The March to Magdala

The scientific and the general members of the expedition are arriving very fast. Dr. Markham, the geographer of the expedition, has long been here. Mr. Holmes, of the British Museum, arrived yesterday, as archæologist; he is going off to-morrow to a church a few miles distant, to examine some manuscripts said to exist there. The Dutch officers arrive up to-day, and I hear two French officers arrive to-morrow. In reference to these foreign officers, I am assured to-day by a staff-officer, to whom I was regretting that more was not done for them, that they are not really commissioners. It may be so; but as, at any rate, they are officers who are paid by foreign governments, and are allowed to accompany the expedition, I confess that I am unable to see any essential difference. The staff-officer assured me, as a proof of the beneficent intentions of the authorities, that these foreign officers would not be charged for their rations. John Bull is indeed liberal. He is much more sharp as to the “specials;”for a general order was actually issued the other day, saying that “gentlemen unconnected with the army were to pay for a month’s rations in advance.” With the exception of the scientific men, who are all sent out by Government, and must, I suppose, be considered official persons, there are only four gentlemen here “unconnected with the army,” namely, three other special correspondents and myself. I remarked to a commissariat-officer, with a smile, when called upon to pay my month in advance, that “I thought I might have been considered as good for the payment at the end of each month as officers were.”“Ah,” said the astute officer, “but suppose anything were to happen to you, whom should we look to for payment?” The reply was obvious: “But, on the other hand, suppose that unpleasant contingency should occur, of whom are my representatives to claim the amount for the days paid for but not eaten?” At whose suggestion this general order was issued I know not; but I do know that anything more paltry and more unworthy the general order of a large army was never issued. Who issued this order I know not, for I cannot but repeat that no one could be more kind and considerate than are Sir Robert Napier and every member of his staff to all of us.

I must now close my letter, for it is getting late, and my hand is so cold I can hardly hold a pen. I may just mention that colds are very prevalent here, and that at night there is an amount of coughing going on among the natives in the tents around, that is greater even than could be heard in an English church on a raw November morning during a dull sermon.

Senafe, February 3d.

When I closed my letter on the evening of the 31st ultimo, I had intended to start early the next morning. My plan was to have gone on to Attegrat, to have stopped a day or two there, and to have returned in plenty of time to have gone up again with Sir Robert Napier. After I had closed my letter, however, I heard that he would probably leave on the 5th; I should not, therefore, have had time to carry out my plan, and determined, in consequence, to wait here another day or two, and then to move on quietly in advance of the General, so as to be able to devote a short time to the examination of the country in the neighbourhood of each of the stations. I had another course open to me. The extreme advanced party are pushing on beyond Attegrat, on the road to Antalo. Should I go with them, or should I remain near head-quarters and report the regular progress of events? It was more amusing, of course, to be pushing on ahead; but it seemed to me that the interest of the public lay not in the road, but in the progress of the troops along that road. I have therefore made up my mind to jog quietly along with the main body of the army, the more especially as the meeting between Sir Robert Napier and the King of Tigre will be one of the most interesting events in the whole expedition.

Mr. Speedy has arrived in camp. He is to act as political adviser to General Napier, and his arrival is a general matter of satisfaction. Mr. Speedy was at one time an officer in the 81st Foot; he afterwards exchanged into the 10th Punjaubees, of which regiment he was some time adjutant. He afterwards left the service and wandered out to Abyssinia, where he entered the service of Theodore, and assisted him to organise and drill his army. Finding he was likely to share the fate of other British in this potentate’s employ, and to be cast into prison, Mr. Speedy threw up his appointment, and has since been living in Australia. General Napier, having heard of him, wrote to beg him to come; and Mr. Speedy received the letter just in time to come off by the mail, with a kit, according to popular report, consisting only of two blankets. He is not, I am happy to say, an Abyssinian worshipper. Dr. Krapf, Colonel Merewether’s adviser, is so. He seems to think that the black is a very much finer specimen of humanity than the white man; and that deeds which would be punished in the latter are highly excusable, if not laudable, when perpetrated by the former. Dr. Krapf is not singular in his ideas. Had his lines lain in England, I have no doubt that he would have been one of Governor Eyre’s foremost persecutors. I am very glad that a healthier tone is likely to be introduced in our dealings with the natives. Mr. Speedy rode out yesterday, at the General’s request, to some of the villages round, called upon the priests, and offered a present of money for the relief of the poor and distressed. The answer in each case was the same. The priests said that had it not been for our coming, a period of severe distress and suffering would probably have occurred. The crops had been devastated by the locusts, and the present drought would seriously affect the next harvest. Thanks, however, to the money which the English had distributed through the country in payment for cattle purchased by the commissariat, and for hay, wood, milk, &c., and for the hire of transport, the people were better off than usual; and therefore, with the exception of three or four dollars for the aged and infirm, they would decline with thanks General Napier’s gift.

The Engineer Corps here have been very busy for the last few days practising signalling. The method used is Captain Bolton’s system, which is in use in the Royal Navy. The method in which these signals are managed on land is, however, less known, and is specially interesting, as it is the first time they have been used in actual warfare. The present is, indeed, a sort of experiment; and if it prove successful and useful, it is probable that the system will be generally introduced into the army. The Engineers are giving lessons in the art of signalling to soldiers of the 33d regiment, and will teach men of each regiment out here, so that the system may be fairly tested. The signals by day are conveyed by flags; there are white, white-and-black, and black, according to the alphabet or method to be used. A single wave to the right means one; two waves, two; and so on up to five; the remaining four numbers are made either by waves to the left or by combination of wavings to either side. These numbers, like the flags on board ship, refer to a number in a book with which each signalman is furnished. Let us suppose, for example, that a general situated upon rising ground wishes to signal to any given division of his army. He makes the signal, let us say, “five.” The signal is passed along by the line of signalmen to the fifth division, who all, by waving their flags, testify readiness. The signal is then passed, “1015.” This means, “move to the support of the fourth division,” which is instantly done without loss of time. Or the flags may be addressed to all the corps of the army; and the order, waved over thirty miles of country, might be, “Concentrate on the centre division.” It is, indeed, astonishing how much time would be gained by using this method instead of sending a score of aides-de-camp scouring all over the country. At night the signals are conveyed by means of flashing lights. These are extremely ingenious in their construction. The signaller, who is always accompanied by a companion with a signal-book, has a brass tube some eight feet long, at the extremity of which is a lantern; in this lantern a spirit-lamp burns; underneath this spirit-lamp is a receptacle in which is placed a powder composed of magnesium, resin, and lycopodium, very much like the mixture with which stage-carpenters produce lightning by blowing it through a candle. This lamp acts on precisely the same principle. A bellows is attached to the brass tube. This bellows the signaller works, either in short or in long pressures; and the air, as it passes up, goes through the powder and forces a small quantity of it through a pair of nozzles placed close to the spirit-flame. The result is a brilliant flash, which is long or short according to the pressure upon the bellows. This light can be seen at a very great distance, and two or three parties of signallers placed upon hill-tops could convey an order a distance of fifty miles in a very few minutes. The difficulty, of course, lies in the liability to error. A single puff more or less might entirely change the order. 1021 might mean “Concentrate upon your left flank;” 1022 “Concentrate upon your right.” It is all very well to say that each signal is repeated, and therefore that a mistake would be instantly corrected; but we all know what mistakes occur in telegraphic messages, even if we pay for their being repeated. The system appears as good and as little liable to error as anything of the kind could be; but when we consider that a miscounting of the flashes of light or of the waving of a flag might entirely alter the order given, it is evident that the risk is so great that a general would rather, if possible, despatch a mounted officer with written instructions. At the same time, the system for distant communication is undoubtedly adapted to expedite the movements of an army over a large tract of country. General Napier has taken a great interest in the experiments, and I have no doubt the system will be thoroughly tried during the present expedition. The apparatus for each signalling-party is singularly complete and handy; it is carried in two baskets or mule-panniers, and includes everything which could be required, comprising a light-tent, a canteen, flags, lanterns, a supply of alcohol and powder, a small case for writing in the rain, signal-books, &c. Each of these double panniers contains, in fact, everything required for the signalmen; and with twelve such apparatus, distributed among parties placed upon hill-tops, signals might be flashed at night from London to Edinburgh.

The elephants for the guns have not yet arrived, but are expected to-morrow, and in that case will go on with Sir Robert Napier; who, I believe, will positively leave in the afternoon. As several other bodies of troops move on the same day, it will make his entry into Attegrat quite an imposing affair. In fact, I should not be surprised if the sight of the elephants created quite a stampede among the natives. Speaking of elephants, a sad accident occurred a few days since at Sooro. These animals are to be met with in the mountains between that place and the sea, and three have been killed by officers of the Beloochees. Accordingly, Major Beville and Lieutenant Edwards went out to try their fortune, and were successful in finding a herd of them feeding in a valley. The animals scented them before they could get within fair shot, and began to run rapidly away; whereupon Edwards rushed out, crossed a small intervening nullah, and followed upon their heels. Elephants, however, are not animals that like being followed, and accordingly one of them turned and charged his pursuer. Edwards fired at him, but failing to check him, took to his heels. The animal overtook him in his descent of the nullah, seized him in his trunk, dashed him to the ground, and endeavoured to trample on him, but fortunately the slope of the ground rendered this a matter of difficulty. At this critical moment Major Beville arrived, and fired into the animal, who, most fortunately, upon finding himself wounded, quitted his victim and fled. Extraordinary to state, poor Edwards was not killed; but he has received some severe internal injuries, and is now lying at Sooro in a very precarious state.

The bullock-carts, which arrived the day before yesterday, aroused, as I anticipated, the admiration and wonder of the natives to the highest point. I believe that they never saw a wheeled vehicle before; and the apparition of the long line of carts, drawn by the splendid Brahmin cattle, coming up laden with stores, from a defile which all their traditions from time immemorial have represented to them as being impracticable even for their own sure-footed little cattle, completed their assurance that the English are truly sons of Sheitan. Our energy and resources must indeed appear something quite supernatural to this primitive people.

One of my principal grounds for objection to the Abyssinians is that they are such an intensely lazy race. Now, if people like to be lazy, and to eat the scanty bread of idleness instead of the large loaf gained by hard work, it is their own business, and a mere matter of taste, in favour of which there is much to be said. But the Abyssinian, although intensely lazy, is by no means satisfied to eat the bread of idleness. The noble savage is keenly awake to the value of labour, and insists that all the members of his family, with the exception only of himself and such of his sons as may be big enough to have their own way, work like the veriest slaves. You will see a great lout of a man walking lazily along towards the camp, armed with his spear and shield, while before him stagger his old mother, his wife, his sister, and his four or five children, carrying enormous bundles of hay. I am not exaggerating when I say that you will frequently see little girls not more than seven years old carrying bundles of hay of forty-five pounds weight into camp; and poor little mites of three or four years old carry a proportionate burden. The weight is never carried on the head, always upon the back, fastened by a thong of leather, which goes over the arms just below the shoulder and across the chest. The child or woman, as the case may be, walks bent forward, almost double. The men never carry loads; it is beneath the dignity of a noble savage. The whole of the work is done by the females and by the little boys of the family. My blood has fairly boiled many times, and I have longed heartily to lay my riding-whip across the shoulders of these lazy scoundrels, who are too lazy to work, but not too proud to drive their little children to work, and to live upon the result. The boys do, as I have said, a certain amount. When they are quite little they do nearly as much as their sisters, but as they grow up they do less and less, and it is rare to see a boy over twelve years old carrying a burden. The women here carry their babies on their backs, and not across the hip as the Hindoostanee women always do. The children are held in a sort of small shawl of leather, which is wrapped tightly round the mother, and only the top of the little thing’s head is generally to be seen. In this way the mother has her arms free, and can carry about her bundle of wood or grass for sale; but in this case the burden is, of course, carried in her arms before her. I have often wondered that the children survive the double risk – of suffocation, from pressure against their mother’s backs, and of sunstroke, from the sun coming down full upon the unprotected tops of their little bald heads. They do not seem to mind it, and I do not think that I have heard more than one or two infants utter a wail when being carried in that position. I can only suppose that the natural warmth of their mothers’ naked backs is agreeable to them; but, with our present style of dress, it is not an experiment which I should recommend an English nurse to try with a fractious child, unless she wishes a coroner’s inquest to be held upon it, with possibly other more unpleasant proceedings to follow.

The stores in the commissariat-yard here continue to increase, thanks to the amount brought up by the native cattle. At present there is, I understand, about a month’s consumption for the troops here and in advance. The arrangements of the commissariat-yard are very good; as, indeed, most of the arrangements of that department have been throughout the expedition. At times this yard presents a most interesting spectacle. Here are large piles of rice- and flour-bags, and beside them the Parsees weighing out the rations to the numerous applicants. A little farther on is the butcher’s shop, where the meat-rations are cut up and distributed. Here is a large enclosure fenced round with bushes, and containing cattle purchased for the troops from the natives. Here are some hundreds of mules unloading stores which they have brought from below. Farther on are more being loaded with grass, to go down for the sustenance of the animals in the pass. Here, again, are hundreds of women and children laden with grass, which an officer of the commissariat is weighing and paying for; giving, however, the money to the men; who, the instant the women have brought in the grass, send them off, and exert themselves so far as to receive the money. Near these is the wood-yard, where a similar scene is being enacted. Back again by the store-yard are a host of native cattle, which are waiting to receive stores to take forward to Attegrat. The contract price for this is a dollar and a half per head; and I am glad to say that we can obtain as many cattle as we like for the purpose. Here we have men; the only employment, indeed, which the Abyssinian men will undertake is driving cattle, or rather following them, for they never attempt in any way to guide or influence their movements, but dawdle after them with their eternal spears and shields, knowing well that the sagacious little cattle will always follow the beaten track. Close by is a space marked off for a market. Here we have groups of men squatted about everywhere among their cattle, sheep, and goats: there are a good many donkeys too, and a few mules. For these latter they have raised the price very greatly during the last month: then a good mule could be bought for fifteen dollars, now they charge thirty-five and forty. They are very independent too, and refuse to abate a single dollar in the price they ask: if they do not obtain the exact sum they demand, they will, after a certain time, mount and ride off to their villages, to return again next day with the price probably enhanced two or three dollars over that demanded on the first occasion.

I must now close this, as I am on the point of starting for Attegrat. I shall endeavour to send a few lines in from Goun-Gonna, the next station; for as the next mail starts in four days, and I shall be getting farther away every march, a letter from Attegrat could not get in here in time for the post.

Goun-Gonna, February 4th.

I feel quite glad to be again getting forward. Senafe has so long been my advanced post, that it seemed as if we were never going to get beyond that point. However, now I am once more en route, I hope that I shall have no further stop – beyond a few days at Attegrat, to see the meeting of the King of Tigre and the General – until I arrive at Antalo. Antalo will be about ten days’ march from here, and, once there, half the distance to Magdala will have been accomplished. My ride yesterday afternoon was one of the most pleasant I have had here. The temperature was delightful – a bright sun and a strong cool wind; the road, too, for some distance, across an undulating plain, descending sharply into a magnificent valley, was a charming change after the monotony of the long valleys, up and down which I have been riding for the last six weeks, and the wide expanse of the sandy plain of Zulla. After leaving Senafe the plain falls for some distance, and after about five miles’ ride we came down to the lowest point, where, in ordinary times, a small stream of water crosses the road, but which at present is perfectly dry, except where it has accumulated in large pools. By the side of one of these, about two miles to our left, we saw the camp of cavalry and sick animals. I may mention, by the way, that although the disease among the mules is much upon the decrease, and has altogether lost the virulence which at first characterised it, there are still, by the last weekly statement, two thousand six hundred animals, including camels, unfit for work, from one cause or other.

In this watered valley are immense herds of cattle. The plain is covered with a thick coarse grass, which has now been everywhere cut, either by the troops themselves for their horses, or by the natives for sale to us. Crossing the plain, we have a steep rise up the side of the hill, and then, surmounting the rise, we find ourselves at the head of a valley running nearly due south. This we descend; and from the number of villages perched on the eminences on either side, it is evident that water is generally found in this locality. It was probably, at some not very distant time, much more thickly populated than it is at present, for many of the villages are ruinous and deserted. This valley is very pretty, and, after the treeless plain of Senafe, is doubly agreeable, for the sides of the hills are everywhere clothed with the gigantic candelabra cactus. These are now just bursting into blossom. The blossoms grow from the extremity of each of the innumerable arms of the candelabra; and as their colour varies from white, through delicate shades of pink, to dark-red, the effect is very beautiful; indeed, with their regular growth, and perfect mass of blossom, they look as if they had just been transplanted from the grounds of the Messrs. Veitch to this country for some gigantic flower-show. There is a church in this valley, which is much venerated as being the scene of the martyrdom of some eight or ten Christians in the time of the persecution. My knowledge of Abyssinian history is, I confess, of too meagre a nature for me to give you an approximate date of this affair. Their bones are, however, still to be seen; and from this I should say that the event could not be very distant, as in a climate subject to great heat and heavy rains as this is, it is probable that bones would very speedily decay. The church is at some distance from the road, and is, like most of the churches here, upon a hill. I did not, therefore, turn aside to examine it, as I shall have plenty of opportunities of examining churches hereafter, and, with the exception of the martyrs’ bones, it presents no feature of peculiar interest. Descending the valley, we find it to be only a feeder of a wide valley running east and west. The valley was, like Goose Plain, covered with coarse grass, and contained immense herds of cattle. The side opposite to that by which we had entered it was very steep; the mountains are nearly bare, and near their summits present an appearance which, had I not seen it also upon the rock at Senafe, I should have said had been caused by a very slight fall of snow. I learn, however, that it is a very small lichen, which is abundant upon the rocks. I presume that this lichen is at present in flower or seed; for I did not observe the peculiar appearance at my first visit to Senafe, and it is so remarkable that I could not have failed to notice it had it existed at that time. We know now that we are near our destination, for we see the grass-cutters going along with great bundles of hay. We cross the valley and enter a smaller valley, which forks at a slight angle with the large one. As we fairly entered it, we saw near its extremity the camp of Goun-Gonna. A prettier situation could hardly have been selected. The hills to the right-hand are almost perpendicular, and upon a ledge about half-way up a village is nestled. The stream which flows down it has been used for the purpose of irrigation, and the bright green of the young crops was a delightful relief to our eyes. On the left-hand the hills are less precipitous, but are still very steep. The valley is less than a quarter of a mile in width, and ends abruptly with a semicircular sweep a short distance above the spot where the camp is pitched. What adds greatly to the beauty of the valley is, that it contains several of those immense trees with distorted trunks and bright-green foliage, whose real name is a moot point, but which are alike claimed to belong to the banyan, india-rubber, or tulip-tree species. At any rate, whatever be their species, they are one of the most picturesque species of tree I ever saw. They cover an immense extent of ground, and their trunks sometimes lie along the ground, sometimes rise in strange contorted forms. Their bark is extremely rough, and whitish-gray, and if seen without the foliage, would be certainly rather taken for strange blocks and pillars of stone than for the trunks of trees. In the camp we found a company of the 33d and the head-quarters of that regiment, who are upon their way to join the wing at Attegrat, and who had just come in, as had the mountain battery of steel guns under Colonel Milward, both having left Senafe two or three hours before ourselves. There was also a convoy of the Transport Train on their way to the front, and also a troop of the Scinde Horse. This station must be fifteen hundred feet below Senafe, and the difference of temperature is surprising. Last night I did not at all feel cold, whereas at Senafe it was next to impossible to keep warm, however numerous the wrappings in which one enveloped oneself. This morning I have been up a very pretty little broad valley, about a quarter of a mile in length. This branches off from the larger valley exactly opposite the camp, and it is down this that the little stream of water comes. The valley is clothed in shrubs and small trees, and the water falls into it over a perpendicular rock fifty feet high at its upper extremity. It put me very much in mind of a Westmoreland glen, with a little “force” at the extremity. Here, too, to increase the resemblance, I found some old friends whom I have not seen since I left England, namely dog-roses, common brambles, and honeysuckle. Down by the water’s edge, upon the rocks, kept moist by the water-spray, grew maiden-hair and other ferns. The air was sweet with arbutus-flowers, and the plash of the water was most grateful to the ear after the dry plains of Zulla and Senafe. Here, too, we had the aloe in flower, with its long heads of reddish-orange blossom. Here we had a sort of scabius ten feet high, and a rush or water-grass twenty feet in height, with its plumy reed. Here over the shrubs crept the familiar clematis, with its great clusters of white downy reed. Here was a sort of tares, with their pink blossom, and growing straight and strong to a height of four or five feet. Upon the trees were perched wood-pigeons and doves, which called to one another with their soft coo. Altogether it was a lovely little spot, and it was with the greatest reluctance that I left it to come back to camp to write this letter previous to starting for Fokado, the next station.