Welcome to all was the first grey light that illumined the eastern sky,
and summoned the warrior from his uneasy slumbers. So uncomfortably had
the night been passed, that it was in truth rest to rise. The despot
was among the first to abandon his cold couch; and a bulletin of success
having been penned by the royal hand, for the information of Queen
Besabesh, the main body of the division, convoying the interminable
droves of cattle, was in motion across the Ekka valley. Escorted by
five thousand cavalry. His Majesty then proceeded to a knoll at some
distance within the scene of yesterday's carnage, upon the summit of
which he tarried, whilst parties went out in search of the body of his
grand-nephew, the youthful son of Ayto Besuehnech, who, with several
others of the Christian host, had fallen in the running conflict.
It was a cool and lovely morning, and the mountain breeze played freshly
down each opening glade. The ascending sunbeam danced over the steep
rugged sides and ruined stone edifices of the fastness of Entotto,
anciently the proud seat of Ethiopic splendour, and still believed to
conceal much of the wealth lost to the empire at the period of Graan's
invasion, when Nebla Dengel was driven into Tigre. The great volcanic
cone of Sequala, rivalling the lowland Aiulloo, was again visible in the
distance, its once active crater converted by the revolutions of ages
into an extensive lagoon, on the banks of which stands the celebrated
shrine of Guebra Manfas Kedoos, a saint renowned for the destruction, by
his prayers, of live hundred genies. On the one hand frowned the dark
wooded slave mart of Roque, in the Yerrur hill, where millions of
Christians have been bought and sold; and on the other rose the mountain
Dalacha, sacred to the Wato sorcerers, whose tempting demesnes have
escaped pillage and conflagration, in consequence of their blessing
having been followed by the birth of Sahela Selassie. Far in the
distance a low belt of vegetation screened the sleepy Hawash, and over
the intervening tract numerous tributaries to the Casam, absorbed
eventually in the parched plain of the Adaiel, conveyed the eastern
drainage of Garra Gorphoo through the ravaged valley of Germama.
Over this wide expanse not a living inhabitant was now to be seen. In
every direction the bloodstained ground was strewed with the slaughtered
foe, around whose disfigured corses groups of surfeited vultures flapped
their foul wings, and screamed the death note. The embers of deserted
villages smouldered over the scorched and blackened plain. Ripe crops,
which the morning before had gladdened the heart of the cultivator--now
no more--were level with the ground. Flocks of sheep, untended by the
shepherd, strayed over the lone meadow; and bands of howling dogs
wandered up and down in fruitless quest of their lost masters. A single
day had reduced to a wilderness the rich and flourishing vale of
Germama, including the dark forests of Finfinni, which for years had
slept in peace; and their late numerous and unsuspecting population had
in a few hours been swept from off the face of the earth by the
devastating irruption of the barbarian Amhara hordes.
The remains of the fallen chief having, after much search, been
recovered from the ashes of a still smoking village, were shrouded with
a white cloth, and borne upon a bier from the scene of desolation.
Glutted with booty, the despot now left his locusts to pursue their own
course up the Ekka valley, where flames and plunder again marked their
straggling return towards the mountains of Garra Gorphoo. Each hamlet
was ravaged in succession; and cats, the sole remaining tenants of the
deserted huts, were dislodged by the torch of the Wobo.
For miles and miles the road was lined with dusty and wayworn warriors
laden with spoil: flocks and herds, donkeys, mules, and horses,
honeycombs, poultry, household utensils and farming gear, with captive
women and children, indiscriminately mingled with the men-at-arms.
Whilst some of these latter, wounded and mutilated, were lashed upon the
backs of their palfreys, others, dismounted, were dragging behind them
their lame and exhausted steeds; sheep and goats, unable through fatigue
to proceed, being cut limb from limb while still alive, and the bleeding
trunks left quivering in the path by the wanton butchers.
Re-entering the mountains, across which the sun now cast the long dark
shadows of evening, the camp was sought in vain; but the rear division,
with tents and baggage, was at length descried pouring down the opposite
height under a vast canopy of dust to the encamping ground at Boora
Roofa. A long march the preceding day had brought it to Sululta near to
Moolo Falada, where it met and destroyed those who had fled from the
immediate scene of the king's inroad, made numerous female captives,
and, with the loss of the sumpter horses laden with horns of hydromel,
acquired considerable booty; information casually received of the main
division having thence led it back through the mountains to the present
halting-ground, after all had made up their minds to another cold
bivouac in the open air. During its more recent progress, this division
had carried fire and sword through the country of the Sertie Galla,
where it yet remained unplundered; and, as the day again closed, the
vault of heaven was re-illumined by volumes of lurid smoke from the
surrounding hamlets. Such is the appalling retribution with which
Sahela Selassie is wont to visit those rebel tribes who withhold the
moderate tribute imposed upon them. The relinquishment to the crown of
three or four hundred of the many thousand head of cattle captured
during this and the preceding day, would, with some twenty or thirty
horses, have averted this awful chastisement, the fearful consequence of
taxation refused. The revolt of tribes inhabiting remote portions of
His Majesty's dominions arises too frequently from the oppression of
Galla governors, over whose proceedings he can exercise very inadequate
control; but it is caused in a principal degree by the absence of
outpost or fortification to hold his wild subjects in check. Could he
be prevailed upon to abandon his present weak mode of securing the Galla
dependencies, to strengthen them by those military arrangements for
which the country is so peculiarly adapted, and to place a better limit
upon the exactions of frontier governors, what bloodshed and misery
might not be averted!
The army halted at Boora Roofa to enable straggling detachments to
rejoin; and small parties went out in various directions to complete the
work of demolition among the deserted hamlets of the Sertie tribe, some
of which, embosomed deep among the mountain glens, had hitherto escaped
attention: hives of ungathered honey, heaps of unwinnowed corn, and the
half-flayed carcass abandoned within the filthy habitation, bearing
ample testimony to the precipitate flight of the hunted inmates, around
many of whose bodies gaunt vultures already held their carnival.
Early during the forenoon, horsemen rode in to the royal pavilion with
important intelligence, that Ayto Hierat, a favourite governor, had, at
the distance of a few miles, surprised and surrounded a Galla in a tree,
among the branches of which the caitiff awaited the arrival of the king.
Impatient to wreathe his brow with new laurels, the monarch lost not a
moment in sallying forth to destroy the unfortunate wretch, taking a
most formidable array of single and double-barrelled guns and rifles of
every calibre, together with an escort of five thousand cavalry.
Receiving a long shot through the thigh at the royal hands, whilst
imperfectly ensconced among the foliage, the victim, abandoning all hope
of escape, wisely cast away his weapons, and cried loudly for quarter;
being admitted to which, he kissed the feet of His Majesty, and thus
escaped his otherwise inevitable fate. To take the life of a Galla, and
to secure a prisoner of either sex, are, in Amhara warfare, accounted
one and the same thing; and although, where adult males are concerned,
the more merciful alternative is rarely adopted, the despot, whose
dreams often conjure up his past deeds of blood in judgment against him,
has become more lenient than of yore. Yet the valuable presents to
which the destruction of a helpless foe entitles him from every governor
in the realm, the increased respect acquired in the eyes of his subjects
and warriors, and the additional lustre shed over his already chivalrous
reputation by each new murder, however foul, induce him still to seek
occasions such as this to embrue his hands in gore.
Messenger after messenger now galloped into camp at full speed, with the
joyful tidings of the king's achievement, each new announcement
eliciting yet louder and louder songs and shouts from the _wotzbeitoch_,
eunuchs, and parasites at the royal quarters. In another hour the
cavalcade returned in triumph, the wounded captive riding on a mule
behind the exulting monarch, who, by virtue of his bold exploit, wore in
the hair a large green branch of wild asparagus, whilst the greasy
garment of his bleeding prisoner graced the proud neck of his war-steed.
Repeated volleys of musketry, with the blasts of horns, and the din of
kettle-drums, proclaimed the signal prowess of His Christian Majesty.
Priests and women flocked to receive him with a clamour of acclamation,
and he alighted amid the most stunning uproar.
Through the Master of the Horse I presently received a message to the
effect that the attendance of every member of the Embassy had been
looked for, the Galla having been entrapped purposely that his
destruction might be accomplished by the hand of the King's British
visitors, in view to the exaltation of the national name. "Why tarried
ye in the tent? I desired that my children might slay the heathen in
the tree; but, when they came not, I myself performed the deed."
I informed the puissant monarch in reply, "that, independently of its
being the Sabbath, and none of the party possessing the smallest
inclination to destroy a defenceless human being under any
circumstances, no public body was authorised by the law of nations to
draw a sword offensively in any country not in open hostility with its
own. That in Shoa an elephant was esteemed equivalent to forty armed
Galla, and a wild buffalo to five; and of these much-dreaded animals we
were ready to destroy any number that he might think proper to permit."
Great was the triumph and the quaffing of mead, and the feasting on raw
beef, during the residue of the day and the early hours of the night,
for, lo! the king of kings in single combat had prevailed over his Galla
foe. Essential assistance had been afforded by the medical officers of
the Embassy to the sick and wounded; amongst the latter, to a brother of
the Queen; yet many reproaches were now abroad, in that its members had
eaten the royal bread, and destroyed none of the enemies of the state.
The example of other foreigners, who were represented to have shot Galla
out of trees, was contrasted somewhat unfavourably to British courage;
and a private of the artillery escort was roundly taxed with cowardice
for permitting the escape of an unarmed peasant, who lay concealed in a
bush by the way-side, and could have offered no resistance. The
defenceless wretch was subsequently pursued by thirty Amhara horsemen,
but escaped unscathed on foot into the forest, under a shower of their
Christian lances.
In all countries where a martial spirit is fostered by continual forays,
and where the exertions of a single day are sufficient to maintain the
successful marauder for six months to come, the daily unceasing labour
of the cultivator is forsaken for the shield and spear. But in
Abyssinia, where the principal booty is monopolised by the monarch, the
case is widely different, since, although military expeditions are of
frequent occurrence, the sword of the plunderer is as often turned again
into the ploughshare--whilst the despoiled husbandman, again tilling his
devastated lands, and occupying the brief intervals of peace and repose
in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, the fair provinces of the Galla,
flowing with milk and honey, are speedily reclothed in one sheet of
luxuriant cultivation.
The Abyssinians have been represented as a bold, martial, and chivalrous
race--but in Shoa the "champions of the Cross" are impelled by none of
that knightly valour which warmed the breast of the crusader of old.
The white feather, that emblem of cowardice in other lands, forms the
boast of their murderous exploits; and the system of the noble art of
war would seem to consist in the merciless destruction of the enemy by
sudden inroad and surprise. Harrying the invaded country with
overwhelming masses of undisciplined cavalry, the only opposition to be
encountered is an occasional skirmish during the night with an outlying
detachment, or by day during the passage of a weak body through morasses
or intricate defiles. The appearance of a foe invariably proves the
signal for increased disorder, all who are so disposed sallying forth to
the assault, when those who harbour animosity against a comrade not
unfrequently avail themselves of the opportunity to assassinate him in
the _melee_.
Cruelties emanating from the hereditary detestation of the heathen,
which, with the barbarous spoils earned during the foray, is handed down
as an heir-loom from generation to generation, are unfortunately
countenanced by the monarch, who has too often personally set the
disgraceful example of mutilation; whilst the bigotry and superstition
of the savage Amhara induces him to regard every pagan in the light of a
dog, as doth the fanatic Moslem the Christian. The revolting
barbarities practised in the hour of victory, which from time immemorial
have had existence in Ethiopia, and unfortunately also over the greater
portion of unhappy Africa to which discovery has yet extended, are
perpetuated by the commission of similar enormities on the part of the
Galla usurpers of the fairest portions of the land, who butcher children
and old men without distinction, mutilate all who fall into their hands,
and enslave females upon every opportunity.
The rapid muster of the Amhara under their respective chieftains, the
disorderly march, the rude, but for the purpose sufficient tactics, with
the slaughter and devastation consequent upon success, forcibly bring to
mind the wars of feudal Europe. The stimulus afforded by individual
interest in the murders committed during the foray stands at present in
the place of discipline, since without one or the other no army could be
brought into the field. Triumph attends the return of the Christian
warrior from battle in proportion to the number of lives he bears upon
his arm, and for each enemy slain he is entitled to some conspicuous
personal badge, which forms his greatest pride. A ring, a gauntlet, or
a bracelet, gained at the expense of acts the most dastardly, raises him
accordingly in the estimation of relatives and companions in arms, and
signal success almost invariably paves the way to royal preferment.
Discipline alone can check the prevailing barbarity, by superseding
desultory hand to hand combat, and keeping every soldier in such
comparative ignorance of the number that fall to his individual prowess,
as to preclude the vaunting of exploits. To those especially who have
been eye-witnesses of such a foray, it must afford matter for deep
regret that feud and contest should hitherto so effectually have
debarred access to the interior, and should have checked the advance of
Christianity and civilisation, which, as in happier lands, must bring
with them the means of providing for redundant population, and could not
fail to ameliorate the horrors attendant upon the existing system of
Abyssinian warfare.
Volume Two, Chapter XXV.