification, therefore,
they experienced, by receiving the bow they could not bend, was a
very sensible one, though the narrative of the quantity of gold the
messengers had seen made a much greater impression upon Cambyses.
To procure this treasure was, however, impracticable, as he had
no provision, nor was there any in the way of his march. His army,
therefore, wasted daily by death and dispersion; and he had the
mortification to be obliged to retreat into Egypt, after part of his
troops had been reduced to the necessity of eating each other[302].

Darius, king of Persia, attempted to open this trade in a much more
worthy and liberal manner, as he sent ships down the river Indus into
the ocean, whence they entered the Red Sea. It is probable, in this
voyage, he acquired all the knowledge necessary for establishing this
trade in Persia; for he must have passed through the Persian Gulf, and
along the whole eastern coast of Arabia; he must have seen the marts
of perfumes and spices that were at the mouth of the Red Sea, and the
manner of bartering for gold and silver, as he was necessarily in those
trading places which were upon the very same coast from which the
bullion was brought. I do not know, then, why M. de Montesquieu[303]
has treated this expedition of Darius so contemptuously, as it appears
to have been executed without great trouble or expence, and terminated
without loss or hardship; the strongest proof that it was at first
wisely planed. The prince himself was famous for his love of learning,
which we find by his anxiety to be admitted among the Magi, and the
sense he had of that honour, in causing it to be engraved upon his
tomb.

The expedition of Alexander into India was, of all events, that which
most threatened the destruction of the commerce of the Continent, or
the dispersing it into different channels throughout the East: First,
by the destruction of Tyre, which must have, for a time, annihilated
the trade by the Arabian Gulf; then by his march through Egypt into
the country of the Shepherds, and his intended further progress into
Ethiopia to the head of the Nile. If we may judge of what we hear of
him in that part of his expedition, we should be apt not to believe, as
others are fond of doing, that he had schemes of commerce mingled with
those of conquests. His anxiety about his own birth at the Temple of
Jupiter Ammon, this first question that he asked of the priest, “Where
the Nile had its source,” seemed to denote a mind busied about other
objects; for else he was then in the very place for information, being
in the temple of that horned god[304], the deity of the Shepherds, the
African carriers of the Indian produce; a temple which, though in the
midst of sand, and destitute of gold or silver, possessed more and
better information concerning the trade of India and Africa, than could
be found in any other place on the Continent. Yet we do not hear of one
question being made, or one arrangement taken, relative to opening the
India trade with Thebes, or with Alexandria, which he built afterwards.

After having viewed the main ocean to the south, he ordered Nearchus
with his fleet to coast along the Persian Gulf, accompanied by part of
the army on land for their mutual assistance, as there were a great
many hardships which followed the march of the army by land, and much
difficulty and danger attended the shipping as they were sailing in
unknown seas against the monsoons. Nearchus himself informed the king
at Babylon of his successful voyage, who gave him orders to continue it
into the Red Sea, which he happily accomplished to the bottom of the
Arabian Gulf.

We are told it was his intention to carry on the India trade by the
Gulf of Persia, for which reason he broke down all the cataracts
and dams which the Persians had built over the rivers communicating
with the Euphrates. No use, however, seems to have been made of
his knowledge of Arabia and Ethiopia, which makes me imagine this
expedition of Alexander’s fleet was not an idea of his own. It is,
indeed, said, that when Alexander came into India, the southern or
Indian Ocean was perfectly unknown; but I am rather inclined to believe
from this circumstance, that this voyage was made from some memorials
remaining concerning the voyage of Darius. The fact and circumstances
of Darius’s voyage are come down to us, and, by these very same means,
it must be probable they reached Alexander, who I do not believe ever
intended to carry on the India trade at Babylon.

To render it impossible, indeed, he could not have done three things
more effectual than he did, when he destroyed Tyre, and dispersed its
inhabitants, persecuted the Orites, or land-carriers, in the Ariana,
and built Alexandria upon the Mediterranean; which last step fixed the
Indian trade in that city, and would have kept it there eternally, had
the Cape of Good Hope never been discovered.

The Ptolemies, the wisest princes that ever sat upon the throne
of Egypt, applied with the utmost care and attention to cultivate
the trade of India, to keep up perfect and friendly understanding
with every country that supplied any branch of it, and, instead
of disturbing it either in Asia, Arabia, or Ethiopia, as their
predecessors had done, they used their utmost efforts to encourage it
in all quarters.

Ptolemy I. was then reigning in Alexandria, the foundation of whose
greatness he not only laid, but lived to see it arrive at the greatest
perfection. It was his constant saying, that the true glory of a
king was not in being rich himself, but making his subjects so.
He, therefore, opened his ports to all trading nations, encouraged
strangers of every language, protected caravans, and a free navigation
by sea, by which, in a few years, he made Alexandria the great
store-house of merchandize, from India, Arabia, and Ethiopia. He did
still further to insure the duration of his kingdom, at the same time
that he shewed the utmost disinterestedness for the future happiness of
his people. He educated his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, with the utmost
care, and the happy genius of that prince had answered his father’s
utmost expectations; and, when he arrived at the age of governing, the
father, worn out by the fatigue of long wars, surrendered the kingdom
to his son.

Ptolemy had been a soldier from his infancy, and consequently kept up
a proper military force, that made him every where respected in these
warlike and unsettled times. He had a fleet of two hundred ships of war
constantly ready in the port of Alexandria, the only part for which
he had apprehensions. All behind him was wisely governed, whilst it
enjoyed a most flourishing trade, to the prosperity of which peace
is necessary. He died in peace and old age, after having merited the
glorious name of _Soter_, or _Saviour of the kingdom_, which he himself
had founded, the greatest part of which differed from him in language,
colour, habit, and religion.

It is with astonishment we see how thoroughly he had established
the trade of India, Ethiopia, and Arabia, and what progress he had
already made towards uniting it with that of Europe, by a passage in
Athenæus[305], who mentions a festival and entertainment given by
his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, to the people of Alexandria at his
accession, while his father was alive, but had just given up his crown.

There was in this procession a great number of Indian women, besides
of other countries; and by Indians we may understand, not only the
Asiatic Indians, but the Abyssinians, and the inhabitants of the higher
part of Africa, as all these countries were comprehended under the
common appellation of _India_. These were in the habit of slaves, and
each led, or was followed by, a camel loaded with incense of Sheher,
and cinnamon, besides other aromatics. After these came a number of
Ethiopian blacks carrying the teeth of 600 elephants. Another troop
had a prodigious quantity of ebony; and again others loaded with that
finest gold, which is not dug from the mine, but washed from the
mountains by the tropical rains in small pieces, or pellets, which
the natives and traders at this day call _Tibbar_. Next came a pack of
24,000 Indian dogs, all Asiatics, from the peninsula of India, followed
by a prodigious number of foreign animals, both beasts and birds,
paroquets, and other birds of Ethiopia, carried in cages; 130 Ethiopian
sheep, 300 Arabian, and 20 from the Isle Nubia[306]; 26 Indian
buffaloes, white as snow, and eight from Ethiopia; three brown bears,
and a white one, which last must have been from the north of Europe; 14
leopards, 16 panthers, four lynxes, one giraffa, and a rhinoceros of
Ethiopia.

When we reflect upon this prodigious mixture of animals, all so easily
procured at one time, without preparation, we may imagine, that the
quantity of merchandises, for common demand, which accompanied them,
must have been in the proper proportion.

The current of trade ran towards Alexandria with the greatest
impetuosity, all the articles of luxury of the East were to be found
there. Gold and silver, which were sent formerly to Tyre, came now
down to the Isthmus (for Tyre was no more) by a much shorter carriage,
thence to Memphis, whence it was sent down the Nile to Alexandria. The
gold from the west and south parts of the Continent reached the same
port with much less time and risk, as there was now no Red Sea to pass;
and here was found the merchandise of Arabia and India in the greatest
profusion.

To facilitate the communication with Arabia, Ptolemy built a town on
the coast of the Red Sea, in the country of the Shepherds, and called
it _Berenice_[307], after his mother. This was intended as a place
of necessary refreshment for all the traders up and down the Gulf,
whether of India or Ethiopia; hence the cargoes of merchants, who
were afraid of losing the monsoons, or had lost them, were carried by
the inhabitants of the country, in three days, to the Nile, and there
embarked for Alexandria. To make the communication between the Nile and
the Red Sea still more commodious, this prince tried an attempt (which
had twice before miscarried with very great loss) to bring a canal[308]
from the Red Sea to the Nile, which he actually accomplished, joining
it to the Pelusiac, or Eastern branch of the Nile. Locks and sluices
moreover are mentioned as having been employed even in those early days
by Ptolemy, but very trifling ones could be needed, for the difference
of level is there but very small.

This noble canal, one hundred yards broad, was not of that use to trade
which was expected; merchants were weary of the length of time consumed
in going to the very bottom of the Gulf, and afterwards with this
inland navigation of the canal, and that of the Nile, to Alexandria. It
was therefore much more expeditious to unload at Berenice, and, after
three days journey, send their merchandise directly down to Alexandria.
Thus the canal was disused, the goods passed from Berenice to the Nile
by land, and that road continues open for the same purpose to this day.

It should appear, that Ptolemy had employed the vessels of India and
the Red Sea, to carry on his commerce with the peninsula, and that the
manner of trading directly to India with his own ships, was either not
known or forgotten. He therefore sent two ambassadors, or messengers,
Megasthenes and Denis, to observe and report what was the state of
India since the death of Alexander. These two performed their voyage
safely and speedily. The account they gave of India, if it was strictly
a true one, was, in all respects, perfectly calculated to animate
people to the further prosecution of that trade. In the mean time, in
order to procure more convenience for vessels trading on the Red Sea,
he resolved to attempt the penetrating into that part of Ethiopia which
lies on that sea, and, as historians imagine, with an intention to
plunder the inhabitants of their riches.

It must not, however, be supposed, that Ptolemy was not enough
acquainted with the productions of a country so near to Egypt, as to
know this part of it had neither gold nor silver, whilst it was full of
forests likewise; for it was that part of Ethiopia called Barbaria, at
this day Barabra, inhabited by shepherds wandering with their cattle
about the neighbouring mountains according as the rains fall. Another
more probable conjecture was, that he wanted, by bringing about a
change of manners in these people, to make them useful to him in a
matter that was of the highest importance.

Ptolemy, like his father, had a very powerful fleet and army, he but
was inferior to many of the princes, his rivals, in elephants, of which
great use was then made in war. These Ethiopians were hunters, and
killed them for their subsistence. Ptolemy, however, wished to have
them taken alive, being numerous, and hoped both to furnish himself,
and dispose of them as an article of trade, to his neighbours.

There is something indeed ridiculous in the manner in which he executed
this expedition. Aware of the difficulty of subsisting in that country,
he chose only a hundred Greek horsemen, whom he covered with coats
of monstrous appearance and size, which left nothing visible but the
eyes of the rider. Their horses too were disguised by huge trappings,
which took from them all proportion and shape. In this manner they
entered this part of Ethiopia, spreading terror every where by
their appearance, to which their strength and courage bore a strict
proportion whenever they came to action. But neither force nor intreaty
could gain any thing upon these Shepherds, or ever make them change
or forsake the food they had been so long accustomed to; and all the
fruit Ptolemy reaped from this expedition, was to build a city, by the
sea-side, in the south-east corner of this country, which he called
Ptolemais Theron, or Ptolemais in the country of wild beasts.

I have already observed, but shall again repeat it, that the reason why
ships, in going up and down the Red Sea, kept always upon the Ethiopian
shore, and why the greatest number of cities were always built upon
that side is, that water is much more abundant on the Ethiopian side
than the Arabian, and it was therefore of the greatest consequence to
trade to have that coast fully discovered and civilized. Indeed it is
more than probable, that nothing further was intended by the expedition
of the hundred Greeks, just now mentioned, than to gain sufficient
intelligence how this might be done most perfectly.

Ptolemy Evergetes, son and successor of Ptolemy Philadelphus, availed
himself of this discovery. Having provided himself amply with
necessaries for his army, and ordered a fleet to coast along beside
him, up the Red Sea, he penetrated quite through the country of the
Shepherds into that of the Ethiopian Troglodytes, who are black and
woolly-headed, and inhabit the low country quite to the mountains of
Abyssinia. Nay[309], he even ascended those mountains, forced the
inhabitants to submission, built a large temple at Axum, the capital of
Sirè, and raised a great many obelisks, several of which are standing
to this day. Afterwards proceeding to the south-east, he descended
into the cinnamon and myrrh country, behind Cape Gardefan, (the Cape
that terminates the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean) from this crossed
over to Arabia, to the Homerites, being the same people with the
Abyssinians, only on the Arabian shore. He then conquered several of
the Arabian princes, who first resisted him, and had it in his power to
have put an end to the trade of India there, had he not been as great a
politician as he was a warrior. He used his victory, therefore, in no
other manner, than to exhort and oblige these princes to protect trade,
encourage strangers, and, by every means, provide for the surety of
neutral intercourse, by making rigorous examples of robbers by sea and
land.

The reigns of the latter Ptolemies were calculated to bring this
commerce to a decline, had it not been for two great events, the
fall of Carthage, destroyed by Scipio, and that of Corinth, by the
consul Mummius. The importance of these events to Alexandria seems
to have sustained the prosperity of Egypt, even against the ravages
committed in the war between Ptolemy the VI. and VII. Alexandria was
then besieged, and not only deprived of its riches, but reduced to the
utmost want of necessaries, and the horrid behaviour of Ptolemy VII.
(had it continued) would have soon rendered that city desolate. The
consequence of such a conduct, however, made a strong impression on the
prince himself, who, at once recalling his unjust edicts, by which he
had banished all foreign merchants from Alexandria, became on a sudden
wholly addicted to commerce, the encourager of arts and sciences, and
the protector of strangers.

The impolitic conduct in the beginning of his reign, however, had
affected trade even in India. For the story preserved by Posidonius,
and very improperly criticised by Strabo, seems to import little less.
One day, the troops posted on the Arabian Gulf found a ship abandoned
to the waves, on board of which was one Indian only, half dead with
hunger and thirst, whom they brought to the king. This Indian declared
he sailed from his own country, and, having lost his course and spent
all his provisions, he was carried to the place where he was found,
without knowing where he was, and after having survived the rest of his
companions: he concluded an imperfect narrative, by offering to be a
guide to any person his majesty would send to India. His proposals were
accordingly accepted, and Eudoxus was named by the king to accompany
him. Strabo[310] indeed laughs at this story. However, we must say, he
has not seized the most ridiculous parts of it.

We are told that the king ordered the Indian to be taught Greek, and
waited with patience till he had learned that language. Surely, before
any person could thus instruct him, the master must have had some
language in common with his scholar, or he had better have taught
Eudoxus the Indian language, as it would have been as easy, and of much
more use in the voyage he was to undertake. Besides, is it possible
to believe, after the many years the Egyptians traded backwards and
forwards to India, that there was not a man in Alexandria who could
interpret for him to the king, when such a number of Egyptians went
every year to India to trade, and stayed there for months each time?
Could Ptolemy Philadelphus, at his father’s festival, find 600 Indian
female slaves, all at once, in Alexandria; and, after the trade had
lasted so much longer, were the people from India decreased, or would
their language be less understood? The king’s wisdom, moreover, did
not shew itself greatly, when he was going to trust a ship with his
subjects to so skilful a pilot as this Indian, who, in the first
voyage, had lost himself and all his companions.

India, however, and the Indian seas, were as well known in Egypt as
they are now; and the magnificence and shew which attended Eudoxus’s
embassy seems to prove, that whatever truth there is in the Indian
being found, Eudoxus’ errand must have been to remove the bad effects
that the king’s extortions and robberies, committed upon all strangers
in the beginning of his reign, had made upon the trading nations.
Eudoxus returned, but after the death of Ptolemy. The necessity,
however, of this voyage appeared still great enough to make Cleopatra
his widow project a second to the same place, and greater preparations
were made than for the former one.

But Eudoxus, trying experiments probably about the courses of the
trade-winds, lost his passage, and was thrown upon the coast of
Ethiopia; where, having landed, and made himself agreeable to the
natives, he brought home to Egypt a particular description of that
country and its produce, which furnished all the discovery necessary
to instruct the Ptolemies in every thing that related to the ancient
trade of Arabia. In the course of the voyage, Eudoxus discovered the
part of the prow of a vessel which had been broken off by a storm. The
figure of a horse made it an object of inquiry; and some of the sailors
on board, who had been employed in European voyages, immediately knew
this wreck to be part of one of those vessels used to trade on the
western ocean. Eudoxus[311] instantly perceived all the importance of
the discovery, which amounted to nothing less, than that there was a
passage round Africa from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean. Full of
this thought, he returned to Egypt, and, having shewn the prow of his
vessel to European shipmasters, they all declared that this had been
part of a vessel which had belonged to Cadiz, in Spain.

This discovery, great as it was, was to none of more importance than to
Eudoxus; for, some time after, falling under the displeasure of Ptolemy
Lathyrus, VIIIth of that name, and being in danger of his life, he
fled and embarked on the Red Sea, sailed round the peninsula of Africa,
crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and came safely to Cadiz.

The spirit of inquiry, and desire of travelling, spread itself
instantly through Egypt, upon this voyage of Eudoxus; and different
travellers pushed their discoveries into the heart of the country,
where some of the nations are reported to have been so ignorant as not
to know the use of fire: ignorance almost incredible, had we not an
instance of it in our own times. It was in the reign of Ptolemy IX.
that Agatharcides[312] drew up his description of the Red Sea.

The reigns of the other Ptolemies ending in the XIIIth of that name,
though full of great events, have nothing material to our present
subject. Their constant expence and profusion must have occasioned
a great consumption of trading articles, and very little else was
wanting; or, if there had, it must have arrived at its height in the
reign of the celebrated Cleopatra; whose magnificence, beauty, and
great talents, made her a wonder, greater than any in her capital.
In her time, all nations flocked, as well for curiosity as trade, to
Alexandria; Arabs, Ethiopians, Troglodytes, Jews, and Medes; and all
were received and protected by this princess, who spoke to each of them
in his own language[313].

The discovery of Spain, and the possession of the mines of Attica
from which they drew their silver, and the revolution that happened
in Egypt itself, seemed to have superseded the communication with the
coast of Africa; for, in Strabo’s time, few of the ports of the Indian
Ocean, even those nearest the Red Sea, were known. I should, indeed,
suppose, that the trade to India by Egypt decreased from the very time
of the conquest by Cæsar. The mines the Romans had at the source of
the river Betis[314], in Spain, did not produce them above L.15,000
a-year; this was not a sufficient capital for carrying on the trade
to India, and therefore the immense riches of the Romans seem to have
been derived from the greatness of the prices, not from the extent
of the trade. In fact[315], we are told that 100 _per cent_. was a
profit in common trade upon the Indian commodities. Egypt now, and
all its neighbourhood, began to wear a face of war, to which it had
been a stranger for so many ages. The north of Africa was in constant
troubles, after the first ruin of Carthage; so that we may imagine the
trade to India began again, on that side, to be carried on pretty much
in the same manner it had been before the days of Alexander. But it had
enlarged itself very much on the Persian side, and found an easy, short
inlet, into the north of Europe, which then furnished them a market and
consumption of spices.

I must confess, notwithstanding, if it is true what Strabo says he
heard himself in Egypt, that the Romans employed one hundred and twenty
vessels in the Indian trade[316], it must at that time have lost very
little of its vigour. We must, however, imagine, that great part of
this was for the account, and with the funds of foreign merchants. The
Jews in Alexandria, until the reign of Ptolemy Phiscon, had carried on
a very extensive part of the India trade. All Syria was mercantile; and
lead, iron, and copper, supplied, in some manner, the deficiency of
gold and silver, which never again was in such abundance till after the
discovery of America.

But the ancient trade to India, by the Arabian Gulf and Africa, carried
on by the medium of these two metals, remained at home undiminished
with the Ethiopians, defended by large extensive deserts, and happy
with the enjoyment of riches and security, till a fresh discovery again
introduced to them both partners and masters in their trade.

One of the reasons that makes me imagine the Indian trade was not
flourishing, or in great esteem, immediately upon the Roman conquest of
Egypt, is, that Augustus, very soon after, attempted to conquer Arabia.
He sent Elius Gallus, with an army from Egypt into Arabia, who found
there a number of effeminate, timid people, scarcely to be driven to
self-defence by violence, and ignorant of every thing that related to
war. Elius, however, found that they overmatched him in cunning, and
the perfect knowledge of the country, which their constant employment
as carriers had taught them. His guides led him round from hardship to
hardship, till his army almost perished with hunger and thirst, without
seeing any of those riches his master had sent him to take possession
of.

Thus was the Arabian expedition of Augustus conceived with the same
views as those of Semiramis, Cyrus, and Cambyses, deservedly as unhappy
in its issue as these first had been.

That the African trade, moreover, was lost, appears from Strabo[317],
and his reasoning upon the voyage of Eudoxus, which he treats as a
fable. But his reasoning proves just the contrary, and this voyage was
one foundation for opening this trade again, and making this coast more
perfectly known. This likewise appears clear from Ptolemy[318], who,
speaking of a promontory or cape opposite to Madagascar, on the coast
of Africa, says it was inhabited by anthropophagi, or man-eaters, and
that all beyond 8° south was unknown, and that this cape extended to
and joined the continent of India[319].




CHAP. VI.

    _Queen of Saba visits Jerusalem--Abyssinian Tradition
    concerning Her--Supposed Founder of that Monarchy--Abyssinia
    embraces the Jewish Religion--Jewish Hierarchy still retained
    by the Falasha--Some Conjectures concerning their Copy of the
    Old Testament._


It is now that I am to fulfil my promise to the reader, of giving
him some account of the visit made by the Queen of Sheba[320], as
we erroneously call her, and the consequences of that visit; the
foundation of an Ethiopian monarchy, and the continuation of the
sceptre in the tribe of Judah, down to this day. If I am obliged to go
back in point of time, it is, that I may preserve both the account of
the trade of the Arabian Gulf, and of this Jewish kingdom, distinct and
unbroken.

We are not to wonder, if the prodigious hurry and flow of business,
and the immensely valuable transactions they had with each other, had
greatly familiarized the Tyrians and Jews, with their correspondents
the Cushites and Shepherds on the coast of Africa. This had gone so
far, as very naturally to have created a desire in the queen of Azab,
the sovereign of that country, to go herself and see the application
of such immense treasures that had been exported from her country
for a series of years, and the prince who so magnificently employed
them. There can be no doubt of this expedition, as Pagan, Arab, Moor,
Abyssinian, and all the countries round, vouch it pretty much in the
terms of scripture.

Many[321] have thought this queen was an Arab. But Saba was a separate
state, and the Sabeans a distinct people from the Ethiopians and the
Arabs, and have continued so till very lately. We know, from history,
that it was a custom among these Sabeans, to have women for their
sovereigns in preference to men, a custom which still subsists among
their descendents.

    ---- _Medis levibusque Sabæis,
    Imperat hie sexus Reginarumque sub armis,
    Barbariæ[322], pars magna jacet._
                                     CLAUDIAN.

Her name, the Arabs say, was _Belkis_; the Abyssìnians, _Maqueda_. Our
Saviour calls her _Queen of the South_, without mentioning any other
name, but gives his sanction to the truth of the voyage. “The Queen
of the South (or Saba, or Azab) shall rise up in the judgment with
this generation, and shall condemn it; for she came from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a
greater than Solomon is here[323].” No other particulars, however, are
mentioned about her in scripture; and it is not probable our Saviour
would say she came from the uttermost parts of the earth, if she had
been an Arab, and had near 50° of the Continent behind her. The gold,
the myrrh, cassia, and frankincense, were all the produce of her
own country; and the many reasons Pineda[324] gives to shew she was
an Arab, more than convince me that she was an Ethiopian or Cushite
shepherd.

A strong objection to her being an Arab, is, that the Sabean Arabs, or
Homerites, the people that lived opposite to Azab on the Arabian shore,
had kings instead of queens, which latter the Shepherds had, and still
have. Moreover, the kings of the Homerites were never seen abroad, and
were stoned to death if they appeared in public; subjects of this stamp
would not very readily suffer their queen to go to Jerusalem, even
supposing they had a queen, which they had not.

Whether she was a Jewess or a Pagan is uncertain; Sabaism was
the religion of all the East. It was the constant attendant and
stumbling-block of the Jews; but considering the multitude of that
people then trading from Jerusalem, and the long time it continued, it
is not improbable she was a Jewess. “And when the queen of Sheba heard
of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to
prove him with hard questions[325].” Our Saviour, moreover, speaks of
her with praise, pointing her out as an example to the Jews[326]. And,
in her thanksgiving before Solomon, she alludes to _God’s blessing_ on
the _seed_ of Israel for ever[327], which is by no means the language
of a Pagan, but of a person skilled in the ancient history of the Jews.

She likewise appears to have been a person of learning, and that
sort of learning which was then almost peculiar to Palestine, not to
Ethiopia. For we see that one of the reasons of her coming, was to
examine whether Solomon was really the learned man he was said to be.
She came to try him in allegories, or parables, in which Nathan had
instructed Solomon.

The learning of the East, and of the neighbouring kings that
corresponded with each other, especially in Palestine and Syria,
consisted chiefly in these: “And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah
king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the
Cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife:
and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down
the thistle.”--“Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten the Edomites, and
thine heart lifteth thee up to boast: abide now at home, why shouldest
thou meddle to thine hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and
Judah with thee[328]?”

The annals of Abyssinia, being very full upon this point, have taken
a middle opinion, and by no means an improbable one. They say she was
a Pagan when she left Azab, but being full of admiration at the sight
of Solomon’s works, she was converted to Judaism in Jerusalem, and
bore him a son, whom she called Menilek, and who was their first king.
However strongly they assert this, and however dangerous it would be to
doubt it in Abyssinia, I will not here aver it for truth, nor much less
still will I positively contradict it, as scripture has said nothing
about it. I suppose, whether true or not, in the circumstances she
was, whilst Solomon also, so far from being very nice in his choice,
was particularly addicted to Idumeans[329], and other strange women,
he could not more naturally engage himself in any amour than in one
with the queen of Saba, with whom he had so long entertained the most
lucrative connections, and most perfect friendship, and who, on her
part, by so long a journey, had surely made sufficient advances.

The Abyssinians, both Jews and Christians, believe the xlvth psalm
to be a prophecy of this queen’s voyage to Jerusalem; that she was
attended by a daughter of Hiram’s from Tyre to Jerusalem, and that the
last part contains a declaration of her having a son by Solomon, who
was to be king over a nation of Gentiles.

To Saba, or Azab, then, she returned with her son Menilek, whom, after
keeping him some years, she sent back to his father to be instructed.
Solomon did not neglect his charge, and he was anointed and crowned
king of Ethiopia, in the temple of Jerusalem, and at his inauguration
took the name of David. After this he returned to Azab, and brought
with him a colony of Jews, among whom were many doctors of the law of
Moses, particularly one of each tribe, to make judges in his kingdom,
from whom the present Umbares (or Supreme Judges, three of whom always
attend the king) are said and believed to be descended. With these
came also Azarias, the son of Zadok the priest, and brought with him a
Hebrew transcript of the law, which was delivered into his custody, as
he bore the title of Nebrit, or High Priest; and this charge, though
the book itself was burnt with the church of Axum in the Moorish war
of Adel, is still continued, as it is said, in the lineage of Azarias,
who are Nebrits, or keepers of the church of Axum, at this day. All
Abyssinia was thereupon converted, and the government of the church and
state modelled according to what was then in use at Jerusalem.

By the last act of the queen of Saba’s reign, she settled the mode of
succession in her country for the future. First, she enacted, that the
crown should be hereditary in the family of Solomon for ever. Secondly,
that, after her, no woman should be capable of wearing that crown or
being queen, but that it should descend to the heir male, however
distant, in exclusion of all heirs female whatever, however near; and
that these two articles should be considered as the fundamental laws
of the kingdom, never to be altered or abolished. And, lastly, That
the heirs male of the royal house, should always be sent prisoners to
a high mountain, where they were to continue till their death, or till
the succession should open to them.

What was the reason of this last regulation is not known, it being
peculiar to Abyssinia, but the custom of having women for sovereigns,
which was a very old one, prevailed among the neighbouring shepherds
in the last century, as we shall see in the course of this history,
and, for what we know, prevails to this day. It obtained in Nubia till
Augustus’s time, when Petreius, his lieutenant in Egypt, subdued her
country, and took the queen Candace prisoner. It endured also after
Tiberius, as we learn from St Philip’s baptising the eunuch[330]
servant of queen Candace, who must have been successor to the former;
for she, when taken prisoner by Petreius, is represented as an infirm
woman, having but one eye[331]. Candace indeed was the name of all the
sovereigns, in the same manner Cæsar was of the Roman emperors. As for
the last severe part, the punishment of the princes, it was probably
intended to prevent some disorders among the princes of her house, that
she had observed frequently to happen in the house of David[332] at
Jerusalem.

The queen of Saba having made these laws irrevocable to all her
posterity, died, after a long reign of forty years, in 986 before
Christ, placing her son Menilek upon the throne, whose posterity, the
annals of Abyssinia would teach us to believe, have ever since reigned.
So far we must indeed bear witness to them, that this is no new
doctrine, but has been stedfastly and uniformly maintained from their
earliest account of time; first, when Jews, then in later days after
they had embraced christianity. We may further add, that the testimony
of all the neighbouring nations is with them upon this subject, whether
they be friends or enemies. They only differ in name of the queen, or
in giving her two names.

This difference, at such a distance of time, should not break scores,
especially as we shall see that the queens in the present day have
sometimes three or four names, and all the kings three, whence has
arisen a very great confusion in their history. And as for her
being an Arab, the objection is still easier got over. For all the
inhabitants of Arabia Felix, especially those of the coast opposite
to Saba, were reputed Abyssins, and their country part of Abyssinia,
from the earliest ages, to the Mahometan conquest and after. They were
her subjects; first, Sabean Pagans like herself, then converted (as
the tradition says) to Judaism, during the time of the building of
the temple, and continuing Jews from that time to the year 622 after
Christ, when they became Mahometans.

I shall therefore now give a list of their kings of the race of
Solomon, descended from the queen of Saba, whose device is a lion
passant, proper upon a field gules, and their motto, “_Mo Anbasa am
Nizilet Solomon am Negadè Jude_;” which signifies, ‘the lion of the
race of Solomon and tribe of Judah hath overcome.’ The Portuguese
missionaries, in place of a lion passant, which is really the king’s
bearing, have given him, in some of their publications, a lion rampant,
purposely, as is supposed, to put a cross into the paw of this Jewish
lion; but he is now returned to the lion passant, that he was in the
time of Solomon, without any symbol either of religion or peace in his
paws.




  LIST OF THE KINGS OF ABYSSINIA,

  FROM

  MAQUEDA, QUEEN OF SABA, TO THE NATIVITY.


                                Years.

  Menilek, or David I. reigned    4
  Hendedya, or Zagdur,            1
  Awida,                         11
  Ausyi,                          3
  Sawé,                          31
  Gesaya,                        15
  Katar,                         15
  Mouta,                         20
  Bahas,                          9
  Kawida,                         2
  Kanaza,                        10
  Katzina,                        9
  Wazeha,                         1
  Hazer,                          2
  Kalas,                          6
  Solaya,                        16
  Falaya,                        26
  Aglebu,                         3
  Asisena,                        1
  Brus,                          29
  Mohesa,                         1
  Bazen,                         16

Menilek succeeded to the throne in the 986th year before Christ;
and this number of years must be exhausted in the reign of these
twenty-two kings, when each reign, in that case, will amount to more
than forty-four years, which is impossible. The reign of the twenty-one
kings of Israel, at a medium, is a little more than twenty-two years
at an average, and that is thought abundantly high. And, even upon
that footing of comparison, there will be wanting a great deal more
than half the number of years between Menilek and Bazen, so that this
account is apparently false. But I have another very material objection
to it, as well as the preceding one, which is, that there is not one
name in the whole list that has an Ethiopic root or derivation.

The reader will give what credit he pleases to this very ancient
list. For my part, I content myself with disproving nothing but what
is impossible, or contrary to the authority of scripture, or my own
private knowledge. There are other lists still, which I have seen,
all of no better authority than this. I shall only observe, upon this
last, that there is a king in it, about nine years before our Saviour’s
nativity, that did me the honour of using my name two thousand
years before it came into Britain, spelled in the same manner that
name anciently was, before folly, and the love of novelty, wantonly
corrupted it.

The Greeks, to divert the king, had told him this circumstance, and he
was exceedingly entertained at it. Sometimes, when he had seen either
Michael, or Fasil[333], or any of the great ones do me any favour, or
speak handsomely of me, he would say gravely, that he was to summon the
council to inquire into my pedigree, whether I was descended of the
heirs-male of that Brus who was king nine years before the nativity;
that I was likely to be a dangerous person, and it was time I should
be sent to Wechné, unless I chose to lose my leg or arm, if I was
found, by the judges, related to him by the heirs-male. To which I
answered, that however he made a jest of this, one of my predecessors
was certainly a king, though not of Abyssinia, not nine years before,
but 1200 after our redemption; that the arms of my family were a
lion like his; but, however creditable his majesty’s apprehensions as
to Abyssinia might be to me, I could venture to assure him, the only
connections I had the honour ever to have had _with him_, were by the
_heirs-female_.

At other times, when I was exceedingly low-spirited, and despairing of
ever again seeing Britain, he, who well knew the cause, used to say to
the Serach Massery, “Prepare the Sendick and Nagareet; let the judges
be called, and the household troops appear under arms, for Brus is to
be buried: he is an Ozoro of the line of Solomon, and, for any thing
I know, may be heir to the crown. Bring likewise plenty of brandy,
for they all get drunk at burials in his country.” These were days
of sun-shine, when such jests passed; there were cloudy ones enough
that followed, which much more than compensated the very transitory
enjoyment of these.

Although the years laid down in the book of Axum do not precisely agree
with our account, yet they are so near, that we cannot doubt that the
revolt of the ten tribes, and destruction of Rehoboam’s fleet which
followed, occasioned the removal of Menilek’s capital to Tigré[334].
But, whatever was the cause, Menilek did remove his court from Azab to
a place near Axum, at this day called _Adega Daid_, the House of David;
and, at no great distance, is another called _Azabo_, from his ancient
metropolis, where there are old remains of building of stone and lime,
a certain proof that Axum was then fallen, else he would have naturally
gone thither immediately upon forsaking his mother’s capital of Azab.

That country, round by Cape Gardefan, and south towards Sofala, along
the Indian Ocean, was long governed by an officer called _Baharnagash_,
the meaning of which is, King of the Sea, or Sea Coast. Another officer
of the same title was governor of Yemen, or Arabia Felix, which, from
the earliest times, belonged to Abyssinia, down to the Mahometan
conquest. The king himself was called _Nagash_, or Najashi, so were the
governors of several provinces, especially Gojam; and great confusion
has risen from the multitude of these kings. We find, for example,
sometimes three upon the throne at one time, which is exceedingly
improbable in any country. We are, therefore, to suppose, that one of
these only is king, and two of them are the Najashi, or Nagash, we have
just described; for, as the regulation of the queen of Saba banished
the heirs-male to the mountain, we cannot conceive how three brothers
could be upon the throne at the same time, as this law subsists to the
present day. This, although it is one, is not the only reason of the
confusion, as I shall mention another in the sequel.

As we are about to take our leave of the Jewish religion and government
in the line of Solomon, it is here the proper place that I should
add what we have to say of the Falasha, of whom we have already had
occasion to speak, when we gave a specimen of their language, among
those of the stranger nations, whom we imagine to have come originally
from Palestine. I did not spare my utmost pains in inquiring into the
history of this curious people, and lived in friendship with several
esteemed the most knowing and learned among them, and I am persuaded,
as far as they knew, they told me the truth.

The account they give of themselves, which is supported only by
tradition among them, is, that they came with Menilek from Jerusalem,
so that they agree perfectly with the Abyssinians in the story of the
queen of Saba, who, they say,· was a Jewess, and her nation Jews before
the time of Solomon; that she lived at Saba, or Azaba, the myrrh and
frankincense country upon the Arabian Gulf. They say further, that
she went to Jerusalem, under protection of Hiram king of Tyre, whose
daughter is said in the xlvth Psalm to have attended her thither; that
she went not in ships, nor through Arabia, for fear or the Ishmaelites,
but from Azab round by Masuah and Suakem, and was escorted by the
Shepherds, her own subjects, to Jerusalem, and back again, making use
of her own country vehicle, the camel, and that hers was a white one,
of prodigious size and exquisite beauty.

They agree also, in every particular, with the Abyssinians, about the
remaining part of the story, the birth and inauguration of Menilek, who
was their first king; also the coming of Azarias, and twelve elders
from the twelve tribes, and other doctors of the law, whose posterity
they deny to have ever apostatised to Christianity, as the Abyssinians
pretend they did at the conversion. They say, that, when the trade of
the Red Sea fell into the hands of strangers, and all communication
was shut up between them and Jerusalem, the cities were abandoned, and
the inhabitants relinquished the coast; that they were the inhabitants
of these cities, by trade mostly brick and tile-makers, potters,
thatchers of houses, and such like mechanics, employed in them; and
finding the low country of Dembea afforded materials for exercising
these trades, they carried the article of pottery in that province to a
degree of perfection scarcely to be imagined.

Being very industrious, these people multiplied exceedingly, and were
very powerful at the time of the conversion to Christianity, or, as
they term it, the Apostacy under Abreha and Atzbeha. At this time they
declared a prince of the tribe of Judah, and of the race of Solomon and
Menilek, to be their sovereign. The name of this prince was Phineas,
who refused to abandon the religion of his forefathers, and from him
their sovereigns are lineally descended; so they have still a prince
of the house of Judah, although the Abyssinians, by way of reproach,
have called this family Bet Israel, intimating that they were rebels,
and revolted from the family of Solomon and tribe of Judah, and there
is little doubt, but that some of the successors of Azarias adhered
to their ancient faith also. Although there was no bloodshed upon
difference of religion, yet, each having a distinct king with the same
pretensions, many battles were fought from motives of ambition, and
rivalship of sovereign power.

About the year 960, an attempt was made by this family to mount the
throne of Abyssinia, as we shall see hereafter; when the princes of the
house of Solomon were nearly extirpated upon the rock Damo. This, it
is probable, produced more animosity and bloodshed. At last the power
of the Falasha was so much weakened, that they were obliged to leave
the flat country of Dembea, having no cavalry to maintain themselves
there, and to take possession of the rugged, and almost inaccessible
rocks, in that high ridge called the Mountains of Samen. One of these,
which nature seems to have formed for a fortress, they chose for their
metropolis, and it was ever after called the Jews Rock.

A great overthrow, which they received in the year 1600, brought them
to the very brink of ruin. In that battle Gideon and Judith, their
king and queen, were slain. They have since adopted a more peaceable
and dutiful behaviour, pay taxes, and are suffered to enjoy their own
government. Their king and queen’s name was again Gideon and Judith,
when I was in Abyssinia, and these names seem to be preferred for those
of the Royal family. At that time they were supposed to amount to
100,000 effective men. Something like this, the sober and most knowing
Abyssinians are obliged to allow to be truth; but the circumstances of
the conversion from Judaism are probably not all before us.

The only copy of the Old Testament, which they have, is in Geez,
the same made use of by the Abyssinian Christians, who are the only
scribes, and sell these copies to the Jews; and, it is very singular
that no controversy, or dispute about the text, has ever yet arisen
between the professors of the two religions. They have no keriketib,
or various readings; they never heard of talmud, targum, or cabala:
Neither have they any _fringes[335] or ribband_ upon their _garments_,
nor is there, as far as I could learn, one scribe among them.

I asked them, being from Judea, whence they got that language which
they spoke, whether it was one of the languages of the nations which
they had learned on the coast of the Red Sea. They apprehended, but
it was mere conjecture, that the language which they spoke was that
of those nations they had found on the Red Sea, after their leaving
Judea and settling there; and the reason they gave was certainly a
pertinent one; that they came into Abyssinia, speaking Hebrew, with the
advantage of having books in that language; but they had now forgot
their Hebrew[336], and it was therefore not probable they should retain
any other language in which they had no books, and which they never had
learned to express by letters.

I asked them, since they came from Jerusalem, how it happened they had
not Hebrew, or Samaritan copies of the law, at least the Pentateuch
or Octateuch. They said they were in possession of both when they
came from Jerusalem; but their fleet being destroyed, in the reign of
Rehoboam, and communication becoming very uncertain by the Syrian wars,
they were, from necessity, obliged to have the scriptures translated,
or make use of the copies in the hands of the Shepherds, who, according
to them, before Solomon’s time, were all Jews.

I asked them where the Shepherds got their copy, because,
notwithstanding the invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, who was the
foreign obstacle the longest in their way, the Ishmaelite Arabs had
access through Arabia to Jerusalem and Syria, and carried on a great
trade thither by land. They professed very candidly they could not give
a satisfactory answer to that, as the time was very distant, and war
had destroyed all the memorials of these transactions. I asked if they
really ever had any memorials of their own country, or history of any
other. They answered, with some hesitation, they had no reason to say
they ever had any; if they had, they were all destroyed in the war with
Gragné. This is all that I could ever learn from this people, and it
required great patience and prudence in making the interrogations, and
separating truth from falsehood; for many of them, (as is invariably
the case with barbarians) if they once divine the reason of your
inquiry, will say whatever they think will please you.

They deny the sceptre has ever departed from Judah, as they have a
prince of that house reigning, and understand the prophecy of the
gathering of the Gentiles at the coming of Shiloh, is to be fulfilled
on the appearance of the Messiah, who is not yet come, when all the
inhabitants of the world are to be Jews. But I must confess they did
not give an explanation of this either clearly or readily, or seem to
have ever considered it before. They were not at all heated by the
subject, nor interested, as far as I could discern, in the difference
between us, nor fond of talking upon their religion at all, though very
ready at all quotations, when a person was present who spoke Amharic,
with the barbarous accent that they do; and this makes me conceive that
their ancestors were not in Palestine, or present in those disputes or
transactions that attended the death of our Saviour, and have subsisted
ever after. They pretend that the book of Enoch was the first book of
scripture they ever received. They knew nothing of that of Seth, but
place Job immediately after Enoch, so that they have no idea of the
time in which Job lived, but said they believed it to be soon after
the flood; and they look upon the book bearing his name to be the
performance of that prophet.

Many difficulties occur from this account of the Falasha; for, though
they say they came from Jerusalem in the time of Solomon, and from
different tribes, yet there is but one language amongst them all,
and that is not Hebrew or Samaritan, neither of which they read or
understand; nor is their answer to this objection satisfactory, for
very obvious reasons.

Ludolf, the most learned man that has writ upon the subject, says, that
it is apparent the Ethiopic Old Testament, at least the Pentateuch, was
copied from the Septuagint, because of the many Grecisms to be found in
it; and the names of birds and precious stones, and some other passages
that appear literally to be translated from the Greek. He imagines
also, that the present Abyssinian version is the work of Frumentius
their first bishop, when Abyssinia was converted to Christianity under
Abreha and Atzbeha, about the year 333 after Christ, or a few years
later.

Although I brought with me all the Abyssinian books of the Old
Testament, (if it is a translation) I have not yet had time to make
the comparison here alluded to, but have left them, for the curiosity
of the public, deposited in the British Museum, hoping that some man
of learning or curiosity would do this for me. In the mean time I must
observe, that it is much more natural to suppose that the Greeks,
comparing the copies together, expunged the words or passages they
found differing from the Septuagint, and replaced them from thence,
as this would not offend the Jews, who very well knew that those who
translated the Septuagint version were all Jews themselves.

Now, as the Abyssinian copy of the Holy Scriptures, in Mr Ludolf’s
opinion, was translated by Frumentius above 330 after Christ, and the
Septuagint version, in the days of Philadelphus, or Ptolemy II. above
160 years before Christ, it will follow, that, if the present Jews use
the copy translated by Frumentius, and, if that was taken from the
Septuagint, the Jews must have been above 400 years without any books
whatsoever at the time of the conversion by Frumentius: So they must
have had all the Jewish law, which is in perfect vigour and force among
them, all their Levitical observances, their purifications, atonements,
abstinences, and sacrifices, all depending upon their memory, without
writing, at least for that long space of 400 years.

This, though not absolutely impossible, is surely very nearly so. We
know, that, at Jerusalem itself, the seat of Jewish law and learning,
idolatry happening to prevail, during the short reigns of only four
kings, the law, in that interval, became so perfectly forgotten and
unknown, that a copy of it being accidentally found and read by Josiah,
that prince, upon his first learning its contents, was so astonished at
the deviations from it, that he apprehended the immediate destruction
of the whole city and people. To this I shall only add, that whoever
considers the stiff-neckedness, stubbornness, and obstinacy, which
were ever the characters of this Jewish nation, they will not easily
believe that they did ever _willingly_ “receive the _Old_ Testament
from a people who were the avowed champions of the _New_.”

They have, indeed, no knowledge of the New Testament but from
conversation; and do not curse it, but treat it as a folly where it
supposes the Messiah come, who, they seem to think, is to be a temporal
prince, prophet, priest, and conqueror.

Still, it is not probable that a Jew would receive the law and the
prophets from a Christian, without absolute necessity, though they
might very well receive such a copy from a brother Jew, which all the
Abyssinians were, when this translation was made. Nor would this, as
I say, hinder them from following a copy really made by Jews from the
text itself, such as the Septuagint actually was. But, I confess,
great difficulties occur on every side, and I despair of having them
solved, unless by an able, deliberate analysis of the specimen of the
Falasha language which I have preserved, in which I earnestly request
the concurrence of the learned. A book of the length of the Canticles
contains words enough to judge upon the question, Whence the Falasha
came, and what is the probable cause they had not a translation in
their own tongue, since a version became necessary?

I have less doubt that Frumentius translated the New Testament, as he
must have had assistance from those of his own communion in Egypt;
and this is a further reason why I believe that, at his coming, he
found the Old Testament already translated into the Ethiopic language
and character, because Bagla, or Geez, was an unknown letter, and
the language unknown, not only to him, but likewise to every province
in Abyssinia, except Tigré; so that it would have cost him no more
pains to teach the nation the Greek character and Greek language, than
to have translated the New Testament into Ethiopic, using the Geez
character, which was equally unknown, unless in Tigré. The saving of
time and labour would have been very material to him; he would have
used the whole scriptures, as received in his own church, and the Greek
letter and language would have been just as easily attained in Amhara
as the Geez; and those people, even of the province of Tigré, that had
not yet learned to read, would have written the Greek character as
easily as their own. I do not know that so early there was any Arabic
translation of the Old Testament; if there was, the same reasons would
have militated for his preferring this; and still he had but the New
Testament to undertake. But having found the books of the Old Testament
already translated into Geez, this altered the case; and he, very
properly, continued the gospel in that language and letter also, that
it might be a testimony for the Christians, and against the Jews, as it
was intended.




CHAP. VII.

    _Books in Use in Abyssinia--Enoch--Abyssinia not converted
    by the Apostles--Conversion from Judaism to Christianity by
    Frumentius._


The Abyssinians have the whole scriptures entire as we have, and count
the same number of books; but they divide them in another manner, at
least in private hands, few of them, from extreme poverty, being able
to purchase the whole, either of the historical or prophetical books
of the Old Testament. The same may be said of the New, for copies
containing the whole of it are very scarce. Indeed no where, unless
in churches, do you see more than the Gospels, or the Acts of the
Apostles, in one person’s possession, and it must not be an ordinary
man that possesses even these.

Many books of the Old Testament are forgot, so that it is the same
trouble to procure them, even in churches, for the purpose of copying,
as to consult old records long covered with dust and rubbish. The
Revelation of St John is a piece of favourite reading among them. Its
title is, _the Vision of John Abou Kalamsis_, which seems to me to be a
corruption of _Apocalypsis_. At the same time, we can hardly imagine
that Frumentius, a Greek and a man of letters, should make so strange a
mistake. There is no such thing as distinctions between canonical and
apocryphal books. Bell and the Dragon, and the Acts of the Apostles,
are read with equal devotion, and, for the most part, I am afraid,
with equal edification; and it is in the spirit of truth, and not of
ridicule, that I say St George and his Dragon, from idle legends only,
are objects of veneration, nearly as great as any of the heroes in the
Old Testament, or saints in the New. The Song of Solomon is a favourite
piece of reading among the old priests, but forbidden to the young
ones, to the deacons, laymen, and women. The Abyssinians believe, that
this song was made by Solomon in praise of Pharaoh’s daughter; and do
not think, as some of our divines are disposed to do, that there is in
it any mystery or allegory respecting Christ and the church. It may be
asked, Why did I choose to have this book translated, seeing that it
was to be attended with this particular difficulty? To this I answer,
The choice was not mine, nor did I at once know all the difficulty. The
first I pitched upon was the book of Ruth, as being the shortest; but
the subject did not please the scribes and priests who were to copy for
me, and I found it would not do. They then chose the Song of Solomon,
and engaged to go through with it; and I recommended it to two or three
young scribes, who completed the copy by themselves and their friends.
I was obliged to procure licence for these scribes whom I employed in
translating it into the different languages; but it was a permission of
course, and met with no real, though some pretended difficulty.

A nephew of Abba Salama[337], the Acab Saat, a young man of no common
genius, asked leave from his uncle before he began the translation; to
which Salama answered, alluding to an old law, That, if he attempted
such a thing, he should be killed as they do sheep; but, if I would
give _him_ the money, he would permit it. I should not have taken
any notice of this; but some of the young men having told it to Ras
Michael[338], who perfectly guessed the matter, he called upon the
scribe, and asked what his uncle had said to him, who told him very
plainly, that, if he began the translation, his throat should be cut
like that of a sheep. One day Michael asked Abba Salama, whether that
was true; he answered in the affirmative, and seemed disposed to be
talkative. “Then,” said the Ras to the young man, “your uncle declares,
if you write the book for Yagoube, he shall cut your throat like a
sheep; and I say to you, I swear by St Michael, I will put you to death
like an ass if you don’t write it; consider with yourself which of the
risks you’ll run, and come to me in eight days, and make your choice.”
But, before the eighth day, he brought me the book, very well pleased
at having an excuse for receiving the price of the copy. Abba Salama
complained of this at another time when I was present, and the name of
_frank_ was invidiously mentioned; but he only got a stern look and
word from the Ras: “Hold your tongue, Sir, you don’t know what you say;
you don’t know that you are a fool, Sir, but I do; if you talk much you
will publish it to all the world.”

After the New Testament they place the constitutions of the Apostles,
which they call _Synnodos_, which, as far as the cases or doctrines
apply, we may say is the written law of the country. These were
translated out of the Arabic. They have next a general liturgy, or book
of common prayer, besides several others peculiar to certain festivals,
under whose names they go. The next is a very large voluminous book,
called _Haimanout Abou_, chiefly a collection from the works of
different Greek fathers, treating of, or explaining several heresies,
or disputed points of faith, in the ancient Greek Church. Translations
of the works of St Athanasius, St Bazil, St John Chrysostome, and St
Cyril, are likewise current among them. The two last I never saw; and
only fragments of St Athanasius; but they are certainly extant.

The next is the Synaxar, or the Flos Sanctorum, in which the miracles
and lives, or lies of their saints, are at large recorded, in four
monstrous volumes in folio, stuffed full of fables of the most
incredible kind. They have a saint that wrestled with the devil in
shape of a serpent nine miles long, threw him from a mountain, and
killed him. Another saint who converted the devil, who turned monk, and
lived in great holiness for forty years after his conversion, doing
penance for having tempted our Saviour upon the mountain: what became
of him after they do not say. Again, another saint, that never ate nor
drank from his mother’s womb, went to Jerusalem, and said mass every
day at the holy sepulchre, and came home at night in the shape of a
stork. The last I shall mention was a saint, who, being very sick, and
his stomach in disorder, took a longing for partridges; he called upon
a brace of them to come to him, and immediately two roasted partridges
came _flying_, and rested upon his plate, to be devoured. These stories
are circumstantially told and vouched by unexceptionable people, and
were a grievous stumbling-block to the Jesuits, who could not pretend
their own miracles were either better established, or more worthy of
belief.

There are other books of less size and consequence, particularly the
Organon Denghel, or the Virgin Mary’s Musical Instrument, composed
by Abba George about the year 1440, much valued for the purity of
its language, though he himself was an Armenian. The last of this
Ethiopic library is the book of Enoch[339]. Upon hearing this book
first mentioned, many literati in Europe had a wonderful desire to see
it, thinking that, no doubt, many secrets and unknown histories might
be drawn from it. Upon this some impostor, getting an Ethiopic book
into his hands, wrote for the title, _The Prophecies of Enoch_, upon
the front page of it. M. Pierisc[340] no sooner heard of it than he
purchased it of the impostor for a considerable sum of money: being
placed afterwards in Cardinal Mazarine’s library, where Mr Ludolf had
access to it, he found it was a Gnostic book upon mysteries in heaven
and earth, but which mentioned not a word of Enoch, or his prophecy,
from beginning to end; and, from this disappointment, he takes upon him
to deny the existence of any such book any where else. This, however,
is a mistake; for, as a public return for the many obligations I had
received from every rank of that most humane, polite, and scientific
nation, and more especially from the sovereign Louis XV. I gave to his
cabinet a part of every thing curious I had collected abroad; which
was received with that degree of consideration and attention that
cannot fail to determine every traveller of a liberal mind to follow my
example.

Amongst the articles I consigned to the library at Paris, was a very
beautiful and magnificent copy of the prophecies of Enoch, in large
quarto; another is amongst the books of scripture which I brought
home, standing immediately before the book of Job, which is its proper
place in the Abyssinian canon; and a third copy I have presented to
the Bodleian library at Oxford, by the hands of Dr Douglas the Bishop
of Carlisle. The more ancient history of that book is well known. The
church at first looked upon it as apocryphal; and as it was quoted in
the book of Jude, the same suspicion fell upon that book also. For this
reason, the council of Nice threw the epistle of Jude out of the canon,
but the council of Trent arguing better, replaced the apostle in the
canon as before.

Here we may observe by the way, that Jude’s appealing to the apocryphal
books did by no means import, that either he believed or warranted the
truth of them. But it was an argument, _a fortiori_, which our Saviour
himself often makes use of, and amounts to no more than this, You,
says he to the Jews, deny certain facts, which must be from prejudice,
because you have them allowed in your own books, and believe them
there. And a very strong and fair way of arguing it is, but this is by
no means any allowance that they are true. In the same manner, You,
says Jude, do not believe the coming of Christ and a latter judgment;
yet your ancient Enoch, whom you suppose was the seventh from Adam,
tells you this plainly, and in so many words, long ago. And indeed the
quotation is, word for word the same, in the second chapter of the book.

All that is material to say further concerning the book of Enoch is,
that it is a Gnostic book, containing the age of the Emims, Anakims,
and Egregores, supposed descendents of the sons of God, when they fell
in love with the daughters of men, and had sons who were giants. These
giants do not seem to have been so charitable to the sons and daughters
of men, as their fathers had been. For, first, they began to eat all
the beasts of the earth, they then fell upon the birds and fishes, and
ate them also; their hunger being not yet satisfied, they ate all the
corn, all men’s labour, all the trees and bushes, and, not content
yet, they fell to eating the men themselves. The men (like our modern
sailors with the savages) were not afraid of dying, but very much so of
being eaten after death. At length they cry to God against the wrongs
the giants had done them, and God sends a flood which drowns both them
and the giants.

Such is the reparation which this ingenious author has thought
proper to attribute to Providence, in answer to the first, and the
best-founded complaints that were made to him by man. I think this
exhausts about four or five of the first chapters. It is not the fourth
part of the book; but my curiosity led me no further. The catastrophe
of the giants, and the justice of the catastrophe, had fully satisfied
me.

I cannot but recollect, that when it was known in England that I had
presented this book to the library of the King of France, without
staying a few days, to give me time to reach London, when our learned
countrymen might have had an opportunity of perusing at leisure another
copy of this book, Doctor Woide set out for Paris, with letters from
the Secretary of State to Lord Stormont, Ambassador at that court,
desiring him to assist the doctor in procuring access to my present,
by permission from his Most Christian Majesty. This he accordingly
obtained, and a translation of the work was brought over; but, I know
not why, it has no where appeared. I fancy Dr Woide was not much more
pleased with the conduct of the giants than I was.

I shall conclude with one particular, which is a curious one: The
Synaxar (what the Catholics call their Flos Sanctorum, or the lives
and miracles of their saints), giving the history of the Abyssinian
conversion to Christianity in the year 333, says, that when Frumentius
and Œdesius were introduced to the king, who was a minor, they found
him reading the Psalms of David.

This book, or that of Enoch, does by no means prove that they were at
that time Jews. For these two were in as great authority among the
Pagans, who professed Sabaism, the first religion of the East, and
especially of the _Shepherds_, as among the Jews. These being continued
also in the same letter and character among the Abyssinians from the
beginning, convinces me that there has not been any other writing in
this country, or the south of Arabia, since that which rose from the
Hieroglyphics.

The Abyssinian history begins now to rid itself of part of that
confusion which is almost a constant attendant upon the very few
annals yet preserved of barbarous nations in very ancient times. It is
certain, from their history, that Bazen was contemporary with Augustus,
that he reigned sixteen years, and that the birth of our Saviour fell
on the 8th year of that prince, so that the 8th year of Bazen was the
first of Christ.

Amha Yasous, prince of Shoa, a province to which the small remains of
the line of Solomon fled upon a catastrophe, I shall have occasion to
mention, gave me the following list of the kings of Abyssinia since
the time of which we are now speaking. From him I procured all the
books, of the Annals of Abyssinia, which have served me to compose
this history, excepting two, one given me by the King, the other the
Chronicle of Axum, by Ras Michael Governor of Tigré.


SHOA LIST OF PRINCES.

  Bazen,
  Tzenaf Segued,
  Garima Asferi,
  Saraada,
  Tzion,
  Sargai,
  Bagamai,
  Jan Segued,
  Tzion Heges,
  Moal Genha,
  Saif Araad,
  Agedar,
  Abreha and Atzbeha, 333,
  Asfeha,
  Arphad and Amzi,
  Araad,
  Saladoba,
  Alamida,
  Tezhana,
  Caleb, 522,
  Guebra Mascal,
  Constantine,
  Bazzer,
  Azbeha,
  Armaha,
  Jan Asfeha,
  Jan Segued,
  Fere Sanai,
  Aderaaz,
  Aizor,
  Del Naad, 960[341].

This list is kept in the monastery of Debra Libanos in Shoa; the
Abyssinians receive it without any sort of doubt, though to me it seems
very exceptionable: If it were genuine, it would put this monarchy in a
very respectable light in point of antiquity.

Great confusion has arisen in these old lists, from their kings having
always two, and sometimes three names. The first is their christened
name, their second a nick, or bye-name, and the third they take upon
their inauguration. There is, likewise, another cause of mistake, which
is, when two names occur, one of a king, the other the quality of a
king only, these are set down as two brothers. For example, Atzbeha
is the _blessed_, or _the saint_; and I very much suspect, therefore,
that Atzbeha and Abreha, said to be two brothers, only mean Abraham
the _blessed_, or _the saint_; because, in that prince’s time, the
country was converted to Christianity; Caleb[342] and Elesbaas, were
long thought to be contemporary princes, till it was found out, by
inspecting the ancient authors of those times, that this was only
the name or quality of _blessed_, or _saint_, given to Caleb, in
consequence of his expedition into Arabia against Phineas king of the
Jews, and persecutor of the Christians.

There are four very interesting events, in the course of the reign of
these princes. The first and greatest we have already mentioned, the
birth of Christ in the 8th year of Bazen. The second is the conversion
of Abyssinia to Christianity, in the reign of Abreha and Atzbeha, in
the year of Christ 333, according to our account. The third the war
with the Jews under Caleb. The fourth, the massacre of the princes on
the mountain of Damo. The time and circumstances of all these are well
known, and I shall relate them in their turn with the brevity becoming
a historian.

Some ecclesiastical[343] writers, rather from attachment to particular
systems, than from any conviction that the opinion they espouse
is truth, would persuade us, that the conversion of Abyssinia to
Christianity happened at the beginning of this period, that is, soon
after the reign of Bazen; others, that Saint Matthias, or Saint
Bartholomew, or some others of the Apostles, after their mission
to teach the nations, first preached here the faith of Christ, and
converted this people to it. It is also said, that the eunuch baptized
by Philip, upon his return to Candace, became the Apostle of that
nation, which, from his preaching, believed in Christ and his gospel.
All these might pass for dreams not worthy of examination, if they were
not invented for particular purposes.

Till the death of Christ, who lived several years after Bazen, very
few Jews had been converted even in Judea. We have no account in
scripture that induces us to believe, that the Apostles went to any
great distance from each other immediately after the crucifixion. Nay,
we know positively, they did not, but lived in community together for a
considerable time. Besides, it is not probable, if the Abyssinians were
converted by any of the Apostles, that, for the space of 300 years,
they should remain without bishops, and without church-government, in
the neighbourhood of many states, where churches were already formed,
without calling to their assistance some members of these churches,
who might, at least, inform them of the purport of the councils held,
and canons made by them, during that space of 300 years; for this was
absolutely necessary to preserve orthodoxy, and the communion between
this, and the churches of that time. And it should be observed, that
if, in Philip’s time, the Christian religion had not penetrated (as
we see in effect it had not) into the court of Candace, so much
nearer Egypt, it did not surely reach so early into the more distant
mountainous country of Abyssinia; and if the Ethiopia, where Candace
reigned, was the same as Abyssinia, the story of the queen of Saba
must be given up as a falsehood; for, in that case, there would be a
woman sitting upon the throne of that country 500 years after she was
excluded by a solemn deliberate fundamental law of the land.

But it is known, from credible writers, engaged in no controversy, that
this Candace reigned upon the Nile in Atbara, much nearer Egypt. Her
capital also was taken in the time of Augustus, a few years before the
Conversion, by Philip; and we shall have occasion often to mention her
successors and her kingdom, as existing in the reign of the Abyssinian
kings, long after the Mahometan conquest; they existed when I passed
through Atbara, and do undoubtedly exist there to this day. What puts
an end to all this argument is a matter of fact, which is, that the
Abyssinians continued Jews and Pagans, and were found to be so above
300 years after the time of the Apostles. Instead, therefore, of taking
the first of this list (Bazen) for the prince under whom Abyssinia was
converted from Judaism, as authors have advanced, in conformity to the
Abyssinian annals, we shall fix upon the 13th (Abreha and Atzbeha,
whom we believe to be but one prince) and, before we enter into the
narrative of that remarkable event, we shall observe, that, from Bazen
to Abreha, being 341 years inclusive, the eighth of Bazen being the
first of Christ, by this account of the conversion, which happened
under Abreha and Atzbeha, it must have been about 333 years after
Christ, or 341 after Bazen.

But we certainly know, that the first bishop, ordained for the
conversion of Abyssinia, was sent from Alexandria by St Athanasius,
who was himself ordained to that See about the year 326. Therefore, any
account, prior to this ordination and conversion, must be false, and
this conversion and ordination must have therefore happened about the
year 330, or possibly some few years later; for Socrates[344] says,
that St Athanasius himself was then but newly elected to the See of
Alexandria.

In order to clear our way of difficulties, before we begin the
narrative of the conversion, we shall observe, in this place, the
reason I just hinted at, why some ecclesiastical writers had attributed
the conversion of Abyssinia to the Apostles. There was found, or
pretended to be found in Alexandria, a canon, of a council said to be
that of Nice, and this canon had never before been known, nor ever seen
in any other place, or in any language, except the Arabic; and, from
inspection, I may add, that it is such Arabic that scarce will convey
the meaning it was intended. Indeed, if it be construed according to
the strict rule of grammar, it will not convey any sense at all. This
canon regulated the precedency of the Abuna of Ethiopia in all after
councils, and it places him immediately after the prelate of Seleucia.
This most honourable antiquity was looked upon and boasted of for their
own purposes by the Jesuits, as a discovery of infinite value to the
church of Ethiopia.

I shall only make one other observation to obviate a difficulty which
will occur in reading what is to follow. The Abyssinian history
plainly and positively says, that when Frumentius (the apostle of the
Abyssinians) came first into that country, a queen reigned, which is an
absolute contradiction to what we have already stated, and would seem
to favour the story of queen Candace. To this I answer, That though it
be true that all women are excluded from the Abyssinian throne, yet it
is as true that there is a law, or custom, as strictly observed as the
other, that the queen upon whose head the king shall have put the crown
in his life-time, it matters not whether it be her husband or son, or
any other relation, that woman is regent of the kingdom, and guardian
of every minor king, as long as she shall live. Supposing, therefore,
a queen to be crowned by her husband, which husband should die and
leave a son, all the brothers and uncles of that son would be banished,
and confined prisoners to the mountain, and the queen would have the
care of the kingdom, and of the king, during his minority. If her
son, moreover, was to die, and a minor succeed who was a collateral,
or no relation to her, brought, perhaps, from the mountain, she would
still be regent; nor does her office cease but by the king’s coming
of age, whose education, cloathing, and maintenance, she, in the mean
time, absolutely directs, according to her own will; nor can there be
another regent during her life-time. This regent, for life, is called
_Iteghè_; and this was probably the situation of the kingdom at the
time we mention, as history informs us the king was then a minor, and
consequently his education, as well as the government of his kingdom
and household, were, as they appear to have been, in the queen, or
_Iteghè’s_ hands; of this office I shall speak more in its proper
place.

Meropius, a philosopher at Tyre, a Greek by nation and by religion, had
taken a passage in a ship on the Red Sea to India, and had with him
two young men, Frumentius and Œdesius, whom he intended to bring up to
trade, after having given them a very liberal education. It happened
their vessel was cast away on a rock upon the coast of Abyssinia.
Meropius, defending himself, was slain by the natives, and the two
boys carried to Axum, the capital of Abyssinia, where the Court then
resided. Though young, they soon began to shew the advantages attending
a liberal education. They acquired the language very speedily; and,
as that country is naturally inclined to admire strangers, these were
soon looked upon as two prodigies. Œdesius, probably the dullest of the
two, was set over the king’s household and wardrobe, a place that has
been filled constantly by a stranger of that nation to this very day.
Frumentius was judged worthy by the queen to have the care of the young
prince’s education, to which he dedicated, himself entirely.

After having instructed his pupil in all sorts of learning, he strongly
impressed him with a love and veneration for the Christian religion;
after which he himself set out for Alexandria, where, as has been
already said, he found St. Athanasius[345] newly elected to that See.

He related to him briefly what had passed in Ethiopia, and the great
hopes of the conversion of that nation, if proper pastors were sent
to instruct them. Athanasius embraced that opportunity with all the
earnestness that became his station and profession. He ordained
Frumentius bishop of that country, who instantly returned and found
the young king his pupil in the same good disposition as formerly;
he embraced Christianity; the greatest part of Abyssinia followed
his example, and the church of Ethiopia continued with this bishop
in perfect unity and friendship till his death; and though great
troubles arose from heresies being propagated in the East, that church,
and the fountain whence it derived its faith (Alexandria,) remained
uncontaminated by any false doctrine.

But it was not long after this, that Arianism broke out under
Constantius the Emperor, and was strongly favoured by him. We have
indeed a letter of St Athanasius to that Emperor, who had applied to
him to depose Frumentius from his See for refusing to embrace that
heresy, or admit it into his diocese.

It should seem, that this conversion of Abyssinia was quietly
conducted, and without blood; and this is the more remarkable, that it
was the second radical change of religion, effected in the same manner,
and with the same facility and moderation. No fanatic preachers,
no warm saints or madmen, ambitious to make or to be made martyrs,
disturbed either of these happy events, in this wise, though barbarous
nation, so as to involve them in bloodshed: no persecution was the
consequence of this difference of tenets, and if wars did follow, it
was from matters merely temporal.




CHAP. VIII.

    _War of the Elephant--First Appearance of the Small-Pox--Jews
    persecute the Christians in Arabia--Defeated by the
    Abyssinians--Mahomet pretends a divine Mission--Opinion
    concerning the Koran--Revolution under Judith--Restoration of
    the Line of Solomon from Shoa._


In the reigns of the princes Abreha and Atzbeha, the Abyssinian annals
mention an expedition to have happened into the farthest part of Arabia
Felix, which the Arabian authors, and indeed Mahomet himself in the
Koran calls by the name of the War of the Elephant, and the cause of it
was this. There was a temple nearly in the middle of the peninsula of
Arabia, that had been held in the greatest veneration for about 1400
years. The Arabs say, that Adam, when shut out of paradise, pitched
his tent on this spot; while Eve, from some accident or other I am
not acquainted with, died and was buried on the shore of the Red Sea,
at Jidda. Two days journey east from this place, her grave, of green
sods about fifty yards in length, is shewn to this day. In this temple
also was a black stone, upon which Jacob saw the vision mentioned in
scripture, of the angels descending, and ascending into Heaven. It is
likewise said, with more appearance of probability, that this temple
was built by Sesostris, in his voyage to Arabia Felix, and that he was
worshipped there under the name of Osiris, as he then was in every part
of Egypt.

The great veneration the neighbouring nations paid to this tower, and
idol, suggested the very natural thought of making the temple the
market for the trade from Africa and India; the liberty of which, we
may suppose, had been in some measure restrained, by the settlements
which foreign nations had made on both coasts of the Red Sea. To remedy
which, they chose this town in the heart of the country, accessible on
all sides, and commanded on none, calling it Becca, which signifies
the House; though Mahomet, after breaking the idol and dedicating
the temple to the true God, named it Mecca, under which name it has
continued, the centre or great mart of the India trade to this day.

In order to divert this trade into a channel more convenient for his
present dominions, Abreha built a very large church or temple, in the
country of the Homerites, and nearer the Indian Ocean. To encourage
also the resort to this place, he extended to it all the privileges,
protection, and emoluments, that belonged to the Pagan temple of Mecca.

One particular tribe of Arabs, called Beni Koreish, had the care of
the Caba, for so the round tower of Mecca was called. These people
were exceedingly alarmed at the prospect of their temple being at once
deserted, both by its votaries and merchants, to prevent which, a party
of them, in the night, entered Abreha’s temple, and having first
burned what part of it could be consumed, they polluted the part that
remained, by besmearing it over with human excrements.

This violent sacrilege and affront was soon reported to Abreha, who,
mounted upon a white elephant at the head of a considerable army,
resolved, in return, to destroy the temple of Mecca. With this intent,
he marched through that stripe of low country along the sea, called
Tehama, where he met with no opposition, nor suffered any distress but
from want of water; after which, at the head of his army, he sat down
before Mecca, as he supposed.

Abou Thaleb (Mahomet’s grandfather, as it is thought) was then keeper
of the Caba, who had interest with his countrymen the Beni Koreish to
prevail upon them to make no resistance, nor shew any signs of wishing
to make a defence. He had presented himself early to Abreha upon his
march. There was a temple of Osiris at Taief, which, as a rival to
that of Mecca, was looked upon by the Beni Koreish with a jealous eye.
Abreha was so far misled by the intelligence given him by Abou Thaleb,
that he mistook the Temple of Taief for that of Mecca, and razed it to
the foundation, after which he prepared to return home.

He was soon after informed of his mistake, and not repenting of what he
had already done, resolved to destroy Mecca also. Abou Thaleb, however,
had never left his side; by his great hospitality, and the plenty he
procured to the Emperor’s army, he so gained Abreha, that hearing, on
inquiry, he was no mean man, but a prince of the tribe of Beni Koreish,
noble Arabs, he obliged him to sit in his presence, and kept him
constantly with him as a companion. At last, not knowing how to reward
him sufficiently, Abreha desired him to ask any thing in his power to
grant, and he would satisfy him. Abou Thaleb, taking him at his word,
wished to be provided with a man, that should bring back forty oxen,
the soldiers had stolen from him.

Abreha, who expected that the favour he was to ask, was to spare the
Temple, which he had in that case resolved in his mind to do, could
not conceal his astonishment at so silly a request, and he could not
help testifying this to Abou Thaleb, in a manner that shewed it had
lowered him in his esteem. Abou Thaleb, smiling, replied very calmly,
If that before you is the Temple of God, as I believe it is, you shall
never destroy it, if it is his will that it should stand: If it is not
the Temple of God, or (which is the same thing) if he has ordained
that you should destroy it, I shall not only assist you in demolishing
it, but shall help you in carrying away the last stone of it upon my
shoulders: But as for me, I am a shepherd, and the care of cattle is
my profession; twenty of the oxen which are stolen are not my own, and
I shall be put in prison for them to-morrow; for neither you nor I can
believe that this is an affair God will interfere in; and therefore I
apply to you for a soldier who will seek the thief, and bring back my
oxen, that my liberty be not taken from me.

Abreha had now refreshed his army, and, from regard to his guest, had
not touched the Temple; when, says the Arabian author, there appeared,
coming from the sea, a flock of birds called Ababil, having faces
like lions, and each of them in his claws, holding a small stone like
a pea, which he let fall upon Abreha’s army, so that they all were
destroyed. The author of the manuscript[346] from which I have taken
this fable, and which is also related by several other historians, and
mentioned by Mahomet in the Koran, does not seem to swallow the story
implicitly. For he says, that there is no bird that has a face like
a lion, that Abou Thaleb was a Pagan, Mahomet being not then come,
and that the Christians were worshippers of the true God, the God of
Mahomet; and, therefore, if any miracle was wrought here, it was a
miracle of the devil, a victory in favour of Paganism, and destructive
of the belief of the true God. In, conclusion, he says, that it was at
this time that the small-pox and measles first broke out in Arabia, and
almost totally destroyed the army of Abreha. But if the stone, as big
as a pea, thrown by the Ababil, had killed Abreha’s army to the last
man, it does not appear how any of them could die afterwards, either by
the small-pox or measles.

All that is material, however, to us, in this fact, is, that the time
of the siege of Mecca will be the æra of the first appearance of that
terrible disease, the small-pox, which we shall set down about the year
356; and it is highly probable, from other circumstances, that the
Abyssinian army was the first victim to it.

As for the church Abreha built near the Indian Ocean, it continued free
from any further insult till the Mahometan conquest of Arabia Felix,
when it was finally destroyed in the Khalifat[347] of Omar. This is
the Abyssinian account, and this the Arabian history of the War of
the Elephant, which I have stated as found in the books of the most
credible writers of those times.

But it is my duty to put the reader upon his guard, against adopting
literally what is here set down, without being satisfied of the
validity of the objection that may be made against the narrative in
general. Abreha reigned 27 years; he was converted to Christianity
in 333, and died in 360; now, it is scarcely possible, in the short
space of 27 years, that all Abyssinia and Arabia could be converted
to Christianity. The conversion of the Abyssinians is represented to
be a work of little time, but the Arab author, Hameesy, says, that
even Arabia Felix was full of churches when this expedition took
place, which is very improbable. And, what adds still more to the
improbability, is, that part of the story which states that Abreha
conversed with Mahomet’s father, or grandfather. For, supposing the
expedition in 356, Mahomet’s birth was in 558, so there will remain
202 years, by much too long a period for two lives. I do believe we
must bring this expedition down much lower than the reign of Abreha and
Atzbeha, the reason of which we shall see afterwards.

As early as the commencement of the African trade with Palestine, the
Jewish religion had spread itself far into Arabia, but, after the
destruction of the temple by Titus, a great increase both of number
and wealth had made that people absolute masters in many parts of
that peninsula. In the Neged, and as far up as Medina, petty princes,
calling themselves kings, were established; who, being trained in the
wars of Palestine, became very formidable among the pacific commercial
nations of Arabia, deeply sunk into Greek degeneracy.

Phineas, a prince of that nation from Medina, having beat St Aretas,
the Governor of Najiran, began to persecute the Christians by a new
species of cruelty, by ordering certain furnaces, or pits full of fire,
to be prepared, into which he threw as many of the inhabitants of
Najiran as refused to renounce Christianity. Among these was Aretas, so
called by the Greeks, Aryat by the Arabs, and Hawaryat, which signifies
the _evangelical_, by the Abyssinians, together with ninety of his
companions. Mahomet, in his Koran, mentions, this tyrant by the name of
the Master of the _fiery pits_, without either condemning or praising
the execution; only saying, ‘the sufferers shall be witness against him
at the last day.’

Justin, the Greek Emperor, was then employed in an unsuccessful war
with the Persians, so that he could not give any assistance to the
afflicted Christians in Arabia, but in the year 522 he sent an embassy
to Caleb, or Elesbaas, king of Abyssinia, intreating him to interfere
in favour of the Christians of Najiran, as he too was of the Greek
church. On the Emperor’s first request, Caleb sent orders to Abreha,
Governor of Yemen, to march to the assistance of Aretas, the son of
him who was burnt, and who was then collecting troops. Strengthened by
this reinforcement, the young soldier did not think proper to delay
the revenging his father’s death, till the arrival of the Emperor; but
having come up with Phineas, who was ferrying his troops over an arm of
the sea, he entirely routed them, and obliged their prince, for fear
of being taken, to swim with his horse to the nearest shore. It was
not long before the Emperor had crossed the Red Sea with his army; nor
had Phineas lost any time in collecting his scattered forces to oppose
him. A battle was the consequence, in which the fortune of Caleb again
prevailed.

It would appear that the part of Arabia, near Najiran, which was the
scene of Caleb’s victory, belonged to the Grecian Emperor Justin,
because Aretas applied directly to him at Constantinople for succour;
and it was at Justin’s request only, that Caleb marched to the
assistance of Aretas, as a friend, but not as a sovereign; and as such
also, Abreha, Governor of Yemen, marched to assist Aretas, with the
Abyssinian troops, from the south of Arabia, against the stranger Jews,
who were invaders from Palestine, and who had no connection with the
Abyssinian Jewish Homerites, natives of the south coast of Arabia,
opposite to Saba.

But neither of the Jewish kingdoms were destroyed by the victories
of Caleb, or Abreha, nor the subsequent conquest of the Persians. In
the Neged, or north part of Arabia, they continued not only after the
appearance of Mahomet, but till after the Hegira. For it was in the 8th
year of that æra that Hybar, the Jew, was besieged in his own castle in
Neged, and slain by Ali, Mahomet’s son-in-law, from that time called
Hydar Ali, or Ali the Lion.

Now the Arabian manuscripts says positively that this Abreha, who
assisted Aretas, was Governor of Arabia Felix, or Yemen; for, by this
last name, I shall hereafter call the part of the peninsula of Arabia
belonging to the Abyssinians; so that he might very well have been the
prince who conversed with Mahomet’s father, and lost his army before
Mecca, which will bring down the introduction of the small-pox to
the year 522, just 100 years before the Hegira, and both Arabian and
Abyssinian accounts might be then true.

The two officers who governed Yemen, and the opposite coast Azab,
which, as we have above mentioned, belonged to Abyssinia, were stiled
_Najashi_, as was the king also, and both of them were crowned with
gold. I am, therefore, persuaded, this is the reason of the confusion
of names we meet in Arabian manuscripts, that treat of the sovereigns
of Yemen. This, moreover, is the foundation of the story found in
Arabic manuscripts, that Jaffar, Mahomet’s brother, fled to the
Najashi, who was governor of Yemen, and was kindly treated by him,
and kept there till he joined his brother at the campaign of Hybarea.
Soon after his great victory over the Beni Koreish, at the last
battle of Beder Hunein, Mahomet is said to have written to the same
Najashi a letter of thanks, for his kind entertainment of his brother,
inviting him (as a reward) to embrace his religion, which the Najashi
is supposed to have immediately complied with. Now, all this is in
the Arabic books, and all this is true, as far as we can conjecture
from the accounts of those times, very partially writ by a set of
warm-headed bigotted zealots; such as all Arabic authors (historians
of the time) undoubtedly are. The error only lies in the application
of this story to the Najashi, or king of Abyssinia, situated far from
the scene of these actions, on high cold mountains, very unfavourable
to those rites, which, in low flat and warm countries, have been
temptations to slothful and inactive men to embrace the Mahometan
religion.

A most shameful prostitution of manners prevailed in the Greek church,
as also innumerable heresies, which were first received as true
tenets of their religion, but were soon after persecuted in a most
uncharitable manner, as being erroneous. Their lies, their legends,
their saints and miracles, and, above all, the abandoned behaviour of
the priesthood, had brought their characters in Arabia almost as low as
that of the detested Jew, and, had they been considered in their true
light, they had been still lower.

The dictates of nature in the heart of the honest Pagan, constantly
employed in long, lonely, and dangerous voyages, awakened him often to
reflect who that Providence was that invisibly governed him, supplied
his wants, and often mercifully saved him from the destruction into
which his own ignorance or rashness were leading him. Poisoned by
no system, perverted by no prejudice, he wished to know and adore
his Benefactor, with purity and simplicity of heart, free from these
fopperies and follies with which ignorant priests and monks had
disguised his worship. Possessed of charity, steady in his duty to his
parents, full of veneration for his superiors, attentive and merciful
even to his beasts; in a word, containing in his heart the principles
of the first religion, which God had inculcated in the heart of Noah,
the Arab was already prepared to embrace a much more perfect one than
what Christianity, at that time, disfigured by folly and superstition,
appeared to him to be.

Mahomet, of the tribe of Beni Koreish (at whose instigation is
uncertain) took upon himself to be the apostle of a new religion,
pretending to have, for his only object, the worship of the true
God. Ostensibly full of the morality of the Arab, of patience and
self-denial, superior even to what is made necessary to salvation by
the gospel, his religion, at the bottom, was but a system of blasphemy
and falsehood, corruption and injustice. Mahomet and his tribe were
most profoundly ignorant. There was not among them but one man that
could write, and it was not doubted he was to be Mahomet’s secretary,
but unfortunately Mahomet could not read his writing. The story of the
angel who brought him leaves of the Koran is well known, and so is all
the rest of the fable. The wiser part of his own relations, indeed,
laughed at the impudence of his pretending to have a communication
with angels. Having, however, gained, as his apostles, some of the
best soldiers of the tribe of Beni Koreish, and persisting with great
uniformity in all his measures, he established a new religion upon the
ruins of idolatry and Sabaism, in the very temple of Mecca.

Nothing severe was injoined by Mahomet, and the frequent prayers
and washings with water which he directed, were gratifications to a
sedentary people in a very hot country. The lightness of this yoke,
therefore, recommended it rapidly to those who were disgusted with
long fasting, penances, and pilgrimages. The poison of this false,
yet not severe religion, spread itself from that fountain to all the
trading nations: India, Ethiopia, Africa, all Asia, suddenly embraced
it; and every caravan carried into the bosom of its country people not
more attached to trade, than zealous to preach and propagate their new
faith. The Temple of Mecca (the old rendezvous of the Indian trade)
perhaps was never more frequented than it is at this day, and the
motives of the journey are equally trade and religion, as they were
formerly.

I shall here mention, that the Arabs begun very soon to study letters,
and came to be very partial to their own language; Mahomet himself
so much so, that he held out his Koran, for its elegance alone, as a
greater miracle than that of raising the dead. This was not universally
allowed at that time; as there were even then compositions supposed
to equal, if not to surpass it. In my time, I have seen in Britain
a spirit of enthusiasm for this book in preference to all others,
not inferior to that which possessed Mahomet’s followers. Modern
unbelievers (Sale and his disciples) have gone every length, but to
say directly that it was dictated by the Spirit of God. Excepting the
command in Genesis chap. i. ver. 3. “And God said, Let there be light;
and there was light;” they defy us to shew in scripture a passage equal
in sublimity to many in the Koran. Following, without inquiring, what
has been handed down from one to the other, they would cram us with
absurdities, which no man of sense can swallow. They say the Koran is
composed in a style the most pure, and chaste, and that the tribe of
Beni Koreish was the most polite, learned, and noble of all the Arabs.

But to this I answer--The Beni Koreish were from the earliest days,
according to their own[348] account, part established at Mecca, and
part as robbers on the sea-coast, and they were all children of
Ishmael. Whence then came their learning, or their superior nobility?
Was it found in the desert, in the temple, or did the robbers bring it
from the sea? Soiouthy, one of those most famous then for knowledge
in the Arabic, has quoted from the Koran many hundred words, either
Abyssinian, Indian, Persian, Ethiopic, Syrian, Hebrew, or Chaldaic,
which he brings back to the root, and ascribes them to the nation
they came from. Indeed it could not be otherwise; these caravans,
continually crowding with their trade to Mecca, must have vitiated the
original tongue by an introduction of new terms and new idioms, into
a language labouring under a penury of vocabules. But shall any one
for this persuade me, that a book is a model of pure, elegant, chaste
English, in which there shall be a thousand words of Welsh, Irish,
Gaelic, French, Spanish, Malabar Mexican, and Laponian? What would be
thought of such a medley? or, at least, could it be recommended as a
pattern for writing pure English?

What I say of the Koran may be applied to the language of Arabia in
general: when it is called a copious language, and professors wisely
tell you, that there are six hundred words for a sword, two hundred for
honey, and three hundred that signify a lion, still I must observe,
that this is not a copious language, but a confusion of languages:
these, instead of distinct names, are only different epithets. For
example, a lion in English may be called a young lion, a white lion, a
small lion, a big lion: I style him moreover the fierce, the cruel, the
enemy to man, the beast of the desert, the king of beasts, the lover
of blood. Thus it is in Arabic; and yet it is said that all these are
words for a lion. Take another example in a sword; the cutter, the
divider, the friend of man, the master of towns, the maker of widows,
the sharp, the straight, the crooked; which may be said in English as
well as in Arabic.

The Arabs were a people who lived in a country, for the most part,
desert; their dwellings were tents, and their principal occupation
feeding and breeding cattle, and they married with their own family.
The language therefore of such a people should be very poor; there
is no variety of images in their whole country. They were always bad
poets, as their works will testify; and if, contrary to the general
rule, the language of Arabia Deserta became a copious one, it must have
been by the mixture of so many nations meeting and trading at Mecca.
It must, at the same time, have been the most corrupt, where there was
the greatest concourse of strangers, and this was certainly among the
Beni Koreish at the Caba. When, therefore, I hear people praising the
Koran for the purity of its style, it puts me in mind of the old man in
the comedy, whose reason for loving his nephew was, that he could read
Greek; and being asked if he understood the Greek so read, he answered,
Not a word of it, but the rumbling of the sound pleased him.

The war that had distracted all Arabia, first between the Greeks
and Persians, then between Mahomet and the Arabs, in support of his
divine mission, had very much hurt the trade carried on by universal
consent at the Temple of Mecca. Caravans, when they dared venture
out, were surprised upon every road, by the partizans of one side or
the other. Both merchants and trade had taken their departure to the
southward, and established themselves south of the Arabian Gulf, in
places which (in ancient times) had been the markets for commerce,
and the rendezvous of merchants. Azab, or Saba, was rebuilt; also
Raheeta, Zeyla, Tajoura, Soomaal, in the Arabian Gulf, and a number
of other towns on the Indian Ocean. The conquest of the Abyssinian
territories in Arabia forced all those that yet remained to take
refuge on the African side, in the little districts which now grew into
consideration. Adel, Mara, Hadea, Aussa, Wypo, Tarshish, and a number
of other states, now assumed the name of kingdoms, and soon obtained
power and wealth superior to many older ones.

The Governor of Yemen (or Najashi) converted now to the faith of
Mahomet, retired to the African side of the Gulf. His government, long
ago, having been shaken to the very foundation by the Arabian war, was
at last totally destroyed. But the Indian trade at Adel wore a face of
prosperity, that had the features of ancient times.

Without taking notice of every objection, and answering it, which has
too polemical an appearance for a work of this kind, I hope I have
removed the greatest part of the reader’s difficulties, which have,
for a long time, lain in the way, towards his understanding this part
of the history. There is one, however, remains, which the Arabian
historians have mentioned, viz. that this Najashi, who embraced the
faith of Mahomet, was avowedly of the royal family of Abyssinia.
To this I answer, he certainly was a person of that rank, and was
undoubtedly a nobleman, as there is no nobility in that country but
from relationship to the king, and no person can be related to the king
by the male line. But the females, even the daughters of those princes
who are banished to the mountain, marry whom they please; and all the
descendents of that marriage become noble, because they must be allied
to the king. So far then they may truly assert, that the Mahometan
Governor of Yemen, and his posterity, were this way related to the king
of Abyssinia. But the supposition that any heirs male of this family
became mussulmen, is, beyond any sort of doubt, without foundation or
probability.

Omar, after subduing Egypt, destroyed the valuable library at
Alexandria, but his successors thought very differently from him in
the article of profane learning. Greek books of all kinds (especially
those of Geometry, Astronomy, and Medicine,) were searched for every
where and translated. Sciences flourished and were encouraged. Trade at
the same time kept pace, and increased with knowledge. Geography and
astronomy were every where diligently studied and solidly applied to
make the voyages of men from place to place safe and expeditious. The
Jews (constant servants of the Arabs) imbibed a considerable share of
their taste for earning.

They had, at this time, increased very much in number. By the violence
of the Mahometan conquests in Arabia and Egypt, where their sect did
principally prevail, they became very powerful in Abyssinia. Arianism,
and all the various heresies that distracted the Greek church, were
received there in their turn from Egypt; the bonds of Christianity
were dissolved, and people in general were much more willing to favour
a new religion, than to agree with, or countenance any particular
one of their own, if it differed from that which they adopted in the
merest trifle. This had destroyed their metropolis in Egypt, just now
delivered up to the Saracens; and the disposition of the Abyssinians
seemed so very much to resemble their brethren the Cophts, that a
revolution in favour of Judaism was thought full as feasible in the
country, as it had been in Egypt in favour of the newly-preached, but
unequivocal religion of Mahomet.

An independent sovereignty, in one family of Jews, had always been
preserved on the mountain of Samen, and the royal residence was upon
a high-pointed rock, called the Jews Rock: Several other inaccessible
mountains served as natural fortresses for this people, now grown very
considerable by frequent accessions of strength from Palestine and
Arabia, whence the Jews had been expelled. Gideon and Judith were then
king and queen of the Jews, and their daughter Judith (whom in Amhara
they call _Esther_, and sometimes _Saat_, i. e. _fire_[349],) was a
woman of great beauty, and talents for intrigue; had been married to
the governor of a small district called Bugna, in the neighbourhood of
Lasta, both which countries were likewise much infected with Judaism.

Judith had made so strong a party, that she resolved to attempt the
subversion of the Christian religion, and, with it, the succession in
the line of Solomon. The children of the royal family were at this
time, in virtue of the old law, confined on the almost inaccessible
mountain of Damo in Tigrè. The short reign, sudden and unexpected
death of the late king Aizor, and the desolation and contagion which
an epidemical disease had spread both in court and capital, the weak
state of Del Naad who was to succeed Aizor and was an infant; all these
circumstances together, impressed Judith with an idea that now was the
time to place her family upon the throne, and establish her religion by
the extirpation of the race of Solomon. Accordingly she surprised the
rock Damo, and slew the whole princes there, to the number, it is said,
of about 400.

Some nobles of Amhara, upon the first news of the catastrophe at Damo,
conveyed the infant king Del Naad, now the only remaining prince of
his race, into the powerful and loyal province of Shoa, and by this
means the royal family was preserved to be again restored. Judith
took possession of the throne in defiance of the law of the queen of
Saba, by this the first interruption of the succession in the line
of Solomon, and, contrary to what might have been expected from the
violent means she had used to acquire the crown, she not only enjoyed
it herself during a long reign of 40 years, but transmitted it also
to five of her posterity, all of them barbarous names, originating
probably in Lasta: These are said to be,

  Totadem,
  Jan Shum,
  Garima Shum,
  Harbai,
  Marari.

Authors, as well Abyssinian as European, have differed widely about
the duration of these reigns. All that the Abyssinians are agreed upon
is, that this whole period was one scene of murder, violence, and
oppression.

Judith and her descendents were succeeded by relations of their own,
a noble family of Lasta. The history of this revolution, or cause of
it, are lost and unknown in the country, and therefore vainly fought
after elsewhere. What we know is, that with them the court returned
to the Christian religion, and that they were still as different from
their predecessors in manners as in religion. Though usurpers, as were
the others, their names are preserved with every mark of respect and
veneration. They are,

  Tecla Haimanout,
  Kedus Harbé,
  Itibarek,
  Lalibala,
  Imeranha Christos,
  Naacueto Laab.

Not being kings of the line of Solomon, no part of their history is
recorded in the annals, unless that of Lalibala, who lived in the
end of the twelfth, or beginning of the thirteenth century, and was
a saint. The whole period of the usurpation, comprehending the long
reign of Judith, will by this account be a little more than 300 years,
in which time eleven princes are said to have sat upon the throne of
Solomon, so that, supposing her death to have been in the year 1000,
each of these princes, at an average, will have been a little more
than twenty-four years, and this is too much. But all this period is
involved in darkness. We might guess, but since we are not able to do
more, it answers no good purpose to do so much. I have followed the
histories and traditions which are thought the most authentic in the
country, the subject of which they treat, and where I found them; and
though they may differ from other accounts given by European authors,
this does not influence me, as I know that none of these authors
could have any other authorities than those I have seen, and the
difference only must be the fruit of idle imagination, and ill-founded
conjectures of their own.

In the reign of Lalibala, near about the 1200, there was a great
persecution in Egypt against the Christians, after the Saracen
conquest, and especially against the masons, builders, and hewers
of stone, who were looked upon by the Arabs as the greatest of
abominations; this prince opened an asylum in his dominions to all
fugitives of that kind, of whom he collected a prodigious number.
Having before him as specimens the ancient works of the Troglodytes,
he directed a number of churches to be hewn out of the solid rock in
his native country of Lasta, where they remain untouched to this day,
and where they will probably continue till the latest posterity. Large
columns within are formed out of the solid rock, and every species
of ornament preserved, that would have been executed in buildings of
separate and detached stones, above ground.

This prince undertook to realize the favourite pretensions of the
Abyssinians, to the power of turning the Nile out of its course, so
that it should no longer be the cause of the fertility of Egypt, now in
possession of the enemies of his religion. We may imagine, if it was in
the power of man to accomplish this undertaking, it could have fallen
into no better hands than those to whom Lalibala gave the execution of
it; people driven from their native country by those Saracens who now
were reaping the benefits of the river, in the places of those they had
forced to seek habitations far from the benefit and pleasure afforded
by its stream.

This prince did not adopt the wild idea of turning the course of the
Nile out of its present channel; upon the possibility or impossibility
of which, the argument (so warmly and so long agitated) always
most improperly turns. His idea was to famish Egypt: and, as the
fertility of that country depends not upon the ordinary stream, but
the extraordinary increase of it by the tropical rains, he is said to
have found, by an exact survey and calculation, that there ran on the
summit, or highest part of the country, several rivers which could be
intercepted by mines, and their stream directed into the low country
southward, instead of joining the Nile, augmenting it and running
northward. By this he found he should be able so to disappoint its
increase, that it never would rise to a height proper to fit Egypt for
cultivation. And thus far he was warranted in his ideas of succeeding
(as I have been informed by the people of that country), that he did
intersect and carry into the Indian Ocean, two very large rivers, which
have ever since flowed that way, and he was carrying a level to the
lake Zawaia, where many rivers empty themselves in the beginning of the
rains, which would have effectually diverted the course of them all,
and could not but in some degree diminish the current below.

Death, the ordinary enemy of all these stupendous Herculean
undertakings, interposed too here, and put a stop to this enterprize
of Lalibala. But Amha Yasous, prince of Shoa (in whose country part
of these immense works were) a young man of great understanding, and
with whom I lived several months in the most intimate friendship at
Gondar, assured me that they were visible to this day; and that they
were of a kind whose use could not be mistaken; that he himself had
often visited them, and was convinced the undertaking was very possible
with such hands, and in the circumstances things then were. He told me
likewise, that, in a written account which he had seen in Shoa, it was
said that this prince was not interrupted by death in his undertaking,
but persuaded by the monks, that if a greater quantity of water was
let down into the dry kingdoms of Hadea, Mara, and Adel, increasing
in population every day, and, even now, almost equal in power to
Abyssinia itself, these barren kingdoms would become the garden of
the world; and such a number of Saracens, dislodged from Egypt by the
first appearance of the Nile’s failing, would fly thither: that they
would not only withdraw those countries from their obedience, but be
strong enough to over-run the whole kingdom of Abyssinia. Upon this,
as Amha Yasous informed me, Lalibala gave over his first scheme, which
was the famishing of Egypt; and that his next was employing the men
in subterraneous churches; a useless expence, but more level to the
understanding of common men than the former.

Don Roderigo de Lima, ambassador from the king of Portugal, in 1522 saw
the remains of these vast works, and travelled in them several days, as
we learn from Alvarez, the chaplain and historian of that embassy[350],
which we shall take notice of in its proper place.

Lalibala was distinguished both as a poet and an orator. The old fable,
of a swarm of bees hanging to his lips in the cradle, is revived and
applied to him as foretelling the sweetness of his elocution.

To Lalibala succeeded Imeranha Christos, remarkable for nothing but
being son of such a father as Lalibala, and father to such a son as
Naacueto Laab; both of them distinguished for works very extraordinary,
though very different in their kind. The first, that is those of the
father we have already hinted at, consisting in great mechanical
undertakings. The other was an operation of the mind, of still more
difficult nature, a victory over ambition, the voluntary abdication of
a crown to which he succeeded without imputation of any crime.

Tecla Haimanout, a monk and native of Abyssinia, had been ordained
Abuna, and had founded the famous monastery of Debra Libanos in Shoa.
He was a man at once celebrated for the sanctity of his life, the
goodness of his understanding, and love to his country; and, by an
extraordinary influence, obtained over the reigning king Naacueto
Laab, he persuaded him, for conscience sake, to resign a crown, which
(however it might be said with truth, that he received it from his
father) could never be purged from the stain and crime of usurpation.

In all this time, the line of Solomon had been continued from Del Naad,
who, we have seen, had escaped from the massacre of Damo, under Judith.
Content with possessing the loyal province of Shoa, they continued
their royal residence there, without having made one attempt, as far as
history tells us, towards recovering their ancient kingdom.


RACE OF SOLOMON BANISHED, BUT REIGNING IN SHOA.

  Del Naad,
  Mahaber Wedem,
  Igba Sion,
  Tzenaf Araad,
  Nagash Zaré,
  Asfeha,
  Jacob,
  Bahar Segued,
  Adamas Segued,
  Icon Amlac.

Naacueto Laab, of the house of Zaguè, was, it seems, a just and
peaceable prince.

Under the mediation of Abuna Tecla Haimanout, a treaty was made between
him and Icon Amlac consisting of four articles, all very extraordinary
in their kind.

The first was, that Naacueto Laab, prince of the house of Zaguè, should
forthwith resign the kingdom of Abyssinia to Icon Amlac, reigning
prince of the line of Solomon then in Shoa.

The second, that a portion of lands in Lasta should be given to
Naacueto Laab and his heirs in absolute property, irrevocably and
irredeemably; that he should preserve, as marks of sovereignty, two
silver kettle-drums, or nagareets; that the points of the spears of his
guard, the globes that surmounted his sendeck, (that is the pole upon
which the colours are carried), should be silver, and that he should
sit upon a gold stool, or chair, in form of that used by the kings of
Abyssinia; and that both he and his descendents should be absolutely
free from all homage, services, taxes, or public burdens for ever, and
stiled Kings of Zaguè, or the Lasta king.

The third article was, That one third of the kingdom should be
appropriated and ceded absolutely to the Abuna himself, for the
maintenance of his own state, and support of the clergy, convents, and
churches in the kingdom; and this became afterwards an æra, or epoch,
in Abyssinian history, called the æra of partition.

The fourth, and last article, provided, that no native Abyssinian could
thereafter be chosen Abuna, and this even tho’ he was ordained at, and
sent from Cairo. In virtue of this treaty, concluded and solemnly sworn
to, Icon Amlac took possession of his throne, and the other contracting
parties of the provisions respectively allotted them.

The part of the treaty that should appear most liable to be broken was
that which erected a kingdom within a kingdom. However, it is one of
the remarkable facts in the annals of this country, that the article
between Icon Amlac and the house of Zaguè was observed for near 500
years; for it was made before the year 1300, and never was broken, but
by the treacherous murder of the Zaguean prince by Allo Fasil in the
unfortunate war of Begemder, in the reign of Joas 1768, the year before
I arrived in Abyssinia; neither has any Abuna native of Abyssinia ever
been known since that period. As for the exorbitant grant of one third
of the kingdom to the Abuna, it has been in great measure resumed, as
we may naturally suppose, upon different pretences of misbehaviour,
true or alledged, by the king or his ministers, the first great
invasion of it being in the subsequent reign of king Theodorus, who,
far from losing popularity by this infraction, has been ever reckoned a
model for sovereigns.


_END OF VOLUME FIRST._




FOOTNOTES:

[1] This epithet given to the springs from which the Nile rises, was
borrowed from a very elegant English poem that appeared in Dr Maty’s
Review for May 1786. It was sent to me by my friend Mr Barrington, to
whom it was attributed, although from modesty he disclaims it. From
whatever hand it comes, the poet is desired to accept of my humble
thanks. It was received with universal applause wherever it was
circulated, and a considerable number of copies was printed at the
desire of the public. Accident seemed to have placed it in Dr Maty’s
book with peculiar propriety, by having joined it to a fragment of
Ariosto, then first published, in the same Review. It has since been
attributed to Mr Mason.

[2] He was long a slave to the Bey of Constantina, and appears to have
been a man of capacity.

[3] This will be explained afterwards.

[4] Ludolf, lib. i. cap. 15.

[5] This is a running figure cut through the middle like the check of a
bank note.

[6] Hippo. Reg. from Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 109.

[7] Hippo. Reg. id. ib.

[8] Aphrodisium. id. ib.

[9] Thabarca, id. ib.

[10] Plin. Ep. xxxiii. l. 9.

[11] Liv. Epit. xxx. l. 9.

[12] Strabo lib xvii. p. 1189. It signifies the river of Cows, or Kine.
P. Mela lib. i. cap. 7. Sil. It. lib. vi. l. 140.

[13] Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. Procop. lib. vi. cap. 5. de Ædif.

[14] Val. Max. lib. ii. cap. 6. § 15.

[15] Ptol. Geog. lib. iv.

[16] Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 106.

[17] Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 111.

[18] Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 108.

[19] Vide Itin. Anton.

[20] Procop. Bell. Vand. lib. ii. cap. 13.

[21] Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 111.

[22] Shaw’s Travels, chap. viii. p. 57.

[23] Shaw’s Travels, cap. v. p. 119.

[24] Sal. Bel. Jug. § 94. L. Flor. lib. iii. cap. 1.

[25] Shaw’s Travels, chap. v. p. 118.

[26] Itin. Anton. p. 3.

[27] Itin. Anton, p. 3.

[28] Shaw’s Travels, cap. v. p. 115.

[29] Cel. Geog. Antique, lib. iv. cap. 4. and cap. 5. p. 118.

[30] Itin. Anton. p. 2.

[31] Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 110.

[32] This fountain is called El Tarmid. Nub. Geog. p. 86.

[33] Sal. Bell. § 94.

[34] Itin. Anton, p. 4.

[35] Shaw’s Travels, cap. v. p. 126.

[36] Itin. Anton. p. 4.

[37] Id. Ibid.

[38] Shaw’s Travels, p. 117. cap. 5.

[39] Boch. Chan. lib. i. cap. 25. Shaw’s Travels, cap. iv. p. 115.

[40] Itin. Anton. p. 104.

[41] Ptol. Geog. p. 4.

[42] Shaw’s Travels, sect. vi. p. 156.

[43] Jerboa, see a figure of it in the Appendix.

[44] Itin. Anton. p. 4.

[45] The north boundary of the Holy Land.

[46] It is a post where a party of men are kept to receive a
contribution, for maintaining the security of the roads, from all
passengers.

[47] Ezek. chap. xxvi. ver. 5.

[48] Mrs Bruce died in 1784.

[49] The nucta, or dew, that falls on St John’s night, is supposed
to have the virtue to stop the plague. I have considered this in the
sequel.

[50] Strabo, lib. xiv. p. 781.

[51] It is called Mamilho.

[52] Newton’s Chronol. p. 183.

[53] Strabo, lib. xiv. p. 684.

[54] Strabo, lib. xiv. p. 780.

[55] This is an old prejudice. See Herodotus, lib. ii. p. 90. sect. 5.

[56] Berytus.

[57] Laodicea ad mare.

[58] Herod. lib. ii. p. 90.

[59] Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 922.

[60] Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 922.

[61] Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 920. Q. Curt. lib. iv. cap. 8.

[62] Plin. lib. v. cap. 10. p. 273.

[63] We see many examples of such leaves both at Palmyra and Baalbec.

[64] Marmol, lib. xi. cap. 14. p. 276. tom. 3.

[65] Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 922.

[66] A peasant Arab.

[67] Means a narrow or shallow entrance of a river from the ocean.

[68] Herod, p. 108.

[69] Shaw’s Travels, p. 293.

[70] See a figure of this animal in the Appendix.

[71] See Appendix.

[72] Shaw’s Travels, p. 294.

[73] The Mamaluke Beys.

[74] Vid. Introduction.

[75] Ptol. Geograph. lib. 4 Cap. 5.

[76] Shaw’s travels p. 294.

[77] Herod. lib. 2. cap. 8.

[78] This has been thought to mean the Convent of Figs, but it only
signifies the Two Convents.

[79] See Mr Irvine’s Letters.

[80] Herod. lib. ii. p. 99.

[81] Herod. lib. ii. cap. 8.

[82] See the Chart of the Nile.

[83] Pococke, vol. I. cap. v. p. 39.

[84] Plin. lib. 5. cap. 9.

[85] Plin. lib. 36. cap. 12.

[86] Diod. Sic. p. 45. § 50.

[87] Shaw’s Travels, p. 296. in the latitude quoted.

[88] Shaw’s Travels, cap. 4. p. 298.

[89] Id. ibid. 299.

[90] Id. ibid.

[91] Id. ibid.

[92] Ptol. Geograph. lib. iv. cap. 5.

[93] Herod. lib. ii. p. 141. Ibid. p. 168. Ibid. p. 105. Ibid. p. 103.
Edit. Steph.

[94] Herod. lib. ii. § 97. p. 123.

[95] Shaw’s Travels, cap. 4.

[96] Strabo. lib. vii. p. 914.

[97] Id. ibid.

[98] Id. ibid.

[99] Strabo, ibid.

[100] Id. ibid.

[101] Named _Binny_. See Appendix.

[102] Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 936.

[103] Norden’s travels, vol. ii. p. 19.

[104] Herod. lib. ii, cap. 19.

[105] Dagjour.

[106] Norden’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 17.

[107] I cannot here omit to rectify another small mistake of the
translator, which involves him in a difference with this Author which
he did not mean.--

Mr Norden, in the French, says, that the master of his vessel being
much frightened, “avoit perdu la tramontane;” the true meaning of which
is, That he had lost his judgment, not lost the north wind, as it is
translated, which is really nonsense. _Norden’s Travels_, vol. ii. p.
59.

[108] Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 936.

[109] Signifies the Narrow Passage, and is meant what _Phylæ_ is in
Latin.

[110] Messoudi

[111] Itin. Anton. p. 14.

[112] It is called Hamseen, because it is expected to blow all
Pentecost.

[113] Theophrast. Hist. Plan. lib. iii. cap. 8--lib. iv. cap. 2.

[114] Strabo lib. vii. p. 941.

[115] A poor saint.

[116] Diod. Sic. lib. I.

[117] Plin. lib. 26. cap. 14.

[118] See Norden’s views of the Temples at Esné and Edfu. Vol. ii.
plate 6. p. 80.

[119] This inclined figure of the sides, is frequently found in the
small boxes within the mummy-chests.

[120] Diod. Sic. lib. 1.

[121] See the figure of this Insect in Paul Lucas.

[122] Gen. xxxi. 27, Isa. chap. xxx. ver. 32.

[123] Eccles. chap. i. ver. 10.

[124] Ezek. chap. xxviii. ver. 13.

[125] Nay, prior to this, the harp is mentioned as a common instrument
in Abraham’s time 1370 years before Christ, Gen. chap. xxxii. ver. 27.

[126] Diod. Sic. Bib. lib. i. p. 42. § d.

[127] Strabo, lib. 17. p. 943.

[128] Nah. ch. 3. ver. 8, & 9.

[129] A similar instrument, erected by Eratosthenes at Alexandria, cut
of copper, was used by Hipparchus and Ptolemy.--Alm. lib. I. cap. II.
3. cap. 2. Vide his remarks on Mr Greave’s Pyramidographia, p. 134.

[130] Signior Donati.

[131] Diod. Sic. Bib. lib. I. p. 45. § c.

[132] Vide Norden’s map of the Nile.

[133] Juven. Sat. 15. ver. 76.

[134] Idris Welled Hamran, our guide through the great desert, dwelt in
this village.

[135] The ancient Adei.

[136] The Bishareen are the Arabs who live in the frontier between the
two nations. They are the nominal subjects of Sennaar, but, in fact,
indiscreet banditti, at least as to strangers.

[137] They were _Shepherds_ Indigenæ, not Arabs.

[138] _Qui Ludit in Hospite fixo_--Was a character long ago given to
the Moors. HORACE ODE.

[139] This kind of oath was in use among the Arabs, or _Shepherds_,
early as the time of Abraham, Gen. xxi. 22, 23. xxvi. 28.

[140] Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 944.

[141] This word, improperly used and spelled by M. de Volney, has
nothing to do with these Ansaris.

[142] Cicero de Somnio Scipronis.

[143] Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 73.

[144] Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 944.

[145] Strabo, lib. ii. p. 133.

[146] Spectacle de la Nature.

[147] Strabo, lib. 17. p. 944.

[148] L’histoire d’astronomie, de M. de la Lande, vol. i. lib. 2.

[149] Vide Mr Norden’s Voyage up the Nile.

[150] It is no town, but some sand and a few bushes, so called.

[151] Ptol. Almag. lib. 4. Geograph. pag. 104.

[152] The Arabs call these narrow passes in the mountains Fum, as the
Hebrews did Pi, the mouth. Fum el Beder, is the mouth of Beder; Fum el
Terfowey, the mouth or passage of Terfowey; Piha Hhiroth, the mouth of
the valley cut through with ravines.

[153] Ptolem. Geograph. lib. 4. p. 103.

[154] That is, I am under your protection.

[155] On the east coast of Arabia Felix, Syagrum Promontorium.

[156] Itin. Anton. a Carth. p. 4.

[157] So the next stage from Syené is called Hiera Sycaminos, a
sycamore-tree, Ptol. lib. 4. p. 108.

[158] Plin. lib. xxxvii. cap. 5.

[159] Ditto.

[160] Tavernier vol. II. Voyag.

[161] Theophrastus Περιλιθων.

[162] Clamps.

[163] It is a Keratophyte, growing at the bottom of the sea.

[164] Vide the track of this Navigation laid down on the Chart.

[165] Ezek. chap. xxvii. 6th and 29th verses.

[166] Ajam, in the language of Shepherds, signifies _rain-water_.

[167] Vide his Journal published by Abbé Vertot.

[168] Gen. chap. xiii. ver. 17th.

[169] Gen. chap. xiii. ver. 6th. Exod. chap. xiii. ver. 17th.

[170] Exod. ch. xii. 33.

[171] Such is the tradition among the Natives.

[172] Diod. Sic. Lib. 3. p. 122.

[173] Dionysii Periegesis, v. 38. et Comment. Eustathii in eundem.
Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 765. Agathemeri Geographia, lib. ii. cap. 11.

[174] _Jerome Lobo_, the greatest liar of the Jesuits, ch. iv. p. 46.
English translation.

[175] I saw one of these, which, from a root nearly central, threw out
ramifications in a nearly circular form, measuring twenty-six feet
diameter every way.

[176] Anciently called Pharos.

[177] The Koran is, therefore, called _El Farkan_, or the Divider, or
Distinguisher between true faith and heresy.

[178] See the article Ashkoko in the Appendix.

[179] 2 Chron. chap. xx. ver. 37th.

[180] See the Map.

[181] El Har signifies extreme heat.

[182] Vide Irvine’s letters.

[183] Levit. chap. xvi. ver. 5.

[184] Native of Tripoli; it is Turkish.

[185] See the article Balessan in the Appendix.

[186] Cape Fever.

[187] This is a common sailor’s phrase for the Straits of Babelmandeb.

[188] Captain of the port.

[189] Philosoph. Transact. Vol. 27. p. 186.

[190] A late publication of Dr Madan’s, little understood, as it would
seem.

[191] Sovereign of Arabia Felix, whose capital is _Sana_.

[192] Gen. xv. 18.

[193] Gen. xvi. 12.

[194] The island of the Shepherds.

[195] Or Porcupine.

[196] Yemen, or the high land of Arabia Felix, where water freezes.

[197] Arabia Deserta.

[198] Deregé, from that word in Hebrew.

[199] It signifies Pharaoh’s worm.

[200] Ligustrum Ægyptiacum Latifolium.

[201] Arabia Felix, or Yemen.

[202] That is, the Peek of Arabia Felix, or Yemen.

[203] Governor of the Province of Tigré in Abyssinia.

[204] See the article Pearl in the Appendix.

[205] Jibbel Teir, the Mountain of the Bird; corruptly, _Gibraltar_.

[206] Millet, or Indian corn.

[207] See the article Tortoise in the Appendix.

[208] A Subaltern Governor.

[209] Poncet’s Voyage, translated into English, printed for W. Lewis in
1709, in 12mo, page 121.

[210] This must not be attributed wholly to the weather. We spent much
time in surveying the islands, and in observation.

[211] Exod. xxxviii 39.

[212] Lib. 21. cap. 6.

[213] These are far from being synonymous terms, as we shall see
afterwards.

[214] See the article papyrus in the Appendix.

[215] Gen. xxxvii. 3 and 2 Sam. xiii. 18.

[216] Prov. vii. 16.

[217] Vide Appendix, where this tree is described.

[218] The quantity of similar drugs brought from the New World.

[219] Boch. lib. 4. cap. 3.

[220] Herod. lib. 2. cap. 29.

[221] Joseph. antiquit. Jud.

[222] At Gerri in my return through the desert.

[223] It is very probable, some of these words signified different
degrees among them, as we shall see in the sequel.

[224] Diod. Sic. lib. 1. cap.

[225] This was the name of the king of Amalek; he was an Arab shepherd,
slain by Samuel, 1 Sam. xv. 33.

[226] Ludolf lib. 1 cap. 4.

[227] That is, they shall cut off from the cattle their usual retreat
to the desert, by taking possession of those places, and meeting them
there where ordinarily they never come, and which therefore are the
refuge of the cattle.

[228] Gen. chap. xxxvii. ver. 25. 28.

[229] Ezek. chap. xxvii. ver. 13.

[230] Rev. chap. xviii. ver. 13.

[231] Gen. vi. 14.

[232] Gen. xxxv. 4.

[233] 2 Kings, xvii. 4.

[234] Nahum, chap. iii. 8.

[235] Misphragmuthosis.

[236] Manethon, Apud. Josephum Apion. lib. 1. p. 460.

[237] Eight years less than the Greeks and other followers of the
Septuagint.

[238] Isaiah, chap. xviii. ver. 2.

[239] Joshua, iii. 16.

[240] Procop. de bello vind. lib. 2. cap. 10.

A Moorish author, Ibn el Raquique, says, this inscription was on a
stone on a mountain at Carthage. Marmol. lib. 1. cap. 25.

[241] Gen. ix. 25, 26, and 27. verses.

[242] These people likewise call themselves Agaazi, or Agagi, they have
over-run the kingdom of Congo south of the Line, and on the Atlantic
Ocean, as the Galla have done that part of the kingdom of Adel and
Abyssinia, on the Eastern, or Indian Ocean. Purch. lib. ii. chap. 4.
Sect. 8.

[243] Jerem. chap. xiii. ver. 23.--id. xxv. 24.--Ezek. chap. xxx. ver.
5.

[244] Numb. chap. xii. ver. 1.

[245] Exod. chap. iv. ver. 25.

[246] 2 Chron. chap. xiv. ver. 9.

[247] Gen. chap. 21. ver. 30.

[248] Gen. chap. 13. ver. 6. and 9.

[249] Isa. chap. xlv. ver. 14.

[250] Ezek. chap. xxx. ver. 8. and 9.

[251] Ezek. chap. xxix. ver. 10.

[252] Ezek. chap. xxx. ver. 4.

[253] Jerem. chap. xiii. ver. 23.

[254] Jerem. chap. xxv. ver. 24.

[255] Ezek. chap. xxx. ver. 5.

[256] Isa. chap. xviii. ver. 2.

[257] Uranologion. P. Petau.

[258] Banbridge, Ann. canicul.

[259] An astronomer greatly above my praise.

[260] Jamblich. de Myst. sect. 8. cap. 5.

[261] Sozomen, Eccles. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 15.

[262] Herw. theolog. Ethnica, p. 11.

[263] I apprehend this is owing to the circumstances of the climate,
in the four months, the time of the inundation, the heavens were so
covered as to afford no observations to be recorded.

[264] Porpyhry Epist. ad Anebonem.

[265] Exod. chap. xxviii. ver. 21.

[266] Exod. chap. xxviii. ver. 36.

[267] Deut. chap. xxxi. ver. 24.

[268] Vide the hieroglyphics on the drawing of the stone.

[269] Ezek. chap. xxix. ver. 11.

[270] Psalm. chap. lx. ver. 9. and Psal. cviii. ver. 10.

[271] 2 Sam. chap. viii. ver. 14. 1 Kings chap. xi. ver. 15, 16.

[272] 1 Kings, chap. ix. ver. 26. 2 Chron. chap. viii. ver. 17.

[273] 1 Chron. chap. xxii. ver. 14, 15, 16. Chap. xxix. ver. 3, 4, 5,
6, 7,--Three thousand Hebrew talents of gold, reduced to our money,
amount to twenty-one millions and six hundred thousand pounds Sterling.

[274] The value of a Hebrew talent appears from Exodus, chap. xxxviii.
ver. 25, 26. For 603,550 persons being taxed at half a shekel each,
they must have paid in the whole 301,775; now that sum is said to
amount to 100 talents, 1775 shekels only; deduct the two latter sums,
and there will remain 300,000, which, divided by 108, will leave 3000
shekels for each of these talents.

[275] 2 Chron. chap. viii. ver. 17.

[276] 1 Kings, chap. x. ver. 22.

[277] 1 Kings, chap. x. ver. 22. 2 Chron. chap. ix. ver. 21.

[278] Vid. Voyage of Dos Santos, published by Le Grande.

[279] See the map of this voyage.

[280] Apud Euseb. Prœp. Evang. lib. 9.

[281] Dionysii Periegesis, ver. 38. and Comment. Eustathii in eundem.
Strabo, lib. 16. p. 765. Agathemeri Geographia, lib. 2. cap. 11.

[282] Ezek. chap. xxvii. ver. 6.

[283] Ezek. chap. xxvii. ver. 26.

[284] Dr Douglas, Bishop of Carlisle.

[285] Vide L’Esprit des Loix, liv. xxi. cap. 6. p. 476.

[286] Plin. lib. vi. cap. 22.

[287] Strabo, lib. xv.

[288] I know there are contrary opinions, and the junks might have been
various. Vide Salm.

[289] Pto. Geog. lib. 4. cap. 7.

[290] id. ibid.

[291] Agath. p. 60.

[292] 1 Kings, chap. xxii. ver. 48. 2 Chron. chap. xx. ver. 36.

[293] 2 Kings, chap. viii. ver. 22. 2 Chron. chap. xxi. ver. 10.

[294] 2 Kings, chap. xiv. ver. 22. 2 Chron. chap. 26. ver. ii.

[295] 2 Kings, chap. xvi. ver. 6.

[296] 2 Kings, chap. xvi. ver. 6.

[297] Ezek. chap. xxvi. ver. 7.

[298] 2 Kings, chap. xxiv ver. 13. and 2 Chron. chap. xxxvi. ver. 7.

[299] Dan. chap. vi. ver. 8. and Esther, chap. i. ver. 19.

[300] Ezra, chap. v. ver. 14 and chap. vi. ver. 5.

[301] Dan. chap. v. ver. 30.

[302] Lucan lib. x. ver. 280.

[303] Vide Montesq. liv. 21. chap 8.

[304] Lucan, lib. 9. ver. 515.

[305] Athen. lib. 5.

[306] This is probably from Atbara, or the old name of the island of
Meroë, which had received that last name only as late as Cambyses.

[307] Plin. lib. 6. cap. 23.

[308] Strabo, lib. 17. p. 932.

[309] Mon. Aduli.

[310] Strabo, lib. ii. p. 98.

[311] Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 2. cap. 67.

[312] Dodwell’s Dissertat. vol. I. Scrip. Græc. Min. ld. Ox. 1698. 8vo.

[313] Plut. Vita. Ant. p. 913. tom. 1. part 2. Lubec. 1624. fol.

[314] Strabo, lib. 3.

[315] Plin. lib. vi. cap. 23.

[316] Strabo, lib. 2. p. 81.

[317] Strabo, lib. ii. p. 98.

[318] Ptol. lib. iv. cap. 9. p. 115.

[319] Ptol. lib. vii. cap. 3.

[320] It should properly be Saba, Azab, or Azaba, all signifying
_South_.

[321] Such as Justin, Cyprian, Epiphanius, Cyril.

[322] By this is meant the country between the tropic and mountains of
Abyssinia, the country of Shepherds, from _Berber_, Shepherd.

[323] Matth. chap. xii. ver. 42. Luke xi. 31.

[324] Pin. de reb. Solomon, lib. iv. cap. 14th.--Josephus thinks she
was an Ethiopian, so do Origen, Augustin, and St Anselmo.

[325] 1 Kings, chap. x. ver 1. and 2 Chron. chap. ix. ver. 1.

[326] Matt. chap. xii. ver. 43. and Luke, chap xi. ver. 31.

[327] 1 Kings, chap. x. ver. 9. and 2 Chron. chap. ix. ver 8.

[328] 2 Chron. chap. xxv. ver. 18. 19.

[329] 1 Kings, chap. xi. ver. 1.

[330] Acts, chap. viii. ver. 27 and 38.

[331] This shews the falsehood of the remark Strabo makes, that it was
a custom in Meroë, if their sovereign was any way mutilated, for the
subjects to imitate the imperfection. In this case, Candace’s subjects
would have all lost an eye. Strabo, lib. 17. p. 777, 778.

[332] 2 Sam. chap. xvi. ver. 22. 1 Kings, chap. ii. ver. 13.

[333] What immediately follows will be hereafter explained in the
Narrative.

[334] The temple which the Queen of Saba had seen built, and so richly
ornamented, was plundered the 5th year of Rehoboam, by Sesac, which is
13 years before Menilek died. So this could not but have disgusted him
with the trade of his ancient habitation at Saba.

[335] Numb. chap. xv. ver. 38, 39. Deut. chap. 22. ver. 12.

[336] We see this happened to them in a much shorter time during the
captivity, when they forgot their Hebrew, and spoke Chaldaec ever after.

[337] I shall have occasion to speak much of this priest in the sequel.
He was a most inveterate and dangerous enemy to all Europeans, the
principal ecclesiastical officer in the king’s house.

[338] Then Prime Minister, concerning whom much is to be said hereafter.

[339] Vid. Origen contra Celsum, lib. 5. Tertull. de Idolol. c. 4. Drus
in suo Enoch. Bangius in Cœlo Orientis Exercit. 1. quæst. 5. and 6.

[340] Gassend in vita Pierisc, lib. 5.

[341] The length of these princes reigns are so great as to become
incredible; but, as we have nothing further of their history but their
names, we have no data upon which to reform them.

[342] Caleb el Atsbeha, which has been made Elesbaas throwing away the
t.

[343] Surius Tom. 5. d. 24. Oct. Card. Baronius. Tom. 7. Annal. A. C.
522. N. 23.

[344] Ludolf, vol. 2 lib. iii. cap. 2.

[345] Vid. Baron, tom. 4. p. 331. et alibi passim.

[346] El Hameesy’s Siege of Mecca.

[347] Fetaat el Yemen.

[348] El Hameesy.

[349] She is also called by Victor, _Tredda Gahez_.

[350] See Alvarez, his relation of this Embassy.


[Transcriber’s Note:

Inconsistent double quotes and capitalization are as in the original.

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]






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