NEW EMPIRE OP ABYSSINIA. 153 



iia chains a month and received for reward a rich fief upon the frontier. I was 

 jreleased after a few hours on condition of remaining prisoner on parole. Devra- 

 Tabor was assigned to me for my residence, with the permission to go wherever 

 I pleased within a circle of SO to 40 leagues. Ifothing now remained for me to 

 do except to remain as a spectator necessarily inactive in the midst of the gi'eat 

 events which the new attitude of Egypt towards Abyssinia seemed to announce, 

 Egypt in fact, excited by the verbal or written provocations which had been 

 directed over its provinces by the Abyssinian governors of Walkai and of Addi- 

 Sobbo had re-established the organisation of Soudan upon the same basis as 

 before 1856, and had sent to Khartown with almost unlimited powers, a governor 

 general named Monca-Pacha, an energetic soldier, but a despotic and a venal 

 administrator. This man, who had formerly been a Circassian slave, boasted 

 that he had emasculated or decapitated 14,000 men while he commanded th« 

 army of occupation in Nubia. He was, in the opinion of the viceroy Laid-Pacha» 

 the only chief capable of contending with energy against Theodore. Having 

 arrived at Khartown in the summer of 1862, with 4,000 regular troops and rifled 

 eannon, he had passed the winter in disciplining his troops, and in Jaauary 186S 

 he had slowly marched towards Gallabat, where he arrived on the ]9th of 

 February at the head of 10,000 to 12,000 men. He had pretended to threaten 

 Abyssinia, but he had confined himself to the oppression of the province, which 

 this occupation of nine days completely exhausted. Theodore, lying almost 80 

 leagues from there, near lake Tana, did not stir, under pretext of eating fresh 

 fish " as it was the season of Lent." To tell the truth, the two generals, although 

 both brave, did not dare to risk a battle. The Negus had kept in remembrance 

 thfe artillery of Salah-Bey, and the soldiers of Monca, not knowing that the horri- 

 ble custom of mutilating prisoners had been abolished by Theodore, had a terri- 

 ble fear of falling alive into the hands of the Abyssinians. The Negus under- 

 stood without difficulty that the Egyptians would not attack him, and, assured of 

 this fact, he directed all his attention to the insurrections which were multiplying 

 in the interior. One Terse had revolted in the mountftinous districts bathed by 

 the Zarima ; a very near relation of the Negus occupied Kouara, and had put in 

 irons the governor appointed by the emperor ; in another part of the same pro- 

 rince, a Nygade or a mere merchant, called Rassa, had his head turned by priests 

 who had related to him pretended revelations from heaven, and had convinced 

 him that the reign of the emperor was at an «nd, that his was about to begin. 

 Although he paid little money and was not a soldier, he had collected, it was 

 eaid, 4000 men. In Choa, in Tigre, two or three more obscure rebels were in 

 motion. This material anarchy was the result of the moral anarchy in which 

 Abyssinia had languished so long ; the Negus had bravely etruggled against it 

 at the beginning of his reign, but he was growing weary. Only one gloomy 

 thought absorbed his mind : " God," said he, " who has raiaed me from the dust 

 to supplant legitimate princes, has not performed this miracle without ftn object. 

 I have a mission — but what is it ? I believe at first that it wns to exalt this 

 people by prosperity and peace, but in spite of all the good I have done I see 

 more rebels springing up than in the time of the worst tyranny. It is evident 

 that I am deceived. This nation is stubborn and needs to be chastised before it 

 is called to enjoy the blessings of Providence. I see now my true part, I will be 



