The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-13 00:00:00

THE ABYSSINIAN CAPTIVE'S.

The following are extracts of a letter from the
Rev. 11. Stern, received by Mra. Stern :

" Magdala Prison, June 29.
" My dear Charlotte,—Our Magdala home
which, with the exception of the short intervals
that it was occupied by the King, has for a long
time remained quiet and undisturbed, like the rock
on which it is built, but it has of late become quite
animated, noisy, and tumultuous. Almost every
day we hear and see something that amuses or agi-
tates us. Reports, whether true or false, from the
Royal camp, our hostile neighbours, the Gallas,
and from the various provinces in the possession of
the rebel chiefs, come to us daily through the me-
dium of those who bring to our prison provisions
of all kinds to sell. Now we hear of the Wagshum
Gobazye of Tigre coming to besiege our Amba, then
it is whispered that the King has quitted his fence
at Debra Tabor, and is marching in this direction ;
then, again, we are told that the Wollo Gallas have
driven off the cattle of King Theodore, which are
under guardianship of the villagers of our fortress,
and which graze on the pastures below us in the
valleys. Stirring tales of contests, pillage,
triumphs, and defeats have diffused among the in-
habitants of the bills and valleys, mountains and
ruffian babbles and
rock,plains,where
asort
eovferywareleikweardfelyelig up to this very
chatters as if he were the champion of Abyssinia
and the prop of the convulsed realm. We have had
ocular demonstration of the wonderful courage and
prowess of the brave guards over us. On one occa-
sion about a fortnight ago our fortress was in a
great excitement at the news that a force was coin-
ing to invade us ; all the soldiers were ordered to
arm, and, trembling, looked up their rusty weapons;
and half the garrison sallied forth to prove their
courage, -went out at the gate and encountered—
an old woman and her family of small children.
On another occasion, Betwooet Dainish, a daring
arrakee (ardent spirits) hero, as Mr. Rassani's
empty bottles can testify, was sent with a party
to drive off the Gallas who had absconded with
the King's cows, which he and his brave soldiers had
stolen from the peasants in Dembea and Begemeder.
However, after a night's apparent search, they came
back without an encounter, and astonished the
natives with their bluster and swagger about nothing.
A dozen stout Englishmen with a revolver or two
each might easily subdue the whole garrison here
and set us all at liberty. It would appear that the
King has been advised to remain at Debra Tabor
during the rainy season, and to defer his visit to the
Magdala until the spring. I trust we shall never
see
eh
tongue
igfaceagailor hear his venomous and un-
blushing prate about Solomon, Jerusalem,
Sennaar, England, the Turks, the bishop, and all
sorts of worthless trash with which he has tormented
his white prisoners, and delights his malicious heart.
The report about the imprison Inca of the Gaffat
workmen is contradicted, and it would appear, if the

"We hear from all dir..:ctions of the mighty
crusades aglinst the enemy of God and man,' as the
King is designated by his rebellious subjects. The
Wag ,hum, chid of Tigre, Lasta, &c., report says,
is marshalling his forces in alibella, near the sources
of the Tacazzc ; Menilek, the son-in-law of the
Negus, and the King of Shoa, is on the border of
the Wollo Galla country. Tadla Gualu, the Prince
of Godjatn, is near the southern shores of LakeTsna.
And, lastly, the long-harassed and impoverished
Gallas arc close to our Amba. That all this brag
and boast, all this din and turmoil will end in smoke
is more than probable ; and King Theodoros, with
every province, district, and village in revolt against
hitn, will by the mere sound of his name maintain
his position as a bold depredator, till a higher power
terminates the devastating conflict, and restores
peace and quiet to this unhappy, torn, and distracted
country.

" You will, I know, feel glad to hear that my
health, which was for some time very indifferent, is
again improving. The cause of much of my suffer-
ing was restlessness and want of sleep. I have now
dismissed from my mind all irritating, vexatious,
and unpleasant topics, and with my Bible for medi-
tation, and my ever present Saviour for companion,
support, and solace, I feel as happy and contented
as if I was free, and did not know the weight of my
heavy chains.

'6 Hoping that we shall meet ere many months
are over our head, with kindest love to the children
and every member of your family, and with best
wishes and prayers,—Ever your affectionate hus-
band, '6 HENRY- A. STERN."

(From a Correspondent of the " Times.")

PARIS, Sept. 12, 7 a.m.

The topic of Abyssinia is decidedly a favourite
one now in Paris, and the Patrie has just published
two columns concerning it from the pen of Count
R. du Bisson. M. du Bisson does not date his
letter, but he appears to write in Paris on the
strength of letters of the 30th of July received
from Abyssinia. It will surprise you to learn how
well informed they arc there, and that—
" All the secrets of the Foreign-office are con-
scientiously delivered over to Theodore. Three
months ago at Gondar, they knew the effective
strength and composition of the expeditionary corps,
and even the numbers of the regiments. At that
date, in London, the expedition was denied. And
the letters, dated three months ago, contain the
same details that the military newspapers have
published within the last fortnight. The Emperor
Theodore knew that 10,000 camels were to be fur-
nished by the Viceroy, that Massowah was chosen
for the base of operations, and that they feigned to
proclaim very loudly the invasion of Abyssinia by
the Tarenta, otherwise the Red Sea. When informed
of this plan he said, ' The English are either mad
or imbecile—mad, if they attempt what they say ;
imbecile, if they imagine I fear them.' In fact, the
purchase of the camels at once enlightened the
cunning Negus as to the point of attack really se-
lected."

According to M. du Bisson, by way of the Red
Sea the paths are all impassable by camels. Tra-
vellers and merchants have repeatedly tried the
experiment without success. The only practicable
road for camels he asserts to be by way.of Galabat
and Matamah, but that involves 20 days' forced
marches through the Egyptian Soudan, and crossing
the Bogos, the Benihamer, Bahria, Taka, the pro-
vince of Khartoum, with halts in the towns of
Kassalah and Guedaref. Ile says that the difficul-
ties the English army will encounter are immense
and will baffle nil calculations, all foresight. This
ill-omened prophet says :
" We will not speak of the Guedaref worm or of
the teenia ; one is safe from them if one never drinks
water. We will say nothing of the gigantic defiles,
of the absence of roads over mountains inaccessible
to Europeans, of the rains that commence in April,
a frightful deluge which breaks down the strongest
tents, changes rivulets into torrents and rivers into
oceans, drowning the plains for two months, and
leaving them during the three succeeding months
ravaged by typhus and by the pernicious fevers
engendered by mountains of detritus in fermentation,
of carcasses of animals in putrefaction, under a sun-
heat of 85 deg. centigrade. We will not point out
the desperate position of an invading army in a
country which has already been methodically ruined,
sacked, and burnt, surrounded on all sides by pesti-
lential marshes, hemmed in by fanatical free corps,
implacable in their hatre3,inexorable in their venge-
ance, indefatigable in their attacks ; of au army cut
off from its base of operations by muddy and
mephitic oceans, without communications, without
the possibility during one-third of the year of ob-
taining supplies, and consequently obliged to take
with it provisions, stores, medicines, ammunition for
four months. We will not dwell upon the absur-
dity of employing in endless defiles, strewed every-
where with rocks fallen from the mountains, a
cavalry accustomed to the plains of India, draught
animals accustomed to the sandy, easy paths of the
Desert, in provinces where often man alcne serves
as beast of burden, helping himself with his feet and
hands. All that concerns the skilful English Gene-
rals and their FO well-organised commissariat."

After thus pointing out everything that he says
he will not point out, this friendly gentleman pre-
dicts that neither 15,000 nor 20,000 soldiers, Indian
or English, will suffice to rescue the prisoners, whom
he maintains to be still in the power of Theodore,
who will pitilessly cut their throats. This must
have struck numbers of persons as highly probable
even before M. du Bisson pointed it out ; but the
question now is not confined within the narrow
limits of the rescue of those few unfortunate men.
If the prisoners are killed, it might be some conso-
lation to get hold of Theodore, and dispose of him
by means of the halter he merits. No chance of
that, says the oracular Bisson
" In action, twelve of his most valiant warriors,
likenzankuas, adopt his Imperial costume, take
similar arms, a horse like his, a suite as numerous,
so that is impossible to recognise the Emperor, or
to know where he is. Theodore may be killed, but
his successor will be Macheca, his son, warlike, full
of audacity, intelligence, and acquired knowledge,
and, moreover, the idol of the army. The English
may gain negative battles, leading only to the pos-
session of deserts wasted by fire, and when they
have spent 200 millions of francs, abandoned to
vultures and hyenas 10,000 of their soldiers, and got
Messrs. Cameron, Rassam, Stern, &c., massacred,
the victorious and decimated remnant of their army
will go and re- embark at Massowah. The Emperor
of Abyssinia will still be Theodore or his son, and
the British flag will not the less continue to sweep
the filth of the Palace of Gondar."
In a note M. du Bisson informs us that the two
English flags taken from the consulate-general and
from Mr. Miss= arc, upon certain solemn anni-
versaries, dragged through the Imperial apartments
and down the staircase with hootings and outrages,
and are afterwards put back in the most unclean
corner of the palace, where they are habitually
kept.
Whatsoever the result of the campaign, the in.
vading force is to have no easy triumph. Accord-
ing to their French friend, the Abyssinians are
heroes, intrepid, indefatigable, and almost invulner-
able. They can march 20 leagues in ten hours,
fight for a whole day without food or drink, sleep
in the water and in the mud, always plein d'humour
(whatever M. du Bisson may mean by that), and
inspired with a fanaticism equalled only by their
hatred of the foreigner. The women are the mo-
dern Spartans. In battle they form a sort of rear
rank, taking care of the wounded and bringing up
ammunition under the hottest fire, "The poward

who retreats is no longer a man ; his wife divorces
him, his betrothed rejects him, his priest curses him.
Paradise is the lot of the fallen hero ; the coward
gocs to the other pli.ce." But it appears, according,
to Count du Bisson, that Theodore, in the expecta-
tion of this war, of wh is seems that the
treachery of our Foreign-officc long since warned
him, sent for military instructors, both European
and American, and that some of them have arrived,
and others are on the road, or about to set out. lie
h s also bought several thousand breech-loiders,
and "M. liJurgon " (a French name, perhaps a
friend of M. du Bisson) has organised a manufac-
tory of cartridges specially for these new arms.
Machecha, the heir to the crown, has been put at
the head of au Army Corps; one Raz Enghedda
commands all the sharpshooters, and, as he under-
stands French and English, the foreigners are under
his orders. Some other particulars are given, ap-
parently derived from the Gondar Gazette. M.
Bardel (another French name) is still, according to
M. du Bisson, the Minister in favour. Ido not,
however, find his name in the Almanack de Paris
(a recent rival to that of Gotha) for 1867, althoncrh.
in that work Abyssinia figures, taking alpha.—..Al
precedence of all countries cAtept France :

" All the Emperor's treasures have been removed
from Magdala and Debra-Thabor to another amba.
The Empress Toroneche (the second Wife of Theo-
dorus), the most beautiful and proudest Princess of
the East, separated from her husband since the
famous box on the ears he publicly gave her for a
proud and too filial reply, has forgiven the injury
in the name of her country and religion in danger.
She reappeared at Court amid the frantic acclama-
tions of a whole people that adores her."
According to the Paris Amanach, this high-
spirited young lady is the daughter of the Viceroy
of Tigre, and was born " towards" 1844. Baptismal
registers are perhaps not very exactly kept in that
country. M. du Bisson enumerates the native par-
tisans opposed to the Negus, and gives the forces
they dispose of, from which it would seem that
there are but two of any importance ; Melekot,
lately at the head of a corps of 3,000 men inChoa,
but who was being sharply pursued by the ft-
attrari, or general of advanced guard, and Adara,
Prince of the Ouellos-Gallas, who disposes of 4,000
or 5,000 soldiers. "Itis he who pushed a bold re-
connaissance as far as Magdala, and gave rise to
the story that the English prisoners were in the
power of the insurgents. The following day the
Ouellos were rapidly retreating, considerably
damaged." M. du Bisson refers to an attempt
made long ago by the Coptic-Patriarch of Alex-
andria to obtain the release of the prisoners, and
mentions that his envoys " were in Abyssinia at
the same time as we were." When that time was,
and what might be M. du Bisson's object in visiting
that country, we are not informed.

Railway and other Companies.

NORTII BRITISH.

The report of the directors of this company states
that durng the past half-year the addition to capital
account, principally for new works, had been
£169,480. During the half-year two and a half
miles of the Camps branch and 9i miles of the
Monktonhall and Ormiston branch had been opened
for traffic. The other new lines and works under
construction were now all but completed, and a
material diminution of expenditure under this head
might therefore be looked for in the current half
year. The revenue account for the half-year end-
ing July 31 last showed th 4 £657,618 had been.
-receive-dTagainst £635,855 'in the corresponding
six months of last year, showing an increase of
£21,793. The expenditure amounted to £375,342,
against £382,706 for the corresponding half of last
year, showing an increase in some items of £25,772,
and a decrease in other items of £33,135, the result
being a decrease of expenditure in favour of the past
half-year of £7,364. The interest on debentures,
temporary loans, bank advances, debts, prepaid
calls, the expenses of loans, and dividends on de-
benture stocks amounted in the half-year to
£142,867, including interest on capital expended on
unproductive works. The balance of revenue re-
maining for dividend to the shareholders was
£130,580 as against £113,591 for the corresponding
period of last year, or an increase of £16,981, equal
to 15 per cent. The directors recommended that
the £130,580, with the balance of £143 brought
from the previous half-year, be appropriated to
dividends on several stocks, which would absorb
£130,667, and leave £56. The continued and un-
avoidable application of current revenue to capital
purposes rendered it necessary that the payment
of the dividends be deferred, except on those
stocks which possessed a lien for the payment of the
dividend secured to them. The large increase of
£21,850 on the half-year's traffic receipts, and this ob-
tained in the face of depressed trade, afforded the
best evidence of the progressive nature of the under-
taking. The working expenses had received the
careful consideration of the directors, and the result
of the half year's working justified to a certain
extent the expectations they held out in their last
report. In the present accounts the whole of the
expenditure incurred in the repair and maintenance
of the permanent way had been charged to revenue,
while at this time last year £39,022 of expenditure
under that head was carried to a suspense account.
The directors believed that with prudent manage-
ment the amount available for distribution among
the shareholders would in future half years be gra-
dully augmented, and hoped that, at no distant
date, dividends would be earned upon the whole of
the preference stocks, as well as on the ordinary
stocks of the company. The directors, in adverting
1 to the Parliamentary proceedings of last session, ac-
knowledge the valuable assistance afforded to them
by individual shareholders in promoting the bill for
the regulation of the company's finances. That
bill proposed to authorise the company to raise
£1,875,625 of additional share capital, and it passed
the committee of the House of Commons as an un-
opposed measure, but at every subsequent stage it
met with the most determined opposition at the in-
stance of one or two shareholders ; and although,
when it came before the committee of the House of
Lords, its provisions were modified, power was ulti-
mately obtained-1, To exercise at once dormant
borrowing powers of the company to the amount of
£813,850, which would not add to the authorised
loan capital ; 2, to raise £1,050,000 of additional
capital by preference stock, bearing dividend not
exceeding 8 per cent., to rank after the existing
preferences; and 3, to increase the rate of dividend
on the 1865 preference stock from 5 to 6 per
cent. The powers so acquired would not be ex-
ercised without the previous sanction of the share -
holders. At present it was only proposed to autho-
rise the directors to borrow the above mentioned
sum £843,850 on debenture, and a resolution to that
effect would be submitted after the ordinary busi-
ness of the meeting was disposed of. These deben-
tures would not add to the capital of the company,
or to the charges against revenue, as they would
simply take the place of debts, the interest of which
at present formed a burden on revenue. For invest-
ment they would afford an unexceptionable security,
as the margin of the surplus revenue was upwards of
a quarter of a million annually, and that surplus
was continually increasing. In order to add to the
security of the debentures and debenture stock of
the company, the directors inserted in the Finance
Act a clausefor continuing the arrangement made by
them in January last, to lay aside weekly in a sepa-
rate bank account a sum sufficient to meet the inte-
rest and dividends on those to the following effect:
" During the period of seven years next after the
passing of this act, the company shall, in every week
Pay into one of the banks at Edinburgh, to the
credit of a separate account, a sum equal to 1-52 d
part of the interest for a year upon all the mortgages
or debentures and debenture stock of the company
for the time being, and the sums so paid in shall be

held by the bank upon trust for the paynientofsuch
interest." Under this arrangement the amount al-
ready deposited in bank to meet the interest on 11th
November next was between £BO,OOO and £90,000,
and the confidence felt in the improved financial
position of the company was such that the debentures
falling due at Martinmas term were being freely
renewed at 4k per cent. The only other act obtained
by the company was to sanction certain deviations
in authorised lines near Glasgow, with the view of
economising I trid and works, and to acquire ground
for a mineral depot and station accommodation at
Dundee, where, at resent, the company were much
Solwayinconvcnienc ,l in the conduct of theirg})Ods tr;~dic.
Company c;atinue to be of the s,une friendly cha-
racter as hitherto. A petition was pre. crated as tight
the
e wiles twi that o
foj°7l:
Lill, which resulted in an ar-
gfour u °1
p tray's illoth line would be
run over and used by the Solway Company's trains.
The Parliamentary proceedings had necessitated art
expenditure estimated at £9,000, but which, having
regard to the magnitude of the business, could not
be considered excessive when contrasted with the
large expenditure of former sessions. One-third of
this sum it was proposed to place to capital account
and two-thirds to revenue. In addition to the
debts and current claims due by the company,
amounting to £1,875,625, the company were under
obligation to construct new lines involving a further
amount of £2,600,000. It was essential to limit
this liability, and at the same time maintain the in•
dependence of the company, and this the directors
had kept steadily before them ; but they did not
consider an indiscriminate abandonment of works to
be advisable. Accordingly, provision was made in
the Finance Act for constituting certain of the nu-
executed works into separate undertakings, with a
lien to the parties subscribing the capital over the
revenue of such undertakings. It was to local
parties that the directors looked for subscriptions to
construct branch lines required for the accommoda-
tion of particular districts, so that it would in a
great measure rest with the local interests whethe
or not such works be immediately proceeded
with. The company's involvements must under any
circumstances be restricted, and the directors, at
the proper time, would ask the authority of the
shareholders to abandon or substitute less ex-
pensive works for those authorised, by which the
company's liability would be materially reduced.
With the view of enabling the shareholders to judge of
the benefit which would result frum the Finance Act,
and of its bearing on the future prosperity of the
company, the directors pointed out that of the
£1,875,625 of debts and current claims (which in-
cluded £300,000 of deferred dividends due to share-
holders) about £1,200,000 to ordinary creditors
were now due, and that a considerable part of the
balance would become payable within the next 12
mouth. Were the £843,850 of debentures autho-
rised under the Act issued now, and the money ap-
plied in liquidation of ordinary creditors' debts, the
amount due to them would be reduced to £356,000,
or about three months' gross earnings of the rail-
way. To the early liquidation of that amount and
the resumption of cash dividends the directors would
give their best attention. They felt confident that,
with careful attention to the development of the
traffic, a strict supervision of the working expenses,
and acting in concert with other companies in estab-
lishing friendly relations for the interchange of
traffic, the North British Company would soon
surmount all its difficulties. The capital account
to the 31st of July showed that £18,799,778 had
been expended, leaving a balance against the com-
pany of £592,464.