Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (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
On the top of the cliff where we now were, on the left hand of the road
to Gondar, we filled a tube with quick-silver, and purged it perfectly
of outward air; it stood this day at 20⅞ English inches. Dagashaha
bears N. E. by E. from our present station upon Lamalmon. The language
of Lamalmon is Amharic; but there are many villages where the language
of the Falasha is spoken. These are the ancient inhabitants of the
mountains, who still preserve the religion, language, and manners of
their ancestors, and live in villages by themselves. Their number
is now considerably diminished, and this has proportionally lowered
their power and spirit. They are now wholly addicted to agriculture,
hewers of wood and carriers of water, and the only potters and masons
in Abyssinia. In the former profession they excel greatly, and, in
general, live better than the other Abyssinians; which these, in
revenge, attribute to a skill in magic, not to superior industry. Their
villages are generally strongly situated out of the reach of marching
armies, otherwise they would be constantly rifled, partly from hatred,
and partly from hopes of finding money.
On the 10th, at half past seven in the morning, we continued along
the plain on the top of Lamalmon; it is called Lama; and a village of
the same name bore about two miles east from us. At eight o’clock we
passed two villages called Mocken, one W. by N. at one mile and a half,
the other S. E. two miles distant. At half past eight we crossed the
river Macara, a considerable stream running with a very great current,
which is the boundary between Woggora and Lamalmon. At nine o’clock we
encamped at some small villages called Macara, under a church named
Yasous. On the 11th of February, by the meridian altitude of the sun at
noon, and that of several fixed stars proper for observation, I found
the latitude of Macara to be 13° 6´ 8´´. The ground was everywhere
burnt up; and, though the nights were very cold, we had not observed
the smallest dew since our first ascending the mountain. The province
of Woggora begins at Macara; it is all plain, and reckoned the granary
of Gondar on this side, although the name would denote no such thing,
for Woggora signifies the _stony_, or _rocky province_.
The mountains of Lasta and Belessen bound our view to the south; the
hills of Gondar on the S. W.; and all Woggora lies open before us to
the south, covered, as I have said before, with grain. But the wheat
of Woggora is not good, owing probably to the height of that province.
It makes an indifferent bread, and is much less esteemed than that of
Foggora and Dembea, low, flat provinces, sheltered with hills, that lie
upon the side of the lake Tzana.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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