Not
Far From This Spot, I Found The Bed Of A Dry Torrent That Flowed
Into The Poisoned Stream Of Gallabat.
I ordered my men to dig a
deep hole in the sand, which fortunately discovered clear and
good-flavoured water.
We immediately pitched tents close to the
sycamore. From this elevation, about a hundred and fifty feet
above Gallabat, we had a beautiful view of the amphitheatre of
hills and mountains, while the crowded town lay below, as in the
bottom of a basin. The Atbara was not far distant in the ravine
between the hill ranges, as it had made a sharp angle at Toganai,
and altered its direction to the north.
Our arrival had made some stir in Gallabat, and many people had
followed us, and stared with much curiosity at the collection of
hunting trophies. Among our visitors was an Abyssinian merchant,
Jusef, whose acquaintance I had formerly made at Cassala; he was
an agreeable and well-informed man, who had been in Paris and
London and spoke French and English tolerably. I accompanied him
for a stroll through the market, and was introduced by him to a
number of the principal Abyssinian merchants. The principal trade
of Gallabat, which is the market-place for all commerce between
Abyssinia and the Egyptian provinces, is in cotton, coffee,
bees'-wax, and hides. Coffee is brought in large quantities by
the Abyssinian merchants, who buy cotton in exchange, for the
manufacture of clothes according to their own fashion. I bought
a quantity of excellent coffee at the rate of two dollars for
thirty-five pounds, equal to about two and three-quarters pence
a pound. Sheds were arranged in lines; these were occupied by the
coffee merchants with their stores, while a great stock of cotton
in bales, to the number of some thousand, were piled in rows in
an open space. Not far from the mass of goods was a confusion of
camels, asses, and mules that had formed the means of transport.
I now met an Italian merchant, with whom I subsequently became
intimately acquainted, Signor Angelo Bolognesi--he had arrived
from Khartoum to purchase coffee and bees'-wax. We were delighted
to meet a civilized European after so long an absence. For some
months we had had little intercourse with any human beings beyond
the hunters that had composed our party, in countries that were
so wild and savage, that the print of a naked foot upon the sand
had instinctively brought the rifle upon full cock. Our European
society was quickly increased: two German missionaries had
arrived, en ronte for an establishment that had been set on foot
in the heart of Abyssinia, under the very nose of the King
Theodore, who regarded missionaries as an unsavoury odour. Both
were suffering from fever, having foolishly located themselves in
a hut close to the foul stench of dead animals on the margin of
the polluted stream, the water of which they drank. One of these
preachers was a blacksmith, whose iron constitution had entirely
given way, and the little strength that remained, he exhausted in
endless quotations of texts from the Bible, which he considered
applicable to every trifling event or expression. I regretted
that I could not agree with him in the propriety of invading
Abyssinia with Bible extracts, as the natives attached as great
importance to their own particular form of Christianity, as any
other of the numerous sects that unhappily divide that beautiful
religion into schisms; any fresh dogma introduced by strangers
might destroy the union of the Abyssinian Church, and would be
not only a source of annoyance to the priesthood, but would most
probably influence them and the king against all Europeans.
The blacksmith assured me that the special mission upon which he
was employed was the conversion of the Abyssinian Jews. I
suggested that we had a few Jews in England, that might offer a
fair field for an experiment at home, before we commenced at so
distant a country as Abyssinia; but I could not persuade the
blacksmith, whose head was as hard as his anvil; he had fully
persuaded himself that the word of God (according to HIS OWN
translation of it) was the hammer with which, selon son metier,
he was to drive his views of the truth into the thick skulls of
the people. If he could twist iron, and hammer a ploughshare into
a sword, or reverse the form, why should he be unable to effect
a change in their opinions? It was perfectly useless to continue
the argument; but I prophesied trouble, as the king was already
discontented, and an influx of missionaries would not improve his
humour. I advised him to stick to his trade, which would obtain
for him far more respect than preaching. He replied, that "the
word of God must be preached in all countries; that the Apostle
Paul had encountered dangers and difficulties, but, nevertheless,
he preached to, and converted the heathen," &c.
Whenever I have met an exceedingly ignorant missionary, he has
invariably compared himself to the Apostle Paul. In half an hour
I found, that I was conversing with St. Paul in the person of the
blacksmith. Whether this excellent apostle is among the captives
in Abyssinia at the present moment, I do not know; but, if so,
their memory of the Bible will be continally refreshed by
quotations, which fly from the tongue of the smith like sparks
from his anvil. His companion was very ill, and incapable of
moving. I went to see the poor fellow upon several occasions, and
found him suffering from dysentery and diseased liver. These
excellent but misguided people had a first-rate medicine chest,
filled with useful drugs and deadly poisons, that had been
provided for them cheaply, by the agent for their society at
Cairo, who had purchased the stock in trade of a defunct doctor.
This had been given to the missionaries, together with the
caution that many of the bottles were not labelled, and that some
contained poison.
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