Ancient relations of Ethiopia to Egypt—The modern Pharaohs perpetuating the traditions of their predecessors—Ismail's first step toward gaining the key of Central Africa—The suppression of the slave-trade made the plausible excuse for conquest—Ismail's dream of including in his kingdom all the land of the Nile—Armed exploring parties sent out—The daring adventures of Colonel C. C. Long—Other exploring expeditions—Annexation sought under the plea of science and humanity—Arrendrup's expedition against King John of Abyssinia in 1875—His officers and the composition of his force—His little army cut to pieces by King John in the valley of the Mareb—Escape of scattered detachments under Majors Dennison, Dorholtz, and Raif—Melancholy end of an unfortunate expedition.
THERE had been from time immemorial, or at least from the time of the twelfth dynasty of the Pharaohs, constant war between the Ethiopians and the people who lived in the lower valley of the Nile. These continued to the time of Mehemet Ali, the founder of the present dynasty of Egypt, and of his successors, and culminated in these latter days in the formidable expedition it is proposed to notice now, which was sent to Abyssinia in 1875 by the Khedive of Egypt.
In 1866 the Khedive purchased of the Sultan of Turkey undisputed title to the city of Massowah, and subsequently to that of Zeila, unless a fitful claim to them by the Abyssinians may be mentioned as a bar. These are really the only two important points where Abyssinia can reach the sea. Abyssinia would therefore seem to have some right to them. In order that quiet might be secured between these ports and the interior of his extensive territory ; that his people might not be interrupted in their trade, commerce, and agriculture, the Khedive ordered Muntzinger Bey, a Swiss in his service, to cut the Gordian knot and take military possession of the entire province of Bogos, intermediate in this line of commerce, immediately on his frontier, and separated from Abyssinia by a desert. As Egypt then stood, she had her iron hand on three sides—along the entire seacoast of the Red Sea bordering Abyssinia, and wherever the extensive frontier of the Soudan touched it. Egypt being the most enlightened commercial nation in north-east Africa, and the Abyssinians being given up to war, turmoil, and the slave-trade, it was right that Egypt should thus hold the more barbarous nation in check. It was also to some extent in the interest of humanity, inasmuch as Egypt was a responsible government, which could be held to her promises to check and eventually stamp out the horrible slave-trade, which was unblushingly carried on by Abyssinia, even to the selling of her own dark-skinned daughters. These were some of the reasons given at Cairo why the Khedive determined upon sending an expedition to Abyssinia. As soon as it was determined, other expeditions were fitted out, it was said to distract the enemy and induce him to come to terms by treaty rectifying the frontier, and conceding the other points which were sought to be attained. I was not in the secret of these movements, and only give my opinions. Notwithstanding these plausible statements, the extraordinary preparations indicated that more was contemplated than appeared on the surface.
Beyond the borders of Egypt proper, where the Nile and its branches take their rise and subsequently extend through several degrees of latitude, there are extensive and rich valleys. These valleys are inhabited by numerous tribes of savages. This immense zone of fertile land lying waste, formed by the river and its sources, had always been claimed by Egypt as far as the Nile ran, according to the old Pharaoh's traditions. It was but natural that barbarous tribes of divers races, engaged in constant and bloody wars, incapable of governing themselves, should give way to the great law of peoples and yield to some regularly constituted authority. It seemed but just in the mind of the Khedive that he, following the tradition of his ancient predecessors, should claim as a right all the domain watered by the fertilizing river.
Here we may find some raison d'être for these portentous expeditions to establish title, according to the method pursued by the most enlightened nations on the continent of Africa, and like them, if necessary, to use military force as a last resort to attain possession. Therefore it was that Colonel C. C. Long, of the Khedive's staff, planted the Egyptian flag on Lake Victoria Nyanza, he being the first white man who ever sailed upon its waters, Speke having merely seen the lake in the distance. This energetic young American with two negro soldiers visited at this time the King of Uganda, living at the Equator and on the lake, having passed through a country from which Baker was driven with over 500 men. Colonel Long subsequently, suffering from disease and starvation, and naturally a delicate man, dragged the slow length of his march on his return through the malarial swamps of Central Africa, and after many months arrived at Gondokoro, emaciated and a mere shadow of his former self. The wonderful experience of this youthful explorer in this and subsequent successful expeditions into the Niam-Niam country are graphically pictured in the published narrative of his expedition. The interest is heightened by vivid accounts of conversations held and tragedies witnessed at the court of M'Tesa, King of Uganda, whose possessions lie on both sides of the Equator. Not the least striking episodes are the descriptions of the picturesque surroundings of the sable monarch. The discovery of Lake Ibrahim [Now Lake Kyoga; see map below. Ed.], which he named, ranks Long among the discoverers of the sources of the Nile, and his terrible conflict, aided by two negro soldiers, with a large body of savages on the lake adds a brilliant chapter to the record of American pluck and sense, and we read the story of his adventures with intense interest, though it includes much that is painful.
Following is an account of another expedition made by Colonel Long, of which no narrative has been published. It shows how extensive an empire Ismail contemplated, and how his schemes were thwarted by the selfish policy of his professed friend, Great Britain.
As part of the scheme by which an equatorial empire was to be secured, it was determined to open a road from Juba River through to the great lakes of the Equator ; and Long, who had so daringly acquitted himself in his various expeditions into the equatorial basin, was selected for the very dangerous and important duty. The following is the letter of instructions from the Khedive, which is given in the original language in which it was written and given to Long, at Cairo, in September, 1875 :
“ MONSIEUR LE COLONEL : Conformement à l'ordre que je vous ai donné verbalement vous devez partie pour Suez, ou se trouvent déja les trois compagnies les munitions, etc., que vous devez mener à Berber sur les bateaux Tanta et Dessouk. . . . Je n'ai pas besoin de vous repeter que le secret soit gardé sur la destination de l'expedition. . . . Je compte, Monsieur le Colonel, sur votre zèle, sur votre activité et votre intelligence de vous acquitter de la mission qui vous est conferée.
“Croyez, Monsieur le Colonel, à mes sentiments d'amitié.
“ISMAIL.
“PALAIS DE GÉZIREH, le 17 Septembre, 1875.”
COLONEL : In conformity with the order which I gave you verbally, you will leave for Suez, where are already the three companies, the ammunition, etc., which you are to take to Berber on the ships Tanta and Dessouk. . . . I need not repeat to you that secrecy be maintained upon the destination of the expedition. . . . I rely, Colonel, upon your zeal, upon your activity, and your intelligence to acquit yourself of the mission which is intrusted to you.
Believe, Colonel, in my sentiments of friendship.
ISMAIL.
PALACE OF GÉZIREH, September 17, 1875.
Long, who was at this time on leave, was called back to carry out the instructions contained in the above communication, which he furnished me, together with all the statements I have written with regard to this interesting expedition. Long says his conquests were to be on the east coast of Africa extending from Berbera to Cape Guardafui, Socotra Islands, and thence southward in the Indian Ocean to Ras Hafoun, Brava, Kismayu, and if need be, Zanzibar itself. Ismail Pacha dreamed of making Saïd Burgasch, the Sultan, still his guest, his vassal, and Long was chosen as his agent. How well his scheme would have succeeded but for the interference of Lord Derby, then minister of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, the despatches of that day indicate.
Long sailed from Suez with a command of picked men 1000 strong, of all arms, two men-of-war, the Mehemet Ali and the Latif ; two transports, the Tanta and the Dessouk ; provisioned and ammunitioned for six months or more. Ras Hafoun, Brava, and Kismayu were quickly seized and garrisoned, and Long's first despatches to the Khedive reported these facts and were dated from his camp on the Juba River, whither, having in prospect the rainy season, he had marched, surrounded by the hostile and warlike Somali. He had built a fortified camp whose heights swept the great plains on every side. Here, awaiting impatiently his promised orders, he made a reconnoissance of the mystic River Juba from which the gallant and daring Vonderdecker had never returned, having been treacherously massacred by the natives. Leaving his camp, now strongly constructed of dom-wood and palm and garrisoned by a force numbering one thousand men, Long embarked on the 24th of November, 1875, in a steam-launch, accompanied by his faithful officers Captain Hassan Wassif and Mohamed Effendi, with fifteen picked men, a small gun and six days' rations, to make a reconnoissance of the river in anticipation of the orders he hoped to receive which would soon permit him to plunge into the interior. He ascended the river as far as the land of M'Kowd M'Woli or the land of Sheik Ali, 150 miles from the mouth. He was saluted on all sides by the wondering tribes, awakened by the shriek and puff of the engine of the exploring party, with cries of “ Yambo ! yanibo ! yemani”—Salute you, O friend. Sugar-cane, Indian corn, bananas, melons, and the date were found. The natives, strangely mixed in color and speaking various idioms, made it sufficiently clear that here is the great passage-way of the slave-trader. The swift current of the river shadowed by the thick overhanging foliage made the voyage delightful, to which was added the perfume exhaled from a thousand plants. The river is fully a hundred yards in width and varies from twelve to thirty-five feet in depth. The hippopotamus and crocodile abound and afford diversion in shooting at them. The report of the gun awakens the slumbering echoes of the forest from whose depths come back the song of birds, the hoot of owls, or the defiant, half-human scream of monkeys of every species.
Before returning Long was informed that in the interior and upon his projected route westward there was a great negro monarch whom the negroes of M'Woli called Kori, representing him to be greater than all other African kings. Long was introduced to a captive from that country, and thought he saw in her a resemblance to the Uganda race ; but though he plied her with questions in the Uganda language, he could not secure from her a reply, the captive in disdainful silence refusing to answer.
Long returned to his camp on the Juba resolved to use the river at least to this point in his projected journey to the lakes.
On the 1st of December he was visited by the brother of the Sultan Abdullah, King of the Comoro Islands, the Johanna or Hinzonan Islands in the Indian Ocean, not far from Madagascar. Knight's Geography thus speaks of them : “ A group of four islands in the Mozambique Channel, between Africa and north-west coast of Madagascar. Comoro, the largest, is about 30 miles long and 12 miles broad ; abundant supplies of water, bullocks, sheep and goats, oranges, lemons, and plantains. Mohilla and Mayotta are the smallest of the group. Johanna or Hinzonan is the only one frequented by European ships on the passage to India. The town of Mochadon has good anchorage ; the inhabitants trade in slaves and the produce of the island with the coast of Arabia, from which they carry back Indian goods. Small fat bulls, poultry, rice, yams, sweet potatoes, pineapples, oranges, guavas, and other fruits are given to ships' crews in barter for red and blue cloth, nails, iron, razors, knives, beads, mirrors, muskets, cutlasses, gunpowder, flints, etc. The Sultan of the islands resides at Mochadon, which has 3000 inhabitants. The population of the island is said to be diminishing in consequence of the incursions of pirates from Madagascar, who carry the people away into slavery. The group is of volcanic origin, and contains several peaked mountains, one of which, in Johanna, is 6000 feet high. Except at their summits, the soil is very fertile.”
Here indeed was the climax of adventure. Ali was the Sultan's Grand Vizier ; he had travelled in Europe and spoke fluently the French language. He had conceived the idea of making these islands the resort of merchant ships and Europeans. He desired a change, and to that end he folded his tent like the genteel Arab that he was, stole away laden with treasure, and with a suite of eight or ten men had found his way into Long's camp on the Juba, where he appeared on the night of the 1st of December. He was clothed in gorgeously worked vestments, while upon his person glittered many brilliant stones. He begged Long to accept the sultanate of the islands, describing his brother Abdallah as cruel, rapacious, and ignorant. The commandant of the Juba camp was perfectly amazed. He received his guest politely, and sent him to rest with his retinue in the tents near his own. In the morning Ali, when he saw the magnificent force and equipment which composed Long's command, as they marched in the bright light of the morning upon the plain below, exclaimed “ Accept, O Bey, the government of these islands. With one hundred of such men the conquest is doubly assured, while with your entire command you can hold the islands against the world.”
It was at this time that Lord Derby addressed a letter to the Khedive protesting against his scheme of conquest and asking the immediate recall of the Juba expedition. Of this Long, of course, knew nothing. Unwilling to accept Ali's proposition, he placed that schemer on board one of the steamers intended for mail service between Kismaya and Suez, and sent him to Egypt as the guest of the Khedive. It is impossible to say where Ali is now.
Long was soon afterward prostrated by a malignant fever, and his command was returned to Egypt at a time when general bankruptcy and disorder prevailed. He had obeyed his orders, and executed the Khedive's commands faithfully in every particular ; and he complained bitterly of the fact that when the Khedive was taken to task by the British government he evaded responsibility by saying that the conquest of the coast and the invasion of Burgaschi territory were due to an excess of zeal on the part of his officers.
While writing of these expeditions into the region of the slave-traffic I may fitly take occasion to say something of slavery itself as it exists in the East, and especially in Egypt. The institution there differs in many ways from slavery as we knew it in this country. I believe that, notwithstanding the attempts made for its abolition, slavery still exists in Egypt, as well as throughout many other parts of the East. It will continue as long as the harem system remains, where men consider their wives as slaves, and their authority in their abodes superior to any law other than that which the word of the Prophet sanctions. The harem is a sanctuary into which no one but the lord and master thereof can enter. Slavery is, however, much more humane there, as a general thing, than it is in Cuba, where its existence is a crying shame to our civilization, where licensed cruelty is permitted at the very doors of the freest government on the earth.
The negro in Egypt is used entirely for domestic purposes. He acts as doorkeeper (boab), looks after the horses, and in his picturesque dress runs before the carriage of his master, and is called his syce. He cleans, fills, and lights his master's pipe, and always takes the first puff ; brings him his coffee, drinking the first cup ; he is his pet familiar, and generally has little to do. He rarely or never is a laborer or works in the fields, and is the shiniest, sleekest specimen of mortality in Egypt, unless we except that unhappy class denominated the neuter gender, the special guardians of the abode of bliss. The hard-working cultivator of the soil is the native Egyptian, the brown-and-yellow man, the fellah, who in no way physically or mentally resembles the black man, and who, now as in the day of the Pharaohs, rarely or never mixes blood with him. People of all nationalities in the neighborhood of Turkey and Egypt have been enslaved ; the principal judge of the mixed tribunals, a Greek by birth, now a Mahometan, was a slave in his boyhood, having been taken prisoner in war. The mothers of many of the Viceroys of Egypt were slaves, and nearly every wife of the older Pachas was purchased for a small sum. It is a theory often reduced to practice that every woman there is a slave, and can only be had by purchase. A lady, the wife of a well-known ambassador, was not long since a Greek slave bought in Alexandria for a small sum, and reigned as a leader of fashion in one of the most brilliant courts of Europe. A recent Minister of War, Kassim Pacha, one of the most noted ministers of Ismail, was born a Greek Christian in the island of Cyprus. He was taken prisoner in his youth and sold into slavery. Many other persons of high position who are known to me personally are of foreign origin and were slaves in their youth.
The reader will perhaps pardon the digression with which I have thus broken the thread of discourse, in view of the importance of the subject. I now renew the record of exploration and conquest.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mason and Colonel Prout navigated and surveyed Lake Albert Nyanza, discovered by Baker in 1864. General Raleigh Colston, formerly an officer of the Southern Confederacy, was more recently one of our American explorers in the interior of Africa. His geological and botanical collections, maps, and reconnoissances add much to the interest of a visit to the Citadel at Cairo. Devoted to duty, he penetrated into the comparatively unknown region between the Debbé, Mantoul, and Obeyail, and far into the provinces of Kordofan and Darfour in Central Africa. His services involved great labor and reflect credit upon his sense and determination. Always willing to face the turbulent savages, and, worse still, the malarial cesspools of the Dark Continent, he was eventually stricken with disease while toiling through the heated deserts of the Soudan. The Khedive highly appreciated his services and complimented him with a high decoration. Before leaving Egypt for his home he was compensated in part for his broken health by a gift of £1000.
Colonel Beverly Kennon, before coming to Egypt as colonel of ordnance, had seen service in the United States and Confederate navies. Though he did not penetrate far into the interior of Africa—not beyond the first cataract on the Nile—he was one of those engaged in the task of mapping out the empire of Ismail. For a number of months in the heated season he was employed by water and land in surveys and in hydraulic and hydrostatic observations of the hidden wonders of the waters of old Father Nile. While engaged in these duties he rendered no little service to the Egyptian government. He elaborated able and extensive plans for the coast defence of Egypt. One was by means of a system of railroads circling Alexandria, which had great merit. A system somewhat similar was used by the English in the war with Arabi Pacha. That upon which he prided himself above the rest was a plan for innumerable single-gun forts along the coast, and which were intended as a mutual support. They were to be sunk in the sand-hills and so hidden as entirely to escape observation. By means of ingenious machinery, of his own invention, these guns were to be suddenly raised to the surface, the fire delivered, and as suddenly disappear into the earth. Kennon completed one of his forts and was progressing satisfactorily when unfortunately the bottom of the Egyptian caisse fell through. Money became scarce ; Ismail turned his attention away from the war and its accompaniments to the sober reality of devising ways and means to meet the demands of urgent creditors, and these undertakings of Colonel Kennon, like other valuable experiments, necessarily came to an end. Kennon, full of energy and ability, soon wearied of the monotony of a life of ease, and left Egypt for the United States.
I shall speak of one more of those laborious officers engaged in extending the area of Ismail's empire, who penetrated far into the jungles of Central Africa. General E. S. Purdy served with distinction in the Union army, and went to Egypt as a colonel at an early day. By constant and dangerous service he won his promotion to the rank of Lewan Pacha. For several years in command of that vast and undefined region known as Darfour, he pushed his reconnoissances from Dongola to El Facher, the capital, extending beyond Dar Fétit. Decorated and promoted, he unfortunately fell a victim to the malarial influences of that deadly climate. Having gone to Egypt to serve Ismail, he always commanded his highest consideration, and it is with sorrow that I record the death of this martyr to duty.
There were others who deserved well, but my limited space will not permit further mention of them.
In the expedition to the Juba River, as already related, Colonel Long took possession and fortified a position there, and Colonel Ward surveyed its mouth, harbor, and the coast near it, the jealousy of England preventing an exploration from this point to the great lakes at the Equator. In the year 1875 a command under an Egyptian officer was sent through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to Zeila, on the Arabian Gulf, and then marched to Harrar, the principal town of the province of that name. The place, with its rich coffee fields, was seized and fortified. This was claimed as part of the kingdom of Zeila, so long held by the Mussulman.
Muntzinger Bey with his command sailed to Amphila Bay, on the Red Sea, in the province of Dan Kil, and was marching toward the slopes of the Haramat Mountains, with the view of taking possession of the immense rock-salt mines, whence the Abyssinians and the surrounding tribes get their supplies of salt. There was no vital point where the Abyssinians, those really aimed at, could be struck a severer blow. A frightful region itself, it was necessary to go through burning deserts to reach it. It is held by the Taltals, a people fierce and savage. Salt, besides its culinary uses, is also the currency of Abyssinia and the vast regions on her borders. This necessary of life, scarce and precious in Africa, has been used in Abyssinia as money from remote antiquity. Cut into blocks, it is wrapped in a cloth made from the bark of trees, to protect and secure it from dampness. The Abyssinians carry on a brisk trade in this valuable commodity. Muntzinger Bey, on his way through the desert, was ambushed by the Abyssinians and their savage allies, and with his whole party destroyed, about the time we entered Abyssinia. The endeavor was made to keep these expeditions secret, particularly the one of Arrendrup, whose sad fate I shall relate. In connection with the other expeditions the impression was general that it was the intention to extend the frontier of Egypt and take within its fold by military occupation all that vast domain which circled round from the mouth of Juba River on the Indian Ocean to the great lakes of the Equator. It was undoubtedly Ismail's ambition to include in his dominion all the country which bordered the Red Sea and Indian Ocean within these limits, and in his own good time to absorb and tame the wild inhabitants in the interior of this extensive territory.
In October, 1875, Arrendrup, a highly accomplished Danish lieutenant who had gone to Egypt for his health and had been employed in the civil and military service about Cairo, was appointed colonel and ordered to the command of an expedition to Abyssinia. The colonel had never heard a hostile gun fired and had never been in a wild country or held intercourse with a savage people. He had as his staff a distinguished young American, Major Dennison, who had been in the Union army during the American war ; Major Dorholtz, a Switzer, and Count Zichy, brother of the Austrian minister at Constantinople. His command consisted of 2500 infantry armed with Remington rifles, two six-gun batteries of mountain howitzers, and six rocket stands. In the command were included two companies of Soudan soldiers. The information I give below comes from Major Dennison, Raif (Arab commander), and Major Dorholtz, who accompanied the expedition.
Upon marching into the interior about thirty miles to a place called Guinda, Colonel Arrendrup addressed a letter to King John of Abyssinia, which stated in substance that he had come to fix the boundary between him and Egypt, to claim indemnity for past outrages upon the Egyptian people, and that unless his terms were immediately accorded he would march upon King John's capital. To this letter the King made no reply. Arrendrup then began his march to the Asmara Mountains, but finding these mountains steep and difficult, they being 8000 feet above the level of the sea, he changed his course of march to the Khaya Khor and Godofélassee route (see the map annexed), placing Dorholtz at Sangareit, two days' march south of Khaya Khor, in the province of Okuleh-Gousai, with two companies of infantry, while Major Raif was stopped at Khaya Khor and there fortified with four companies of infantry and two pieces of artillery. Count Zichy, with six companies of infantry, two pieces of artillery, and two rocket stands, was ordered to a place called Addi-Huala, which was over a day's march from Khaya Khor, an elevated position overlooking the valley of the Mareb River, and here rested five or six days. This movement threatened Adua, the capital of King John, which was only about two days' march away. Colonel Arrendrup, with the remainder of his command, went to Godofélassee, and there intrenchments were thrown up by Major Dennison. Hearing that the Abyssinians were on the move in the direction of Count Zichy, the colonel hastened to Addi-Huala. In the mean time the Count had gone to the bottom of the valley beneath the elevated height of Gundet, where he had encountered a small party of the enemy. Getting this information, Arrendrup hastened to Gundet with four companies of infantry and two mountain pieces in search of Zichy. Dennison, an experienced officer, taking in the situation, begged the colonel not to jeopard the command by going into the valley, as the King in force was no doubt feeling his way along the Mareb River under cover of its thick growth of vegetation and the mimosa-trees, which were large. Not heeding this wise counsel, Arrendrup moved into the valley. From the heights of Gundet, looking to the south, the meandering Mareb River unfolded itself, its thick and tall vegetation indicating its course. In the distant horizon of two days' march, the mountains of Adua stood out in bold relief, their peaks sharp and piercing, to be compared only to the irregular teeth of the crocodile. During the night the King was in the valley with a large army, encamped on the opposite side of the river ; his camp-fires were seen for miles up and down the stream as he lay in wait when Arrendrup arrived. Before the colonel left Addi-Huala he moved Dennison to the right and front of the position there, and Major Ruchdy correspondingly on the left flank. Each of these officers had a small command. Orders were sent to Rushton Bey, who had been left in command of Addi-Huala, to move at daylight with five companies, two pieces of mountain artillery, and two rocket stands and occupy Gundet. Dennison, on the departure of Rushton, was ordered back to Addi-Huala, where two pieces of artillery had been left, to hold possession of this place. It is sad to read of these studied dispositions of the small force scattered in still smaller divisions over a mountainous country, about which little was known, in the face of a powerful and wily enemy of whom less was known. These arrangements being made, Arrendrup, with eight companies, four pieces of artillery, and two rocket stands, advanced early next morning, the 15th of November, down the precipitate and winding path to the Mareb River, with the intention of attacking the King, whose people unseen were then thickly scattered on both sides of the stream awaiting his movements. He had scarcely marched into the rugged and wooded valley of the Mareb and commenced his dispositions, with barely time for a few volleys from his infantry and discharges from his artillery, when the brave Arrendrup and Count Zichy, who was in command of the skirmishers, were overwhelmed by the thousands of the enemy. The fight lasted but a few minutes. No mercy was shown, no quarter given, and Arrendrup and Zichy with their Arab soldiers met a common fate. Rushton Bey, hearing the reports of the guns, knew that a fight had begun, and accompanied by Arrikel Bey, Governor of Massowah, moved rapidly down the mountain-side. Becoming entangled among the rocks and trees in the narrow, winding pathway, his command was soon in great confusion. It was but a short time after the work of death had closed with the brave Arrendrup and his forces below when the whole Abyssinian horde was precipitated upon Rushton Bey, who, still on the mountain-side, fought to the last. Crushed by the weight of thousands, the men were rolled in a bloody mass down the steep incline in a death-grapple with their merciless foes. In a little while Rushton too succumbed, Arrikel Bey was killed, and all was silent in the valley and on the mountain-side. The firing had ceased. It was the silence of death.
Christian and Mahometan fell side by side. There was no living creature to sing their requiem but the birds that carolled harmoniously over the remains of the brave Arrendrup and his command and the gallant young governor, Arrikel Bey. Major Dennison, in the plains or plateau of Addi-Huala, five or six miles back of the mountains, heard nothing of the fight until stragglers and a company which had been left at the mountain of Gundet joined him. They gave such a circumstantial account of what had occurred in the Mareb valley that he was satisfied of the truth ; but, a bold man, he determined to send to the precipice to ascertain the facts, and began to fortify where he was. Ordering two of the four companies on this duty with him, they positively refused to obey his order, and he could not get the officers to force them to do it. Large parties of the enemy in the mean time hovered around him, but did not attack. While these events were occurring a letter came to Dennison from King John demanding his surrender, and in the name of humanity calling upon him to spare any further effusion of blood. If he gave up his arms he was assured that he and his command would be given a safe-conduct to Massowah, or they could stay in the King's service if they pleased. Dennison replied that he would refer the matter to his commanding officer, who was absent. A large force of the enemy was near him in a threatening attitude at this time, and the whole army within four miles of his position.
With all these facts before him, Dennison became satisfied that if he remained longer (and perhaps he had stayed too long already) his command was doomed to destruction. Spiking his cannon, therefore, he marched away with light baggage. Coming to Major Raif, at Khaya Khor, he too gathered up his forces, and taking command of the whole, turned his troops toward Massowah. Major Dorholtz, wise in time, had already taken flight. Thus the fragments of an expedition, a few days before full of the pride of war, now thoroughly alarmed, went stampeding and straggling toward the coast, with the enemy at their heels. The details of this march cannot be imagined, much less described. Count de Sarzec, the French consul at Massowah, in a published account now before me, says that he found Count Zichy lying wounded among the dead, in a most horrible condition, too painful to describe. Being compelled to go to the King, with whom he had arranged an interview, he did all he could for the unfortunate man, placing him at the house of a Greek to await his return. Upon coming back he was informed that Zichy had been taken away by order of the King. He supposed that he had been killed. It was subsequently stated in Cairo that he died while going with these people to Adua, and was buried there.
Abyssinia is almost a terra incognita, even to a majority of those who are well read in history and ethnology, in spite of the remarkable traditions of this most interesting of semi-barbarous races. I shall be pardoned, then, if I devote some space to the country and its inhabitants before proceeding to what more properly forms my subject, the campaign made by the large expedition sent out in 1875 after the sad news of Arrendrup's fate reached Cairo—an expedition in which I served as second in command and chief of staff. The military experiences of that most interesting but disastrous campaign will be far more intelligible if once the reader understands the character and antecedents of the people against whom it was made.