The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-07 00:00:00

course, a most valuable quality ; and in India, where
forage and provisions are purchased readily enough, it
BACKWARDNESS IN THE PREPARATIONS. lis probable that the regiment may be able to move
The Time,s special correspondent, writing from Annesley I about to a great extent upon its own resources. Here it
Bay, on January 18, says :-" Notwithstanding all is altogether different, and the regiment have indented
exertions, I cannot say that, up to the present moment, upon the Transport Train for just asmany baggage animals
much progress appears te have been made, though there as other cavalry corps would require. The only use of
is reason to hope the turning point has been reached at the herds of ponies which they have brought with them is,
last, and that the Abyssinian force will soon cease to mark to carry very large kits for the men's use-a matter of no
time between Annesley Bay and Senafe. If the English advantage whatever to the public service, and, on the con•
public, by this time naturally getting impatient, wonder I trary, involving great expense, as these ponies were
at the delay, and consider that the task of carrying so brought from India at the public expense, and have now
many tons so many miles is, after all, not such a very to be fed and watered. I shall probably have to return
difficult one, where no expense and no labour is spared, I to this subject during the campaign, as this system is
ran only furnish them with one explanation : the one which has been strongly advocated and as strongly
Abyssinian Expedition was in a peculiar degree one in attacked among Indian officers. The railway continues
which success depended upon a good start, aed un- to creep forward, and the first engine made a trial trip
Luckily the start was a very bad one. As the force had to-day upon it. Although there is little more to do than
to land on a waterless and barren coast and to carry a to lay the sleepers into the sand and to affix the rails, there
large stock of food and forage sixty miles up a mountain lis at present only a mile complete. One dry watercourse
pass, it was obviously an all-important consideration 1 has been crossed, and here iron girders have been lad;
-first, that the commissariat should not have to feed but these nullahs should be no obstacle whatever to the
one man or beast more than the lowest number progress of the work, as parties ought to be sent forward
absolutely- required for the conveyance and Prgection of to get the little bridges, or any small cuttings there may
this stock ; and, secondly, that the number thus employed be, finished in readiness, so that no pause may be occa-
should be in the highest state of efficiency. Even under I sioned in the laying of the line. The country, with the
these favourable circumstances, the undertaking is one I exception of these little dry watercourses, which are from
about as arduous as an army could be well called on to I three to five feet deep, is perfectly flat, and the railway
face - probably a more arduous one than any army has might, at any rate, be temporarily laid down with great
ever yet successfully got through. If a mule, which bears ease and rapidity, especially with such a number of men
a load of 1501 b. exclusive of equipments, and eats 131 b. j as are employed upon it. As it is, it is impossible even to
a day, has to carry what it eats a difficult journey of 60 f predict when it will be finished to Koomaylo."
miles and back, it cannot carry much besides. It requires AN EASTERN ENTERTAINMENT.
an immense number of animals working on these condi- The Telegraph letter gives a description of a grand
tions to accumulate a reserve in anything like reasonable entertainment given by Abd-el-Kader Pasha to Sir Robert
time. But when the animal, in addition to supplying its Napier, on board the Egyptian frigate :-" All the princi-
own food, has to keep up a constant supply for other pal officers in command, and private gentlemen attached
animals, which contribute themselves nothing to the to the force, also had the honour of receiving invitations.
eeneral stock, the commissariat are puzzled to find provi- At dusk the ship was most tastefully and brilliantly
sions enough even for immediate use, far less for future emer- illuminated entirely with lanterns. Where on earth they
gencies. In an ordinary campaign, where the neighbouring came from, or where stowed away, is a mystery. There
country supplies provisions, an animal unemployed deprives were rows of lanterns along the yards, and at the mast-
the force merely of his own services, but here he also leads, and clown all the stays. From each masthead to the
deprives it of the services of the animal employed to carry royal yardarms was stretched a rope, running from yard-
food for him. In an ordinary campaign, again, the loss of arm to yardarm down to the deck, with lanterns suspended
a week does not necessarily involve any further loss worth from it ; all along the hammock nettings on deck were
taking into serious consideration ; here the loss of a week lanterns ; and at each port on the main deck was a
means the consumption in idleness of a week's supply out lantern. The appearance of the vessel from the shore
of the stock which it has taken so much time and 'about was most beautiful. An Egyptian transport and steamer
to get together, and which is wanted to support active were also illuminated. The rows of lanterns on board
operations against an enemy. In such an expedition as the frigate were very cleverly arranged in such a
the Abyssinian, the great bulk of the fighting force-every manner that at whatever point of view they were
soldier, in fact, not wanted for a baggage-guard- seen, they presented regular geometrical figures ;
should not appear on the scene of operations and when going off to the ship it was very pretty
until the commissariat has got together all the to see them changing, as the masts and yards were
supplies it wants, and it should then appear seen at different angles. At about a quarter-past
fully prepared to march against the enemy. This seven the Commander-in-Chief left the Bunder in a gig,
is, no doubt, an ideal standard of perfection far more and was followed by a large barge belonging to the Octavia,
easily put forward than attained ; but, unluckily, in our towed by a steam launch. As his Excellency ascended the
Abyssinian expedition there has not been even an approach ladder, the band played the Egyptian Hymn, and he was
made to it. So far from getting ahead of our fighting received on deck by the Pasha Abd-el-Kader. Seats were
force, and being in a position to lay up a reserve stock for arranged all along the deck, so that every one on arriving
it, the commissariat has had a hard struggle to keep it could sit down, and there was none of the crushing and
living on from day to day, from band to mouth. Now confusion that generally attend large dinners. As soon as
and then there has been a positive scarcity, though not all were assembled dinner was announced. The tables
such as to be severely felt, of provisions required for im were arranged on each side of the deck, with a semicircular
mediate use, Hence the great difficulty now experienced one joining them at both ends. There were awning
in stocking Senaft, and all the time and labour required spread over head and on each side, but the deck would
for the task. In round numbers 18,000 men have now as- have been pleasanter without them, the heat was so great.
rived here, and of these only some 8,000 are at Annesley The tables were very tastefully laid out ; plenty of cande-
Bay. Food must be carried to the remaining 10,000- labra, quantities of gold plate, and well-selected glassmado
5,000 of them being as far off as Senafts -before one altogether a scene that I little expected to see in Annesley
pound's weight can be put by as reserve. Bay ; everything was as well done as it could be anywhere.
A WIDE-AWAKE AFRICAN. About seventy persons sat down to dinner. The food was
The Post correspondent writes from Zulla, January 10, excellent ; and, as to quantity, it beat any German table-
raying :-" I will now give you the latest news of the d'Mte dinner hollow. After dinner, coffee and cigars
Abyssinian difficulty,' bat I will net vouch for the truth were handed round-such coffee as is only to be got in the
of it. An influential gentleman from the kingdom of East-and we were treated to a display of fireworks."
Tigre, of prepossessing manners and appearance, but THE CAMELS AND THE MULES.
probably a thundering liar, and bearing the euphonious The Star letter says :-" Batches of mules and camels
patronymic of Muzcha, has arrived in camp, and an- for the Transport Train have been arriving almost daily
nounced that the King, through whose territory out from the countries bordering on the Persian Gulf. Most
route will lie for upwards of a hundred miles, is quite of these animals are the very picture of poverty and
willing to be friendly, and facilitate our progress in every wretchedness, utterly unfit for the work they are intended
way ; but that his dignity requires that we should apply to perform. These it would be a decided saving to the
formally for permission, and present him with soma English exchequer to shoot before they have eaten an
backsheesh,' lest he should be lowered in the estimation, ounceou costly. provender, not to speak of its being an act
gtLineormeNleaxntnniarlsowo
of his subjects if we walked calmly through his dominions orders have bele'inlinigsssuaerS ethantin'Llo
without so much as with your leave' or by your animals unfit for work are to be shot forthwith. A cargo
leave,' which I imagine we could very easily do. In of camels arrived the other day from Aden, of whom about
half ( (between eighty and
committeen ninety)
of
) have been
and v,
o pronounced.
Compliance with the monarch's views, Major Grant, good nothing be
the celebrated African traveller (whose service are at the rent down to tar a
head of the bay to Arraphale, to
disposal of Government) will start to-morrow as ambas. I browse for a month or two, if perchance they may
Parlor extraordinary and plenipotentiary from Sir Robert teeeros vLi3r. Theya c onht
contractor
tb been n
n d collectedhe
naott
beingde in great aon find
Napier to Prince Kassai, bearing a polite message and the transpoyrt for them tol Annesley he,
so rap Tilly as he ex-
necessary number of guns and shawls. His highness is petted, was obliged to put them on the shortest of
wide awake, and has begged it may be distinctly under- commons, proper food not being procurable. A number
stood that he does not want `Brummagem' goods, aria isrforncootlieshoardivfevedefrromwheit teats, triotednepoluortabalme
ocnoondgiconni
that none but first-rate articles will be acceptable ;soheis to I during the voyage, carrying off about ten per cent. of them
have really valuable Indian shawls and Westley Richards%t and prostrating about fifty per cent. more. These men
host elaborate double-barrelled weapons. Major Grant either have
mustbeen ihna?, vere
y sickly titotre beforem, t embark-
will take but a very small retinue, as the P; ,-;
_ .g,r_ prince da3in 4:,r12.1 ine vessel
ase the Calcutta authuritics are much
is fearfully jealous and touchy' at anything like A, to blame. A quarantine camp was at once formed, and
demonstration of force, and if the party is limited auct board,
medic:d jassis,tatnhc,y e, oaf
re v h
now t 1
speedily
ey• re (:.(ecfi,c)‘i,te,srli
no,n
select there is much less chance of any one's toes being A°3srtr'ictsuir))l%)-le'set( i ration ien no doubt, be made into the.
trod on,' either morally or otherwise, so that the plan ease. 'l'lle general health of the troops continues ex-
proposed is decidedly the wisest. A better selection of an lellent."
ambassador could not have been made, as Major Grant is
thoroughly conversant with African manners, customs.
and notions,' and will steer clear of blustering or
truckling. It will, of course, be a grand thing to be
assured of a peaceful march over 100 miles of our journey,
but when Prince Kassai has once got his backsheesh,' as
likely as not he will shew the cloven foot, and, even if he
preserves a strict outward neutrality, he will probably
connive at the attempts of his subjects to plunder us
whenever opportunity offers. Such is the African
character ; what is bred in the bone will come out in the
flesh,' and I believe the cardinal virtues of the Abyssinian
to be ' lying ' and theft.' "
THEODORE AND HIS CAPTIVES.
The letter in the Daily News is dated Zulla, January
20, and contains the following passage :-" Letters have
been received from two of the captives at Magdala-Mr.
Rassam and Dr. Blanc-bearing date December 23. There
was no alteration in their condition ; they were all well,
and had had no further communications from Theodorus.
His Majesty was known, however, as Reuter puts it, to be
' marching upon Magdala.' He was in the province of
Wadala, but what progress he was making was not known;
indeed, it is doubted now whether he was marching at the
top of his speed. Those who hold the opinion that he
is not, are by no means destitute of grounds for
their belief ; for, say they, what reason has Theodorus
to hurry? He knows now that he has the coveted
captives virtually in his hands once more ; know-
ing that, why should he long to re-enter Magdala?
At present he is feasting his army and followers on the
fruits of the fairest provinces of Abyssinia-fruits, too,
which cost him nothing ; in Magdala he cannot maintain
an army for any length of time, and without an army his
life in the hands of the infuriated peasantry would not be
worth an hour's purchase. His game is to seize the pr.t
goners just in time to play his trump card, as previous
determination or the impulse of the moment may influence
him. On the other hand, there is good reason to hold by
the opinion that the movements of the Negus are as expe-
ditious as circumstances over which he has long ceased to
have control will permit. The chief of Talanta (or
Dalanta) is obstinately opposing his advance ; and though
this rebel has not many men who can wield the sword and
spear, he can muster a goodly number who can handle
the spade and pickaxe. Instead, therefore, of
waiting to join battle with a superior foe, Talanta
cuts up all the roads, demolishes the bridges, and
throws up as many impediments in his liege lord's way as
time and the means at his disposal will permit. Wakshum
Gobazye, too, arrant coward as he is, has not lost sight
of Theodore, but sends bodies of men forward to lie in
andsusls on the hills and cliffs by which he must advance,
with orders to watch their opportunity, and, Abyssinian
fashion, hurl down large stones upon him, a proceeding
tolerably safe for themselves, and very unpleasant for the
Emperor. Wakshum, it may be remarked, evidently
means to be in at the death ;' he has lately sent a couple
of messengers to General Merewether with a letter con-
taining expressions of delight at the advance of the Eng-
lish army, urging great haste, and promising cordial co-
operation. These different views meet with well-informed
adherents, all of whom, however, readily admit that it
matters little what detains Theodore-choice or necessity
-so long as he cannot be checked altogether, or at least de-
layed until the roll of the British drum is heard in Mae-

THE EXPEDITION 70 ABYSSINIA.

DJXLVG ON HORSEFLESH.

on Thursday night a horseflesh banquet, or, to give it
t finer title, a diner de rho:al—or, still finer, a banquet
hippophagique—was held at the Langhom Hotel, Portland-
place, under the presidency of Mr. W. Forsyth, Q. 0.•
supported by Sir John Lubbock, Dr. Russell, .ThanMr
Hughes, M.P., Mr. Charles Dickens, jun., Mr. an
Merivale, Mr. Field, the celebrated V.S., General

Browning, &c.
Upwards of 10 gentlemen sat clown to dinner in to
magnificent banquet room of the hotel. The fine room
was in some portions of it appropriately decorated for the
occasion. Approaching the centre of the apartment just
where the chairman sat, were equine masks —heads of
horses made of pasteboard ; and to those uninitiated in the
eating of horseflesh, as they passed by to their seats at the
banquet table, those gracefully-formed models were looked
at by them—and it must be coufesaed that they could
not be blamed—as the prognostics of the doom to eat
something indigestible certainly, if not to suffer e
thb
horrors of nightmare. That state of mind might e
come to after discussing the choicest amontillado,
vin du Rhine, champagne sec, Chateau PerayaYlle,
Volnay St. Peray, and the various liqueurs with
which purveyors of public dinners provide those who
patronise them, and which on Thursday, at the Longhorn,
were in quality unquestionably good. Anyone who looked
upon the company as they assembled in the anteroom
must have surmised that they felt that what they were
about to eat was good and wholesome, and that they were
determined to make a trial of it. It was possible to see
men who had taken guinea-and-half tickets tremulous
about the first morsel they would touch, and there cannot
be a doubt that among many of the gentlemen partaking
of the banquet there were some who turned up their noses
and made faces before they had touched a morsel of the
equine food, which were enough to turn any n onkey
in the Royal Zoological Gardens from his daily
pubulum. But, as tl.e time—or rather the hour after
the time—came on, people settle down, and thought they
would set their stomachs in proper fortified order by im-
bibing sherry, which beamed through a hundred decanters.
The dinner began, and, beef or no beef, horse or no horse,
it was a splendid banquet. Now, at the top of the bill of
fare was the motto, ei Les prejuges sont des 'maladies de
l'esprit humain," a very appropriate one for such a ban-
quet, no doubt. Well, we first had two soups, "Le
consomme de cheval d l'A B C, or, in plain English,
clear horse soup, called by some name settled by the
owner and patentee—if there is one—A BC. There was
also soup "a la purde de destriers," which means the
scnip—or rather the pure soup—of chargers. Well, it
must be stated that the thick and the thin soup made out
of the horseflesh contrasted, in our opinion, very
remarkably—indeed in advance of that which at public
dinners is supposed to come from the flesh of oxen. No
doubt the .nausea which the very idea of horseflesh
created was made sedative by the amontillado sherry
which washed it clown ; but there could be seen at the
table many and many a grave gentleman who had
without fear or trembling encountered his daily cut
'if beef and two-pennyworth of vegetables in the
City, although he was the heir to a prince] y
fortune, who did not think his nobility could descend to
the eating of common horse. But they all settled down',
and, for very shame, " horse sausages," loins of horse, '
" cutlets of horse," " roast ribs of horse," " horse tongue,"
" horse ribs," loin, shoulder, neck, legs, saddle, and every
part known to the butcher, were devoured by the gentle-
men who assembled for that purpose at the Langham
Hotel. It must be expected that an opinion
would be given in these columns as to the actual
meat. 'Well, this is the truth : The horse soup
was so excellent and • well-flavoured that no one
could institute a damaging comparison between it and
that which at Willis's or the London Tavern one gets
a Julienne, or the soup that is called by some extraordinary
name, but which has neither within it extraordinary
flavour nor substance. It was a different thing with the
meat—the roast horse—very good to taste, of excellent
flavour, not one bit wilder in its flavour than the flesh of
oxen. It should be remarked here that the horseflesh
was evidently cooked too much—that it had been clone
to " rags," as it is said, and that no flavour, on that
account, could be got off it. However, we were favoured
with an underdone cut off a sirloin of horse, and it is
but just to say that it eats as tenderly as any sirloin of
beef could. Durinc, the evening a man dressed as a herald
einigianct;lll.lyeleilhi,
e:to,)hr,e):?eolant:lba.birlaileti ;al
entered the banquet-room. and°, playing on a horn, " Tile
roast beef of Old England," ushered in what the chairman
hebeorrdei--
i one• could catch in anaT:tehel,3oryafirld quitel,he
th e Marquis of
e
horses which supplied le main feature_ in this banquet
rf;dt
It
tnt )
nv musth which h in ox
s
were fed up for the cccas:on. Many naturalists and
scientific gastronomists, who had tasted the delights of
horseflesh under the various guises in which ,-,astronomic
French o
bcosolt caedl.ii(rl(‘).iengit
jiutspticedetermined
ors
e thatookneodpains
slioucl be sluared.iu doing justice to the horse cooked in (LII
conceivable Gallic modes. Paris being admittedly the
headquarters of hippophagy, an English commissioner
was despatched to the gay French capital, his mission
being to confer with the leading authorities there on tho
introduction ef the various preparations and condiments
which make horseflesh particularly palatable, and also to
procure, what cannot be obtained in England—a stock of
horse oil, which is made from the fat of the horse, care-
cilly refined.

iala."

A TROOP OF SCINDE HORSE.

TiTha Herald correspondent dates from Mulkatta, January
O. Here is an extract sheaving what he thinks of the
3ciude Horse :—" No troops have landed, with the excep.
lion of considerable numbers of the Scinde Horse. I wag
anxious to see this regiment, which I have seen highly
'praised in books, but which Indian officers, with whom I
hsve converse.l on the subject, have generally spoken of
in terms the reverse of complimentary. I confess that
_their appearance is not imposing. The men are dressed in
green frock coats, green trousers, black belts, and
sabretaches, rod sash round waist, and round turban—a
pieturesrpie uniform in itself, but the long coat has a
s•lnmsy effect on horseback. Their horses are, without
I.(.:eption, the very usliost set of animals I ever sot eyes
Pa. A greaer contrast between these men and horses
4nd the smart 3rd Cavalry at Senaf6 could hardly be
conceived ; for the 3rJ, in the way they sit their
horses, in their carriage, equipments, and steeds,
might compare without disadvantage with a crack hussar
regiment ; and yet the men are individually a fine set of
fellows, indeed, are almost too heavy for cavalry. The
great point which has been urged in favour of the Scinde
Horse is, that they carry their own baggage, and are inde.
Pendent of commissariat or transport train. This is, of