92 PERSONAL NARRATirE. 



could in any way exercise authority out of tlie country 

 in as short a time as possible.^ 



I left the camp before Magdala on the 16th of April, 

 three days after the fall of the fortress, and marched 

 back as rapidly as I could to the AVadela plateau. Here 

 I halted for a day or two to obtain a few specimens of 

 the birds, of which, however, I could not collect many, 

 as I had to prepare the skins myself. At Yasendye, 

 Mr. Markham, the Honorary Secretary of the Geogra- 

 phical Society, who had been with the expedition 

 from the beginning, but whom I had never met till 

 I reached Magdala, came up from the front with Major 

 Grant. He had no hope of penetrating any further into 

 the country, and was on his road back to England. He 

 left with me an aneroid and a boiling-point thermometer, 

 in case 1 should be more successful. 



From Yasendyd I came on to Gaso and Santara. I 

 had some days previously written to Ashangi for my 

 tent and collecting apparatus to be sent on, as I wished to 

 procure specimens of the birds and mammals pecidiar to 

 this elevated region. I found, however, that my tent, 

 &c. had not arrived, and that the whole camp had been 

 removed from Santara to the Takkazzy^ except the tent 

 of the guard. There was no place in which to remain, 

 for the guard-tent was of course crowded, and very 

 reluctantly I was compelled to leave this most promising 



' I do not for an instant doubt that Lord Napier was not only perfectly 

 justified in refusing permission to any one to leave the line of march, but I fear 

 so little interest is taken in England in any exploration for other than purely 

 commercial motives, that he would have been blamed had he permitted any. 



