The Highlands of EthiopiaHarris, William Cornwallis, Sir
History
The Highlands of Ethiopia
Harris, William Cornwallis, Sir
Ethiopia -- Description and travel
I now come to consider more in detail the objections which have been
urged against my travels. Some of these, it will at once be perceived,
are so loose and indefinite as to be wholly incapable of being answered.
For example, it is said, I have made no addition to the information
already existing respecting the southern provinces of Abyssinia. How
can I reply to this? Must I reprint all the works which had been
previously published, and point out the additions I have made? The
process, it will be acknowledged, is an unusual one. Besides, the
scientific world has not hitherto been averse to look at several views
of the same country, to compare them for itself, and to derive from the
very comparison both pleasure and information. Some additions,
moreover, to geographical science I undoubtedly have made, and there are
those who have not been ashamed to borrow them. I have ascertained, for
example, that the Gochob does not flow into the Nile, as it is made to
do in a map which I have seen, constructed by one of the reviewer's
greatest authorities. The inquiries I instituted render it probable
that the Gochob is the same river with the Juba. And, above all, the
longitude of Ankober was, under my directions, and by a laborious series
of operations, correctly determined. The importance of this to
travellers who may not possess the ability or the means of resolving it
themselves, I need scarcely point out. Previously, every position in
the maps of Southern Abyssinia was calculated from a false position, and
therefore of necessity wrong. But I shall not here enter upon an
inventory of my humble services to science. I could wish they were more
numerous, but such as they are I trust they will be found not wholly
without their value.
In "ethnography," or rather perhaps "ethnology," the critic discovers my
ideas to be all wrong; and he accounts for the circumstance by supposing
in me some innate aversion to the "savage." I certainly dislike that
particular variety of our species whether at home or abroad, but it does
not necessarily follow that I have been therefore guilty of
misrepresentation. These things, nevertheless, I leave to be determined
by public opinion, which, so far as I can perceive, is little, if at
all, influenced by the bitter and self-interested censures of my
enemies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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