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
The moment I heard his repeated cries, I galloped out of the bushes to
the place where he was, and could not help laughing at the ridiculous
figure of our friend, very attentive to the beast's motions, which
seemed to dodge with great address, and keep to his adversary with
the utmost obstinacy. As soon as Engedan saw me, he cried, "Yagoube!
for the love of Christ! for the love of the blessed Virgin! don't
interfere till Confu comes up." Confu immediately arrived, and laughed
more than Engedan, but did not offer to interfere; on the contrary,
he clapped his hands, and cried, "Well done, Ammonios," swearing he
never saw so equal a match in his life. The unfortunate Ammonios had
been driven from tree to tree, till he had got behind one within a
few yards of the water; but the brush-wood upon the banks, and his
attention to the buffalo, hindered him from seeing how far it was
below him. Nothing could be more ridiculous than to see him holding
the tree with both his hands, peeping first one way, and then another,
to see by which the beast would turn. And well he might be on his
guard; for the animal was absolutely mad, tossing up the ground with
his feet both before and behind. "Sir, said I, to Ayto Confu, this
will be but an ugly joke to-night, if we bring home that man's corpse,
killed in the very midst of us, while we were looking on." Saying
this, I parted at a canter behind the trees, crying to Ammonios to
throw himself into the water, when I should strike the beast; and
seeing the buffalo's head turned from me, at full speed I ran the
spear into the lower part of his belly, through his whole intestines,
till it came out above a foot on the other side, and there I left
it, with a view to hinder the buffalo from turning. It was a spear
which, though small in the head, had a strong, tough, seasoned shaft,
which did not break by striking it against the trees and bushes, and
it pained and impeded the animal's motions, till Ammonios quitting
the tree, dashed through the bushes with some difficulty, and threw
himself into the river. But here a danger occurred that I had not
foreseen. The pool was very deep, and Ammonios could not swim; so
that though he escaped from the buffalo, he would infallibly have
been drowned, had he not caught hold of some strong roots of a tree
shooting out of the bank; and there he lay in perfect safety from the
enemy, till our servants went round, and brought him out of the pool
on the further side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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