We Continued To Travel All Night, And To Hide
Ourselves In The Woods All Day:
And here it was that we met the
three hundred elephants I spoke of before.
We made long marches,
travelling without any halt from four in the afternoon to eight in
the morning.
Arriving at a valley where travellers seldom escape being plundered,
we were obliged to double our pace, and were so happy as to pass it
without meeting with any misfortune, except that we heard a bird
sing on our left hand - a certain presage among these people of some
great calamity at hand. As there is no reasoning them out of
superstition, I knew no way of encouraging them to go forward but
what I had already made use of on the same occasion, assuring them
that I heard one at the same time on the right. They were happily
so credulous as to take my word, and we went on till we came to a
well, where we stayed awhile to refresh ourselves. Setting out
again in the evening, we passed so near a village where these
robbers had retreated that the dogs barked after us. Next morning
we joined the fathers, who waited for us. After we had rested
ourselves some time in that mountain, we resolved to separate and go
two and two, to seek for a more convenient place where we might hide
ourselves. We had not gone far before we were surrounded by a troop
of robbers, with whom, by the interest of some of the natives who
had joined themselves to our caravan, we came to a composition,
giving them part of our goods to permit us to carry away the rest;
and after this troublesome adventure arrived at a place something
more commodious than that which we had quitted, where we met with
bread, but of so pernicious a quality that, after having ate it, we
were intoxicated to so great a degree that one of my friends, seeing
me so disordered, congratulated my good fortune of having met with
such good wine, and was surprised when I gave him an account of the
whole affair. He then offered me some curdled milk, very sour, with
barley-meal, which we boiled, and thought it the best entertainment
we had met with a long time.
Chapter XIV
They are betrayed into the hands of the Turks; are detained awhile
at Mazna; are threatened by the Bassa of Suaquem. They agree for
their ransom, and are part of them dismissed.
Some time after, we received news that we should prepare ourselves
to serve the Turks - a message which filled us with surprise, it
having never been known that one of these lords had ever abandoned
any whom he had taken under his protection; and it is, on the
contrary, one of the highest points of honour amongst them to risk
their fortunes and their lives in the defence of their dependants
who have implored their protection. But neither law nor justice was
of any advantage to us, and the customs of the country were doomed
to be broken when they would have contributed to our security.
We were obliged to march in the extremity of the hot season, and had
certainly perished by the fatigue had we not entered the woods,
which shaded us from the scorching sun. The day before our arrival
at the place where we were to be delivered to the Turks, we met with
five elephants, that pursued us, and if they could have come to us
would have prevented the miseries we afterwards endured, but God had
decreed otherwise.
On the morrow we came to the banks of a river, where we found
fourscore Turks that waited for us, armed with muskets. They let us
rest awhile, and then put us into the hands of our new masters, who,
setting us upon camels, conducted us to Mazna. Their commander,
seeming to be touched with our misfortunes, treated us with much
gentleness and humanity; he offered us coffee, which we drank, but
with little relish. We came next day to Mazna, in so wretched a
condition that we were not surprised at being hooted by the boys,
but thought ourselves well used that they threw no stones at us.
As soon as we were brought hither, all we had was taken from us, and
we were carried to the governor, who is placed there by the Bassa of
Suaquem. Having been told by the Abyssins that we had carried all
the gold out of Aethiopia, they searched us with great exactness,
but found nothing except two chalices, and some relics of so little
value that we redeemed them for six sequins. As I had given them my
chalice upon their first demand, they did not search me, but gave us
to understand that they expected to find something of greater value,
which either we must have hidden or the Abyssins must have imposed
on them. They left us the rest of the day at a gentleman's house,
who was our friend, from whence the next day they fetched us to
transport us to the island, where they put us into a kind of prison,
with a view of terrifying us into a confession of the place where we
had hid our gold, in which, however, they found themselves deceived.
But I had here another affair upon my hands which was near costing
me dear. My servant had been taken from me and left at Mazna, to be
sold to the Arabs. Being advertised by him of the danger he was in,
I laid claim to him, without knowing the difficulties which this way
of proceeding would bring upon me. The governor sent me word that
my servant should be restored to me upon payment of sixty piastres;
and being answered by me that I had not a penny for myself, and
therefore could not pay sixty piastres to redeem my servant, he
informed me by a renegade Jew, who negotiated the whole affair, that
either I must produce the money or receive a hundred blows of the
battoon.
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