2 1 8 SPORT IN ABYSSINIA. 



without seemingly having the least intimation of their 

 being near. The Abyssinians are stated to have 

 mustered 30,000 strong, and I am sure my old friend 

 Kirkham would have taken every advantage of the 

 locality and the ground. The hatred of the Abys- 

 sinians to the Turk, as they call the Egyptians, was in 

 this case very well exemplified, as nearly every one 

 of the latter was killed, and among them Arrekel Bey, 

 whose loss, as a kind friend, I very much deplore and 

 lament, for nobody could have been more civil and 

 courteous than he was when we were at Massowah. 



I cannot help here quoting a letter of mine, dated 

 May 7th, 1875, published in the 'Pall Mall Gazette' 

 shortly after my arrival in England. At the end of 

 the letter I state what I thought would happen if 

 Egyptians and Abyssinians came in conflict in the 

 country of the latter, and it turns out my prognos- 

 tication has not been falsified by events : — 



" Having only just returned to England from travel- 

 ling in Abyssinia, I happened to see a letter copied 

 from the ' Cologne Gazette,' and commented on in 

 your paper of the 13th of April last. The corre- 

 spondent of the ' Cologne Gazette ' must be misin- 

 formed, I think, on some of the subjects he writes 

 about. First, the writer designates King Johannes, 

 the king of Abyssinia, ' as but a poor actor by the 



