He
Described The Country Upon The Other Side Of The Mountains To Be
The Elevated Plateau Of Abyssinia, And He Advised Me To Visit The
King Before My Departure From His Territory; This I Could Not
Conveniently Accomplish, As My Route Lay In An Opposite
Direction.
He begged me for a telescope, so that he should be
able to see the approach of the Turks (Egyptians) from a great
distance, as he explained that he had spies upon all the mountain
tops, so that no stranger could enter his country without his
knowledge.
He confessed that my movements while in the Base
country had been watched by his spies, until he had felt assured
that I had no sinister motive. I laughed at the idea; he replied,
that we were most fortunate to have escaped an attack from the
natives, as they were far worse than wild beasts, and he
immediately pointed out several Base slaves who were present in
the crowd, who had been captured when children; they appeared to
be the same as the woolly-headed natives of the south bank of the
Blue Nile, and not at all peculiar in appearance. He cautioned me
against bathing in the stream, or drinking the water in the
neighbourhood of our camp, as it was extremely poisonous, and
would produce an irritation of the skin. I told him that I had
discovered copper, and that I attributed the poisonous quality of
the water to the presence of that mineral. This announcement was
received with a general expression of approbation.
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