travellers, chief of whom were Lieut. Lefebvre, charged
(1839) with political and geographical missions, and
Captains Galinier and Ferret, who completed for him a useful
triangulation and survey of Tigre and Simen (1840-1842).
The brothers Antoine and Arnaud d'Abbadie (q.v.) spent
ten years (1838-1848) in the country, making scientific
investigations of great value, and also involving themselves
in the stormy politics of the country. Northern Abyssinia
was now divided into two camps, the one, Amhara and Ras
Ali, under Protestant British, and the other, Tigre and
Ubie, under Roman Catholic French, influence. The latent
hostility between the two factions threatened at one time to
develop into a religious war, but no serious campaigns took
place until Kassa (later Theodore) appeared on the scene.
Rise of the emperor Theodore.
(18) Lij (= Mr) Kassa was born in Kwara, a small district
of Western Amhara, in 1818. His father was a small local
chief, and his uncle was governor of the districts of Dembea,
Kwara and Chelga between Lake Tsana and the undefined N.W.
frontier. He was educated in a monastery, but preferred a
more active life, and by his talents and energy came rapidly
to the front. On the death of his uncle he was made chief of
Kwara, but in consequence of the arrest of his brother Bilawa
by Ras Ali, he raised the standard of revolt against the
latter, and, collecting a large force, repeatedly beat the
troops that were sent against him by the ras (1841-1847).
On one occasion peace was restored by his receiving Tavavich,
daughter of Ras Ali, in marriage; and this lady is said to
have been a good and wise counsellor during her lifetime. He
next turned his arms against the Turks, in the direction of
Massawa, but was defeated; and the mother of Ras Ali having
insulted him in his fallen condition, he proclaimed his
independence. As his power was increasing, to the detriment
of both Ras Ali and Ubie, these two princes combined against
him, but were heavily defeated by him at Gorgora (on the
southern shore of Lake Tsana) in 1853. Ubie retreated to
Tigre, and Ras Ali fled to Begemeder, where he eventually
died. Kassa now ruled in Amhara, but his ambition was to
attain to supreme power, and he turned his attention to
conquering the remaining chief divisions of the country,
Gojam, Tigre and Shoa, which still remained unsubdued.
Berro, ras of Gojam, in order to save himself, attempted
to combine with Tigre, but his army was intercepted by
Kassa and totally destroyed, himself being taken prisoner
and executed (May 1854). Shortly afterwards Kassa moved
against Tigre, defeated Ubie's forces at Deragie,
in Simen (February 1855), took their chief prisoner and
proclaimed himself negus negusti of Ethiopia under the
name of Theodore III. He now turned his attention to Shoa.
Growing power of Shoa
(19) Retracing our steps for a moment in that direction, we
find that in 1813 Sahela (or Sella) Selassie, younger son
of the preceding ras, Wassen Seged, had proclaimed himself
negus or king. His reign was long and beneficent. He
restored the towns of Debra-Berhan and Angolala, and founded
Entotto, the strong stone-built town whose ruins overlook
the modern capital, Adis Ababa. In the terrible ``famine of
St Luke'' in 1835, Selassie still further won the hearts of
his subjects by his wise measures and personal generosity;
and by extending his hospitality to Europeans, he brought
his country within the closer ken of civilized European
powers. During his reign he received the missions of Major
W. Cornwallis Harris, sent by the governor-general of India
(1841), and M. Rochet d'Hericourt, sent by Louis Philippe
(1843), with both of whom he concluded friendly treaties on
behalf of their respective governments. He also wrote to Pope
Pius IX., asking that a Roman Catholic bishop should be sent to
him. This request was acceded to, and the pope despatched
Monsigneur Massaja to Shoa. But before the prelate could
reach the country, Selassie was dead (1847), leaving his
eldest son, Haeli Melicoth, to succeed him. Melicoth at once
proclaimed himself negus, and by sending for Massaja, who
had arrived at Gondar, gave rise to the suspicion that he
wished to have himself crowned as emperor. By increasing
his dominions at the expense of the Gallas, he still further
roused the jealousy of the northerners, and a treaty which
he concluded with Ras Ali against Kassa in 1850 determined
the latter to crush him at the earliest opportunity.
Thus it was that in 1855 Kassa, under the name of the emperor
Theodore, advanced against Shoa with a large army. Dissensions
broke out among the Shoans, and after a desperate and futile
attack on Theodore at Debra-Berhan, Haeli Melicoth died of
exhaustion and fever, nominating with his last breath his
eleven-year-old son Menelek2 as successor (November 1855).
Darge, Haeli's brother, took charge of the young prince, but
after a hard fight with Angeda, one of Theodore's rases, was
obliged to capitulate. Menelek was handed over to the negus,
taken to Gondar, and there trained in Theodore's service.
(20) Theodore was now in the zenith of his career. He is
described as being generous to excess, free from cupidity,
merciful to his vanquished enemies, and strictly continent,
but subject to violent bursts of anger and possessed of
unyielding pride and fanatical religious zeal. He was also
a man of education and intelligence, superior to those among
whom he lived, with natural talents for governing and gaining
the esteem of others. He had, further, a noble bearing and
majestic walk, a frame capable of enduring any amount of
fatigue, and is said to have been ``the best shot, the best
spearman, the best runner, and the best horseman in Abyssinia.''
Had he contented himself with the sovereignty of Amhara and
Tigre, he might have maintained his position; but he was led
to exhaust his strength against the Wollo Gallas, which was
probably one of the chief causes of his ruin. He obtained
several victories over that people, ravaged their country,
took possession of Magdala, which he afterwards made his
principal stronghold, and enlisted many of the chiefs and
their followers in his own ranks. As has been shown, he also
reduced the kingdom of Shoa, and took Ankober, the capital;
but in the meantime his own people were groaning under his
heavy exactions, rebellions were breaking out in various parts
of his provinces, and his good queen Tavavich was now dead.
Theodore's quarrel with great Britain
The British consul, Walter C. Plowden, who was strongly
attached to Theodore, having been ordered by his government
in 1860 to return to Massawa, was attacked on his way by a
rebel named Garred, mortally wounded, and taken prisoner.
Theodore attacked the rebels, and in the action the murderer
of Mr Plowden was slain by his friend and companion Mr J. T.
Bell, an engineer, but the latter lost his life in preserving
that of Theodore. The deaths of the two Englishmen were
terribly avenged by the slaughter or mutilation of nearly
2000 rebels. Theodore soon after married his second wite
Terunish, the proud daughter of the late governor of Tigre,
who felt neither affection nor respect for the upstart who had
dethroned her father, and the union was by no means a happy
one. In 1862 he made a second expedition against the Gallas,
which was stained with atrocious cruelties. Theodore had
now given himself up to intoxication and lust. When the
news of Mr Plowden's death reached England, Captain C. D.
Cameron was appointed to succeed him as consul, and arrived
at Massawa in February 1862. He proceeded to the camp of the
king, to whom he presented a rifle, a pair of pistols and a
letter in the queen's name. In October Captain Cameron was
sent home by Theodore, with a letter to the queen of England,
which reached the Foreign Office on the 12th of February
1863. This letter was put aside and no answer returned,
and to this in no small degree are to be attributed the
difficulties that subsequently arose with that country. In
November despatches were received from England, but no answer
to the emperor's letter, and this, together with a visit paid
by Captain Cameron to the Egyptian frontier town of Kassala,
greatly offended him; accordingly in January 1864 Captain
Cameron and his suite, with Messrs Stern and Rosenthal, were
cast into prison. When the news of this reached England, the
government resolved, when too late, to send an answer to the
emperor's letter, and selected Mr Hormuzd Rassam to be its
bearer. He arrived at Massawa in July 1864, and immediately
despatched a messenger requesting permission to present
himself before the emperor. Neither to this nor a subsequent
application was any answer returned till August 1865, when
a curt note was received, stating that Consul Cameron had
been released, and if Mr Rassam still desired to visit the
king, he was to proceed by the route of Gallabat. Later
in the year Theodore became more civil, and the British
party on arrival at the king's camp in Damot, on the 25th
of January 1866, were received with all honour, and were
afterwards sent to Kwarata, on Lake Tsana, there to await
the arrival of the captives. The latter reached Kwarata
on the 12th of March, and everything appeared to proceed
favourably. A month later they started for the coast, but had
not proceeded far when they were ail brought back and put into
confinement. Theodore then wrote a letter to the queen,
requesting European workmen and machinery to be sent to
him, and despatched it by Mr Flad. The Europeans, although
detained as prisoners, were not at first unkindly treated;
but in the end of June they were sent to Magdala, where they
were soon afterwards put in chains. They suffered hunger,
cold and misery, and were in constant fear of death, till the
spring of 1869 when they were relieved by the British troops.
Sir Robert Napier's expedition. (21) In the meantime
the power of Theodore in the country was rapidly waning.
Shoa had already shaken off his yoke; Gojam was virtually
independent; Walkeit and Simen were under a rebel chief;
and Lasta, Waag and the country about Lake Ashangi had
submitted to Wagshum Gobassie, who had also overrun
Tigre and appointed Dejaj Kassai his governor. The latter,
however, in 1867 rebelled against his master and assumed
the supreme power of that province. This was the state of
matters when the English troops made their appearance in the
country. With a view if possible to effect the release of
the prisoners by conciliatory measures, Mr Flad was sent
back, with some artisans and machinery, and a letter from
the queen, stating that these would be handed over to his
majesty on the release of the prisoners and their return to
Massawa. This, however, failed to influence the emperor,
and the English government at length saw that they must have
recourse to arms. In July 1867, therefore, it was resolved
to send an army into Abyssinia to enforce the release of
the captives, under Sir Robert Napier (1st Baron Napier of
Magdala). The landingplace selected was Mulkutto (Zula),
on Annesley Bay, the point of the coast nearest to the site
of the ancient Adulis, and we are told that ``the pioneers
of the English expedition followed to some extent in the
footsteps of the adventurous soldiers of Ptolemy. and met
with a few faint traces of this old-world enterprise'' (C. R.
Markham). The force amounted to upwards of 16,000 men,
besides 12,640 belonging to the transport service, and
followers, making in all upwards of 32,000 men. The task to
