The Hawaiian gazette., 1868-07-22
THE ABYssrNIAN WAR.
Capture of Magdala and Death OF
Theodore.

under date of April l4th, gives the follow
ing description of the capture of that place
and the death of Theodore:
THEODORE NAssAcREs his PRISONERS.
He has met with death far more mer-
ciful than he dealt out to better men, and
far more honorable than any trait in his
character, except perhaps, his dauntless
bravery and inyincible determination, de-
served. Those few to whom these quail
ties recommended him TO some sort OF mer-
CIV, had only to look for a moment into
the fearful charnel-house, the loathesome
human shambles which was yesterday ex-
posed TO our Mortified gaze as We neared
Magdala, and every lingering trace Of com
passion at once disappeared. We had
been told by his prisoners, our fellow-coun-
trymen, that the day before the arrival of
the British army. Theodore had summoned
all the prisoners 10 his presence, and had
in cold blood butchered over three hun
bred of them, some with his own hand,
almost within sight and hearing Of the rest,
who momentarily expected the same fate.
But though details Of this kind make one
shudder, the mind Of civilized man, whose
whole experience runs counter TO vivid
faith in the actual existence Of such atroc-
tiles, somehow cannot fully realize them,
or take in their whole terrible import.
Yesterday however, nothing was left to
the imagination. the tragedy was forced in
all its naked horror upon our reyolted
senses. 8 strange smell, for which there
r.
party look over the edge Of a steep cliff,
almost within few yards of the spot from
which the guns were beginning to play
upon Magdaia, and there on ledge about
fifty feet below them, lay two large heat
of mangled human bodies, closely piled on
each other in CHASTITY confusion. their limbs
protruding from the mass in all sorts of
repulsive attitudes and eontortions, and
presenting altogether scene of horror
such as no pen could adequately describe,
could any pen be found to undertake the
task. Here was the latest, though not by
any means the worst, specimen of the pious
handiwork of the self-elected Scourge Of
God. More commonly he mutilated and
disabled his victims. leaving them TO die
of their wounds. or to the more tender
mercies Of the hyenas. On Dalanta one
of the force picked up two human hands,
evidently not long cut OFF The only ex-
ceptional cruel feature in this last massa-
ere was its unusual wantonness. The vic
tins were, many of them, prisoners for
very slight offences, and men of no i'm
portance, who might with perfect safety
have been set free. Theodore feared the
expense of keeping them during a long
seige, and considered it perhaps derogato-
ry to his character to let them go, so he
them.
THE cAYYoNADE, ETC.
Magdala has been taken, and Theodore,
killed by his own hand, lies, under the
guarI of British sentry, in the last and
strongest of the wondrous series of his
str0ngholds. 1t would be affectation to
pity a tyrant who himself knew no pity,
who was as INSCRIPTIONS and crafty as be
was cruel, and who had indeed every rea-
sou to style himself the 'Scourge of Cod"
sent to punish the people.
Of the strength of Magdala itself, it is
perhaps impossible to give an adequate
idea. 1t is protected by lofty, and almost
Oyerhanging cliffs, so PERCEPTIONS that cat
could not climb them, except at two points,
north and south. at each Of which steep,
narrow path leads up to a strong gateway.
1t was by the northern gateway, as being
on the side commanded by Selassee, that
our troops had to effect an entrance.
One Snider many. In another instant
every man anywhere near with rife in
his hand was banging and blazing away as
if all his prospects in this world and the
next depended upon the number of charges
he could get rid of in minute. This nat
urally created an impression that an action
was going on somewhere, and a general
was at once made to a spot which
a better view of the plain be-
fore Magdala, and on which, to the great
delight of the scamperers. some of 1heo-
dore's guns and mortars were unexpected
ly found. An artillery officer, Lieutenant
Nolan, happening to be one of the party,
resolved to use their own guns
against the enemy if possible, and this
being considered apparently in the light of
a humorous practical joke by few civil
ians and "loafers" escaped from their staff
Or regimental duties to the front, a sort of
comic siege of Magdala was carried on by
q force of all arms, dresses, aud undresses
for more than an hour.
One of these excursions led, Odly enough.
to the unearthing of NJ. Bardel. the French
man who has been suspected of poisoning
Theodore's mind against the captives On
the first of the enemy's guns being fred
by Lieutenant Nolan. woman rushed out
from small tent near the line
Of the fire, evidently under the impression
that her tent was about to undergo heavy
and with vehement gesticula-
tons offered to capitulate. The tent was
and there in bed, to the intense
of every one, was found a
European. who proved to be NJ. Bardel.
After this incident the siege Of Magdala
vas resumed, and to the intense grati6ca-
ton of the besei&ng force, one round shot
from Theodore's own gun was sent hob
bling along the ground sufficiently near him
and his small party to induce them to re-
treat into Magdala and desist from the at
tempt they had hitherto been making to
carry gunuP there. After this the firing
ceased altogether on the part of the be-
seiged, and became very lauguid on the
part Of the beseigers-
THE FORTRESS REDUCED.
Magdais (April l7th) correspondence of
the London Times says: Magdala was
burned this afternoon, ard dense columns
Of fame and smoke from its lofty SUBMITS
are still proclaiming far and wide to the
wondering tribes of semi-savage warriors
who infsst the surrounding country that
the reign of their greatest enemy Is at an
end. and the browning act of England's
performed. The town itself
was uninteresting, save from its accidental
associations as the prison of our fellow
and other Euroneans even for