ABYSSINIA. 



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distracted state of Abyssinia, with its chiefs 

 illy at variance with each other, he says: 

 " A remarkable man has now appeared, who, 

 ninK-r the title of King Theodore, has broken 

 if tho great feudal chiefs ; has united 

 * hole of Northern Abyssinia under his 

 ify, and has established tolerable tran- 

 quillity." It appears that from his earliest 

 he h;is regarded this as his destiny. Mr. 

 !en describes him as young, vigorous in all 

 juanly exercises, of a striking countenance, pecu- 

 liarly polite and engaging when pleased, and 

 mostly displaying great tact and delicacy; of 

 untiring energy, both mental and bodily, and 

 of boundless daring, personal and moral. His 

 ideas and language are said to be clear and 

 precise; hesitation is not known to him; he 

 has neither councillors nor go-betweens. He 

 salutes his meanest subject with courtesy, and 

 is generous to excess, but also unsparing in 

 punishment and terrible when his wrath is 

 aroused. His faith is signal : "Without Christ," 

 he says, " I am nothing ; but if He has destined 

 me to purify and reform this distracted king- 

 dom, who shall stay me ? " Mr. Plowden, who 

 thus sketched the king's character, stated that 

 ne had made great reforms in Abyssinia; had 

 enforced more decency of manners ; was put- 

 ting down trade in slaves, and removing vexa- 

 tious exactions on commerce. As might be 

 ted, he was jealous of his sovereign rights, 

 and he objected to the establishment of an 

 English consulate in his dominions as an inno- 

 vation. " lie found no such thing in the history 

 of the institutions of Abyssinia." Mr. Plow- 

 den hinted that if he consented to the estab- 

 lishment of friendly relations the sea-coast and 

 M,iss ( i\vuh might possibly be given up to him ; 

 but though his ambition was roused at this, he 

 Beared the clause conferring jurisdiction on the 

 insul as trenching on his prerogative, and the 

 ;imo for consideration was so short that he was 

 too much startled at the proposal to accept it. 

 The Roman Catholic mission had usurped the 

 functions of the Aboona and the Abyssinian 

 clergy, and the king feared that we should wish 

 in like manner to usurp the political rights of 

 the sovereign. 



At the beginning of 1865 a society was or- 

 ganized in France by the Count do Mounier, for 

 establishing at Halai, in Abyssinia, a commer- 

 cial agency, but, on arriving in Egypt, the society 

 dissolved. Another project of civilization had 

 been started by the Count de Bisson, who, in a 

 letter to the Paris journal, La France, stated 

 that he had received from Theodore a conces- 

 sion of all the uncultivated lands of* the empire, 

 and that the Negos had put an armed force at 

 his disposal for the protection of himself and 

 his associates. In support of his assertion he 

 quoted the following extract from the ordinance 

 of concession : "We give to thee and concede 

 forever all the lands which thou mayst choose 

 and take in Abyssinia. They belong to thee. 

 We engage by oath to defend thee and thy com- 

 panions by our invincible arms ; to furnish to 



theo aid of every kind thon mayst stand in need 

 of. We place, moreover, at thy disposal a body 

 of troops, to protect thee against all, for thou 

 art our brother, and we have faith in thy loy- 

 alty." Signed : Prince Aylo-Cbooma-Moham- 

 med-abd-Allah, melk (king), in the name of 

 the emperor. 



The emperor has for some time been engaged 

 in war with the rulers of Tigr6 and Shoa, two 

 of the principal and most civilized provinces in 

 Southern Abyssinia. At the end of Febru- 

 ary, 1866, Devas, the lieutenant of Waagshum 

 Gobazye (the ruler of Tigre), was defeated in 

 battle by Tekla Ge6rgis, the brother and deputy 

 of Ras Bariau, Theodore's lieutenant ; but the 

 cholera entered the camp of the latter, destroyed 

 a considerable number of his troops, and dis- 

 persed the rest. In May Tekla Ge6rgis retired 

 into Shire to raise a fresh army. On July 30th. 

 according to an account furnished to the " Nice 

 Journal " by Count Bisson, the above-mentioned 

 " Founder of the French Colony in Abyssinia," 

 a tremendous battle was fought between the 

 armies of Theodore and G6bazye at Axoum, one 

 of the two capitals of Tigr6. Theodore is said 

 to have been at the head of 95,000 men; the 

 forces of the insurgents are estimated to have 

 been rather larger. The latter occupied an in- 

 trenched camp. In various of their prepara- 

 tions for defence Count Bisson's correspondent 

 recognized European skill. " The English were 

 there, in constant communication with Aden ; 

 the insurgents drew arms and supplies from 

 that place." Two redoubts, armed with can- 

 non, covered the extremities of the insurgents' 

 wings, the centre was covered by abatis ; 

 the plain was cut up by trenches, and other 

 obstacles were skilfully grouped, so as to ren- 

 der the cavalry of the assailants nearly useless ; 

 and as it composed the greater part of the army, 

 the lancers had to dismount and act as infantry. 

 Driving a cloud of skirmishers from one cover 

 after another, the Abyssinians levelled the dif- 

 ferent obstacles as soon as conquered. Ten 

 thousand men then remounted and charged the 

 insurgent centre, driving it in. But when four 

 times as many lancers advanced to pass through 

 the gap thus made, the redoubts opened a cross 

 fire on the attacking columns, inflicting heavy 

 loss. The sharpshooters rallied, the attack was 

 defeated, and the insurgent centre again had 

 time to form. The 10,000 horsemen, under the 

 orders of Telema, the general-in-chief, who had 

 first broken the line, had pushed forward, dis- 

 regarding what passed in their rear, to charge 

 a second line of insurgents, who, profiting by 

 the military instruction formerly given them by 

 Count Bisson and his followers, firm as a rock, 

 awaited the enemy kneeling, their lance-butts 

 fixed in the ground, living chevaux d frisc, 

 covered with their bucklers, while, close behind 

 them, thousands of sharpshooters poured volleys 

 into the assailants. To complete the discom- 

 fiture of the latter, they were charged in flank 

 by twenty squadrons. Talema cut bis way out, 

 but ]jft half his people behind him. Afte* 



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