San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-08-02

chiefs, whom | found upon the ground with
a crowd of soldiers around him. In their
midst stood half emptied bottle which they
were eyng with looks of great curiosity and
distrust The chief said that some of his
men had been drinking from the bottle, and
he was afraid they were going to die. He
wanted to know if the fluid was ''arakee," a
name given by Abyssinians to all intoxicatr
ing or distilled liquors.
| at once recognized it as a bottle of con-
centric nitric, or Sulphuric acid, which had
BELONGED to my chemical chest and told the
chief that If he wanted to die he might drink
the LIQUID He wanted me to cure them, and
was escorted to my tent TO find my medi
cine case Ny camp had been plundered and
evrrvthing taken. so told the chief to fill
is men who had been drinking acids with
water. For half an hour Bayoumi and l
poured water down the burning Threats of the
invalids, whose tongues were swollen to twice
their natural size. learned afterward that
they recovered When the work of plumber
ing had finished we were all gathered together,
men, women, children, sheep, cattle and
camels, by our captors, some fifteen hundred
strong. Each Abyssinian was allowed to
keep possession of whatever be captured;
therefore Bayoumi anG | belonged to the
same owner, because he captured us standing
together. 1t is useless to describe the bar
barous and brutal captivity of innocent wo-
men and children. Death is preferable to
what they had to suffer.
The march to Hamaseen clings to my mem
DRY like some hideous nightmare. was in
the hands of fierce and brutal banditti, and
ba MI L-ar m
| knew that he valued me as prize of more
than ordinary value. We were driven with
the cattle along the mountains, pursuing a
northwesterly direction from Ailet No order
was kept whatever in the march, and often
along the narrow and difficult way had to
dispute my passage with lot of cattle block
ing the route The CLEAN of my captor's
lance was always seen at my back, and |
knew that was specially watched. AT night
fall we came to a broad valley, where Alluli,
the chief of the province of HamaSeen and
leader of the expedition had remained while
his men were making the raid was con
Quoted between two long lines of petty of
ficers and soldiers into the presence of this
noted Abyssinian chief. He was seated upon
a carpet or rug, in common soldiers can
vas tent. We exchanged salutes, and the
words "dahan aman" fell from his lips They
assured me that | was not to be mutilated or
killed
After days of painful marches, brutal treat
ment, footSore and hungry, our captorS made
a triumphal entry into the camp of Alluli,
but not until the chocolate colored brute, our
.captor, had taken my shirt and put it on !
had to wear Bayoumi's light military coat,
and as was much larger than he, it fit me
like wise In that guise | was driven with
the rest in the triumphal procession. We re-
manned prisoners at the camp of Alluli eigh-
teen days Bayoumi and were in charge of
a petty Abssinian chief named TurQuare.
Our brutal captor was merely one of his de
pendents Turquare was kinder to us than
his dependent, and we remained during our
stay in the camp in his small but very filthy
hut. Alluli, the noted chief and favorite of
the king, sent for us a second time
We found him seated upon a carpet in the
middle of large circular apartment, warmed
by means of brazier of living Goals and
supported on either side by about forty per
sons, chiefs, petty officers and satellites. A
small sized man, with black kinky hair, he
returned our salutation and asked us to be
seated upon his left. We had no interpreter
question. He had a feast prepared consist
ing of bread, meats, tedge and boosa, and for
the first time since our capture Bayoumi and
| had square meal that fully satisfied our
appetites.
We were conducted back to our squalid
quarters, where, on little bed of straw
chilled by the cold night air which crepi
through a thousand crevices into the hut
and covered only by one small, dirty blanket
we endeavored to sleep. The next morning
we were summoned to appear before Alluli
He was seated in the open air upon a little
elevation, the ground falling away before
him with gentle incline, along which ra1
two long lines of soldiers, forming two side.
of rectangle
We were brought into the open space be
tween the lines, in front Of the chief. | saw
that all the prisoners taken in the raid were
gathered into the area. 1t made my heart
bleed to see the comely women of the Ailet
valley, little boys and girls and sucking
babes, all ranged into a long line. My sol
diers, with the exception of Bayoumi, whC
was with me, formed another line. The in
dignation, the unspeakable hatred felt fol
the cruel brutes who had had charge of my
soldiers almost caused me to commit somt
overt act that would have involved us all il
ruin-a degradation worse than death. l
was the first time had seen my Soldier
since we were captured at Ailet and the,
presented truly pitlable spectacle. Bare
headed, barefooted, stripped of their cloth
ing to such an extent that they were half ma
ked, shivering in the cold wintry air, thes
men, innocent of wrong either as to act O.
intent, stood guarded by barbarians VIII
knew neither justice, clemency nor mercy
We were conducted back to our quarters +