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.
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