Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 4 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 4 (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 16th of July, (the feast of Saint Michael) Gusho pretended
he had made a vow to visit the church of that Saint at Azazo, and
accordingly, early in the morning, he set out for that village,
attended with thirty horse and fifty musqueteers; but no sooner had
he passed the church than his real intention appeared, and he was
pursued by Gubeno, Cantiba of Dembea; Ayto Adigo, Palambaras; and Ayto
Engedan. Gubeno alone, being hearty in the cause, came up with him
first, as they had passed the river Derma, when Gusho, seeing Gubeno's
troops close behind him, turned quickly upon them, repassed the river,
and, having killed two of the foremost with his own hand, and repelled
the rest, he returned across the river, and faced about upon the banks
of it. Upon the other troops coming up, he called to Engedan, putting
him in mind how lately he had been in his hands, and advising them all
to return to Gondar, and tell the king he should again be with him in
fifteen days.
A council was thereupon held, and as it was plain, from the
countenance of the man, that he was resolved to resist to the utmost,
none of the leaders then present thought themselves warranted to risk
the death of a person so noble, and so powerfully related, especially
in an obscure skirmish, such as was then likely to happen, the motives
for which were not publicly known; they accordingly all returned to
Gondar, leaving the Ras to pursue his way, who being now advanced as
far as Degwassa, and thinking himself out of all danger, was suddenly
surrounded by Aclog, governor of a little district there, and even
from him he would have escaped by his own courage and exertion, had
not his horse sunk in miry ground whence he could not recover him.
After receiving these news, the king sent his Fit-Auraris, Adera Tacca
Georgis, and Ayto Engedan, with a number of troops, to bring Gusho to
town, when he returned a miserable figure, with his head shaven: he
was cloathed in black, and was confined that same day (the first of
August) a close prisoner, and in irons, in a high, damp, uninhabited
tower of the king's house, without being pitied by either party.
It was now the season of the year when this country used to overflow
with milk and honey; because, being in all the low part of it covered
with rain, the horsemen and soldiers, who used to obstruct the roads,
were all retired to quarters, and the peasants, bringing provisions to
the market, passed the high grounds in safety; all sorts of people,
profiting by the plenty which this occasioned, indulged themselves
to the greatest excess in every sort of pleasure to which their
respective appetites led them. The rains had fallen, indeed, as usual,
but had not, however, stopped the march of the armies, and if not a
famine, at least a scarcity of provisions in Gondar, had been the
consequence; not a word was heard, indeed, of Ras Michael, whether he
was alive or dead, but his familiar spirits seemed to preside in the
air, and pour down mischief.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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