Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773
Bruce, James
Egypt -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- History; Natural history -- Ethiopia; Nile River
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account