The New York herald., 1868-05-26

Nothing which has occurred of late years on
scale of any magnitude has had about it 30
much of the air of ancient romance as the
Abyssinian expedition. For time the thing
seemed paltry, ridiculous, Quixotic. A few
adventurous people-some OF them English,
some of them German, not few of them East
ern by birth and direct descent, but all of them
for the sake of personal convenience claiming
English protection-got into trouble with Theo-
dorus, man who claimed to be descendant
of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and who
was the acknowledged Emperor of Abyssinia,
the far away and little known Ethiopia of the
ancients Was it worth while, many asked, to
waste millions of money and to imperil, if not
to sacrifice, the lives of many thousands of men
in what might prove the vain attempt to deliver
few adventurers who were imprisoned in q
strong fortress on the summit of an inaccessible
height somewhere in the neighborhood of the
mountains of the moon? 1t was pronounced
by many perilous by most hopeless under
taking. 1t was undertaken, nevertheless, car
red on, and in an incredibly short space of time,
and at small cost of life which has no parallel
in the history of war, brought to triumphant
conclusion. Now that the thing is over, and
that the wonderful and romantic character of
the expedition and the still more wonderful
character of the results are made known to the
world through the enterprise of New York
journal, Europeans generally, even the British
themselves, open their eyes in amazement.
A fact Of to-day, it begins slowly to be seen
is grander, wilder, more daring, more
romantic than the grandest, widest, most dar-
ing, most romantic tales of all past times. The
siege of Troy was protracted bungle and fail
ure in comparison.
Were we inclined to search for parallels we
might compare the expedition with the crusades
of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The crusaders went forth on an expedition
quite as noble and quite as disinterested. In
the name of Christianity they went forth under
the guidance of the Cross and the Holy Virgin
to wrest the Sacred Places from the polluting
grasp of the Infdel But what bungle were
these crusades which kept Europe in excite
ment for more than two hundred years, and
which robbed the various nations of the bravest
and the best of their sons, in comparison with
this Abyssinian dash. Napier and his men
have done more in few months than the
crusaders accomplished in q couple of CEN
turies 1t is one of the few finished pieces of
work in that particular line which the world
has seen in many generations. Our Napoleons
and Wellingtons and Grants are small men be-
side this Napier, this hitherto unknown and
disesteemed man of the people. Science has
up to this time had little to do with military
commanders; but science, thanks to Sir Robert
Napier, must henceforth rule.
We are not much surprised at the consterna-
ton and bewilderment which the success
of the expedition has created in France.
The French are great, q brave, q dash
ing, a romantic people, and they have
done really smart things even in Africa.
Algeria has been the scene of many daring
and dashing exploits, but it is only truth to say
that the most illustrious feats performed by the
French in Algeria dwindle into insignifcance
and contempt when placed alongside of this
British campaign in Abyssinia.
The discoveries which have followed from
the expedition are scarcely less marvellous than
the expedition itself, scarcely less romantic
than the manner in which it has been begun,
carried on and concluded. We had certain opin-
ions about the character of that mystic
rious hill country. We had been taught that
some parts of it were grand and
magnificent in the extreme. Our loftiest
imaginings, however, have fallen far short of the
actual truth Eden, with its fruits and flowers, its
bowers and its CLASSY lakes, the Happy Valley
which Johnson has made immortal in his ''Ras-
selas." even Bulwers Lake OF Como, which
filed with rapture the mind and heart of the
proud Pauline-all those have been left behind
by the gorgeous, the unparalleled beauty and
grandeur of the actual scenes on which the
eyes of the British soldiers have feasted in
those lofty tropical regions Of Africa Egypt
has long been famous for her climate, but q
climate surprising that of Egypt, associated
with scenery with which Egypt has nothing to
compare, has been found in those glorious
uplands, where the Nile, the king of rivers,
feeds and nurses his mighty powers. The most
famous spots of earth which have hitherto
attracted the health seeker and the professional
tourist are likely to be deserted for this newly
discovered garden of the world.
The romance of this wonderful affair would
not have been complete If America had moi
had to do with it. Cause for wonder and amaze
ment would have been less had it not been fol
the enterprise of the NEW YORK HERALD. Wha
had America, what had the United States
what had the NEW YORK HERALD to dc
with Abyssinia, with the British expedition
with Theodorus or with Napier9 Why shoult
a New York journal be at the expense
and trouble Of keeping the British govern
ment posted as to the condition and prospects
of its army in Abyssinia? Why should 1t b