New-York tribune., 1876-02-26
AMERICANS IN EGYPT.
THE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION.


GEN. LorING IL VIRTUAL coMa'.SD-REPoRrRD
RUSSIAN INTRIGUEs AGAINST THE AMERICANS
IMPORTANT MILITARY REFORMS MADE BY THE
| AMERICAN oFFICERs- GREAT PUBLIC WoIKS IN
| PROGREss-TRADE DEPRESSED.
TrRoM Az OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT or THE TRIBUNE
CAIRO, Jan. 1.-THE Abyssnan expedition VIII
start from Massowah to march into Abyssnia as far
| as Adowa az the present feast Of Courbam
Bairam is over that ia to IN two or three days.
time The expedition consists Of about $4,000 in
! fantry and a few hundred cavalry with troops of
cames and mules and three batteries of artillery.
The COMMANDMENTS Chief il Rotib Pasha, Circas-
sian, who rendered himself notable in the time of
the late Viceroy, Said Pasha by attempting suicide
because he had been publicly insulted by his august
master. The ball he fred at himself passed upward
through his nose and to this day in giving the word
of command 10 his troops he is obliged to stop the
oriiice in his nasal organ with his finger. Ratib
! Pasha distinguished himself also the field of
| battle In reality the command of the ex-
petition il III the hands of Gen. Loring.
whose cventfn history is well known IN America
The gallant Generals long experience of Indian war
fare his long marches through savage country, VIII
be invaluable to him in his present task. The
! Egyptian Government is exceedingly lucky in hav-
ing in their service man of such varied experience
| and tried worth. Although Gen. Loring has seen
forty years almost uninterrupted active work, he Is
still IN the prime of life-having made his debut at
the green age Of tweve-and seems to be very little
nconvcnicnced by the loss of his left arm. He is
companied by several American officers, Coils. Dye,
Field, Derrick, Major Loss, Capt Porter, and DR..
Wilson. The other officers of the expedition are all
| Circassians. The soldiers are, of cours', Arabs.
! They are well drilled neatly dressed in white uni
forms cut IN the fashion, and look Ike tough
| lighting men. They do not march with the mechan-
zeal precision Of the British grenadiers, nor have
they the sprightliucss of French troops; they
trudge along in an enduring fashion just the
same ~ their brothers in arms in the Turk
| ish army, but they are the worse
sod crs for that peculiarity The recent defeat Of
! the Arabs under AIeudmp proves their bravery.
/ Ont of 40 men only about score returned, AID
they were wounded. The Others were, all left dead
on the field of battle. These fugityes relate that in
their light they came upon an Arab captain who
was conducting "a train OF canols with ammunition
and provisions for the advanced forces which had
inst met their fate. The wounded men hastily told
him the facts and urged him fly for his life. The
man said, what leave my cames to die of hunger
or fal into the handsof the Aby,,inians No; shall
remain with them. come what may And 80 he did,
aud the Aby>iuians rs il happened, fortunately for
the plucky captain. dld not venture 10 follow up
their Success and lie brought back his cImes aud
stores saIcly to Mas,owah. Prince liassan, the
Kh6liycs third son. VINO was educated M Oxford
University AMI has studied military matters at
Berlin. accompanies The expedition as n l0oker-on.
II was said at the moment of his departure that he
would take the command Of the forces but this is
not very likely. According TO nv latest inforna-
ton. which received from of the minister's the
expedition has not the Importance that it oriei
nal!y intended it ,aonld have No doubt this nodi-
iCaton of the programme - due TO the remarks
made by the British Government. On the one hand,
tho Eucii-h recognizing the AbyS-niaus as Chris
tauS do not wish TO see them dominated 10y Mussnl-
mans, and on the other they do not wish the
Egyptians to throw away money on q f.uli'rSS cam
plig1 when that money wolld bc better employed
IN paving crcd.tor,-who are. for the most part.
English The Egyptians have nothing 10 gain and
much to lose h. war with hbys~inia. They recog-
uilc tins fact now. but they mI,t do something to
regain their prestige I'm hhyssna. They must have
4 h,ht and they must hr yictorio's. This rs th"
yor,, before Con Lorius II il dini"alt task, an
If the Ab s,iuian, are wise they VIII initiate the
octics of ic insurgents in Herzegovina and render
II impossible of accomplishment. They have only 10
Distribute themselves and avoid a pitched battle
and they haras- their enemy and wear HIM out,
even il Lc wrr. Immensely sup ror IN point of num-
bcrs which Is the reverse of the fact. The Turks
I
Christian insurgents which are not reckoncd al more
than one fourth of that number aud the latter lead
them will-o-tho wi,p dance over hill and valley,
viii "a may go on in lcflitcy if il be not ended
as j. most lilcly-by 4 general rising of the Chris
tan Dependencies OF the Turkish Empire and OF the
Bulgarian people. The Abys,inIanS, under klng
John are supposed - number about $4,000 half OF
whom are sad to be armed with modern weapons.
When the Engsh iuva led Abyssinia in 1865, they
had tne friendship of all the tribes except that of
Theodore. against whom they were operating, and
their famous march % Maglila was only a triumph
of engineering skill and military foresight Yet that
cxpcditiun which consisted of only l2,oW regular
tro,ps. cost about $50 Oo0. .O0O The Nceroy cannot
count upon the friendship of any of the so-callcd
Christian tribe, in Abyssina. and yet he expects TO
chase King John aud his barbarous army at II cost
of only 81 500 900. In the present state OF ms
finances IN Abys,inian war is sheer madness, and
England has rendered him Il mos. signal service in
detcrring him from prosecuting his original design
was told the other day by a very good authority
that there is a Russian General here intriguing with
the Niccroy To- have the American officers dismissed
and himself aud some of his fellow countrymen ap-
pointed in their places; and my informant
added that the General said that the Vice
roy had taken his proposition into consider
alton. The General may he very Oil, but he must
be very simple not to know that Turk never says
no. lie Is too polite. and out of pure kindness OF
heart leads you to believe that lac is going TO do as
You want when he has not the slightest idea of doing
| ANYTHING of the kind. The reasons which weighed
with the Kh6dve when he selected American
officers to raise the standard of his quite rs
potent to-day as they were six years ago. The
Kh6divc chose American officers in preference to
Europeans for two reasons rst because they were
easily obnnablc on the conclusion of the Civil War;