The Life and Adventures of Bruce, the African Traveller Part 11

"There was another relic of great importance. It is a picture of Christ's head crowned with thorns, said to be painted by St. Luke, which, upon occasions of the utmost importance, is brought out and carried with the army, especially in a war with Mohammedans and pagans.

"Within the outer gate of the church, below the steps, are three small square enclosures, all of granite, with small octagon pillars in the angles, apparently Egyptian; on the top of which formerly were small images of the dog-star, probably of metal. Upon a stone in the middle of one of these the king sits and is crowned, and always has been since the days of paganism; and below it, where he naturally places his feet, is a long oblong slab like a hearth, which is not of granite, but of freestone. The inscription, though much defaced, may be safely restored.

[Greek: PTOLEMAIOU EUERGETOU BASILEoS]."

Bruce made a sketch of the princ.i.p.al obelisk at Axum. Salt, who also visited Axum, says: "I went to take a drawing of the obelisk still erect. I found it to be extremely different from the representation of it given by Bruce; the ornaments which he is pleased to call triglyphs and metopes, and guttae, being most regularly, instead of irregularly, disposed, as will be seen in my representation of it. I am now perfectly satisfied that all Bruce's pretended knowledge of drawing is not to be depended on, the present instance affording a striking example of his want of veracity and uncommon a.s.surance." Again, Salt says: "From my account of Axum, it will appear that Bruce's description of 'the mountain of red marble' of the 'wall, cut out of the same five feet high,' with its 'one hundred and thirty-three pedestals, on which stood colossal statues of the dog-star, two of which only were remaining,' and of the road cut between the wall and the mountain, are statements contrary to the existing fact, or, at least, so extremely exaggerated as to cast strong doubts upon his authority."

Again, Salt says, "I made a drawing of the Ozoro (a lady of rank), which I can a.s.sure the reader gives an accurate delineation of the costume of a lady of her rank, although it has no resemblance to the fancy figures given in the last edition of Bruce as Abyssinian princesses." "It is extremely vexatious," says Lord Valentia at Masuah, "that Mr. Bruce's a.s.sertion of blue cloth being preferred by the Bedouee should have prevented our bringing any white, which would have ensured us a ready supply of all we wished."

Nothing can more evidently show the narrow and prejudiced feelings with which Salt travelled than the above observations. Neglecting the great book of nature which lay open before him, he seemed to have been only occupied with a paltry desire minutely to criticise Bruce's volumes, as he carried them along in his hand. With respect to the ruins of Axum, travellers have always been permitted to form their own conjectures on subjects of this kind, without being accused of "falsehood," or even of "exaggeration;" and every person who has attempted to copy inscriptions in hieroglyphics, the meaning of which he cannot penetrate, will admit that parts and figures, which to him appear highly important, might very excusably be pa.s.sed over by another as unworthy of attention.

Again, with respect to the costume of the Abyssinian ladies, more than one third of a century had elapsed between Bruce's departure from Abyssinia and Salt's arrival in that country, and why should Mr. Salt have taken it for granted that this costume must necessarily have continued invariably the same? But, what is still more to the point, the Ozoros, of whose costumes Bruce has given drawings, were ladies of another province--the province of Gondar! Bruce never a.s.serted that the fas.h.i.+ons of Abyssinia were unalterable, nor that the Bedouee would always prefer blue cloth to white.

It is not a little surprising that Salt and Lord Valentia should have indulged in these censures against Bruce, while the former admits that his general history and observations are invariably correct. Even at Axum, Salt says, "In the evening I wrote down the best account I could get from the books of Axum of Ras Michael, and his rebellion in Tigre against the Emperor Yasous; his standing a siege on the mountain of Samargat; and his subsequent concession and pardon, to which the emperor with difficulty acceded; _all which confirms the historical account of the same transactions as related by Bruce_." "The revolutions," he continues, "have been still more frequent since the departure of Mr.

Bruce, _whose history is in general accurate_."... Again, page 227, he says, "We also derived some benefit from the information, relative to the history of Abyssinia, which we had acquired from Bruce and Poncet, and _which was to the natives a source of perpetual astonishment_.

Bruce's drawings of Gondar and its vicinity, which we showed to the Baharnagash, _tended to raise us in his opinion almost beyond the level of mortality_." If, then, Bruce's historical account of Abyssinia, as is admitted, be correct, ought he to have been accused of "falsehood,"

"exaggeration," and "want of veracity" by men of rank and education, because, after a lapse of thirty-five years, certain antiquities which he described had disappeared, and the dresses of the ladies were found to be different from his account of them?

Salt gives a translation of one of the inscriptions at Axum, which shows, he says, that the Abyssinian monarchs have no claim to a descent from Solomon, but that they considered themselves descended from Mars!

The inscription runs thus: "We Aeiza.n.u.s, sovereign of the Axomites"

(&c., &c., &c.), "king of kings, son of G.o.d the invincible Mars."

Lord Valentia, of course, supports Mr. Salt's interpretation: he says, "The account of the descent from Solomon is now proved to be false by the inscription of Axum." Still this inscription says nothing against the descent from King Solomon. Aeiza.n.u.s certainly calls himself "son of the invincible Mars;" but this, within the tropics, may, after all, have been only an hyperbole, meaning that he considered himself a hero, a vanity by no means uncommon among men in every climate. Bruce, however, nowhere says that the kings of Abyssinia were descended from Solomon; he merely states that this tradition is still believed by the Abyssinians and all the surrounding nations; and this, it is not denied, is perfectly true.

On the 20th Bruce left the ruins of Axum. For several miles the air was perfumed from the profusion of flowering shrubs growing by the way, chiefly different species of jasmine. The country around had the most beautiful appearance; "and the weather," says Bruce, "was neither too hot nor too cold."

He now witnessed a scene, which must be given in his own words:

"Not long after our losing sight of the ruins of this ancient capital of Abyssinia, we overtook three travellers driving a cow before them; they had black goatskins upon their shoulders, and lances and s.h.i.+elds in their hands; in other respects they were but thinly clothed; they appeared to be soldiers. The cow did not seem to be fatted for killing, and it occurred to us all that it had been stolen. This, however, was not our business, nor was such an occurrence at all remarkable in a country so long engaged in war. We saw that our attendants attached themselves in a particular manner to the three soldiers that were driving the cow, and held a short conversation with them. Soon after, we arrived at the hithermost bank of the river, where I thought we were to pitch our tent. The drivers suddenly tripped up the cow, and gave the poor animal a very rude fall upon the ground, which was but the beginning of her sufferings. One of them sat across her neck, holding down her head by the horns; the other twisted the halter about her forefeet; while the third, who had a knife in his hand, to my very great surprise, in place of taking her by the throat, sat astride her just before her hind legs, and gave her a very deep wound in the upper part of her haunch.

"From the time I had seen them throw the beast upon the ground, I had rejoiced, thinking that, when three people were killing a cow, they must have agreed to sell part of her to us; and I was much disappointed upon hearing the Abyssinians say that we were to pa.s.s the river to the other side, and not encamp where I intended. Upon my proposing they should bargain for part of the cow, my men answered, what they had already learned in conversation, that they were not then to kill her; that she was not wholly theirs, and they could not sell her. This awakened my curiosity. I let my people go forward, and stayed myself behind, till I saw, with the utmost astonishment, two pieces, thicker and longer than our ordinary beefsteaks, cut out of the higher part of the haunch of the beast. How it was done I cannot positively say; because, judging the cow was to be killed from the moment I saw the knife drawn, I was not anxious to view the catastrophe, which was by no means an object of curiosity: whatever way it was done, it surely was adroitly; and the two pieces were spread upon the outside of one of their s.h.i.+elds.

"One of them still continued holding the head, while the other two were busied in curing the wound. This, too, was done not in the ordinary manner: the skin which had covered the flesh that was taken away was left entire, and flapped over the wound, and was fastened to the corresponding part by two or more small skewers or pins. Whether they put anything under the skin between that and the wounded flesh, I know not; but at the river-side where they were, they had prepared a cataplasm of clay, with which they covered the wound; they then forced the animal to rise, and drove it on before them, to furnish them with a fuller meal when they should meet their companions in the evening."

It was upon this fact that Bruce's reputation split, and sunk like a vessel which had suddenly struck upon a rock. His best English friends had warned him of the danger, and earnestly begged him to suppress the publication of a story which, in his conversation, had been universally disbelieved; but, sorely as he felt the insult, even when privately received, it was against his nature to shrink from any unjust degradation which the public might attempt to inflict upon him. A man like Bruce, who had fearlessly looked real danger in the face, was not to be stopped in an honest course by threats of imaginary danger. He therefore unhesitatingly, or, as his friends termed it, "most obstinately," published the fact; and the following observations, with which he accompanied it, plainly show his wounded feelings and his undaunted integrity; his contempt of the world, or, rather, of the narrow-minded faction which opposed him; and his manly confidence that, sooner or later, truth would prevail.

"When first," says Bruce, "I mentioned this in England as one of the singularities which prevailed in this barbarous country, I was told by my friends it was not believed. I asked the reason of this disbelief, and was answered that people who had never been out of their own country, and others well acquainted with the manners of the world (for they had travelled as far as France), had agreed the thing was impossible, and therefore it was so. My friends counselled me farther, that, as these men were infallible, and had each the leading of a circle, I should by all means obliterate this from my journal, and not attempt to inculcate in the minds of my readers the belief of a thing that men who had travelled p.r.o.nounced to be impossible. They suggested to me, in the most friendly manner, how rudely a very learned and worthy traveller had been treated for daring to maintain that he had ate part of a lion, a story I have already taken notice of in my introduction.

They said that, being convinced by these connoisseurs that his having ate part of a lion was impossible, he had abandoned this a.s.sertion altogether, and afterward only mentioned it in an appendix; and this was the farthest I could possibly venture. Far from being a convert to such prudential reasons, I must for ever profess openly that I think them unworthy of me. To represent as truth a thing I know to be a falsehood, and not to avow a truth I ought to declare--the one is fraud, the other cowardice: I hope I am equally distant from them both; and I pledge myself never to retract the fact here advanced, that the Abyssinians do feed in common upon live flesh, and that I myself have, for several years, been partaker of that disagreeable and beastly diet. On the contrary, I have no doubt, when time shall be given to read this history to an end, there will be very few, if they have candour enough to own it, that will not be ashamed of ever having doubted."

Bruce, trusting to the justness of this appeal, gave more credit to his readers than they deserved, for they all broke down under the weight of this unusual fact; and all ranks of people, from Dr. Johnson the moralist down to Peter Pindar and the author of Baron Munchausen, disbelieved and ridiculed Bruce's statement, which, indeed, generally speaking, is not credited even at the present day. That to eat raw beef, cut out of a living cow, is not an English custom, is most true; but it is equally true that there is nothing in this statement which an acquaintance with human nature, as developed in various well-known parts of the world, does not strongly and fully corroborate. Its improbability can only be maintained by two arguments; first, the nauseousness of the food; and, secondly, the cruelty of the means of obtaining it.

With respect to raw beef being nauseous, it may, in the first place, be observed, that "de gustibus non est disputandum,"[26] and, consequently, we can only say it would be nauseous _to us_. In fact, even Salt, who was by no means an unprejudiced man, after having eaten raw beef in Abyssinia, says, "I am satisfied it is merely prejudice which deters us from this food." But, admitting it to be nauseous, that forms no proof that it is not likely to be the food of man, for it is well known that there are few animals that feed more grossly than he sometimes does.

Captain Parry, for instance, thus describes the appet.i.tes of the human beings it became his fortune to visit:

"It is impossible to describe the horribly disgusting manner in which they sat down, as soon as they felt hungry, to eat their raw blubber, and to suck the oil remaining on the skins we had just emptied. I found that Pootooalook had been successful in bringing in a seal, over which two elderly women were standing, armed with large knives, their hands and faces besmeared with blood, and delight and exultation depicted on their countenances. All the loose sc.r.a.ps were put into the pot for immediate use, except such as the two butchers now and then crammed into their mouths, or distributed to the numerous and eager by-standers for still more immediate consumption. Of these morsels the children came in for no small share, every little urchin that could find its way to the slaughter-house running eagerly in, and between the legs of the men and women presenting its mouth for a large lump of raw flesh, just as an English child of the same age might do for a piece of sugar-candy."...

"As soon as this dirty operation was at an end, during which the numerous by-standers amused themselves in chewing the intestines of the seal," ... "they dropped their canoes astern to the whale's tail, from which they cut off enormous lumps of flesh, and ravenously devoured it."[27]

A hundred other examples might be given of the nauseous food upon which men in different countries have been found to subsist; but the above extracts are sufficient to refute the first argument against Bruce's statement, while they also afford a very remarkable exemplification of the effect which the criticism of the day may have on the credulity or incredulity of the public: for it is surely more difficult to believe that human beings should eat raw fish-blubber than that they should eat raw beef, the former being so much more nauseous than the latter; and yet the first statement has never for a moment been doubted, while the other is scarcely yet credited; the fact being that the ruling critics of Bruce's time were opposed to his African discoveries, whereas those of the present day have eagerly supported the Northern discoveries, and whatever relates to them. Parry and Bruce, therefore, although equally honourable men, and equally anxious to contribute to our knowledge of the earth, met with very different fates. The one was justly rewarded, the other most unjustly neglected and condemned.

In reply to the second argument against Bruce's account, namely, its cruelty, we may refer, first of all, to the slave-trade, which exists over such a vast portion of the globe, and which indisputably proves that man is cruel even to his fellow-creatures, and, consequently, that it is only to be expected he should be cruel to the beasts of the field; and that it is so, is sufficiently shown by the bullfights of Spain, where animals are subjected to the most horrid torture, merely for the amus.e.m.e.nt of men, women, and children. In one of Johnson's beautiful allegories, an old eagle is represented as exhorting her brood, whenever they see men a.s.sembling together, and fire flas.h.i.+ng along the ground, to hurry to the spot, because "the food of eagles is at hand." One of the eaglets, exclaiming against the cruelty of men thus fighting against each other, observes, "I could never kill what I could not eat." But man is less merciful than the young eagle; he will both torture and kill animals merely for amus.e.m.e.nt; why not suppose him capable, then, of inflicting pain on an animal, by taking a portion of its flesh, when alive, to satisfy his hunger?

Having made these general remarks, we now offer the testimony of different individuals to substantiate the truth of Bruce's account.

It is well known that the celebrated traveller, Dr. Clarke, publicly examined at Cairo an Abyssinian dean respecting such of Bruce's statements as were at that time disbelieved. Dr. Clarke says, vol. iii., p. 61, "Our next inquiry related to the long-disputed fact of a practice among the Abyssinians of cutting from a live animal slices of its flesh as an article of food, without putting it to death. This Bruce affirms that he witnessed in his journey from Masuah to Axum. The Abyssinian, answering, informed us that the soldiers of the country, during their marauding incursions, sometimes maim cows after this manner, taking slices from their bodies, as a favourite article of food, without putting them to death at the time; and that, during the banquets of the Abyssinians, raw meat, esteemed delicious through the country, is frequently taken from an ox or a cow in such a state that the fibres are in motion, and that the attendants continue to cut slices till the animal dies. This answer exactly corresponds with Bruce's narrative: he expressly states that the persons whom he saw were soldiers, and the animal a cow." "Jerome Lobo, who visited Abyssinia a hundred and fifty years before Bruce, page 51, says, 'When they feast a friend, they kill an ox, and set immediately a quarter of him raw upon the table.' Raw beef is their nicest dish, and is eaten by them with the same appet.i.te and pleasure that we eat the best partridges."

Captain Rudland, of the royal navy, who accompanied Salt, says: "The skin was only partly taken off, and a favourite slice of the flesh was brought immediately to table, the muscles of which continued to quiver till the whole was devoured."

Salt himself, in the journal which, in 1810, he writes for Pearce, the English sailor, says, page 295, "A soldier attached to the party proposed cutting out the _shulade_ from one of the cows they were driving before them, to satisfy the cravings of their hunger. This term Mr. Pearce did not at first understand, but he was not long left in doubt upon the subject; for the others having a.s.sented, they laid hold of the animal by the horns, threw it down, and proceeded, without farther ceremony, to the operation. This consisted of cutting out two pieces of flesh from the haunch, near the tail, which together, Mr.

Pearce supposed, might weigh about a pound. As soon as they had taken these away, they sewed up the wounds, plastered them over with cow-dung, and drove the animal forward, while they divided among their party the still reeking steaks."

(It is very singular that, in 1810, Salt could write these words without offering any apology for having, in his travels with Lord Valentia in 1805, deliberately stated that "his (Bruce's) account of the flesh cut out of living animals was repeatedly inquired into by our party; _and all to whom we spoke denied its ever being done_.")

Mr. Coffin, Lord Valentia's valet, who was left by him in Abyssinia, and who is now in England, has declared to us that he has not only seen the operation which Bruce described performed, but that he has even performed it himself; and that he did so at Cairo, in presence of an English n.o.bleman of high character, whose name he referred to.[28]

Denham, in his Travels in Central Africa, vol. ii., page 36, says: "The best information I had ever procured of the road eastward was from an old hadgi, named El Ras.h.i.+d, a native of the city of Medina; he had been at Waday and at Sennaar at different periods of his life, and, among other things, described to me a people east of Waday, whose greatest luxury was feeding on raw meat cut from the animal while warm."

"Now do not be surprised," writes Sir Stamford Raffles to the d.u.c.h.ess of Somerset, "at what I shall tell you regarding the Battas, for I tell the truth, and nothing but the truth." "The evidence adduced by Mr. Marsden must have removed all doubt from every unprejudiced mind, that, notwithstanding all this in their favour, the Battas are strictly cannibals; but he has not gone half far enough. He tells us that, not satisfied with cutting off pieces and eating them raw, instances have been known where some of the people present have run up to the victim, and actually torn the flesh from the bones with their teeth."

This disgusting subject is now concluded. That it will have shocked the sensibility of the reader is but too certain; but it is equally true that the vindication we have offered is only common justice to Bruce's memory; and that the English public, who have been so cruelly regardless of Bruce's feelings, have no right to complain of those facts which, before the world, repel the charges that have been unjustly brought against the character of an honest man.

On the 21st, Bruce and his party reached the plain of Lelech-lecha, which Poncet compares "to the most beautiful part of Provence." Fine trees of all sizes were everywhere interspersed, and small black grapes and honeysuckles hung in festoons from tree to tree, as if they had been artificially twined, and were intended for arbours.

While Bruce was loitering in this cheerful spot, he heard his servants cry Robbers! robbers! His party had been taken for Mohammedans, and the inhabitants had therefore resolved to attack them; however, Bruce made himself known, and, after being slightly bruised by a pumpkin which was thrown at him, succeeded in restoring peace. Proceeding on his journey, he arrived, late at night on the 22d, at Sire, the largest town in the province of that name; but, although Sire is situated in one of the finest countries in the world, yet putrid fevers of the worst description continually rage there; and as the inhabitants were not very civil to Bruce, he felt no inclination to expose himself to the infection for their sakes. He therefore at once left both them and their fever behind him.

Bruce now learned that on the 10th Ras Michael had come up, at f.a.gitta, with the rebel Fasil (a man of low birth, who had been made governor of Damot and of the Agows), and had entirely dispersed his army, after killing ten thousand of his men.

Bruce continued his course for some days until he came to the princ.i.p.al ford of the Tacazze, a river about two hundred yards broad and about three feet deep, which forms the boundary of the province of Sire. In the middle of this stream he met a deserter from Ras Michael's army, with a firelock on his shoulder, driving before him two unhappy girls, about ten years old, stark naked, and apparently almost starved to death--his horrid share in the plunder of Maitsha. "He had not," says Bruce, "in my eyes, the air of a conqueror, but rather of a coward, that had sneaked away and stolen these two miserable wretches he had with him."

The banks of the Tacazze were covered to the water's edge with tamarisks. "Beautiful and pleasant, however, as the river is," says Bruce, "like everything created, it has its disadvantages. From the falling of the first rains in March till November, it is death to sleep in the country adjoining to it, both within and without its banks; the whole inhabitants retire and live in villages on the tops of the neighbouring mountains; and these are all robbers and a.s.sa.s.sins, who descend from their habitations on the heights to lie in wait for and plunder the travellers that pa.s.s. Notwithstanding great pains have been taken by Michael, his son, and grandson, governors of Tigre and Sire, this pa.s.sage had never been so far cleared but that every month people are cut off.

"The plenty of fish in this river occasions more than an ordinary number of crocodiles to resort hither. When the river swells, so as to be pa.s.sable only by people upon rafts or skins blown up with wind, they are frequently carried off by these voracious and vigilant animals. There are also many hippopotami, which in this country are called gomari. I never saw any of these in the Tacazze; but at night we heard them snort or groan in many parts of the river near us. There are also vast mult.i.tudes of lions and hyaenas in all these thickets. We were very much disturbed by them all night. The smell of our mules and horses had drawn them in numbers about our tent; but they did us no farther harm, except obliging us to watch."

After travelling for several days through ruined villages, the monuments of Ras Michael's cruelty, they reached the river of Mai Lumi.

"The hyaenas this night devoured one of the best of our mules. They are here in great plenty, and so are lions; the roaring and grumbling of the latter in the part of the wood nearest our tent greatly disturbed our beasts, and prevented them from eating their provender. I lengthened the strings of my tent, and placed the beasts between them. The white ropes and the tremulous motion made by the impression of the wind frightened the lions from coming near us. I had procured from Janni two small bra.s.s bells, such as the mules carry. I had tied these to the storm-strings of the tent, where their noise, no doubt, greatly contributed to our beasts' safety from these ravenous yet cautious animals, so that we never saw them; but the noise they made, and perhaps their smell, so terrified the mules, that in the morning they were drenched in sweat, as if they had been a long journey.

"The brutish hyaena was not so to be deterred. I shot one of them dead on the night of the 31st of January, and on the 2d of February I fired at another, so near that I was confident of killing him. Whether the b.a.l.l.s had fallen out, or that I had really missed him with the first barrel, I know not, but he gave a snarl and a kind of bark upon the first shot, advancing upon me as if unhurt. The second shot, however, took effect, and laid him without motion on the ground. Yasine and his men killed another with a pike; and such was their determined coolness, that they stalked round about us with the familiarity of a dog, or any other domestic animal brought up with man."

But they were still more incommoded by a smaller enemy, a black ant about an inch long, which demolished the carpets, cutting them into shreds, also part of the lining of the tent, and every bag or sack they could find. Their bite causes considerable inflammation, and the pain is greater than that which arises from the bite of a scorpion: they are called _gundan_.

On the 1st of February the shum of the place sent his people to value Brace's merchandise, that he might pay custom. "I humoured them," says Bruce, "so far as to open the cases where were the telescopes and quadrant, or, indeed, rather showed them open, as they were not shut, from the observation I had been making. They could only wonder at things they had never before seen.

"On the 2d of February the shum came himself, and a violent altercation ensued. He insisted upon Michael's defeat. I told him the contrary news were true, and begged him to beware lest it should be told to the ras upon his return that he had propagated such a falsehood. I told him also that we had advice that the ras's servants were now waiting for us at Lamalmon, and insisted upon his suffering us to depart."

"He said that I was mad, and held a consultation with his people for about half an hour, after which he came in again, seemingly quite another man, and said he would despatch us on the morrow, which was the 3d, and would send us that evening some provisions. And, indeed, we now began to be in need, having only flour barely sufficient to make bread for one meal next day. The miserable village on the cliff had nothing to barter with us; and none from the five villages about the shum had come near us, probably by his order. As he had softened his tone, so did I mine. I gave him a small present, and he went away repeating his promises. But all that evening pa.s.sed without provision, and all next day without his coming, so we got everything ready for our departure.

Our supper did not prevent our sleeping, as all our provisions was gone, and we had tasted nothing all that day since our breakfast."