SA Mr Bruce's Difcovery of the Source of the Nile *. ACALA, full of fmall low villages, which, however, had efcaped the ravages of the late war, is the eaftermoft branch of the Agows, aud famous for the best honey. The fmall river Kebezza, running from the east, ferves as a boundary between Sacala and Aformafha; after joining two other rivers, the Gumetti and the Googueri, which we prefently came to, after a fhort course nearly from S. E. to N. W. it falls into the Nile a little above its junction with the Abola. At three-quarters paft eleven we croffed the river Kebezza, and defcended into the plain of Sacala; in a few minutes we alfo paffed the Googueri, a more confiderable stream than the former; it is about fixty feet broad, and perhaps eighteen inches deep, very clear and rapid, running over a tugged, uneven bottom of black rock. At a quarter paft twelve we halted on a fmall eminence, where the market of Sacala is held every Saturday. Horned cattle, many of the greatest beauty poflible, with which all this country abounds; large affes, the most useful of all beafts for riding or carriage; honey, butter, enfete for food, and a manufacture of the leaf of that plant, painted with different colours like Mofaic work, are here expofed to fale in great plenty; the butter and honey, indeed, are chiefly carried to Gondar, or to Buré; but Damot, Maitfha, and Gojam likewife take a confiderable quantity of all these commodities. At a quarter after one o'clock we paffed the river Gumetti, the boundary of the plain; we were now af cending a very fteep and rugged mountain, the worft pafs we had met on our whole journey. We had no other path but a road made by the VOL. XII. No. 69. U fheep or the goats, which did not This At three quarters after one we ar rived at the top of the mountain, whence we had a diftinct view of all the remaining territory of Sacala, the mountain Geefh, and church of St Michael Geefh, about a mile and a half diftant from St Michael. Sacala, where we then were. We faw immediately below us the Nile itfelf, • From his Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile. ftrangely ftrangely diminished in fize, and now only a brook that had fcarcely water to turn a mill. I could not fatiate myfelf with the fight, revolving in my mind all thofe claflical prophecies that had given the Nile up to perpetual obfcurity, and concealment. The lines of the poet came immediately into my mind, and I enjoyed here, for the first time, the triumph which already, by my own intrepidity and the protection of Providence, I had gained over all that were powerful, and all that were learned, fince the remoteft antiquity : Arcanum natura caput non prodidit ulli, I was awakened out of this delight- : LUCAN. vain without difcovering even a fragment of him. For my part, I began to think that he had been really ill when he first complained, and that the ficknefs might have overcome him upon the road; and this, too, was the opinion of Ayto Aylo's fervant, who faid, however, with a fignificant look, that he could not be far off; we there fore fent him, and one of the men that drove the mules, back to feek after him; and they had not gone but a few hundred yards when they found him coming, but fo decrepid, and fo very ill, that he faid he could go no farther than the church, where he was pofitively refolved to take up his abode that night. I felt his pulfe, examined every part about him, and faw, I thought evidently, that nothing ailed him. Without lofing my tem per, however, I told him firmly, That I perceived he was an impoftor: that he fhould confider that I was a phyfician, as he knew I cured his master's first friend, Welleta Yafous: that the feeling of his hand told me as plain as his tongue could have done, that nothing ailed him; that it told me likewife he had in his heart fome prank to play, which would turn out very much to his disadvantage. He feemed difmayed after this, faid little, and only defired us to halt for a few minutes, and he should be better; for, fays he, it requires ftrength in us all to pass another great hill before we arrive at Geefh. "Look "Look you, faid I, lying is to no purpofe; I know where Geeth is as well as you do, and that we have no more mountains or bad places to pafs through; therefore, if you choose to stay ben nd, you may; but to-mor-row I thall inform Welleta Ya ous at Bure of your behaviour." I faid this with the most determined air polfible, and left them, walking as hard as I could down to the ford of the Nile. Woldo remained above with the fervants, who were loading their mules; he feemed to be perfectly cured of his lamenefs, and was in clofe converfation with Ayto Aylo's fervant for about ten minutes, which I did not choose to interrupt, as I faw that man was already in poffeffion of part of Woldo's fecret. This being over, they all came down to me, as I was ketching abranch of a yellow rofe-tree, a number of which hang over the ford. The whole company paffed with out disturbing me ; and Woldo, feeming to walk as well as ever, afcended a gentle-rifing hill, near the top of which is St Michael Geefh. The Nile here is not four yards over, and not above four inches deep where we croff. d; it was indeed become a very trifling brook, but ran fwiftly over a bottom of fma1 ftones, with hard, black rock appearing amidft them: it is at this place very eafy to pafs, and very limpid, but, a little lower, fuil of inconfiderable falls; the ground rifes gently from the river to the fouthward, full of finall bills and minences, which you afcend and defcend almost impercept bly. The whole company had halted on the north fide of St Michael's chu ch, and there I reached them without affecting any hu ry. al in the flower; the men were lying on the grifs, and the beats fed, with the burdens on their backs, in most luxuriant herbage. I called for my herbary, to lay the rofe branch I had in my hand fmoothly, that it might dry without fpoiling the tha C ; ildwing only drawn its general form, the piftil and ftamina, the finer pars of which (though very neceffry in claffing the plant) crumble and fall of, or take different forms in dryin,, and therefore fhould always be itcond y drawi g while green. I juft aia differently to Woldo in palling, that I was glad to fee him recovered; that he would prefently be well, and thou.d fear nothing. Hethen gotup, and deli.ed to fpeak with me alone, taking Ayo's fervant along with him. Now, faid I, very calmly, I know by your face you are going to tell me a lie. I do fwear to you folemnly, you never, by that means, will obtain any thing from me, no not fo much as a good word; truth and good behaviour will get you every thing what appears a great matter in your fight is not perhaps of fuch value in mine; but nothing except truth and good behaviour will answer to you; now I know for a certainty you are no more fick than I am.”— Sir, faid he, w th a very confident look, you are right; I aid, counterfeit; I neither have bn,.nor am I at prefent any way out of order; but I thought it beft to tell you so, not to be obliged to discover another reafon that has much more weight with me why I cannot go to Geeth, and much lefs fhew mvfelf at the fources of the Nile, which I confefs are not much beyond it, though I declare to you there is ftill a hill between you and thofe fources.' "And pray, faid I calmly, what is this mighty reafon? have you had a dream, or a vilion in that trance you fell into when you lagged behind oclow the church of St Michael Sacala?" "No, fays be, it is neither U 2 It was about four o'clock in the afternoon, but the day had been very hot for fome hours, and they were fitting in the fhade of a grove of magnificent cedars, intermixed with fome very large and beautiful cuffo-trees, trance, trance, nor dream, nor devil either; I wish it was no worse; but you know as well as I, that my mafter Fafil defeated the Agows at the battle of Banja. I was there with my mafter, and killed feveral men, among whom fome were of the Agows of this vil lage Geefh, and you know the ufage of this country, when a man, in these circumftances, falls into their hands, his blood must pay for their blood. I burft out into a fit of laughter which very much difconcerted him. "There, faid I, did not I say to you it was a lie that you was going to tell me? do not think I difbelieve or difpute with you the vanity of having killed men; many men were flain at that battle; fomebody muft, and you may have been the perfon who flew them; but do you think I can believe that Fafil, fo deep in that account of blood, could rule the Agows in the manner he does, if he could not put a fervant of his in fafety among them 20 miles from his refidence? do you think I can believe this?"Come, come, faid Aylo's fervant to Woldo, did you not hear that truth and good behaviour will get you every thing you afk? Sir, continues he, I fee this affair vexes you, and what this foolish man wants will neither make you richer nor poorer; he has taken a great defire for that crimson-filk fafh which you wear about your middle. I told him to ftay till you went back to Gondar; but he fays he is to go no farther than to the houfe of Shalaka Welled Amlac in Maitha, and does not return to Gondar; I told him to ftay till you had put your mind at cafe, by feeing the fountains of the Nile, which you are fo anxious about. He faid, after that had happened, he was fure you would not give it him, for you feemed to think little of the cataract at Goutto, and of all the fine ri vers and churches which he had fhewn you; except the head of the Nile fhall be finer than all thefe, when, in reality, it will be just like another river, you will then be diffatisfied, and not give him the fath." I thought there was fomething very natural in these fufpicions of Woldo; befides, he faid he was certain that, if ever the fash came into the fight of Welled Amlac, by fome means or other he would get it into his hands. This rational difcourfe had pacified me a little; the fafh was a handfome one; but it must have been fine indeed to have flood for a minute between me and the accomplishment of my wishes. I laid my hand then upon the piftols that ftuck in my girdle, and drew them out to give them to one of my fuite, when Woldo, who apprehended it was for another purpofe, ran fome paces back, and hid himfelf behind Aylo's fervant. We were all diverted at this fright, but none fo much as Strates, who thought himself revenged for the alarm he had given him by falling through the roof of the houfe at Goutto. After ha ving taken off my fafb," Here is your fath, Woldo, faid I; but mark what I have faid, and now most seriously repeat to you, Truth and good behaviour will get any thing from me; but if, in the courfe of this jour ney, you play one trick more, though ever fo trifling, I will bring fuch a vengeance upon your head that you fhall not be able to find a place to hide it in; when not the fath only will be taken from you, but your skin alfo will follow it remember what happened to the feis at Bamba.” : He took the fash, but seemed terri fied at the threat, and began to make apologies. "Come, come, faid I, we understand each other; no more words; it is now late, lofe no more time, but carry me to Geefh, and the head of the Nile directly, without preamble, and fhew me the hill that feparates me from it. He then carried me round to the fouth fide of the church, out of the grove of trees that furrounded it, " This is the hill, Lays fays he, looking archly, that, when you was on the other fide of it, was between you and the fountains of the Nile; there is no other; look at that hillock of green fod in the middle of that watery ipot, it is in that the two fountains of the Nile are to be found: Geefh is on the face of the rock where yon green trees are: if you go the length of the fountains pull off your fhoes as you did the other day, for thefe people are all Pagans, worse than thofe that were at the ford, and they believe in nothing that you believe, but only in this river, to which they pray every day as if it were God; but this perhaps you may do likewife." Half undreffed as was by lols of my fafh, and throwing my shoes off, I ran down the hill towards the little ifland of green fods, which was about two hundred yards diftant; the whole fide of the hill was thick grown over with flowers, the large bulbous roots of which appearing above the furface of the ground, and their fkins coming off on treading upon them, occafioned two very fevere falls before I reached the brink of the marth; I after this came to the island of green turf, which was in form of an altar, apparently the work of art, and I ftood in rapture over the principal fountain which rifes in the middle of it. It is easier to guefs than to defcribe the fituation of my mind at that moment-standing in that fpot which had baffled the genius, induftry, and inquiry of both ancients and moderns, for the course of near three thousand years. Kings had attempted this difcovery at the head of armies, and each expedition was diftinguished from the laft, only by the difference of the numbers which had perished, and agreed alone in the disappointment which had uniformly, and without exception, followed them all. Fame, riches, and honour, had been held out for a feries of ages to every individual of those myriads thefe princes commanded, without having produced one man capable of gratifying the curiofity of his fovereign, or wiping off this ftain upon the enterprife and abili ties of mankind, or adding this defideratum for the encouragement of geography. Though a mere private Briton, I triumphed here, in my own mind, over kings and their armies; and every comparifon was leading nearer and nearer to prefumption, when the place itself where I ftood, the object of my vain-glory, suggested what depreffed my fhort-lived triumphs. I was but a few minutes arrived at the fources of the Nile, thro numberlefs dangers and fufferings, the leaft of which would have overwhelmed me but for the continual goodness and protection of Providence; I was, however, but then half through my journey, and all thofe dangers watch I had already paffed, awaited me again on my return. I found a defpondency gaining ground faft upon me, and blafting the crown of laurels I had too rafhly woven for myself. I refolved therefore to divert, till I could on more folid 'reflection overcome its progrefs. I faw Strates expecting me on the fide of the hill. Strates, faid I, faithful fquire, come and triumph with your Don Quixote at that island of Barataria where we have wifely and fortunately brought ourselves; cone and triumph with me over all the kings of the earth, all their armies, all their philofophers, and all their heroes." Sir, fays Strates, I donot understand a word of what you fay, and as little what you mean: you very well know I am no fcholar; but you had much better leave that bog, come into the house, and look after Woldo; I fear he has fomething further to feek than your fafh, for he has been talking with the old devil-worshipper ever fince we arrived."-" Did they speak fecretly together, faid I?" Yes, Sir, they did, I affure you."-" And in whispers, Strates?"" As for that, replied he, they need not have been |
