Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile/Volume 2/Book 4/Chapter 10
JOAS.
From 1753 to 1768.
Upon the first news of the death of king Yasous, the old officers and servants of the crown, remembering the tumults and confusion that happened in Gondar at his accession, repaired to the palace from their different governments, each with a small well-regulated body of troops, sufficient to keep order, and strengthen the hands of Ras Welled de l'Oul, whom they all looked upon as the father of his country. The first who arrived was Kasmati Waragna of Damot; then Ayo of Begemder, and very soon after, though at much the greatest distance, Suhul Michael, governor of Tigrè. These three entered the palace, with Welled de l'Oul at their head, and received the young king Joas from the hands of the Iteghé his grandmother, and proclaimed him king, with the usual formalities, without any opposition or tumult whatever.
A number of promotions immediately followed; but it was observed with great discontent by many, that the Iteghé's family and relations were grown now so numerous, that they were sufficient to occupy all the great offices of state without the participation of any of the old families, which were the strength of the crown in former reigns; and that now no preferment was to be expected unless through some relation to the queen-mother.
Welled Hawarayat, son to Michael governor of Tigré; had married Ozoro Altash, the queen's third daughter, almost a child; and long before that, Netcho of Tcherkin had married Ozoro Esther, likewise very young; and Ras Michael, old as he was, had made known his pretensions to Ozoro Welleta Israel, the queen's second daughter, immediately younger than Ozoro Esther. These proposals, from an old man, had been received with great contempt and derision by Welleta Israel, and she persevered so long in the derision of Michael's courtship, that it left strong impressions on the hard heart of that old warrior, which shewed themselves after in very disagreeable consequences to that lady all the time Michael was in power.
The first that broke the peace of this new reign was Nanna Georgis, chief of one of the clans of Agows of Damot. Engaged in old feuds with the Galla on the other side of the Nile, the natural enemies of his country, he could not see, but with great displeasure, a Galla such as Kasmati Waragna, however worthy, governor of Damot, and capable, therefore, of over-running the whole province in a moment, by calling his Pagan countrymen from the other side.
Waragna, though this was in his power, knew the measure was unpopular. Kasmati Eshté was the queen's brother, and governor of Ibaba, a royal residence, which has a large territory and salary annexed to it. When, therefore, at council, he had complained of the injury done to him by Nanna Georgis, he refused the taking upon him the redressing these injuries, and punishing the Agows, unless Kasmati Eshté was joined in the commission with him.
The reason of this was, as I have often before observed, that, as the Agows are those that pay the greatest tribute in gold to the king, and furnish the capital with all sorts of provisions, any calamity happening in their country is severely felt by the inhabitants of Gondar; and the knowledge of this occasions a degree of presumption and confidence in the Agows, of which they have been very often the dupes. This, indeed, happened at this very instant. For Waragna and Eshtè marched from Gondar, and with them a number of veteran troops of the king's household of Maitsha, depending on Ibaba; and this army, without bringing one Galla from the other side of the Nile, gave Nanna Georgis and his Agows such an overthrow that his clan was nearly extirpated, and many of the principal of that nation slain.
Nanna Georgis, who chiefly was aimed at as the author of this revolt, escaped, with great difficulty, wounded, from the field; and the feud which had long subsisted between Waragna's family and the race of the Agows, received great addition that day, and came down to their posterity, as we shall soon see by what happened in Waragna's son's time at the bloody and fatal battle of Banja.
The next affair that called the attention of government, was a complaint brought by the monks of Magwena, a ridge of rocks of but small extent not far from Tcherkin, the estate of Kasmati Netcho. These mountains, for a great part of the year, almost calcined under a burning sun, have, in several months, violent and copious showers of rain, which, received in vast caves and hollows of the mountain, and out of the reach of evaporation, are means of creating and maintaining all sorts of verdure and all scenes of pleasure, in the hot season of the year, when the rains do not fall elsewhere; and as the rocks have a considerable elevation above the level of the plain, they are at no season infected with those feverish disorders that lay the low country waste.
Netcho was a man of pleasure, and he thought, since the monks, by retiring to rocks and deserts, meant thereby to subject themselves to hardship and mortification, that these delightful and flowery scenes, the groves of Magwena, were much more suited to the enjoyment of happiness with the young and beautiful Ozoro Esther, than for any set of men, who by their austerities were at constant war with the flesh. Upon these principles, which it would be very difficult for the monks themselves to refute, he took possession of the mountain Magwena, and of those bowers that, though in possession of saints, did not seem to have been made for the solitary pleasures of one sex only. This piece of violence was, by the whole body of monks, called Sacrilege. Violent excommunications, and denunciations of divine vengeance, were thundered out against Kasmati Netcho. An army was sent against him; he was defeated and taken prisoner, and confined upon a mountain in Walkayt, where soon after he died, but not before the Iteghè had shewn her particular mark of displeasure, by taking her daughter Ozoro Esther, his wife, from him, that she, too, and her only son Confu, might not be involved in the monk's excommunications, and the imputed crime of sacrilege.
At this time died Kasmati Waragna, full of years and glory, having, though a stranger, preserved his allegiance to the last, and more than once saved the state by his wisdom, bravery, and activity. He is almost a single example in their history, of a great officer, governor of a province, that never was in rebellion, and a remarkable instance of Bacuffa's penetration, who, from a single conversation with him, while engaged in the vilest employment, chose him as capable of the greatest offices, in which he usefully served both his son and grandson.
Soon after, Ayo governor of Begemder, an older officer still than Waragna, arrived in Gondar, and resigned his government into the queen's hands. This resignation was received, because it was understood that it was directly to be conferred upon his son Mariam Barea, by far the most hopeful young Abyssinian nobleman of his time. Another mark of favour, soon followed, perhaps was the occasion of this. Ozoro Esther, the very young widow of Netcho, was married, very much against her own consent, to the young governor of Begemder, and this marriage was crowned with the universal applause of court, town, and country; for Mariam Barea possessed every virtue that could make a great man popular; and it was impossible to see Ozoro Esther, and hear her speak, without being attached to her for ever after.
Still the complaint remained, that there was no promotion, no distinction of merit, but through some relation to the queen-mother; and the truth of this was soon so apparent, and the discontent it occasioned so universal, that nothing but the great authority Ras Welled de l'Oul, the Iteghé's brother, possessed, could hinder this concealed fire from breaking out into a flame.
The queen, mother to Joas, was Ozoro Wobit, a Galla. Upon Joas's accession to the throne, therefore, a large body of Galla, said to be 1200 horse, were sent as a present to the young king as the portion of his mother. A number of private persons had accompanied these; part from curiosity, part from desire of preferment, and part from attachment to those that were already gone before them. These last were formed into a body of infantry of 600 men, and the command given to a Galla, whose name was Woosheka; so that the regency, in the person of the queen, seemed to have gained fresh force from the minority of the young king Joas, as yet perfectly subject to his mother.
There were four bodies of household troops absolutely devoted to the king's will. One of these, the Koccob horse, was commanded by a young Armenian not 30 years of age. He had been left in Abyssinia by his father in Yasous's time, and care had been taken of him by the Greeks. Yasous had distinguished him by several places while a mere youth, and employed him in errands to Masuah and Arabia, by which he became known to Ras Michael. Upon the death of Yasous, the Iteghè put him about her grandson Joas, as Baalomal, which is, gentleman of the bed-chamber, or, companion to the king. He then became Asaleffa el Camisha, which means groom of the stole, but at last was promoted to the great place of Billetana Gueta Dakakin, chamberlain, or master of the household, the third post in government, by which he took place of all the governors of provinces while in Gondar.
There is no doubt Joas would have made him Ras, if he had reigned as long as his father. Besides his own language, he understood Turkish, Arabic, and Malabar, and was perfect master of the Tigrè. But his great excellence was his knowledge of Amharic, which he was thought to speak as chastely and elegantly as Ras Michael himself. He is reported likewise to have possessed a species of jurisprudence, whence derived I never knew, which so pleased the Abyssinians, that the judges often requested his attendance on the king; at which time he sat at the head of the table, where it is supposed the king would place himself did he appear personally in judgment, (which, as it may be learned from divers places in this history, he never does); certain mornings in the week, therefore, he sat publicly in the market-place, and gave judgment soon after the break of day.
I saw this young man with his father at Loheia. He understood no European language; was just then returned from India, and had a considerable quantity of diamonds, and other precious stones, to sell. He spoke with tears in his eyes of Abyssinia, from which he was banished, and urged that I should take him there with me. But I had too much at stake to charge myself with the consequences of anybody's behaviour but my own, and therefore refused it.
The great favour the Galla were in at court encouraged many of their countrymen to follow them; and, by the king's desire, two of his uncles were sent for, and they not only came, but brought with them a thousand horse. These were two young men, brothers of the queen Wobit, just now dead. The eldest was named Brulhè, the younger Lubo. In an instant, nothing was heard in the palace but Galla. The king himself affected to speak nothing else. He had entirely intrusted the care of his person to his two uncles; and, both being men of intrigue, they thought themselves sufficiently capable to make a party, support it, and place the king at the head of it; and this they effected as soon as it was conceived, whilst the Abyssinians saw, with the utmost detestation and abhorrence, a Gallan and inimical government erected in the very heart or metropolis of their country.
Woodage had been long governor of Amhara. He had succeeded Palambaras Duré in Bacuffa's time, when he had been promoted to the dignity of Ras.
These two were heads of the only great families in Amhara, who took that government as it were by rotation. Woodage, in one of the excursions into Atbara, had made an Arab's, or a Shepherd's daughter, prisoner, baptized her, and lived with her as his mistress. The passion Woodage bore to this fair slave was not, however, reciprocal. She had fixed her affections upon his eldest son, and their frequent familiarities at last brought about the discovery. This very much shocked Woodage; but, instead of having recourse to public justice, he called his brothers, and some other heads of his family before him, and examined into the fact with them, desiring his son to defend himself. The crime was clearly proved in all its circumstances. Upon which Woodage, by his own authority, condemned his son to death; and not only so, but caused his sentence to be put in execution, by hanging the young man over a beam in his own house. As for the slave, he released her, as not being bound to any return of affection to him, from whom she had only received evil, and been deprived of her natural liberty.
It seems this claim of patria potestas was new in Abyssinia; and Bacuffa took it so ill, that he deprived Woodage of his office, and banished him to Amhara, then governed by Palambaras Durè. To this loss of influence another circumstance contributed. He was a relation of Yasous's first wife, who, by the Iteghé's intrigues, had been sent with her two sons to the mountain of Wechné, and Joas, a young son of Yasous, preferred in their places.
It happened that Palambaras Durè died; and as the succession fell regularly upon the unpopular Woodage, the king's uncle, Lubo obtained a promise of the government of Amhara for himself. All Gondar was shocked at this strange choice: Amitzo and his Edjow were already upon the southern frontiers of that province, domiciled there; and there was no doubt but this nomination would put Amhara into his possession for ever. All the inhabitants of Gondar were ready to run to their arms to oppose this appointment of the king; and it was thought that, underhand, the Iteghè fomented this dissatisfaction. The king, however, terrified by the violent resentment of the populace, at the instance of Ras Welled de l'Oul, recalled his nomination.
At this time Michael, who saw the consequence of these disputes, but abstained from taking any share, because he knew that both parties were promoting his interest by their mutual animosity, came to Gondar in great pomp, upon an honourable errand.
Baady, son of l'Oul, king of Funge, or, as they are called in the Abyssinian annals, Noba[1], who had defeated Yasous at Sennaar, after a tyrannical and bloody reign of thirty-three years, was deposed in the 1764 by Nasser his son, whom his minister Shekh Adelan, with his brother Abou Kalec, governor of Kordofan, had put in his place; and Baady had fled to Suhul Michael, whose fame was extended all over Atbara. Michael received him kindly, promised him his best services with Joas, and that he would march in person to Sennaar, and reinstate him with an army, if the king should so command.
Michael conducted him into the presence of the king, where, in a manner unbecoming a sovereign, and which Joas's successor would not have permitted, he kissed the ground, and declared himself a vassal of Abyssinia. The king assigned him a large revenue, and put him in possession of the government of Ras el Feel upon the frontier of Sennaar, where Ras Welled de l'Oul advised him to wait patiently till the dissensions that then prevailed at court were quieted, when Michael should have orders to reinstate him in his kingdom. This was a wise counsel, but he to whom it was given was not wise, and therefore did not follow it. After some short stay at Ras el Feel he was decoyed from this place of refuge by the intrigues of Adelan, and brought to trust himself in Atbara, where he was betrayed and taken prisoner by Welled Hassen, Shekh of Teawa, and murdered by him in Teawa privately, as we shall hereafter see, two years after his flight from Gondar.
At this time, Ras Welled de l'Oul's death was a signal for all parties to engage. Nothing had withheld them but his prudence and authority; and from that time began a scene of civil blood, which has continued ever since, was in its full vigour at the time when I was in Abyssinia, and without any prospect that it would ever have an end.
The great degree of power to which the brothers and their Galla arrived; the great affection the king shewed to them, owing to their having early infected him with their bloody and faithless principles, gave great alarm to the queen and her relations, whose influence they were every day diminishing. The last stroke, the death of Welled de l'Oul, seemed to be a fatal one, and to threaten the entire entire dissolution of her power. In order to counterbalance this, they associated to their party and council Mariam Barea, who had lately married Ozoro Esther, and was in possession of the second province in the state for riches and for power, and greatly increased in its importance by the officer that commanded it. Upon the death of Welled de l'Oul, the principal fear the party of the Galla had was, that Mariam Barea should be brought to Gondar as Ras. The union between him and Kasmati Eshtè, formerly as strong by inclination as now it was by blood, put them in terror for their very existence, and a stroke was to be struck at all hazards that was to separate these interests for ever.
Eshte, upon taking possession of the province of Damot, found the Djawi, established upon the frontiers of the province, very much inclined to revolt. Notwithstanding peace had been established among the Agows ever since Nanna Georgis had been defeated at the last battle, the Galla had still continued to rob and distress them, contrary to the public faith that had been pledged to them.
Eshte was too honest a man to suffer this; but the truth was, the Djawi had felt the advantage of having a man like the late Waragna governor of Damot; and they wanted, by all means, to reduce the ministers to the necessity of making that command hereditary in his family, by Fasil his son being preferred to succeed him.
This Fasil, whom I shall hereafter call Waragna Fasil, a name which was given to distinguish him from many other Fasils in the army, was a man then about twenty-two, whom Eshté had kept about him in a private station, and had lately given him a subaltern command among his own countrymen, the Djawi of Damot. From the services that he had then rendered, it was expected a greater preferment was to follow.
The insolence of the Djawi had come to such a pitch that they had offered Eshté battle; but they had fled with very little resistance, and been driven over the Nile to their countrymen whence they came. Eshté, roused from his indolence, now shewed himself the gallant soldier that he really was. He crossed the Nile at a place never attempted before; and though he lost a considerable number of men in the passage, yet that disadvantage was more than compensated by the advantage it gave him of falling upon the Galla unexpectedly. He therefore destroyed, or dispersed several tribes of them, possessed himself of their crops, drove off their cattle, wives, and children, and obliged them to sue for peace on his own terms; and then repassed the Nile, re-establishing the Djawi, after submission, in their ancient possessions.
Upon news of Welled de l'Oul's death, and the known intention of the queen that Eshté should succeed him in the office of Ras, he was mustering his soldiers to march to Gondar: Damot, the Agows, Goutto, and Maitsha, all readily joined him from every quarter; and Waragna Fasil had been sent to bring in the Djawi with the rest. Eshtè had marched by slow journies from Burè, slenderly attended, to arrive at Goutto the place of rendezvous; and, being come to Fagitta, in his way thither, he encamped upon a plain there, near to the church of St George.
It was in the evening, when news were brought him that the whole Djawi had come out, to a man, from goodwill, to attend him to Gondar. This mark of kindness had very much pleased him; and he looked upon it as a grateful return for his mild treatment of them after they were vanquished. A stool was set in the shade, without a small house where he then was lodged, that he might see the troops pass; when Hubna Fasil, a Galla, who commanded them, availing himself of the privilege of approaching near, always customary upon these occasions, run him through the body with a lance, and threw him dead upon the ground. The rest of the Galla fell immediately upon all his attendants, put them to flight, and proclaimed Waragna Fasil governor of Damot and the Agows.
This intelligence was immediately sent to their countrymen, Brulhè and Lubo, at Gondar, who prevailed upon the king to confirm Waragna Fasil in his command, though purchased with the murder of the worthiest man in his dominions, who was his own uncle, brother to the Iteghè; and this was thought to more than counterbalance the accession of strength the queen's party had received from the marriage of Ozoro Esther with Mariam Barea.
In critical times like these, the greatest events are produced from the smallest accidents. Ayo, father to Mariam Barea, had always been upon bad terms with Michael. It was at first emulation between two great men; but, after Ayo had assisted the king in taking Michael prisoner at the mountain Samayat, this emulation had degenerated into perfect hatred on the part of Michael.
Just before Kasmati Ayo had resigned Begemder to his son, and retired to private life, two servants of Michael had fled with two swords, which they used to carry before him, claiming the protection of Kasmati Ayo. Michael had claimed them before the king, who, loath to determine between the two, not being at that time instigated by Galla, had accepted the proposal of Michael to have the matter of right tried before the judges; but, upon his resignation of the province, and retiring, the thing had blown over and been forgotten.
Soon after this accession of Mariam Barea, Michael intimated to him the order the king had given that the judges should try the matter of difference between them. Mariam Barea refused this, and upbraided Michael with meanness and prostitution of the dignity he bore, to consent to submit himself to the venal judgment of weak old men, whose consciences were hackneyed in prejudice or partiality, and always known to be under the influence of party. He put Suhul Michael in mind also, that, being both of them the king's lieutenant-generals, representatives of his person in the provinces they governed, noble by birth, and soldiers by profession, they had no superior but God and their sovereign, therefore it was below them to acknowledge or receive any judgment between them unless from God, by an appeal to the sword, or from the king, by a sentence intimated to them by a proper officer; that Suhul Michael might choose either of these manners of deciding the difference as should seem best unto him; and if he chose the latter, of abiding by the sentence of the king, he would then restore him the swords upon the king's first command, but he despised the judges, and disowned their jurisdiction.
This spirited answer was magnified into the crime of disobedience and rebellion. Michael pursued it no further. He knew it was in good hands, which, when once the matter was set agoing, would never let it drop. Accordingly, to every one's surprise but Michael's, a proclamation was made, that the king had deprived Mariam Barea of his government for disobedience, and had given it to Kasmati Brulhé his uncle, now governor of Begemder.
All Abyssinia was in a ferment at this promotion. The number, power, and vicinity of that race of Galla being considered, this was but another way of giving the richest and strongest barrier of Abyssinia into the hands of his hereditary and bloody enemy. There could be no doubt, indeed, but that, as soon as Brulhè should have taken possession of his government, it would be instantly over-run by the united force of that savage and Pagan nation; and there was nothing afterwards to avert danger from the metropolis, for the boundaries of Begemder reach within a very short day's journey of Gondar.
Mariam Barea, one of the noblest in point of birth in the country where he lived, setting every private consideration aside, was too good a citizen to suffer a measure so pernicious to take place quietly in his time, while the province was under his command. But, besides this, he considered himself as degraded and materially hurt both in honour and in interest, and very sensibly felt the affront of being, himself and his kindred, subjected to a race of Pagans whom he had so often overthrown in the field.
The king's army marched, under the command of his uncle Brulhè, to take possession of his government; it was with much difficulty, indeed, that Joas could be kept from appearing in person, but he was left under the inspection and tuition of his uncle Lubo, at Gondar. Brulhè made very slow advances; his army several times assembled, as often disbanded of itself; and near a year was spent before he could move from his camp on the lake Tzana, with a force capable of shewing or maintaining itself in Begemder, from the frontiers of which he was not half a day's journey.
Mariam Barea remained all this time inactive in Begemder, attending to the ordinary duties of his office, with a perfect contempt of Brulhé and his proceedings. But, in the interim, he left no means untried to pacify the king, and dissuade him from a measure he saw would be ruinous to the state in general.
Mariam Barea, though young, had the prudence and behaviour of a man of advanced years. He was esteemed, without comparison, the bravest soldier and best general in the kingdom, except old Suhul Michael, his hereditary rival and enemy. But his manners were altogether different from those of Michael. He was open, chearful, and unreserved; liberal, even to excess, but not from any particular view of gaining reputation by it; as moderate in the use of victory as indefatigable to obtain it; temperate in all his pleasures; easily brought to forgive, and that forgivenness always sincere; a steady observer of his word, even in trifles; and distinguished for two things very uncommon in Abyssinia, regularity in his devotions, and constancy to one wife, which never was impeached. In his last remonstrance, after many professions of his duty and obedience, he put the king in mind, that, at his investiture, "The laws of the country imposed upon him an oath which he took in presence of his majesty, and, after receiving the holy sacrament, that he was not to suffer any Galla in Begemder, but rather, if needful, die with sword in hand to prevent it; that he considered the contravening that oath as a deliberate breach of the allegiance which he owed to God and to his sovereign, and of the trust reposed in him by his country; that the safety of the princes of the royal family, sequestered upon the mountain of Wechné, depended upon the observance of this oath; that otherwise they would be in constant danger of being extirpated by Pagans, as they had already nearly been in former ages, at two different times, upon the rocks Damo and Geshen; he begged the king, if, unfortunately, he could not be reconciled to him, to give his command to Kasmati Geta, Kasmati Eusebius, or any Abyssinian nobleman, in which case he would immediately resign, and retire to private life with his old father."
He concluded by saying, that, "As he had formed a resolution, he thought it his duty to submit it to the king; that, if his majesty was resolved to march and lead the army himself, he would retire till he was stopt by the frontiers of the Galla, and the farthest limits of Begemder; and, so far from molesting the army in their route, the king might be assured, that, though his own men should be straitened, abundance of every kind of provision and refreshment should be left in his majesty's route. But if, contrary to his wish, troops of Galla, commanded by a Galla, should come to take possession of his province, he would fight them at the well of Fernay[2], before one Galla should drink there, or advance a pike-length into Begemder."
This declaration was, by orders of Ras Michael, entered into the Deftar, and written in letters of gold, after Mariam Barea's death, no doubt at the instigation of Ozoro Esther, jealous for the reputation of her dead husband. It is intitled, the dutiful declaration of the governor of Begemder; and is signed by two Umbares, or judges. Whether the original was so or not, I cannot say.
The return made to this by the king was of the harshest kind, full of taunts and scoffs, and presumptuous confidence; announcing the speedy arrival of Brulhé, as to a certain victory; and, to shew what further assistance he trusted in, he ordered Ras Michael to be proclaimed governor of Samen, the province on the Gondar side of the Tacazzé, that no obstacle might be left in the way of that general from Tigrè, if it should be resolved upon to call him.
In Abyssinia there is a kind of glass bottle, very light, and of the size, shape, and strength of a Florence wine-flask; only the neck is wider, like that of our glass decanters, twisted for ornament sake, and the lips of it folded back, such as we call cannon-mouthed. These are made at Trieste on the Adriatic; and thousands of packages of these are brought from Arabia to Gondar, where they are in use for all liquors, which are clear enough to bear the glass, such as wine and spirits. They are very thin and fragil, and are called brulhé. Mariam Barea, provoked at being so undervalued as he was in the king's message, returned only for answer, "Still the king had better take my advice, and not send his brulhè's here; they are but weak, and the rocks about Begemder hard; at any rate, they do right to move slowly, otherwise they might break by the way."
As soon as this defiance was reported to the king and his counsellors all was in a flame, and orders given to march immediately. The whole of the king's household, consisting of 8000 veteran troops, were ordered to join the army of Brulhè. This, tho' it added to the display of the army, contributed nothing to the real strength of it; for all, excepting the Galla, were resolved neither to shed their own blood nor that of their brethren, under the banners of so detested a leader.
This was not unknown to Mariam Barea; but neither the advantage of the ground, the knowledge of Brulhè's weakness, nor any other consideration, could induce him to take one step, or harrass his enemy, out of his own province; nor did he suffer a musket to be fired, or a horse to charge, till Brulhè's van was drawn up on the brink of the well Fernay. After he had placed the horse of the province of Lasta opposite to the Edjow Galla, against whom his design was the armies joined, and the king's troops immediately gave way. The Edjow, however, engaged fiercely and in great earnest with the horse of Lasta, an enemy fully as cruel and savage as themselves, but much better horse-men, better armed, and better soldiers. The moment the king's troops turned their backs, the trumpets from Mariam Barea's army forbade the pursuit; while the rest of the Begemder horse, who knew the intention of their general, surrounded the Edjow, and cut them to pieces, though valiantly fighting to the last man.
Brulhe fell, among the herd of his countrymen, not distinguished by any action of valour. Mariam Barea had given the most express orders to take him alive; or, if that could not be, to let him escape; but by no means to kill him. But a menial servant of his, more willing to revenge his master's wrongs than adopt his moderation, forced his way through the crowd of Galla, where he saw Brulhè fighting; and, giving him two wounds through his body with a lance, left him dead upon the field, bringing away his horse along with him to his master as a token of his victory. Mariam Barea, upon hearing that Brulhè was dead, foresaw in a moment what would infallibly be the consequence, and exclaimed in great agitation, "Michael and all the army of Tigrè will march against me before autumn."
He was not in this a false prophet; for no sooner was Brulhè's defeat and death known, than the king, from resentment, fear the fatal ruler of weak minds, the constant instigation of Lubo, and the remnant of Brulhè's party, declared there was no safety but in Ras Michael. An express was therefore immediately sent to him, commanding his attendance, and conferring upon him the office of Ras, by which he became invested with supreme power, both civil and military. This was an event Michael had long wished for. He had nearly as long foreseen that it must happen, and would involve both king and queen, and their respective parties, equally in destruction; but he had not spent his time merely in reflection, he had made every preparation possible, and was ready. So soon then as he received the king's orders, he prepared to march from Adowa with 26,000 men, all the best soldiers in Abyssinia, about 10,000 of whom were armed with firelocks.
It happened that two Azages, and several other great officers, were sent to him into Tigré with these orders, and to invest him with the government of Samen. Upon their mentioning the present situation of affairs, Michael sharply refleted upon the king's conduct, and that of those who had counselled him, which must end in the ruin of his family and the state in general. He highly extolled Mariam Barea as the only man in Abyssinia that knew his duty, and had courage to persevere in it. As for himself, being the king's servant, he would obey his commands, whatever they were, faithfully, and to the letter; but, as holding now the first place in council, he must plainly tell him the ruin of Mariam Barea would be speedily and infallibly followed by that of his country.
After this declaration, Michael decamped with his army encumbered by no baggage, not even provisions, women, or tents, nor useless beasts of burden. His soldiers, attentive only to the care of their arms, lived freely and licentiously upon the miserable countries through which they passed, and which they laid wholly waste as if belonging to an enemy.
He advanced, by equal, steady, and convenient marches, in diligence, but not in haste. Not content with the subsistance of his troops, he laid a composition of money upon all those districts within a day's march of the place through which he passed; and, upon this not being readily complied with, he burnt the houses to the ground, and slaughtered the inhabitants. Woggora, the granary of Gondar, full of rich large towns and villages, was all on fire before him; and that capital was filled with the miserable inhabitants, stript of every thing, flying before Ras Michael as before an army of Pagans. The king's understanding was now restored to him for an instant.; he saw clearly the mischief his warmth had occasioned, and was truly sensible of the rash step he had taken by introducing Michael. But the dye was cast; repentance was no longer in season; his all was at stake, and he was tied to abide the issue.
Michael, with his army in order of battle, approached Gondar with a very warlike appearance. He descended from the high lands of Woggora into the valleys which surround the capital, and took possession of the rivers Kahha and Angrab, which run through these valleys, and which alone supply Gondar with water. He took post at every entrance into the town, and every place commanding those entrances, as if he intended to besiege it. This conduct struck all degrees of people with terror, from the king and queen down to the lowest inhabitant. All Gondar passed an anxious night, fearing a general massacre in the morning; or that the town would be plundered, or laid under some exorbitant ransom, capitation, or tribute.
But this was not the real design of Michael; he intended to terrify, but to do no more. He entered Gondar early in the morning, and did homage to the king in the most respectful manner. He was invested with the charge of Ras by Joas himself; and from the palace, attended by two hundred soldiers, and all the people of note in the town, he went straight to take possession of the house which is particularly appropriated to his office, and sat down in judgment with the doors open.
Marauding parties of soldiers had entered at several parts of the town, and begun to use that licence they had been accustomed to on their march, pilfering and plundering houses, or persons that seemed without protection. Upon the first complaints, as he rode through the town, he caused twelve of the delinquents to be apprehended, and hanged upon, trees in the streets, sitting upon his mule till he saw the execution performed. After he had arrived at his house, and was seated, these executions were followed by above fifty others in different quarters of Gondar. That same day he established four excellent officers in four quarters of the town. The first was Kefla Yasous, a man of the greatest worth, whom I shall frequently mention as a friend in the course of my history; the second, Billetana Gueta Welleta Michael, that is, first master of the household to the king. He had given that old officer that office, upon superseding Lubo the king's uncle, without any consent asked or given. He was a man of a very morose turn, with whom I was never connected. The third was Billetana Gueta Tecla, his sister's son, a man of very great worth and merit, who had the soft and gentle manners of Amhara joined to the determined courage of the Tigran.
Michael took upon himself the charge of the fourth district. He did not pretend by this to erect a military government in Gondar; on the contrary, those officers were only appointed to give force to the sentences and proceedings of the civil judges, and had not deliberation in any cause out of the camp. But two Umbares, or judges, of the twelve were obliged to attend each of the three districts; two were left in the king's house, and four had their chamber of judicature in his.
The citizens, upon this fair aspect of government, where justice and power united to protect them, dismissed all their fears, became calm and reconciled to Michael the second day after his arrival, and only regretted that they had been in anarchy, and strangers to his government so long.
The third day after his arrival he held a full council in presence of the king. He sharply rebuked both parties in a speech of considerable length, in which he expressed much surprise, that both king and queen, after the experience of so many years, had not discovered that they were equally unfit to govern a kingdom, and that it was impossible to keep distant provinces in order, when they paid such inattention to the police of the metropolis. Great part of this speech applied to the king, who, with the Iteghè and Galla, were in a balcony as usual, in the same room, though at some distance, and above the table where the council sat, but within convenient hearing.
The troubled state, the destruction of Woggora, and the insecurity of the roads from Damot, had made a famine in Gondar. The army possessed both the rivers, and suffered no supply of water to be brought into the town, but allowed two jars for each family twice a-day, and broke them when they returned for more[3].
Ras Michael, at his rising from council, ordered a loaf of bread, a brulhè of water, and an ounce of gold, all articles portable enough to be exposed in the market-place, upon the head of a drum, without any apparent watching. But tho' the Abyssinians are thieves of the first rate, tho' meat and drink were very scarce in the town, and gold still scarcer, though a number of strangers came into it with the army, and the nights were almost constantly twelve hours long, nobody ventured to attempt the removing any of the three articles that, from the Monday to the Friday, had been exposed night and day in the market-place unguarded.
All the citizens, now surrounded with an army, found the security and peace they before had been strangers to, and every one deprecated the time when the government should pass out of such powerful hands. All violent oppressors, all those that valued themselves as leaders of parties, saw, with an indignation which they durst not suffer to appear, that they were now at last dwindled into absolute insignificance.
Having settled things upon this basis, Ras Michael next prepared to march out for the war of Begemder; and he summoned, under the severest penalties, all the great officers to attend him with all the forces they could raise. He insisted likewise that the king himself should march, and refused to let a single soldier stay behind him in Gondar; not that he wanted the assistance of those troops, or trusted to them, but he saw the destruction of Mariam Barea was resolved on, and he wished to throw the odium of it on the king. He affected to say of himself, that he was but the instrument of the king and his party, and had no end of his own to attain. He expatiated, upon all occasions, upon the civil and military virtues of Mariam Barea; said, that he himself was old, and that the king should walk coolly and cautiously, and consider the value that officer would be of to his posterity and to the nation when he should be no more.
Upon the first news of the king's marching, Mariam Barea, who was encamped upon the frontiers near where he defeated Brulhé, fell back to Garraggara the middle of Begemder. The king followed with apparent intention of coming to a battle without loss of time; and Mariam Barea, by his behaviour, shewed in what different lights he viewed an army, at the head of which was his sovereign, and one commanded by a Galla.
No such moderation was shewn on the king's part. His army burnt and destroyed the whole country through which they passed. It was plain that it was Joas's intention to revenge the death of Brulhé upon the province itself, as well as upon Mariam Barea. As for Ras Michael, the behaviour of the king's army had nothing in it new, or that could either surprise or displease him. Friend as he was to peace and good order at home, his invariable rule was to indulge his soldiers in every licence that the most profligate mind could wish to commit when marching against an enemy.
It was known the armies were to engage at Nefas Musa, because Mariam Barea had said he would fight Brulhé, to prevent him entering the province, but retreat before the king till he could no longer avoid going out of it. The king then marched upon the tract of Mariam Barea, burning and destroying on each side of him, as wide as possible, by detachments and scouring parties. Also Fasil, an officer of the king's household, a man of low birth, of very moderate parts, and one who used to divert the king as a kind of buffoon, otherwise a good soldier, had, as a favour, obtained a small party of horse, with which he ravaged the low country of Begemder.
The reader will remember, in the beginning of this history, that a singular revolution happened, in as singular a manner, the usurper of the house of Zaguè having voluntarily resigned the throne to the kings of the line of Solomon, who for several hundred years had been banished to Shoa. Tecla Haimanout, founder of the monastery of Debra Libanos, a saint, and the last Abyssinian that enjoyed the dignity of Abuna, had the address and influence to bring about this revolution, or resignation, and to restore the ancient line of kings. A treaty was made under guarantee of the Abuna, that large portions of Lasta should be given to this prince of the house of Zaguè, free from all tribute, tax, or service whatever, and that he should be regarded as an independent prince. The treaty being concluded, the prince of Zagué was put in possession of his lands, and was called Y'Lasta Hatzè, which signifies, not the king of Lasta, but the king at or in Lasta[4]. He resigned the throne, and Icon Amlac of the line of Solomon, by the queen of Saba, continued the succession of princes of that house.
That treaty, greatly to the honour of the contracting parties, made towards the end of the 13th century, had remained inviolate till the middle of the 18th; no affront or injustice had been offered to the prince of Zagué, and in the number of rebellions which had happened, by princes setting up their claims to the crown, none had ever proceeded, or in any shape been abetted, by the house of Zagué, even though Lasta had been so frequently in rebellion.
As Joas was a young prince, now for the first time in the province of Begemder and passing not far from his domains, the prince of Zaguè thought it a proper civility and duty to salute the king in his passage, and congratulate him upon his accession to the throne of his father. He accordingly presented himself to Joas in the habit of peace, while, according to treaty, his kettle-drums, or nagareets, were silver, and the points of his guard's spears of that metal also. The king received him with great cordiality and kindness; treated him with the utmost respect and magnificence; refused to allow him to prostrate himself on the ground, and forced him to sit in his presence. Michael went still farther; upon his entering his tent he uncovered himself to his waist, in the same manner as he would have done in presence of Joas. He received him standing, obliged him to sit in his own chair, and excused himself for using the same liberty of sitting, only on account of his own lameness.
The king halted one entire day to feast this royal guest. He was an old man of few words, but those very inoffensive, lively, and pleasant; in short, Ras Michael, not often accustomed to fix on favourites at first sight, was very much taken with this Lasta sovereign. Magnificent presents were made on all sides; the prince of Zagué took his leave and returned; and the whole army was very much pleased and entertained at this specimen of the good faith and integrity of their kings.
He had now considerably advanced through his own country, Lasta, which was in the rear, when he was met by Allo Fasil returning from his plundering the low country, who, without provocation, from motives of pride or avarice, fell unawares upon the innocent, old man, whose attendants, secure, as they thought, under public faith, and accoutred for parade and not for defence, became an easy sacrifice, the prince being the first killed by Allo Fasil's own hand.
Fasil continued his march to join the king, beating his silver kettle-drums as in triumph. The day after, Ras Michael, uninformed of what had passed, inquired who that was marching with a nagareet in his rear? as it is not allowed to any other person but governors of provinces to use that instrument; and they had already reached the camp. The truth was presently told; at which the Ras shewed the deepest compunction. The tents were already pitched when Fasil arrived, who, riding into Michael's tent, as is usual with officers returning from an expedition, began to brag of his own deeds, and upbraided Michael, in a strain of mockery, that he was old, lame, and impotent.
This raillery, though very common on such occasions, was not then in season; and the last part of the charge against him was the most offensive, for there was no man more fond of the sex than Michael was. The Ras, therefore, ordered his attendants to pull Fasil off his horse, who, seeing that he was fallen into a scrape, fled to the king's tent for refuge, with violent complaints against Michael. The king undertook to reconcile him to the Ras, and sent the young Armenian, commander of the black horse, to desire Michael to forgive Allo Fasil. This he absolutely refused to do, alledging, that the passing over Fasil's insolence to himself would be of no use, as his life was forfeited for the death of the prince of Zagué.
The king renewed his request by another messenger; for the Armenian excused himself from going, by saying boldly to the king, That, by the law of all nations, the murderer should die. To the second request the king added, that he required only his forgivenness of his insolence to him, not of the death of the prince of Zagué, as he would direct what should be done when the nearest of kin claimed the satisfaction of retaliation. To this Ras Michael shortly replied, "I am here to do justice to every one, and wilt do it without any consideration or respect of persons." And it was now, for the first time, Abyssinia ever saw a king solicit the life of a subject of his own from one of his servants, and be refused.
The king, upon this, ordered Allo Fasil to defend himself; and things were upon this footing, the affair likely to end in oblivion, though not by forgivenness. But, a very short time after, the prince of Zaguè's eldest son came privately to Michael's tent in the night; and, the next morning, when the judges were in his tent, Michael sent his door-keeper (Hagos) reckoned the bravest and most fortunate in combat of any private man in the army, and to whom he trusted the keeping of his tent-door, to order Allo Fasil to answer at the instance of the prince of Zaguè, then waiting him in court, Why he had murdered the prince his father? Fasil was astonished, and refused to come: being again cited in a regular manner by Hagos, he seemed desirous to avail himself of the king's permission to defend himself, and call together his friends. Hagos, without giving him time, thrust him through with a lance; then cut off his head, and carried it to Michael's tent, repeating what passed, and the reason of his killing him.
As a refusal in all such instances is rebellion, this had passed according to rule: a party of Tigrans was ordered to plunder his tent; and all the ill-got spoils which he had gained from the poor inhabitants of Begemder were abandoned to the soldiers. Fasil's head was given to the prince of Zaguè, as a reparation for the treaty being violated; the silver nagareet and spears were returned; and, highly as this affair had been carried by Ras Michael, the king never after mentioned a word of it. But this was universally allowed to be the first cause of their disagreement.
Mariam Barea, seeing no other way to save his province from ruin but by bringing the affair to a short issue, resolved likewise to keep his promise. He retired to Nefas Musa, and encamped in the farthest limits of his province: behind this are the Woollo Galla, relations of Amitzo the king's parents. Joas and Ras Michael followed him without delay, and, having called in all the out-posts, both sides prepared for an engagement.
About nine in the morning, Mariam Barea presented his army in order of battle. Michael had given orders to Kefla Yasous and Welleta Michael how to form his. He then mounted his mule, and with some of his officers rode out to view Mariam Barea's disposition. The king, anxious about the fortune of the day, and terrified at some reports that had been made him, by timid or unskilful people, of the warlike countenance of Mariam Barea's army, sent to the Ras, whom he saw reconnoitring, to know his opinion of what was likely to happen. "Tell the king," says the veteran, "that a young man like him, fighting with a subject so infinitely below him, with an army double his number, should give him fair play for his life and reputation. He should send to Mariam Barea to encrease the strength of his center by placing the troops of Lasta there, or we shall beat him in half an hour, without either honour to him or to ourselves." The king, however, did not understand that sort of gallantry; he thought half an hour in suspence was long enough, and he ordered immediately a large body of musquetry to reinforce Fasil, who commanded the center, and thereby he weakened his own right wing.
Michael, who commanded the right of the royal army, had placed himself and his fire-arms in very rough ground, where cavalry could not approach him, and where he fired as from a citadel, and soon obliged the left wing of the rebels to retreat. But the king, Kefla Yasous, and Lubo on the right, were roughly handled by the horse of Lasta, and would have been totally defeated, the king and Lubo having already left the field, had not Kefla Yasous brought up a reinforcement of the men of Sirè and Temben, and retrieved the day, at least brought things upon an equal footing.
Fasil, with the horse of Foggora and Damot, and a prodigious body of the Djawi and Pagan Galla, desirous to shew his consequence, and confirm himself in his ill got government by his personal behaviour, attacked the Begemder horse in the center so irresistibly, that he not only broke through them in several places, but threw the whole body into a shameful flight. Mariam Barea himself was wounded in endeavouring to stop them, and hurried away, in spite of his inclination, crying out in great agony, "Is there not one in my army that will stay and see me die like the son of Kasmati Ayo?" It was all in vain; Powussen, and a number of his own officers, surrounding him, dragged him as it were by force out of the field. The country behind Nefas Musa is wild, and cut with deep gullies, and the woods almost impenetrable; they were therefore quickly out of the enemy's pursuit, and safe, as they thought, under the protection of the Woollo Galla. The whole army of Begemder was dispersed, and Michael early forbade further pursuit.
The account of this battle, and what preceded it, from the murder of the prince of Zaguè, is not in the annals or history of Abyssinia, which I have hitherto followed; at least it has not appeared yet, probably out of delicacy to Ozoro Esther, fear of Ras Michael, and respect to the character of Mariam Barea, whose memory is still dear to his country. But the whole was often, at my desire, repeated to me by Kefla Yasous, and his officers who were there, whom he used to question about any circumstance he did not himself remember, or was absent from; for he was a scrupulous lover of truth; and nothing pleased him so much as the thought that I was writing his history to be read in my country, although he had not the smallest idea of England or its situation.
As for the conversation before the battle, it was often told me by Ayto Aylo and Ayto Engedan, sons of Kasmati Eshté, who were with the Ras when he delivered the message to the king, and were kept by him from engaging that day in respect to Mariam Barea, who was married to their aunt Ozoro Esther.
The king and Lubo sent Woosheka to their friends among the Woollo, who delivered up the unfortunate Mariam Barea, with twelve of his officers who had taken refuge with him. Mariam Barea was brought before the king in his tent, covered with blood that had flowed from his wound; his hands tied behind his back, and thus thrown violently with his face to the ground. A general murmur which followed shewed the sentiments of the spectators at so woful a sight; and the horror of it seemed to have seized the king so entirely as to deprive him of all other sentiments.
I have often said, the Mosaical law, or law of retaliation, is constantly observed over all Abyssinia as the criminal law of the country, so that, when any person is slain wrongfully by another, it does not belong to the king to punish that offence, but the judges deliver the offender to the nearest relation of the party murdered, who has the full power of putting him to death, selling him to slavery, or pardoning him without any satisfaction.
Lubo saw the king relenting, and that the greatest crime, that of rebellion, was already forgiven. He stood up, therefore, and, in violent rage, laid claim to Mariam Barea as the murderer of his brother: the king still saying nothing, he and his other Galla hurried Mariam Barea to his tent, where he was killed, according to report, with sundry circumstances of private cruelty, afterwards looked upon as great aggravations. Lubo, with his own hand, is said to have cut his throat in the manner they kill sheep. His body was afterwards disfigured with many wounds, and his head severed and carried to Michael, who forbade uncovering it in his tent. It was then sent to Brulhé's family in their own country, as a proof of the satisfaction his friends had obtained; and this gave more universal umbrage than did even the cruelty of the execution.
Several officers of the king's army, seeing the bloody intentions of the Galla, advised Powussen, and the eleven other officers that were taken prisoners, to make the best use of the present opportunity, and fly to the tent of Michael and implore his protection. This they most willingly did, with the connivance of Woosheka, who had been intrusted with the care of them, and Lubo having finished Mariam Barea, came to the king's tent to seek the unhappy prisoners, whom he intended as victims to the memory of Brulhè likewise. Hearing, however, that they were fled to Michael's tent, he sent Woosheka to demand them; but that officer had scarce opened his errand, in the gentlest manner possible, when Michael, in a fury, cried out, Cut him in pieces before the tent-door. Woosheka was indeed lucky enough to escape; but we shall find this was not forgot, for his punishment was more than doubled soon afterwards.
At seeing Mariam Barea's head in the hands of a Galla, after forbidding him to expose it in his tent, Michael is said to have made the following observation: "Weak and cowardly people are always in proportion cruel and unmerciful. If Brulhè's wife had done this, I could have forgiven her; but for Joas, a young man and a king, whose heart should be opened and elated with a first victory, to be partaker with the Galla, the enemies of his country, in the murder of a nobleman such as Mariam Barea, it is a prodigy, and can be followed by no good to himself or the state; and I am much deceived if the day is not at hand when he shall curse the moment that ever Galla crossed the Nile, and look for a man such as Mariam Barea, but he shall not find him." And, indeed, Michael was very well entitled to make this prophecy, for he knew his own heart, and the designs he had now ready to put in execution.
It is no wonder that these free communications gave the king reason to distrust Michael. And it was observed that Waragna Fasil had insinuated himself far into his favour: his late behaviour at the battle of Nefas Musa had greatly increased his importance with the king; and the number of troops he had now with him made Joas think himself independent of the Ras. Fasil had brought with him near 30,000 men, about 20,000 of whom were horse-men, wild Pagan Galla, from Bizamo and other nations south of the Nile. The terror the savages occasioned in the countries through which they passed, and the great disorders they committed, gave Ras Michael a pretence to insist that all those wild Galla should be sent back to their own country. I say this was a pretence, because Michael's soldiers were really more cruel and licentious, because more confident and better countenanced than these strangers were. But the war was over, the armies to be disbanded, these Pagans were consequently to return home; and they were all sent back accordingly, excepting 12,000 Djawi, men of Fasil's own tribe, and some of the best horse of Maitsha, Agow, and Danjot.
This was the first appearance of quarrel between Fasil and Ras Michael. But other accidents followed fast that blew up the flame betwixt them; of which the following was by much the most remarkable, and the most unexpected.
At Nefas Musa, near to the field of battle, was a house of Mariam Barea, which he used to remove to when he was busy in wars with the neighbouring Galla. It was surrounded with meadows perfectly well-watered, and full of luxuriant grass. Fasil, for the sake of his cavalry, had encamped in these meadows; or, if he had other views, they are not known; and though all the doors and entrances of the house were shut, yet within was the unfortunate Ozoro Esther, by this time informed of her husband's death, and with her was Ayto Aylo, a nobleman of great credit, riches, and influence. He had been at the campaign of Sennaar, and was so terrified at the defeat, that, on his return, he had renounced the world, and turned monk. He was a man of no party, and refused all posts or employments; but was so eminent for wisdom, that all sides consulted him, and were in some measure governed by him.
This person, a relation of the Iteghé's, had, at her desire, attended Ozoro Esther to Nefas Musa, but, adhering to his vow, went not to battle with her husband. Hearing, however, of the bad disposition of the king, the cruelty of the Galla, and the power and ambition of Fasil, whose soldiers were encamped round the house, he told her that there was only one resolution which she could take to avoid sudden ruin, and being made a sacrifice to one of the murderers of her husband.
This princess, under the fairest form, had the courage and decision of a Roman matron, worthy the wife of Mariam Barea, to whom she had born two sons. Instructed by Aylo, early in the morning, all covered from head to foot, accompanied by himself, and many attendants and friends, their heads bare, and without appearance of disguise, they presented themselves at the door of Michael's tent, and were immediately admitted. Aylo announced the princess to the Ras, and she immediately threw herself at his feet on the ground.
As Michael was lame, tho' in all other respects healthy and vigorous, and unprepared for so extraordinary an interview, it was some time before he could get upon his feet and uncover himself before his superior. This being at last accomplished, and Ozoro Esther refusing to rise, Aylo, in a few words, told the Ras her resolution was to give him instantly her hand, and throw herself under his protection, as that of the only man not guilty of Mariam Barea's death, who could save her and her children from the bloody cruelty and insolence of the Galla that surrounded her. Michael, sanguine as he was in his expectations of the fruit he was to reap from his victory, did not expect so soon so fair a sample of what was to follow.
To decide well, instantly upon the first view of things, was a talent Michael possessed superior to any man in the kingdom. Tho' Ozoro Esther had never been part of his schemes, he immediately saw the great advantage which would accrue to him by making her so, and he seized it; and he was certain also that the king, in his present disposition, would soon interfere. He lifted Ozoro Esther, and placed her upon his seat; sent for Kefla Yasous and his other officers, and ordered them, with the utmost expedition, to draw up his army in order of battle, as if for a review to ascertain his loss. At the same time he sent for a priest, and ordered separate tents to be pitched for Ozoro Esther and her household. All this was performed quickly; then meeting her with the priest, he was married to her at the door of his own tent in midst of the acclamations of his whole army. The occasion of these loud shouts was soon carried to the king, and was the first account he had of this marriage. He received the information with violent displeasure, which he could not stifle, or refrain from expressing it in the severest terms, all of which were carried to Ras Michael by officious persons, almost as soon as they were uttered, nothing softened.
The consequences of the marriage of Ozoro Esther were very soon seen in the inveterate and determined hatred against the Galla. Esther, who could not save Mariam Barea, sacrificed herself that she might avenge his death, and live to see the loss of her husband expiated by numberless hecatombs of his enemies and murderers. Mild, gentle, and compassionate as, from my own knowledge, she certainly was, her nature was totally changed when she cast back her eyes upon the sufferings of her husband; nor could she be ever satiated with vengeance for those sufferings, but constantly stimulated Ras Michael, of himself much inclined to bloodshed, to extirpate, by every possible means, that odious nation of Galla, by whom she had fallen from all her hopes of happiness.
Fasil, as being a Galla, the first man that broke thro' the horse of Begemder, and wounded and put to flight her husband Mariam Barea, was in consequence among the black list of her enemies. Fasil, too, had murdered Kasmati Eshté, who was her favourite uncle, fast friend to Mariam Barea, and the man that had promoted her marriage with him.
The great credit of Fasil with the king had now given Ras Michael violent jealousy. These causes of hatred accumulated every day, so that Michael had already formed a resolution to destroy Fasil, even though the king should perish with him. In these sentiments, too, was Gusho of Amhara, a man of great personal merit, of whose father, Ras Woodage, we have already spoken, who had filled successively all the great offices in the last reign. He was immensely rich; had married a daughter of Ras Michael, and afterwards six or seven other women, being much addicted to the fair sex, and was lately married to Ozoro Welleta Israel, the Iteghé's daughter. Nor was he in any shape an enemy to wine; but very engaging, and plausible in discourse and behaviour; in many respects a good officer, careful of his men, but said to be little solicitous about his word or promise to men of any other profession but that of a soldier.
An accident of the most trifling kind brought about an open breach between the king and the Ras, which never after was healed. The weather was very hot while the army was marching. One day, a little before their arrival at Gondar, in passing over the vast plain between the mountains and the lake Tzana, (afterwards the scene of much bloodshed) Ras Michael, being a little indisposed with the heat, and the sun at the same time affecting his eyes, which were weak, without other design than that of shading them, had thrown a white cloth or handkerchief over his head. This was told the king, then with Fasil in the center, who immediately sent to the Ras to inquire what was the meaning of that novelty, and upon what account he presumed to cover his head in his presence? The white handkerchief was immediately taken off, but the affront was thought so heinous as never after to admit of atonement.
It must be here observed, that, when the army is in the field, it is a distinction the king uses, to bind a broad fillet of fine muslin round his head, which is tied in a double knot, and hangs in two long ends behind. This, too, is worn by the governor of a province when he is first introduced into it; and, in absence of the king, is the mark of supreme power, either direct or delegated, in the person that wears it.
Unless on such occasions, no one covers his head in presence of the king, nor in sight of the house or palace where the king resides: But it was not thought, that, being at such a distance in the rear, he was in the king's presence, nor that what was caused by infirmity was to be construed into presumption, or weighed by the nice scale of jealous prerogative.
The armies returned to the valleys below Gondar, and encamped separately there, Fasil upon the river Kahha, and Ras Michael on the Angrab. Gusho was on the right of Michael and left of Fasil, a little higher up the Kahha, near Koscam, the Iteghè's palace; but he was on the opposite side of the river from Fasil, where he had a house of his own, and several large meadows adjoining. Gusho's servants and soldiers now began cutting their master's grass, and were soon joined by a number of Fasil's people, who fell, without ceremony, to the same employment. An interruption was immediately attempted, a fray ensued, and several were killed or wounded on both sides, but at last Fasil's people were beat back to their quarters.
Gusho complained to Ras Michael of this violation of his property; and he being now in Gondar, and holding the office of Ras, was, without doubt, the superior and regular judge of both, as they were both out of their provinces, and immediately in Michael's. Upon citation, Fasil declared that he would submit to no such jurisdiction; and, the case being referred to the judges next day, it was found unanimously in council, that Ras Michael was in the right, and that Fasil was guilty of rebellion. A proclamation in consequence was made at the palace-gate, superseding Fasil in his government of Damot, and in every other office which he held under the king, and appointing Boro de Gago in his place, a man of great interest in Damot and Gojam, and with the Galla on both sides of the Nile, and married to a sister of Kasmati Eshté's, by another mother, otherwise a man of small capacity.
Fasil, after a long and private audience of the king in the night, decamped early in the morning with his army, and sat down at Azazo, the high road between Damot and Gondar, and there he intercepted all the provisions coming from the southward to the capital.
It happened that the house in Gondar, where Ras Michael lived, was but a small distance from the palace, a window of which opened so directly into it, that Michael, when sitting in judgment, could be distinctly seen from thence. One day, when most of his servants had left him, a shot was fired into the room from this window of the palace, which, though it missed Michael, wounded a dwarf, who was standing before him fanning the flies from off his face, so grievously, that the page fell and expired at the foot of his master. This was considered as the beginning of the hostilities. Nobody knew from whose hand the shot came; but the window from which it was aimed sufficiently shewed, that if it was not by direction, it must at lead have been fired with the knowledge of the king.
Joas lost no time, but removed and encamped at Tedda, and sent Woosheka to Michael with orders to return to Tigrè, and not to see his face; and, at the same time, declared Lubo governor of Begemder and Amhara. The Ras scarcely could be brought to see Woosheka; but did not deign to give any further answer than this, "That the king should know, that the proper persons to correspond with him as Ras, upon the affairs of the kingdom, were the judges of the town, or of the palace; not a slave like Woosheka, whose life, as well as that of all the Gallas in the king's presence, was forfeited by the laws of the land. He cautioned him from appearing again in his presence, for if he did, that he should surely die."
The next day a message came from the king, by four judges, forbidding the Ras again to drink of either the Angrab or the Kahha, but to strike his tents and return to Tigrè upon pain of incurring his highest displeasure.—To this Michael answered, "That, true it was, his province was Tigrè, but that he was now governor of the whole realm; that he was an extraordinary officer, called to prevent the ruin of the country, because, confessedly, the king could not do it; that the reason of his coming existed to that day; and he was very willing to submit it to the judges for their solemn opinion, whether the kingdom, at present in the hands of the Galla, was not in more danger from the power of those Galla than it was from the constitutional influence of Mariam Barea. He added, that he expected the king should be ready to march against Fasil, for which purpose he was to decamp on the morrow." The king returned an absolute refusal to march: The Ras thereupon made proclamation for all the Galla, of every denomination to leave the capital, the next day, upon pain of death, declaring them outlawed, and liable to be slain by the first that met them, if, after twenty-four hours, they were found in Gondar or its neighbourhood, or, after ten days, in any part of the kingdom. After this, accompanied by Gusho, he decamped to dislodge Fasil from the strong post which he held at Azazo.
By the king's refusal to march with Ras Michael in person, it was supposed that his household troops would not join, but remain with him to garrison his palace. Joas, however, was too far decided in favour of Fasil to remain neuter. Michael had encamped the 21st of April in the evening, on the side of the hill above Azazo, in very rough and rocky ground, as unfavourable for Fasil's horse as the slope it had was favourable for Michael's musquetry.
The battle was fought on the 22d in the morning, and there was much blood shed for the time that it lasted. A nephew of Michael, and his old Fit-Auraris, Netcho, were both slain, and Fasil was totally defeated. The Galla, who had come from the other side of the Nile, were very much terrified at Michael's fire-arms, which contained what they called the zibib, or grape, meaning thereby the ball. Fasil retired quickly to Damot, to increase and collect another army again, and to try his fortune after the rains.
It happened, unfortunately, that among the prisoners taken at Azazo were some of the king's black horse. These being his slaves, and subject only to his commands, sufficiently shewed by whose authority they came there. They were, therefore, all called before Michael; two of them were first interrogated, whether the king had sent them or not? and, upon their denying or refusing to give an answer, their throats were cut before their companions. The next questioned was a page of the king, who seeing, from the fate of his friends, what was to follow his denial, frankly told the Ras, that it was by the king's special orders they, and a considerable body of the household troops, had joined Fasil the night before; and further, that it was the Armenian, who, by the king's order, had fired at him, and killed the dwarf who was fanning the flies, from him.
Upon this information all the prisoners were dismissed. The army returned the same night to Gondar, and, though they had been fasting all day, a council was held, which sat till very late, at the rising of which a messenger was dispatched to Wechné for Hatzé Hannes, who was brought to the foot of the mountain the next day. In the same night Shalaka Becro, Nebrit Tecla and his two sons, Lika Netcho and his two sons, and a monk of Tigrè, called Welleta Christos, were sent to the palace to murder the king, which they easily accomplished, having found him alone. They buried him in the church of St Raphael, as we shall find from the regicide's own confession, when he was apprehended, when we shall relate the particulars.
At the same time Michael exhibited a strange contrast in his behaviour to the Armenian, who had fled to the house of the Abuna for refuge. He sent and took him thence, and banished him from Abyssinia, but so considerately, that he dispatched a servant with him to Masuah to furnish him with necessaries, to see him embark, and save him from the cruelty and extortions of the Naybe.
- ↑ Noba, in the language of Sennaar, signifies Soldier; it is probably from this the ancient name of Nubia first came.
- ↑ A well near Karoota, immediately on the frontiers of Begemder.
- ↑ This is commonly done in times of trouble, to keep the townsmen in awe, as if fire was intended, which would not be in their power to quench.
- ↑ Nearly the same distinction as the silly one made in Britain between the French king and king of France.