The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-22 00:00:00

THE ABYSSINIAN CAP7IVES.

The Independance Beige of Tuesday publishes the
following letter, received by a clergyman of Lau-
sanne (Pastor Panchaud) from his son-in-law, one

of the captives in Abyssinia :
" Magdala, Abyssinia, 30th April, 1867.
"My dear Father-in-law, —We are obliged to
take such precautions in our correspondence, and the
route from here to the coast is so infested with thieves,
that the messengers, in order to pass in safety, are
often obliged to sew up in their clothes any letters
or other small articles which they may wish to take

away with them.
"You have been able to follow the different
phases Of our career, our successes and our reverses,
but most likely you are labouring under the same
illusion as so many others as to the fate which awaits

us ; and the portrait of King Theodore has been so
badly painted by his biographers that you are pro-

bably entirely unacquainted with this strange cha-
.

racter. I will, therefore, give you a summary of
everything that has happened to the Europeans dur-
ing the reign of the present Emperor, a 3 far as the
paper of which I can dispose will permit.
" In reading the accounts of travellers since the
time of Father Lobo, who visited Abyssinia in the
15th century, or the more recent voyages of Bruce,

Salt, Gobat, Jamisier, Parkins, &c., we find every-
where the same civil wars, the same feudal chiefs

arrogating to themselves the ruling power, the same
devastated provinces, the same great battles, which,

by deciding the fate of a few months or a few years,
allow the country at intervals to taste the blessings of

peace. At the end of every brief period new rivals
start up, and anarchy and disorder succeed the tem-
porary calm. It is therefore not at all surprising
that during the reig❑ of King John, or rather that

of his all-powerful Minister, lies-Ali, a young man

of good family, though poor, named Li-Kassa

should have rejected the Imperial authority and de-
fied the cowardly but powerful Ras, and proclaimed
his independence. About 32 or 33 years of age,
possessed of courage for an Abyssinian, sober, pious,

and endowed with a superior intelligence, it is not

strange he should have rallied to his banners a troop
of brave and hardy soldiers. Ras-Ali, beginning to
be alarmed, gave him his daughter i❑ marriage and
named him governor of the country he had taken

possession of. lia.ssa agreed to these terms, and

from that time directed his attention to the Soudan

the cradle of the Abyssinian empire. At the head

of sixteen or twenty thousand men, he descended

the heights of lichelsa into the plains of Gala-
bar, which are extremely fertile in grain and
cattle. At Gadarof his army was cut off by a

handful of irregular Turkish troops, who, entrenched
behind some earthworks, repulsed all the assaults.
Far from having accomplished the easy conquest
which he had expected, he returned to his own terri-
tory, deceived, humiliated, and wounded, and his
army decimated and mutinous. To add to his dis-
comfiture, the mother-iu-law of Ras-Ali even refused
to give him a cow which he bad asked for to give to
his doctor, who refused to extract a bullet by which
he had been struck without payment in advance.
"At this juncture Kassa resolved on two things,

namely, to avenge the insult which had been offered
him by the grandmother of his wife, and one day to
conquer this beautiful province, so long the object

of his ambition ; but it was here that he was to re
ceive a serious lesson for his future guidance.

" Scarcely was he restored to health when he raised
a new army, and commenced pillaging the provinces
of the Government of Rasi-Ali. The youthful insur-
gent was summoned to Court, but he refused to go.
" Several generals were sent out against him ; these
he vanquished with ease, and increased his army by
means of their soldiers. At last, fancying himself

strong enough to attack Bas-Ali at Anaba, he did
so, and without difficulty obtained possession of the
territory of this libertine, who only managed to save
his life by flight, leaving to the fortunate conqueror
his army, his country, and his power. Kassa, hav-
ing once obtained this point, well understood the
value of his prestige, and successively attacked all his
rivals, the independent chiefs of Goddam, Choa,
and Tigre. In the meanwhile, sustained by courage
and cunning:, a year scarcely elapsed from the flight
of Ras-Ali before Kassa was hailed by the whole of
Abyssinia as the Emperor Theodore, under which
name he was crowned in 1655 by the Bishop of
Salarda at the church Aaum.
For several years everything went on smoothly ;
all Abyssinia was subject to him. His army of
150,000 men looked upon him as more than human,
and was ready to follow him everywhere and any-
where. The idea of re-establishing the ancient
Ethiopian Empire became his predominating
thought, and he made ready to invade Soudan
and the territory of Gallas. Here, unfortunately,
he lost much time, and calling to mind the check he
had sustained at Gadarof, he feared to again lose
all by a like mishap. It is probable that if he had
invaded Egypt at this period he would have caused
great ravages in the Egyptian provinces near the
Nile and the Atbara.
" But reverting to the Emperor Theodore's pro-
ject to insure his success he wrote to the Sovereigns
of England and France, proposing a new crusade
against the Mussulman race, a war in which he
could have nothing to lose and had much to gain.
In the meanwhile the army had swelled to the enor-
mous force of almost 700,000 men. This mass of
men had to be fed and clothed by the rest of the
population, particularly by the peasants. The latter
worn out at last by their miserable existence, being
naked and badly fed, whilst the soldiers were pro-
vided with everything, refused in several places to
continue to submit to a yoke that had already be-
come so odious. Instead of subduing them, the
Emperor failed to re establish order ; and, indeed,
when once authority is set at defiance in Abyssinia,
it is difficult to make the peasants return to their
allegiance. In all parts of the distant provinces,
and in Choa and Tigre, the peasants took refuge
in the mountains, and under the conduct of regular
leaders offered a successful resistance to the troops
of Theodore. The latter took the field in person,
and such was the terror of his name that he no-
where encountered any resistance. The rebel pro-
vinces he laid waste; but as the peasants no longer
cultivated the ground, the booty, consisting of grain,
money, and stuffs, was no longer so abundant in the
camp as formerly. The soldiers murmured, and
desertions began to occur. King Theodore made
vain efforts ; he went about in all directions, but
no enemies, nor even living beings, were to be seen.
It was a passive war. Theodore's soldiers, who had
been always conquerors on the field of battle, were
in their turn conquered by famine and desertion.
" Little by little his empire, as well as his army,
dwindled away ; new independent States became
established. At present, at the head of scarcely
6,000 men, it may be said that, with the exception
of a few small provinces and ambas (territories), his
kingdom no longer exists. At the beginning of his
career he proved himself, as we have shown, gene-
rous, sober, and brave ; but on arriving at power he
gave himself up to debauchery, and became cruel
and treacherous, and gradually even his courage
forsook him.
" lle promised the chief of Goddam his liberty,
if his wife, who was mistress of the fort which com-
mands the country, would deliver it up to him. No
sooner, however,was he placed in possession of it
then he sent the too credulous couple in chains to
one of his forts.
"In order to induce the sons of Pas-Oubie to
deliver up to him the fort of Simien, he espoused
their sister, and when they, relying on their family
connection with the Emperor, came to meet him he
had them imprisoned, and repudiated his wife, their
sister.

" The Queen of the Gallas gave him her son as a
hostage and sent him, accompanied by the chiefs
of the Galtas, to Magdala. The Prince was made
governor, •but shortly afterwards, as King Theodore
exacted,too much from Gallas, they refused com-
pliance with his unreasonable demands, whereupon
the Prince and his companions were thrown into
prison ; and at the time of the flight of tbe Prince
Menilok, son of the late Lakale-Selasai, King of
Choa, who was received by the QUeen of the Gallas
with tile honours due .to his rank, King Theodore
immediately executed tile Prince of the Gallas,- and
his companions had their mutilated but still:fiiing
bodies thrown down a precipice.
I could fill the two pages which I have still left in

the recital of his cruelties and perfidy towards his
chiefs, his people, and his neighbours ; but the little
I have narrated being, as I think, sufficient, I shall
confine myself to a sketch of his conduct towards the
Europeans who have had the misfortude to become
his guests.

"The first in order of dateisthe Coptic Patriarch
David. The Viceroy of Egypt. wishing to save his
provinces and the Soudan, endeavoured to appease
his savage neighbour, and thought that no one
would be better received by the Emperor than the

David Chief of the Abyssinian Church. He was
mistaken. Proud of being able to throw contempt

upon the power of the Uhurch, of which he had
always been jealous, the King imprisoned his spiri-

,ual father for three days. Suspecting, however,

hat in doing so he had gone too far, he afterwards

begged his pardon, and allowed the poor priest, who
was half dead with fear, to quit his den. Annoyed

at the first repulse, the Viceroy sent the Bey Abd-
ul-Rahman with numerous presents as soon as the

Patriarch had returned. But he was even more un-

'ortunate than his predecessors, being prevented
!rom returning home for nearly three years. Dur-

ing most part of the time they were closely impri-

soned, and when upon the reiterated representations
of the Viceroy the Ambassador obtained the permis-
sion to depart, he was robbed on the way of all his

property, and arrived at Meteuna almost naked and
famished. King Theodore wrote, however, to the

•
Viceroy to say that this had not occurred with-

. _
out just cause—that the chief who had robbed
Abd-ul-Rahmau had told him that the Bey had

himself endeavoured to pillage the village, and

accused him of several crimes of so odious a nature

that the Bey, fearing the anger of his King, poi-

soned himself at Berker.

" On another occasion the Naib of Arkiko paid a
visit to King Theodore, at the latter's request, to
consult him on the subject of the territory which he

governed, and brought with him rich presents.
Upon some paltry pretext the King imprisoned the
Naib for 45 days, and only let him go on condition
that his tribute should be doubled—a promise which
the Naib did not inconvenience himself to fulfil.

"M. Lejean, who arrived in Abyssinia with some i
presents and a letter from the Emperor Napoleon,
accompanied King Theodore into Goddam, a pro-
vince against which he was leading his army. Hap-
pening to receive letters which required his imme-
diate presence in Europe, the French traveller asked
an audience of the King to obtain permission
to depart; but he received the reply that King
Theodore could not see him. He again sent a mes-
senger, to say that every day's delay would render
his voyage the more difficult, seeing that the troops
were advancing into the enemy's territory. This
time the answer was—' Put him in irons ;' and the
Abyssinian army had the glory of seeing a French
Consul in uniform taken prisoner and chained. At
the end of 24 hours he was released from his chains
and sent to Gaffat, the Europeans in the service of
King Theodore being retiiued as bail for his good
conduct, and in order that M. Lejean should not
endeavour to escape. Some months afterwards, on
the arrival of M. Bardel, who had been sent to France 3
as the bearer of a letter from King Theodore to the
Emperor Napoleon, and who brought back an
answer, M. Lejean obtained permission to leave,
only 24 hours, however, being allowed him to make
the necessary preparations for his departure.
" We have therefore the Patriarch imprisoned,
the Egyptian Ambassador imprisoned, and the
French Consul put in irons and driven out of the
country. What will happen for all these outrages?
Nothing. King Theodore can with reason boast of
being master in his own country. He was persuaded
that Europe could do nothing against him. Thus
on the first occasion which presented itself for show-
ing his hatred towards the white man he no longer
showed auy timidity; and, not fearing chastisement,
he became more and more hardened. The good and
learned missionary Stern was about to return to
Europe, after having formed a mission iu this coun-
try for the conversion of the Jews, when he fell in
with the King's army on his way. Although the
bearer of a passport he deemed it necessary, as an
act of politeness, to pay his respects to the King.
The result of so doing is known. At sight of him
King Theodore suddenly became furiously enraged,
had the two servants who accompanied him beaten
to death, and not content with this double murder,
he ordered M. Stern to be beaten, and he would
probably have perished unless Providence had pro-
tected him.

" M. Rosenthal, another missionary,was some time
afterwards chained and imprisoned with his com-
panions. Subsequently Consul Cameron and all the
Europeans iu Abyssiania submitted to the same fate,
with the exception of some missionaries from Basle
who worked for him. Nearly four years have elapsed
since then, and during this long period these
unfortunates have had to submit to such privations
and cruelties —even amounting to torture—that it is
difficult to conceive how they can have lived so long.
" Our mission, after being first well received, was
degraded and humiliated at Gagee before all the im-
perial officers, and subsequently conducted to this
amba (fortress), where, for nearly ten months past,
we vegetate in chains, having before us one of the
most dismal prospects, one of the darkest horizons.
The English Government has made numerous and
noble efforts to procure our liberation, but nothing
has succeeded, and nothing will succeed. Nothing
short of an armed force will vanquish the stubborn.
ness of King Theodore ; it is only when he is con-
vinced that he will no longer be permitted to mal-
treat the whites, and that vengeance awaits him,
that he will open his eyes to the necessity of prJ-
tecting and liberating us.
"It is true that, with a character like his, one
cannot tell what he may do in a moment of rage, but
our trust is in Him who never forsakcth the inno-
cent, and who accords his gracious protection amid
all dangers. In either case there is no other issue ;
therefore the sooner the better. If it is necessary we
should undergo such ordeal, it is better to do so
when it is still time, and when our strength is not
too far gone ; to expect more would be doubtless
fatal to our cause.—With every kind wish to your-
self and my dear mother, I remain yours affection-
ately, " HENRI BLANC."