The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-25 00:00:00

A SKIRMISH WITH THE GALLAS.

The Herald's correspondent, writing from Antalo,
May 1, describes the following adventure :—" The Gallas
have become bold and troublesome, and not a few have
fallen in skirmishes with our troops. Soon after we had
joined the body of fugitives we heard screams and cries in
front, and riding in at a gallop with my friend we came
upon a number of natives in a state of great excitement,
the women crying and wringing their hands. They
pointed to a ravine, and made us understand that the
Gallas were there. Riding up to it we came upon a party
of eight or ten men with spears and shields driving
off a couple of dozen oxen they had just
stolen. Before they could recover from their sur-
prise we were in their midst, and our revolvers soon
sent them flying up the hill with two or three of their
number wounded. We drove back the cattle, and were
received with acclamations by the unfortunate' but mise-
rably cowardly natives, who could merely with stones have
kept their assailants at a distance had they had the pluck
of so many sheep. A few hundred yards further on we
came upon another party of Gallas actively engaged in
looting, and at the sight of us with our rifles and revolvers
in hand most of them fl al ; but we captured two of the
ruffians, who saw that throwing themselves upon their
fares was the only chance of escape from being shot. We
tied their hands behind them and handed them over to
the Byres, who drove them before them until the end of
the day, when we delivered them over to Colonel Graves,
bf the 3rd Cavalry, who was in command at Dalanta, and
had the satisfaction of Eceing them get two dozen lashes
each, well laid on. After this skirmish, seeing numbers of
Gallas banging ahoutoveconstituted:onrselves a sort of rear-
guard to the native column, and our double-barrelled rifles
soon drove them to a distance, the long range at which it
sent halls into groups waiting for an opportunity of attack
evidently astonishing them greatly, and causing them to
scatter in the greatest haste. I think it a question whe-
ther the Gallas or the Abyssinians are the greatest
cowards. Two or three officers coming up later upon the
"same day had skirmishes with them, and three or four of
the Gallas were killed."

THE APPEARANCE OF THE CAPTIVES.
The letter in the Pat, also dated Antal°, May 1, speaks
fn no flattering terms the rescued captives : —" I have

Ihitherto made but slight mention of the 'prisoners,' for
so I foresee they will always be dubbed should they live
to enjoy half a century of freedom. The fact is, no
interest whatever attaches to them ; as long as they were
in Theodore's hands, and costing us so many thousand
pounds a day, they were great `lions,' but once re-
leased they dwindle into very commonplace individuals.
As to Messrs. Cameron, &Assam, and Co., no one
..:ares a fig for their future proceedings, with the
exception, perhaps, of the commissariat officer, whose
duty it is to convoy the lot down to Z0n1144 and here and
there a needy paterfamilias, who will recall the now fami-
liar names as he groans over the call of the unwelcome
income tax collector. The proverb of ' great cry and little
wool' appears to me only too applicable to the case of the
Abyssinian captives, and had one of the original batch
possessed an average amount of pluck and determination,
I cannot help thinking that this costly expedition would
have been unnecessary. The rosy cheeks, `good case,'
and comfortable aspect of all the principal ' victims' go
far to prove that Theodore's tyranny was considerably
lcs3 galling than represented."