The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-28 00:00:00

THE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION.

We have received the following official despatch
from the India-office :
" Sir Stafford Northcote has received intelli-
gence from Colonel Merewether, at Sande, up to
13th December, up to which date all was going on
well. He had heard from the captives at Magdala,
who were well on the 11th of November, and had had
news of the expedition being on its way. Menelek,
acting with the Gallas, was moving to attack Meg-
dala. The King had not been able to advance
more than thirty miles from Debra Tabor, being
encumbered with baggage, and having great oppo-
sition to encounter.

" Accounts up to October 11th had been re-
ceived from Mr. Flad. The King had carried off
with him from Debra Tabor all Europeans, some in
chains, others free. Among the latter was Mr.
Flad, who says also that the women and children
were all well, and that the prisoners had been of
late better treated by the king."

(11011 OCR SPECIAL

ANNEBLICY BAY, Dec. 11.

The advanced force, which has reached Senafe,
has found there a most agreeable climate, the
thermometer at night registering 3 degrees below
freezing point, and the temperature being after
dark too cold rather than too warm. The last
march but one—namely, from Upper Sooroo to
Rarey-Gudiy—was very trying. The distance be-
tween the two points is 28 miles, no water being
found in the interval, but to the troops, who had
in addition to the length thousands of feet of an
ascent to surmount, it seemed 40.
At Senafe there is plenty of water : as to grass,
reports differ, one declaring that although every-
thing looks green and smiling, there is nothing on
which to feed horses ; the other, and that to which
I attach most weight, declares that there is a fair
amount of gross.
Whatever may be the forage found, the political
reasons for this rapid advance—viz., to decide the
chiefs to pronounce in our favour—seem to have
been so far crowned with success. Kassa, chief of
Tigre, has sent us most friendly messages ; so also
has Wasgra, Prince of Limb', who has been for
months in correspondence with us : these two being
respectively the second and the third most impor-
tant men in Abyssinia. It is reported, also, that
Menelek, Prince of Shoe, has surrounded Magdala.
Menelek is supposed to be friendly to us ; he is the
son-in-law of Theodore, but has been for some time
inimical to the King.
General Stavely is now in command at Annesley
Bay. Brigadier-General Collings has also arrived.
The Belochee battalion, which is now encamped
close to the sea, presents a fine specimen of our
native infantry. They are armed with the Enfield
rifle—a distinction conferred, I believe, on only
ono other battalion of the whole of the native in-
fantry in India. The 33rd are on the point of
disembarking. They have muzzle-loading rifles,
and, malice whispers, only breech-loading ammuni-
tion—a report which, though it cannot be literally
true, is not altogether without foundation.
The arrival of oxen with carts, of camel saddles,
and 2,500 Otago saddles, in the Great Victoria,
has greatly eased the minds of our transport train ;
steps, too, are being taken to render the watering of
all the animals more easy and better organised.
Of all the beasts the oxen look the quaintest. ,
They are grey, large tractable animals, with im-
mense horns, and with a considerable hump on
their backs. When used in draught a wooden bar
fastened to the pole is placed in front of the hump,
and with scarcely any other harness two animals
drag over this sandy plain four camel or eight mule
loads.

The labour market is in &much healthier condition.
500 dholy bearers—men who carry the wounded off
the field, but also work at anything else when not
thus employed—have been added to our strength,
and large numbers of native sappers have landed,
so that our oommisaariat was the other day enabled

to inform the Sheba', who were clamouring for
more pay, that their services could be dispensed
with. Great was the woe of these gentry on find-
ing that there was a prospect of the supply of
Maria Theresa dollars being cut short, and they
begged to be taken on at any price.
The health and spirits of the men are excellent.
I wish I could say the same for the mules; but still
many fires show that the sanitary officer is engaged
in destroying the bodies of those that have died,
and many smells show that still more fires are
required.
The regulations with respect to baggage have
been published in case of rapid movements. They
are simple—a lieutenant-general has two mules ;
all the rest, from major-general to ensign, one ; a
private, 461bs. There are extra mules allowed for
mess tents and officers, but on the most minimised
scale. This reduction in the amount of officers'
baggage will put at the disposal of the transport
corps at least 2,000 tulditional animals, and though
officers sigh at the thought of sacrificing their bed
or their gun, the movements of the force will be
much expedited, and no one can venture to
grumble at a reduction of baggage which cuts down
the comforts of general officers to the same standard
as those of the junior ensign.
The useful but stern edict is not to come into
force until post No. 2 is reached, whether post
No. 2 means Komayle or Senate being not yet
quite determined.
This order is evidently an effort to bring the
baggage of an Indian force to within something
like the limits usually assigned to a European
army. Indian officers speak of the allowance of

tents, baggage, animals, d:c., as being something
infinitely below what it has been the custom ie
sanction in Eastern campaigns, and yet here nearly
every officer has two native servants, many three ;
the men are supplied with bheesties (men who
carry water), native cooks, dx.. and are each
allowed to have 461 be. carried for them, while in a
home campaign every ounce except tho camp
kettles must be borne by the fighting man himself,
and he also must perform the domestic duties of
the camp.

There is one luxury which we are rapidly accus-
toming ourselves to do without, namely, washing.
A sea bath certainly forms an efficient' substitute
for a tub, but sea-water ruins the clothes that may
be washed in it. As the local supply of water is
limited, servants have hitherto been sent out with
the dirty linen 16 or 20 miles, but two of them
were lately attacked by natives, beaten, one of
them severely, and their master's property was
taken from them. This is not an isolated case of
outrage ; in more than one instance camel or mule
drivers, when in twos or threes, have been summoned
by armed men to surrender their money, and
in some cases their goods, and have always
complied. This ought to excite no surprise. Since
our landing we have been extremely tolerant of
petty depredations, and probably the inhabitants
have assumed that we will take with equal good
nature petty outrages. The habit, too, of certain
classes of the country is to go armed. Yesterday
I saw a man driving three calves, followed by
another with about as many goats in charge; the
first bore a sword and a club, the second had a
spear on his shoulder, and a tulwah or short sword
girt to his side. At present we are taking steps to
make the chiefs of the districts in which
offences are committed responsible, pretty much
as King Alfred made each man of a
hundred responsible for his neighbours; but here
there is a difficulty to be encountered—namely,
that the worst plunderers are a description of pro-
fessional, or rather hereditary, highwaymen, who
live in almost inaccessible positions, and who do
not acknowledge the sway of the ordinary chiefs of
the country. Of course they are most contemptible
hounds, fifty of whom would not attack two
well-armed Europeans, but if not kept in
check, they may oblige us to send an armed
guard with every batch of mules and camels.
A company of engineers has just been
despatched to render the last eight miles
of the road to Senate practicable to camels. Our
chief object just now is to establish a large depUt
there, and it is of great importance that we should
work the camels as far as possible, as these animals
not only carry more than the mules, but It is un-
necessary to carry food for them, as they browse
on the bushes of the country ; while a mule would
eat half his load before he had gone to and re-
turned from the highlands.
One of the last reports is that the Prince of Tigre,
while making every profession of friendship, keeps
his men encamped not very far from ours at Senate,
and wants us to promise him money and increase
of territory in exchange for his assistance or neu-
trality.

ON ABYSSINIAN GROUND. -.41•
The special correspondent of the Times in
Abyssinia bad, on December 8, reached Senate, on
Abyssinian ground. A great deal of his letter is taken
up with an account of the pus of the Hoomaylee, the
existence of which is • wonderful piece of good fortune
for our faros. There is, it I. said by professional men,
no other pass known in the world by which so great •
height is attained at so gradual an ascent. Senate, at the
summit of the pass, is as nearly as possible 7,0.10 feet, and
the ascent is, on an average, about 1 in 41. The natural ob-
stacles are, moreover. very few and far between. Here is •
sketch :—" The vegetation grew richer and more plentiful.
To the trees which we had before observed, and which be-
came far more numerous, were now added the aloe, the
kolqual, about which Bruce—who took, however, the
Haddas Pus, not the .Koomaylee—a rites so much, and
some splendid sycamores and other fine specimens of the
fig tribe ; and as we approached Rayray Gaddy, through
narrow, tortuous defiles, with windings so incessant
as to more than double the distance, and reached the
clear stream which for a mile and • half flows through
the pus, the scenery became still more beautiful
and full of charms for every sense. Sweet-scentr I
shrubs, resembling the English jasmine, filled the
air with fragrance ; and juniper trees, mimosa,
and dense groups of evergreens completely bid
the foot of the mountain, affording a tempting
covert for the birds whose gorgeous, tropical
plumage glittered among the boughs ; and overhead the
rocks, rising almost perpendicularly to the height of many
hundred feet, admitted into the pass just enough of the
sun's rays to make the air deliciously warm. We all agreed,
nem. are., then and there, that if Abyssinia, which was now
only some ten miles off, at all resembled this charming
spot, Abyssinia had been most cruelly maligned, or,
at the best, ' damned with faint praise.' Senate,
though rather disappointing to those who came ex-
pecting to see an Abyssinian town, is satisfactory enough
from • strategic point of view. There is enough good
camping-ground for a large army, and plenty of water.
Our camp is pitched in an open, irregular valley, crowned
at intervals with masses of mountain and rock, which
would look lofty anywhere else, but are mere excrescences
on the table-land of Abyssinia. Ac either end the
valley winds round and swells into • plain, equally
convenient for • camp and well adapted for the manceuvres
of cavalry. More table-land, specious, but frequently
interrupted by low ranges of hills, stretches away to the
east, but on the south-west the plateau abruptly breaks,
and looking down from it one sees as far as the eye can
reach nothing but one wild series of mountain-chains
rising and falling in every variety of angle and elevation,
until at last the horizon is bounded by a giant range, which
towers high above all the rest. Among them are several
of those extraordinary fastnesses said to be • peculiar fea-
ture of this coantry—a square mar of rock, flat at the
top but with sides bare and steep as the walls of a fortress,
and having seemingly as little natural relation as a
fortress to the green mountain top on which they stand."

--•- - -
OPENING OF THE Now 111FIRMART.—Testerday
the New Infirmary just erected on the Thornhill Hetet*
was formally opened, the inauguration ceremony being
performed by the Right Honourable the Earl Vane, in
the presence of a large number of gentlemen and
ladies, who bad assembled to witness the interesting pro-
ceedings. Among the noblemen and gentlemen present
were the following, who were eutertaised istluncheon by Mr.
James Hartley, M.P.: —Earl Vane, Lord &ahem, Hon.
Henry Vane Tempest, Lord Ernest Tine Tetnpest,Colonel
Appelby, Dr. Chadwick, Roman Catholic Bishop of Hex.
ham and Newcastle, the Rev. W. Cockin, the Bev. J.
'Limber, Mr. C. M. Webster, Mr. William Stobart, Mr.
H. T. Morton, Mr. E. H. Holing, Mr. Victor Williamson,
the Mayor, Dv. Pyle, Mr. T. Harrison, Mr. Candlish, Mr.
Kayll, Mr. E. A. Baling, Mr. Vint, Mr. Snowball, and
Mr. Morgan.—Sunderland Herald.
THZ CATTLE PLAGUE IN 13ELO11'M.—The hii-
peadanot of Brussels has the following :—" In the an-
nouncement that the cattle. disease had broken out simul-
taneously at Bercbem and at Kiel, below Antwerp, it was
stated that five cow-houses at the latter place were
menaced by the new irruption. The delay of a fort.
night since the appearance of the malady gave reason
to hope that the measures taken to preserve the stalls
adjoining the points f infection would have satisfactory
results. These previsions, unfortunately, have not been
realised. Cases of contagious typhus were observed at
Kiel on the 22nd, in two stalls situated ate few yards from
those in which the disease first appeared. One of them
contained five oxen, the other three. The sanitary cordon
which had been set up more than '2OO yards from the
infected places has been re-intoned, and several of the
animals have been slaughtered.

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