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
Yasine was the name of that Moor, recommended to me by Metical Aga,
of whom I have already spoken a little, and shall be obliged to say
much more; a person whom I had discovered to be a man of a most
sagacious turn of mind, firm heart, and strenuous nerves; never more
distinguished for all these qualities than in the hour of imminent
danger; at other times remarkable for quietness and silence, and a
constant study of his Koran.
We carried it steadily up the steep, eased the case gently over the
big stones on which, from time to time, we rested it; and, to the
wonder of them all, placed the head of the three-foot quadrant, with
its double case, in safety far above the stony parts of the mountain.
At Yasine’s request we again undertook the next most difficult
task, which was to carry the iron foot of the quadrant in a single
deal-case, not so heavy, indeed, nor so liable to injury, but still
what had been pronounced impossible to carry up so steep and rugged a
mountain; and refusing then the faint offers of those that stood gazing
below, excusing themselves by foretelling an immediate and certain
miscarriage, we placed the second case about ten yards above the first
in perfect good condition.
Declaring ourselves now without fear of contradiction, and, by the
acknowledgment of all, upon fair proof, the two best men in the
company, we returned, bearing very visibly the characters of such an
exertion; our hands and knees were all cut, mangled, and bleeding,
with sliding down and clambering over the sharp points of the rocks;
our clothes torn to pieces; yet we professed our ability, without any
reproaches on our comrades, to carry the two telescopes and time-keeper
also. Shame, and the proof of superior constancy, so much humbled the
rest of our companions, that one and all put their hands so briskly to
work, that, with infinite toil, and as much pleasure, we advanced so
far as to place all our instruments and baggage, about two o’clock in
the afternoon, near half way up this terrible mountain of Taranta.
There were five asses, two of which belonged to Yasine, and these were
fully as difficult to bring up the mountain as any of our burdens. Most
of their loading, the property of Yasine, we carried up the length of
my instruments; and it was proposed, as a thing that one man could do,
to make the unladen light asses follow, as they had been well taken
care of, were vigorous and young, and had not suffered by the short
journies we had made on plain ground. They no sooner, however, found
themselves at liberty, and that a man was compelling them with a stick
to ascend the mountain, than they began to bray, to kick, and to bite
each other; and, as it were with one consent, not only ran down the
part of the hill we had ascended, but, with the same jovial cries as
before, (smelling, I suppose, some of their companions) they continued
on at a brisk trot; and, as we supposed, would never stop till they
came to Tubbo, and the huts of the Hazorta.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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