The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-24 00:00:00

THE ADVANCE' EV7O ABYSSINIA.

The Times correspondent sends a translation from the
Amharic of Sir Robert Napier's proclamation to the
Abyssinians. The Amharic style is =lowly complex
and involved, and the conjunctions and prepositions are
scattered about very grotesquely. The following is a
sample :

170r.DS PROCLAMATION
FROM Sia ROBERT NAPIED
Hum (OF) ARMY OF ENGLAND.
FROM COUNTRY (OF) INDIA,
To TUE GOVEENOR3 AND CIIIEFEI

AND TO

THE CONVENTS AND I.IOU3ES
AND TO ALL PEOPLE OF ETHIOPIA.
Hear t Tedros of Abyssinia, the Consul Cameron of

England,
The Envoy Ea-isam, with other many men with in
binding, of every 'country
The people by laws abiding the law having violated that

he is.

Now—cf friendship the means all them In order to free
useless having become,
By the Queen commanded, with an army with to liberate
them lam coming." &c., &c.
This proclamation is dated 17th of the month Mash-

nam (September).
Down to " Teclros," this correspmcient writes, is plain

sailing enough, but after that I fear some of your readers

may break down as I did, and so I subjoin a trans'ation :
" Hear 1 Tedros, King of Abyssinia, by binding Cameron

the Consul of England, and Rassam, the Envoy of Eng-
land, with many other men, has violated the law of every
country where the people abide by laws. Now, all
friendly measures tried to free them having proved useless,
I am coming, commanded by the Queen, with an army to
liberate them. Whoever is the friend of tkose prisoners,
and who will help to deliver them, shall be rewarded, but
whoever illtreats them shall receive severe punishment.
Further, reflect in your heart, 0 people of Ethiopia, in the
time of the coming of the army into your country, that the
Queen of England has not a thought of anger against

you, your country, your liberty, and existence. All your
persons and property, all your convents and churches in
your country, shall be protected with much care. All who
ma}► bring prov§iblis for sale will receive their price. The
inhabitants who remain 'quiet will not be troubled by any

one."

The proclamation is said to have produced a very good
effect in Tigre, the only part of the country from which
there has been time enough to hear of its arrival. Scouts
have, indeed, come down to this camp with reports that
Kassai, a great Tigre chief, has mustered 7,000 men at the
head of the Koomaylee Pass to oppose our progress, and
that a convoy has already been seized. But nobody
believes these reports, though proper precautions have
been taken to guard against a surprise. If 7,000 men have
really mustered there, it is probably out of curiosity or to
make a good bargain for assisting us with forage and food,

protecting our convoys, &c.
Colonel Merewether has of late been actively engage('
in exploring the country about here in various directions.
The chief result of his exertions is that our route up the
Abyssinian plateau has been definitely decided upon.
There are in this direction three mountain passes—the
Aligod6 Pass, leading due west to Kiagnor ; the lluddas
Pass, leading in a southerly direction towards Halal ; and
the Koomaylee Pass, running east of the Huddas, and
almost parallel to it, towards Senafe. Of these three the
last, the Koomaylee, has been chosen as by far the most
practicable. It has already been made throughout easily
accessible for mule carriage ; and although there is one bit
which it will be very hard work to make practicable for
wheeled ordnance, it is hoped that this, the only
difficulty, will soon be overcome. If the worst
comes to the worst, however, and the pass prove
impracticable for wheeled carriages, even our heaviest
ordnance can be taken up piecemeal on elephants. It is
said, by the way, that our use of trained elephants will do
more than almost anything else to impress the natives of
Abyssinia with a sense of our superior ingenuity and civi-
lisation. At present they declare that the stories told
them of our complete control over these animals are
travellers' lies. The pass to Kiagnor is not at all likely
to be used. It might be of service if the Tigr4ans proved
troublesome ; but, so far from this, eighty-three villages
on the eastern frontier, numbering about 12,000 souls, have
already, on receiving Sir Robert Napier's proclamation,
made friendly overtures. Colonel Merewether explored
the Huddas Pass a few days ago, and found that so
much labour would be required to make it practicable
that it is not, for the present at any rate, likely to be
turned to account. He ascended by it right up into
Abyssinia, and found there a charming climate and
splendid scenery ; there was also fair pi omise of forage.
A road has already been made by Major Baigrie from
our camp to the foot of the third pass, the Koomaylee, a
distance of about twelve miles, and a tramway com-
menced from the pier. No European troops will be
allowed to remain in this camp even one night, but will
be carried immediately on landing to Koomaylee, where
there are good wells. Thence they will either push on up
the pass to Lower Sooroo, where there is abundance of
clear running water and a capital climate, or turn off to
the right and halt at Udoda and Weeah. All these places
have bean used as depots, most of the troops already landed
here—in all some 1,600 strong—having been distributed
among them, and they would serve the purpose admirably
but for two drawbacks—firstly, every atom of food and
forage has to be carried out from Annesley Bay to them—
no light task in the present state of our labour-market,
the Commissariat Department having to solve a problem
rather like the famous fox and geese puzzle, since where
there is forage there is no water, and where there is water
there is no forage ; secondly—and this, I regret to say, is a
much more serious matter—a terrible epidemic has broken
out among the cavalry horses, and they are dying off
rapidly. The disease is said to be a sort of inflammatory
fever, in the incipient stage.very like glanders. It has so far
baffled the skill of our veterinary surgeons, but they have
not yet had time to grapple with it. I hope in my next
letter to have better accounts to send you. The disease,
it appears, is very common in this country. At some
military station near here—Massowah or Arafild, I forget
now which—the Egyptians lost 120 out of 150 horses in
one month. There is, however, one consolatory feature in
this malady. It seems confined exclusively to the horses.
I have not, at least, yet heard of one case among the
baggage animals. The troops, too, are well—the officers
wonderfully so, considering the hard work, both mental
and physical, they have to get through in this far from
nromising spot.
The advance into Abyssinia is thus described in a letter
dated Upper Sooroo, Dec. 2 :—" We left Mulkutto yes-
terday at three in the afternoon, and reached Koomaylee
about six. The road, just finished by Major Baigrie, lay
for the greater part of the journey over a dead level of
sand, covered for the first mile or two with salt plants,
and afterwards with acacias. It was hard when first
made, but was soon cut up by traffic, and is now very
heavy for men and horses. Bags of rice and grain, here
and there strewn over it, bore witness to the carelessness of
our baggage men and the honesty or apathy of the natives,
who seemed, however, to have no villages or habitations
very near. Once or twice we came upon some spot where
a handful of deserted huts, made in the rudest fashion out
of the branches of the acacia, chewed where a native vil-
lage had stood. The framework of each hut seemed still
in perfect preservation, and I am told that the proprietor
can always return to it, as he is always ready to move out
of it, at a day's notice, packing-up '— that bugbear of
civilised life—being with him a very simple process. The
ride offered no fine views, the mountain ranges in front of
us—we were going due west—being obscured by haze and
clouds of dust. There have been fearful dust storms in the
camp lately, half blinding and choking everybody, turning
cups of tea into little pools of muddy water, salt into
pepper, officers and gentlemen' into grimy, disreputable-
looking nondescripts whom their mothers wouldn't recog-
nise. Everyone was glad enough to reach Koomaylee,
which is prettily situate in a hollow formed by the
semi-circular sweep of a low mountain range, and in
which there is no dust, and a fair supply of fresh water.
It was quite a treat to be able to wash in clear, fresh
water, instead of the brackish muddy stuff which at Mul-
kutto made the process of soaping a mere matter of form
to be observed simply out of deference to tradition. This
morning we were up before daybreak,, but could not start
the baggage before six o'clock. A finger-post, in the best
British style, informed us that we were on the Road to
Abyssinia,' and after about half a mile we reached the bed
of the torrent up which the pass winds towards the
mountain plateau. For the first eight miles the peas
offered no difficulties, even for a wheeled carriage,
which it required more than a little labour to over
come. The ascent was very gradual, and there
was no defile narrow enough to be troublesome. Nor was
the scenery at all what I had been led to expect by tra-
vellers' accounts of Abyssinian passes. The acacia
covered every mountain side with monotonous uniformity,
no other shrub whatever being visible, until after sonic
four miles or so we came upon occasional epecimens of the
salvadora, tamarisk, tamarind, and wild dig-tree ; and the
mountains themselves, though often displaying great
beauty of outline, had little grandeur or majesty about
them. But within three or four miles of Upper Soroo, at
which I am now writing, and whicii is some twelve miles
distant from Koomaylee, the character of the scenery
suddenly and completely changed. The pass narrowed
until now and then it appeared about to be brought to an
abrupt termination by huge masses of converging rock,
and the mountains, instead of receding, as they had
hitherto done, in graceful slopes, leant forward, seemingly
overhanging their bases, their summits towering at a
tremendous height immediately above the pass. At every
turn of the road, which was often hidden altogether from
our view at a few paces' distance, we found ourselves, as
it were, close prisoners in a fresh chain of precipitous
cliffs. Huge boulders, washed down by the torrents, con-
stantly lay right across the path, and gave it, to my
unpractised eye, the appearance of being utterly impas-
sable to wheeled ordnance ; but I am told that the engi-
neers consider there are no obstacles which cannot be
overcome."