The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-10

MAN warrior is not to be surpassed by
any soldier on earth. They frequently
in advance of a fight form small bands
of young men who agree to make their
way inside the enemies line or die in
the attempt. When they stormed, or
tried to storm, Fort Goura, several of
their men, [ was told later by my
friends. were killed within our fortifi-
cations. These people, too, have much
patriotism and pride of country, and
claim theirs to be the oldest monarchy
on earth. They are the descendants,
they say, of King Solomon and the
Queen of ~Sheba- There are four di-
visions, or principalities, in the king
dom, each ruled over by a rass, or SUBJ
ordinate king. Then there are the gov
errors and bashaws. When the army is
in the field the bashaw corresponds to
a captain with US, each having under
him company composed of from five
to twenty mounted men, and about four
times as many footmen. The governor
of a village has four to eight baShaWS
under him. Several villages are under
the governor of a province, several
provinces under a rass, who would cor
respond to major general in our
army and the king is commander-in-
chief. The whole country seems to be
always on war footing, and it re-
quires neither recruiting nor revenue
to put an army in the field. Of the lat
ter they seem to have little in our
sense. When once King John offered
to increase my salary if I would serve
under him, 1 inquired from curiosity
and found that his personal income
hardly exceeded my own.
THEIR IMPROBABLE POSITION.
The difficulty of overcoming a people
so hardy and courageous. occupying
such a country. must be obvious to
anyone. The question of supplies alone
is one which an invading army pene-
trating far into the interior would find
impossible of solution. From the coun-
try itself nothing can be CLEANED. The.
inhabitants dwell for the most part in
straw matched villages which they cam
easily abandon on the approach of an
enemy, driving their flocks and herds
their only wealth-before them.
There are no railroads or navigable
streams in the country. There are not
even any highways or roads Every
thing for the consumption of an in
vading army must be transferred from
the sea coast, and camels alone can be
relied upon for this purpose. When we
left Massowah our supplies for the first
ten miles were transported on mules,
but we soon found that if we expected
to proceed any distance into the inter
Tor the mules could not carry provender
enough to feed themselves, 50 they were
discarded and camels substituted One
of these latter animals can slamble
along under heavy burden all day,
and depend for his supper at night
upon such scanty heritage as he, can
pick up on the wayside. Nobody in pre-
pairing a cameps pack ever thinks of
putting in anything for the camel. Yet
even these with their astonishing ca
pacity for enduring hardships and car
rying grievousi burdens afford but a
precaI.ious means of transportation for
a large army in a hostile country,
some distance off from its base of sup
plies. In our Abyssfnian campaign all
the camels appeared to be smitten at
once with an influenza or lung fever.
caused no doubt by overwork and
scant food, and more than 5000 of the
beasts lay dead at one time along the
route between Massowah and Fort
Goura.
AMBITIOUS TO BECOME A GREAT
NATION.
I have not space here to allude to the
morals of this people, which in some
respects are peculiar, or to refer to
other social features which I found to
be interesting. Suffice it for the pres
ent purpose to say that a fierce love of
independence seems to be born in them,
and they think far more of extending
their possessions than they do of be-
ing tributary to a foreign government
They bitterly resent today the occupa-
ton by any other country of the narrow
strip of land that separates them from
the Red sea- Maderical King Johns
prime minister. more than once said
to me earnestly: I'VE have the same
religion as that of all the enlightened
countries of Europe, and if we only had
Massowah or some other seaport we
might become great nation our
selves" Again he said: ''Jsmail Pa