The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-08-15 00:00:00

THE PERILS OF THE ABYSSINIAN
CAPTIVES.

At a meeting of the Herts Auxiliary of the London
Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews,
recently held at Ware, the Rev. H. A. Stern gave a
very interesting account of the long captivity from
which he has just been ieleased. In the course of his
remarks the rev, gentleman said :

I was never in my lite more strongly impressed with the
conviction that God really hears and answers prayer than I
was when my chains were removed, and I was restored, with
my companions, to liberty. I have been asked how it
happened, that King Theodore, who was so cruel, so vin-
dictive, and no devoid of human sensibility, allowed us to
escape from his power at the very moment when he seemed
to be in the greatest danger. I can really give no other ex- !
planation than this—that God interposed. It was not by
human skill or wisdom that we were delivered; but It was
God that softened the heart of the king, so that he let us go. i
The circumstances were extraordinary. It was only a few
days before that he imbrued his hands in the blood of
three hundred of his own subjects, whose corpses were
lying upon the hill of Magdala. Ile was intending to
treat us in the same way, when some one suggested that he
should wait till the morrow, when he might shut us up
in one of the huts on the Amba, and burn us to death.
The morrow came, and he sent us to the British camp. On
the same afternoon he fought a battle with the British troops
and lost it. lie believed that he would win it, and it was
the conviction that he would gain the victory which saved
us. On the very Saturday when he gave us perrnission to go
to the British camp, and almost at the moment when the ,
mandate was issued. he put a pistol into his mouth, arid
, wanted to kill himself, but was prevented from doing so. it
I was extraordinary that a man who showed such deter-
! mination not to give himself up should at that time release
his prisoners and these things cannot be explained. As we
were leaving for the camp King Theodore grasped a musket
to tire at us, but the musket fell out of his hand, and we went
on. The day we left, the man who had recommended that
we should be shut up in a hut and burned, advised the King
to send after us and bring us back, and to wrench off our
hands and feet to show that he was not afraid. The King's
answer, given at that moment, was, "I have shed enough
human blood. Look at that heap of slain there (pointing to
where the 300 slaughtered rod lea were.) I have determined
to shed no more blood. Let them go in peace " What can
we say in such a case as this, except that God's providence
protected us? Whenever the King did purpose to put an
end to our existence, a mightier rower palsied his fl lien's
and arrested his arm.

Mr. Stern next detailed the origin of the misunder-
standing which had led to the arrest and long cap-
tivity of prisoners, and described other critical periods
in which the kindled wrath of Theodore seemed likely
to lead to fatal extremities.
1
On one of these occasions ropes were brought out, and I
thought the purpose was to wrench 011 our hands and feet,
but the intention was only to torture us. We were swathed
tightly in these ropes, which are formed of the fibres of a
tree, till the blood oozed from our fingers, and after we had
been bound, water was poured on the ropes to tighten them
still more. The scene is one which can never be forgotten
by any of us. Some of my companions were lying on the
ground, others were capering about like madmen, and some
were knocking their heads on the stones in the hope of
finishing their existence. The King seemed at first to take
pleasure in our sufferings; but after a time he relented,
thinking we might die, and so the ropes were taken off. And
as on. There was no one to utter a word of consolation, but
at the same time there was One near us who could point to
His own Word, and say, "Fear not, I am with you;" and
never did I feel the promises of God so near my heart
Every one said, "If it were not for the Bible, if we could
not new cling to Jesus—if we could not cling to the Rock
of Ages we should despair, and death would be better
than such an existence. By.anibloye, however, things
assumed a better aspect. People in England began to
take an interest in tut, and our position improved. In ad-

dition to bread we had served to as a ration of half-a-pint
of irked peas. After that the bishop the Abyssinian Bishop
woo acted US the friend of the captives got some MOIR.),
and sent me forty 414,11ar5, and then we were well provided.
We had been placed with other prisoners—not with the
aristocratic prisoners, but with the worst Abyssinian
criminals—with thieves and murderers; but after a fort-
night we were in a better position. At first we were placed
In a small hut with seventy Abyssinian prisoners, each of
us a space not more titan a foot wide to lie down on. We
tried to get some rest, but invariably if one turned round—
as one must needs dl—the whole circle imitated his example.
The natives had each of them a stone for a pillow under his
head; and as we had not a length of five feet to each per-
son, when we moved our feet we moved the stone upon which
some head was resting. When this happened, the native
who was disturbed used his stone to heat our feet, and we
in retaliation began to kick. Then there were tights in
which we had reenurse to the means at our disposal, and the
strongest gained the victory.

After further details of the same character, he pro-
ceeded to speak of the arrival of Mr. Ilassain, the
hopes to which it gave the, and the disappointment
in which they ended, when Mr. Kansans, too, was
under arrest.
. . . .

Turning from this subject to that of missionary
work and prospects in Abyssinia, Mr. Stern spoke of
them as encouraging, the people being anxious to hear
the Gospel from the lips of the missionaries, and,
wherever they went, gathering around them to listen.
The Jews' Society's Mission had only been established
a short time, and already there were fifty-five baptised
converts.