j& THE NINETEENTH WAR : IN ABYSSINIA. 



In 1854, Jias-Ak' -WHS overthrown by his son-in-law Theodore, who, 

 of course, repudiated the Treaty the former had made with England, 

 and soon afterwards poor Mr Plowden fell into the hands of the 

 rebels of King Theodore, and was killed. 



It would have been well at this juncture if the English Government 

 had not appointed a successor, for the uselessness of having Consular 

 relations with this barbaric Monarch had been amply proved ; but 

 notwithstanding the protest of the Ruler of Abyssinia, Capt. Cameron 

 was appointed, who, as it afterwards turned out, was most unfit for 

 the position ; and as proof of it, when King Theodore refused to 

 receive him as Consul, and desired him to leave the Capital, and 

 when Lord Russell, in April, 1863, instructed him to carry out the 

 King's wishes, to return to Massowah and there remain until further 

 orders, Cameron refused to do so, but actually interfered in the 

 public affairs of Abyssinia ; for he sided with the enemies of 

 the King, denounced him as a murderer — which invoked the 

 hostility of the King, and the inevitable result was that he was 

 imprisoned. 



To secure his release M. Rassam was sent as intercessor, but the 

 King detained everyone who went to him ; and the reason assigned 

 was, that the Abyssinian Monarch having written a courteous letter 

 to the English Government, no notice was taken of it, and in fact 

 it was never answered, for it was subsequently found in the pigeon 

 holes of the Foreign Office, unattended to, and unopened. 



No doubt the Expedition was conducted with great energy and 

 skill, and it is only just to Lord Napier to admit it was conduc- 

 ted in as humane a spirit as the arbiter of War can secure, no 

 cruelty or plunder having been practised upon the people, and 

 we must all rejoice that the British Consul and the Missionaries 

 were released from their captivity ; but, it must be admitted 

 that they had no business in that barbarous land at all, and but 

 for their folly in going — or the folly of those who sent them — 

 the ;^8,ooo,ooo sterling which that War cost, and the valuable 

 lives lost, now buried in the mountains of Abyssinia, would have 

 been saved. 



