Volume Three—Chapter Nine.

The River Gochob.

An inspection of the map will show on the eastern coast an extensive hiatus, which, from the scanty reports that have been gleaned, is most certainly studded with high mountains, and drained by numerous and powerful rivers; but no details have hitherto been obtained that justified the laying down of either with any geographical accuracy. The first accounts of the existence in central Africa of a great river were brought to Etearchus, king of the Oasis of Ammon, by certain youths of the Nassamonians, who, as related by Herodotus, “had been deputed to explore her solitudes. After a journey of many days they were seized and carried into captivity by some men of dwarfish stature, who conducted them over marshy grounds, to a city in which all the inhabitants were of the same diminutive appearance, and of a black colour. This city was washed by a great river, now ascertained to be the Niger, which flowed from west to east, and abounded in crocodiles.”

The early Arabian geographers specifically mention large rivers descending from the high mountain land to the southward of the blue Nile, and flowing to the Indian ocean; and it is a curious fact, that they designate one of these “the River of Pygmies.” The Portuguese were the next who spoke of this stream, upwards of two centuries ago; and from the highlands of Abyssinia a clue to its origin and course has now been obtained, which will serve in a great measure to supply the existing deficiencies, and to cover the wide space of terra incognita in Eastern Africa north of the equator.

The Gochob is described to rise in the great central ridge which is now known to divide the waters that discharge themselves east into the Indian Ocean, from those that flow west into the Bahr el Abiad, and more southerly into the Atlantic. Spreading into a lake, and bearing on its bosom a noble body of water, it is joined, fifteen days’ journey south of Enárea, by the Omo, a large tributary which rises beyond Tufftee in Susa Maketch, in a jet of water playing the height of a spear shaft. Half a day’s journey below the point of junction, the united volume rolls over a stupendous cataract called Dumbáro, the roar of which can be heard many miles, whence pursuing its course to the south-east, it forms the southern limit of Zingero, and finally disembogues into the sea.

There seems every reason to believe that the Gochob must be identical with the Kibbee of the best extant maps, described to be a very large river coming from the north-west, and entering the sea near the town of Juba, immediately under the equator. If not the Kibbee, it must be the Quilimancy, which disembogues by several estuaries between Patta and Malinda, four degrees further to the south; but all accounts of the latter that have yet been collected from the coast, authorise the adoption of the first hypothesis.

The general course of the Nile to the north, and of the Kibbee to the south, are said to have been well-known to the Egyptians three thousand years ago. The sacristan of the temple of Minerva in Thebes told Herodotus that half the waters of the father of rivers flowed to the north, and the other half to the south, and that they were produced by the tropical rains. The currents experienced in five degrees north of the equator, in the vicinity of the coast, confirm the opinion of a great river rolling a vast body of water into the eastern ocean. At their height during the prevalence of the monsoon in August and September, they are known to sweep a vessel along at the rate of one hundred and twenty miles a day, frequently exposing the inexperienced navigator to the chance of shipwreck on Socotra, whereas before and after the tropical rains the current is scarcely perceptible. Were this caused by the monsoon, it would prevail equally over these latitudes during the influence of the south-westerly winds; but the fact remains, that it is felt only off the coast in about five degrees north latitude, at the period alone when the river must be swollen with the volume of water gathered from the highest mountain land in the interior.

Beyond Zingero, and considerably lower down the great river, is the kingdom of Koocha, which is described to be hot, and subject to annual rains of two months’ duration. It extends on both sides, with a numerous population inhabiting many large towns, of which Laadé, Seylo, Umpho, Jella, Gulta, Aara, and Wunjo, all on the northern bank, are the principal. The houses are conical, and constructed of mud and bamboos, which there grow abundantly. All the nation are Galla, with features strictly those of the Negro, and their king is Bosha, the son of Laadé, surnamed, from the title of his war-steed, Abba Wábotoo, “I am he who seizes.”

In addition to the two umbrellas of state, the one composed of blue, and the other of crimson, this chieftain is distinguished by a shield covered with massive gold, and by many ornaments of the same precious metal on his person. The costume of all classes consists of party-coloured raiment—red, blue, and white, being mingled together in profusion. Large pewter ear-rings are worn by the males; and by the females, whose hair is braided in long ringlets, silver armlets, anklets, and bracelets. Both sexes are great equestrians. The saddles are covered with red imported leather, and the horses and mules are large and abundant. Cultivation in every description of tropical grain is universal; honey abounds in every quarter, and beer and hydromel are manufactured by all.

Spices, odoriferous woods, and aromatic herbs, tea, coffee, oranges, nutmeg, and ginger, are exceedingly plentiful. Precious stones are also found, and bartered to certain white men, who, wearing shoes, trousers, and hats, and having yellow hair, come with their merchandise in rowing-boats thirty days from the sea. They bring blue calico, chintz, pepper, tobacco, copper, cutlery, and “fire water,” and receive in exchange slaves, ivory, spices, and gold, which latter is brought in large quantities from Douro.

Slaves being in great demand, and their acquisition extremely lucrative, Bosha is at perpetual war with all the surrounding tribes, save during the annual rains. The Dánnagem, and the Danna-Oorkeshool Galla, are attacked every year, as are also the Málee Galla, a people armed with bows and arrows, who dig pits, throw up bamboo stockades, and place pointed stakes in the ground to annoy the cavalry of Koocha, whose horses being kept in the house all the year round, and abundantly fed, are very superior. Murderers are punished according as they have dealt with their victim—one or two or more spear wounds or blows with the sword being inflicted by the nearest relative of the deceased—but all thieves, delinquents, and poor people, are sold to the white traders, and immense numbers of slaves of both sexes are brought down by the Douro Galla, in rafts with high gunwales, containing six or eight persons.

The great river, which in this kingdom is supplied by two large tributaries—the Toreech, rising in the country of the Gama Gobo, and the Teeto, coming from the Alla Galla—is the medium of all trade. It is very broad, and, except during the rainy season, has little perceptible motion. The volume of water is always large, and comes from a great distance inland. Hippopotami and elephants abound; and the gimjah, or tree tiger, which infests the borders, is greatly feared for its ferocity, and prized for the beauty of its skin. Native crafts reach the sea in fifteen days, and ivory, slaves, coffee, and a variety of other merchandise, are constantly brought on rafts by the tribes higher up; but the white people never go beyond Koocha, neither do the interior tribes pass down to the sea.

The Gochob, of which the discovery promises important accessions in a geographical as well as in a commercial point of view, may be conjectured to be the “Bargámo,” or great water, from beyond which the Galla describe their hordes to have poured, when they invaded Abyssinia, after being driven from the vast unexplored interior by the centrifugal force yet unexplained. Like the barbarous nations who were made the weapons of Divine chastisement upon the corrupted empire of Rome, they also brought darkness and ignorance in their train, but were unable to eradicate the true religion. Throughout the regions included between the Nile, the Háwash, and the Gochob, which may properly be termed Galla, none but their own tongue is spoken; whereas to the south of the last-named river, the intruding population have lost their language and become gradually incorporated with the aboriginal possessors of the soil. Whatever may be the true magnitude of the river, it is clearly navigated to a considerable extent by a white people, who reap a lucrative harvest whilst draining the country of its population, by a traffic which must reflect the blackest disgrace upon the name of any civilised people, and is here not rendered the less infamous by the fact, that many of their purchases are Christians.