206 THEODORE II. AND TKE 



What had most deeply wounded Theodore II., in the papers that were geized, 

 wns not the recital of the nsele^s barbarities committed during two year?, bu't 

 the fact, — public, however, and known by the Abyssinians — that he was the son 

 of a merchant of Konsso. "Who has revealed it to these strangers?" he asked 

 with feigned simplicity, " Doubtless some person of Gondar, a city of piiests, who 

 do not love me. On to Gondar!'' He laid upon the unfortunate city, already 

 exhausted by the three months sojourn of the army, an enormous tax which was 

 immediately paid. Next day be demanded twice as much, and as the inhabitants 

 could not comply with the request sufHcieutly soon, he sent his troops against 

 the town, wiih orders to eat it, that is, to pillage it at pleasure. Nothing was 

 respected, not even the chniches ; the old capital of the Neguses was reduced so 

 as to envy the most wretched villages. The Mussulman quarter, Islambiet, the 

 centre of the commerce of Upper Abyssinia, and as yet free from all the revolu- 

 tions, was sacked and almost destroyed, some time after, an a'bitrary act, the 

 canse of which has not yet been well explained, added to the sorrow of the 

 Europeans who were residing in Abyssinia. The English consul, Mr. Cameron, 

 was put in irons. This violation of the right cf nations, has given rise to more or 

 less romantic versions which the journals of Europe have received and which 

 show in some degree the talkative and jesting spirit of Alexandria, where they 

 had their source. 



The'most reasonable explanation is this. Mr. Cameron, on leaving Abvssinia 

 in Nov. 1863, had taken with him an agent which the Negus had attached to 

 him, undoubtedly as- a spy. The consul had dismissed him after crossing the 

 frontiers, and this act had deeply offended Theodore. Moreover, he made a long 

 excursion into the cotton districts of SennAo and Gallabat, in order to study them 

 with a view to the political and commercial interests of England. Theodore II., 

 who did not understand that a diplomatic agent could be interested in commercial 

 matters, supposed that Mr. Cameron had gone to make arrangements with his 

 mortal enemies the Egyptians, and assailed him in consequence. Lastly, he had 

 been offended at receiving from {he foreign office, a letter signed by Lord Russell 

 and not by the Queen herself, " I wrote to Victoiia," he said humourously, " and 

 not to this Mr. Russell, whom 1 do not know." This was probably only a pre- 

 text for in January he had received with joy a letter from the French govern- 

 ment, signed by M. Thouveuel ; it is true that in delivering this letter to Theo- 

 dore II. I had hastened to declare that M. Thouvenel was the afa-Negus, (1 Liter- 

 ally, mouth of the Evi-peror, orator of the crown. It was formerly the first office 

 of the court. Theodore II. suppressed it as being a sinecure) of Napoleon HI, 

 However it may be, Mr. Cameron was enchained, shut up, and guarded night 

 and day in a tent near the quarter general on the banks of the river Kaha. It 

 does not appear that during the last ten months this frightful situation has had 

 an end. His servants and his clerks have shared liis fate. Among them was a 

 young Irishman, 18 years old, who, after having led for some months a perilous 

 life, hunting elephants in Nubia, had been seized with an irresistible desire of 

 seeing Abyssinia and its sovereign, knowing that the Negus loved scenes of war 

 and of the chase, he brought as a present for him a very fine carpet on which was 

 represented the well kuown scene of the Spahi Jules Jenard chasing the lion ; he 



