Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/214

192 Shimbra Zuggan, and encamped about two hundred yards from it. The valley of that name is more broken and uneven than any part we had met with since we ascended Lamalmon. The valley called also Shimbra Zuggan, is two miles and a half N. by E. on the top of a hill surrounded with trees. Two small brooks, the one from S.S.E. the other from S.E. join here, then fall into the rivulet.

13th, at seven in the morning, we proceeded still along the plain; at half past seven came to Arradara; and afterwards saw above twenty other villages on our right and left, ruined and destroyed from the lowest foundation by Ras Michael in his late march to Gondar. At half past eight the church of Mariam was about a hundred yards on our left. At ten we encamped under Tamamo. The country here is full of people; the villages are mostly ruined, which, in some places, they are rebuilding. It is wholly sown with grain of different kinds, but more especially with wheat. For the production of this, they have everywhere extirpated the wood, and now labour under a great scarcity of fuel. Since we passed Lamalmon, the only substitute for this was cows and mules dung, which they gather, make into cakes, and dry in the sun. From Addergey hither, salt is the current money, in large purchases, such as sheep or other cattle; cohol, and pepper, for smaller articles, such as flour, butter, fowls, &c. At Shimbra Zuggan they first began to inquire after red Surat cotton cloth for which they offered us thirteen bricks of salt; four peeks of this red cloth are esteemed the price of a goat. We began to find the price of provisions augment in a great proportion as we approached the capital.