Henty George Alfred
The March to Magdala
As the natives are impressed by enchantment, and are not at all impressed by our soldiers, I should propose that in any future war of the same kind there should be an officer appointed under the title of magician to the forces, and that he should have subordinate officers as assistant magicians and deputy-assistant magicians. The duty of these officers should be to exhibit signs and wonders. Mr. Anderson might perhaps be induced to undertake the control of the machine tricks and general magic; Mr. Home would do the spiritual business, and could astonish the native mind with the sight of elephants floating in the air, or could terrify a negro potentate by tweaking his nose at a durbar by invisible fingers. One of the deputy-assistant magicians should be a pyrotechnist, whose duty would be to light up the camp with unearthly fire, and to place strange portents in the midnight sky. Certainly, had this department been organised before the expedition began, and had a few of its officers been present, we might have dispensed with several regiments, and the cost of the expedition would have been greatly lessened, however munificent the remuneration of the chiefs of the department might have been. Should Government adopt this suggestion, and I have no doubt they will do so, I shall expect a valuable appointment in the corps.
On the day after the last mail left we were favoured with a précis of the letters from Magdala which had arrived three days previously. They contained nothing of any great importance. Gobayze and Menelek were both near King Theodore; so near, indeed, that the camp-fires of the former could be seen from Theodore’s camp. They were both evidently afraid to attack him; but Gobayze had sent him an insulting message, and Theodore had at once put the unfortunate herald to death. Theodore was making very slow progress; and it was thought that he would not arrive until the end of March at Magdala. He was ten hours’ ride from that fortress, which would mean about twenty-five miles. Even if he travels at half the reported rate of speed, he will be there before us. The opinion is general now that we shall have a fight at the end of our journey.
Doullo, February 29.
We arrived here yesterday afternoon, after three days’ marching. On the 26th the troops went from Mai Dehar to Dongollo, fifteen miles; on the 27th to Agula, nine miles; and on the 28th to Doullo, fifteen miles. The road has lain across a much more undulating country than that over which we have previously passed. On the first day’s march we had one very long and steep descent. This tried the mules; and many were the upsets of packs, many the tired animals who lay down, and refused to move until unsaddled, upon the narrow ledge. Fortunately, however, although long and steep, it was straight, and so the artillery got down with comparative ease and without any accident. The camp was in a valley, where the water was very good, and where there was one pool of deep water nearly 200 yards long, which afforded excellent bathing. There were a good many fish in it, and several were caught of over a pound in weight. This is curious, as it shows that the Abyssinians are by no means skilful fishermen; for Mr. Speedy tells me that during his residence in the country he never saw nor heard of a fish more than three inches long being caught.
The next day’s march was a short and rather easy one. The last was not only long, but it had some very long and difficult ascents and descents; indeed, it was one succession of hills for the whole distance. The country has throughout been thinly populated. We have come across several ruined villages, which have probably been destroyed in the constant wars which are raging in this country. The churches, however, have generally been respected; and whenever a really fine clump of trees is to be seen, there is always a church to be found in their shade. Where the villages have been destroyed, the churches are of course deserted, and are more or less falling into ruins. This camp is pitched in a wide valley, and we are procuring more supplies than usual from the natives. Yesterday we bought 1500lb. of grain, and to-day we are obtaining an even larger supply. Grass, however, is comparatively scarce, and the water is by no means good. Cattle, as usual, are in abundance. We are going on again to-morrow, and shall reach the camp beyond Antalo in two days. I hear very good accounts of the state of the supplies there, and am told that we have bought, in addition to grain, &c., considerable quantities of flour and bread.
This is by far the most satisfactory intelligence we have yet received since we landed in Abyssinia, and if these supplies continue to come in, it will very greatly shorten the duration of our campaign. The great question is to accumulate supplies sufficient for us to march to Magdala. As long as we have to consume the supplies the mules bring up, the process of accumulation must be a very long one. Flour and meat are the only two articles of diet which are of material weight. The preserved vegetables, tea, sugar, and salt, amount together to under six ounces per diem per man; and one mule would therefore carry the rations of 500 men of these articles. When we reach Antalo and join the advanced force our number will not exceed 1200 Europeans, and 50 mules will carry three weeks’ rations for them, exclusive of meat, which we can always purchase, flour, and rum. At present the ration of rum is one drachm a day, but it is possible that at any moment this may be stopped; and it is at all events probable that no rum will be carried beyond Antalo. If, therefore, we can purchase flour and meat along the march, and the Europeans of the advance force number 3000, we shall only require six mules a day to carry their rations, or 186 mules for a month’s supply. Of course this calculation will not hold good for our journey, as it is most improbable that we shall succeed in getting flour or bread along the road; but if we can only buy sufficient quantities for our consumption while we are stopping at Antalo, it will be an immense relief to the transport-train. The native bread is not at all bad. It is baked in cakes about an inch thick and eight inches in diameter. It is dark in colour, and sometimes sour; but I have tasted some as good bread as one could wish to eat. The price I have paid here is a dollar for five of these loaves, weighing about a pound and a half each. Wood is very scarce, a dollar being charged for four bundles of sticks weighing under ten pounds a bundle.
The pause of to-day is made partly to enable the artillery to repair a wheel of one of their store-wagons, which broke in coming down the last descent, partly to rest the animals, which now, after four days’ work, greatly needed a day’s rest. We require more cavalry with us. The 3d Native Cavalry have had tremendously hard work; what with marching and picket-duty, the men never get more than two nights in the week in bed, and sometimes not more than one. It is surprising how the animals, with so great an amount of work and with insufficient food, keep in such good condition as they are at present. All the animals will, however, be improved by a short stay at Antalo.
The weather has very much changed since we left Ad Abaga. We have a strong and really cold north-wind blowing all day, and between five and eight o’clock of an evening it is most cutting. At night it drops; and the temperature is then not so cold as it was either at Senafe or Attegrat. The natives generally are affected with coughs and colds; and the amount of coughing which goes on at night in the vicinity of our tent is both astonishing and disagreeable.
Sir Charles Staveley came up from Zulla, and joined us on the day of our leaving Ad Abaga. He has taken command of the advanced brigade. I hear that, owing to the quantities of stores taken up by the trains which accompanied General Collings’s column and our own, the supplies at Senafe and other places along the line were very low; so much so, that the troops who were ordered up have been kept back at Zulla until further stores could be accumulated. I trust that by this time a large stock has been collected at Senafe, as Captain Griffiths, who commanded the portion of the transport-train which went forward with General Collings’s column, has just passed downward with his mules to fetch up another supply.
Antalo, March 4th.
When I wrote, four days since, from Doullo, I mentioned that we had news of flour and other stores being purchased in considerable quantities at Antalo, and that if supplies continued to come in, the prospects of the expedition would be altogether changed. But I certainly did not anticipate that we should be able to advance from here under three weeks or a month. Two days before we arrived here, indeed, there were rumours of a much earlier move than had been anticipated; and an order was issued that in all probability we should be compelled to go forward without either rum, tea, or sugar. Of course everyone is prepared to make great sacrifices, and to submit to every hardship which may be absolutely necessary. Every reduction of kit, the dismissal of the native followers, and the diminution of carriage, has been received not only without a murmur, but with actual satisfaction by everyone. The reductions were felt to be necessary; for in no other way would it be possible to penetrate this inhospitable country. It was considered probable that beyond Lât we should have to go without tents, and with only a blanket and one change of clothes; and I have not heard an expression of repugnance or complaint at the prospect: but this order to proceed without rum, tea, or sugar, was received with the gravest dissatisfaction by men and officers of all ranks. It was not as a matter of comfort that it was objected to, but as a matter of health. Rum is an article difficult of carriage, and can be dispensed with; sugar also might be done without; but tea is upon a campaign like this an absolute necessity, if the men are to have no rum. It is not that the tea is nice, for it certainly is not; it is positively nasty. It bears no resemblance whatever to the herb we drink in England as tea; at the same time it is an absolute essential. The mornings and nights are very cold; the troops are on the move at half-past five in the morning, when everything is saturated with dew; they are hard at work all day; their picket-duty is very severe; and to give them with their breakfast in the morning and their supper at the end of their day’s work nothing but cold water to drink, was simply to send the whole army into hospital. Were the water good, the results might not have been so disastrous, but it is almost always drawn from stagnant pools, and is the reverse of wholesome. Officers generally drink the water only after filtering, but the men never think of taking the trouble. Boiling the water is no doubt even superior in its effect to filtering it; but the men would certainly not boil the water if they had nothing to put in it. They would drink nothing but impure water, which in a country where the changes in temperature are so great and so sudden as they are here, would most certainly bring on dysentery in a very short time. The privation of their rum would in itself be much felt among the men. They have all been some years in India, where rum forms part of a soldier’s regular ration. They are accustomed to its use, and no doubt would feel somewhat its sudden privation. Had they been troops fresh from England, it would have mattered comparatively little. Our adjutant-general, Colonel Thesiger, is a total abstainer; I believe that is the polite expression for a teetotaller. Of course his theory is, that men are much better without spirits; and the present will be a great opportunity for testing the effects of a Maine Law. I believe, however, that officers and men would give up their rum and their sugar without a murmur where tea is but allowed them; but I am sure that bad water alone will lay up half the troops. Nor will there be any saving in carriage by leaving tea behind. We shall have to take a greater weight of medicines than we should of the tea. The reason given for thus leaving behind what everyone feels to be, bad as it is, the most precious portion of our stores, was, that we can procure any amount of native carriage, but that the natives will only carry flour and grain, and refuse to undertake the carriage of rum, sugar, and tea, partly because of the greater responsibility, and partly because of the shape of the barrels and casks, which are inconvenient to pack upon the little oxen and donkeys. Everyone asks, Have we, then, no carriage of our own? Have we no available transport-mules besides those carrying the tents? One mule will carry from 150 to 200 pounds weight, which would give 500 men their day’s ration of tea. The advance brigade will not contain much over 3000 men, and consequently fifty mules will carry two months’ rations of tea for them; and it is an extraordinary thing if, out of the 15,000 baggage-animals in the transport-train, fifty cannot be spared to carry an article which everyone feels to be all-important both for the health and comfort of the troops. I am sure that Sir Robert Napier himself consented with the greatest reluctance to the proposition, and that he shares in the general satisfaction which is experienced at the report that the commissariat find that some of the natives are consenting to take on tea, if it is packed in skins or in stout bags, and that therefore a proportion of tea will at any rate be taken on.
I began this letter by saying that the news of the purchase of flour and grain would, if true, completely change the whole prospect of the expedition. I am happy to say that the news we heard is now more than verified, and that the commissariat are purchasing at the rate of 12,000 lbs. or 14,000 lbs. of flour a day. In addition to this, they are buying sufficient bread for the daily consumption of the troops. Very large convoys of native baggage-animals have also come in during the last few days, and we find ourselves with two months’ provision of all kinds, and four months’ provision of flour already in hand for the whole of the advanced division. This is a more forward state of things than I expected to have seen in another two months, and entirely alters the prospect of the campaign. Had we found the same dearth of food here which we experienced all along the line, we must have waited so long that it would have been an impossibility to have returned before the rain. Now there is a chance of our so doing.
Sanguine spirits even mention the 1st of April as the probable day for reaching Magdala. If we are there at the end of the first week in April, we shall, should Theodore await us and no hitch occur, start upon our return march by the 15th, pass through this place by the 7th of May, and be at Zulla in another month, that is, before the rains begin. I have, however, seen so many unforeseen obstacles, so many unavoidable delays occur since we first landed, that I cannot put any faith in this sudden express speed. When we arrived here two days since, the intention was that we should march on the 6th. I hear that our advance is now postponed, at any rate, until the 9th; and I should not be surprised if we were here for a week after that date. The fact is, no one knows anything whatever about the roads in front of us. All travellers, with one exception, who have journeyed here have turned to the right at Antalo, and have gone down the valley to Socota. The one exception is Dr. Krapf, and his report of the road is far too vague to be of any practical utility. It only requires a look to the southward of this camp to give us a notion of the country we are going to travel through. A chain of rugged mountains with peak rising beyond peak extends in an unbroken line. Over or through them we have somehow to get, and at present we know next to nothing about them.
A pioneer force of two companies of the 33d, some of the Beloochees, some Punjaub pioneers, sappers, and miners, and the Scinde horse have gone on ahead to make roads, and the reports we have at present received from them are the reverse of favourable.
Lât is our next halting-place; and until we hear that the road to that place is practicable for mules, it is no use advancing from here, where we are living upon the country and consuming no stores.
I now return to the narrative of our march here. From Doullo to Icullot was only an eight-miles’ march across a by-no-means difficult country. The next march on to this place was twelve miles, and the country was very undulating; but such an excellent road had been made by the advanced brigade that the mules had no difficulty whatever in crossing it. This road was better than anything we have traversed since we left Senafe. The Commander-in-chief, however, did not go by the same route, but turned off to visit Chalicote, a considerable town lying a little distance out of the line of march.
Chalicote is more prettily situated than any town we have hitherto seen. It lies in a well-wooded valley. The church is in precisely the same style as that at Attegrat, with frescoes drawn apparently by the same hand. I so fully described the church at Attegrat, that any details respecting this would be superfluous.
The Chief was accompanied by some of his staff, and by Mr. Holmes, of the British Museum, who had hoped to acquire some old manuscripts there, especially as he had heard of one said to be of great value, and bound in silver gilt. It turned out, however, to be quite modern; and up to the present time Mr. Holmes, although he has been indefatigable in his search, has not succeeded in finding any manuscript of great antiquity; he has, however, heard of some at a place a little distant from our line of march, which he hopes to acquire upon our return, and which, if they correspond to the description given of them, will be of very great value. It was hardly to be expected that, skirting as the line of march does upon the very edge of the table-land of Abyssinia – a portion of the country remote from the principal towns, and exposed to the constant devastation of border warfare – any remains of very great antiquity would be met with. Had our course led through Axoum, which was the capital of that strange Greek possession of which Adulis or Zulla was the seaport, we might have expected some interesting discoveries to have taken place. There is yet a possibility that we may see Axoum; for although, if there is any chance of getting out of the country before the rainy season, we shall of course make every effort to get back in time, there is a rumour that, if we are obliged to pass the wet season here, a portion of the force will go back by Axoum and Adowa.
This camp is called Antalo, but it is a mere name of courtesy, like that of a good many English railway-stations. It is nearly six miles from the town of Antalo, going by the most direct and most difficult road; eight miles fully by the more accessible path. The position of Antalo was certainly selected more with a view to its defensibility than for its convenience. It lies upon a small undulating plain six or seven hundred feet above the general level of the valley, and at the foot of a very lofty and precipitous hill which rises nearly sheer up fifteen hundred feet above it. This hill is accessible only at one or two places, and walls are built across them; so that it forms a safe retreat for the inhabitants of Antalo in the event of their being attacked by a superior force. This hill fortress is called Amba Antalo. A position such as this is no unnecessary protection in this part of the country, for Antalo lies at the very edge of the territory of the warlike Gallas. These tribes, whenever their harvest is a bad one, gather together and make a foray upon the villages of the plain, and sweep off crops and cattle. Everywhere on the plain are ruined villages, which attest the frequency and ferocity of these forays; and Antalo itself has evidently, and at no very distant time, contained four times as large a population as it does at present. I rode over there the day before yesterday to the weekly fair.
I described fully the market at Attegrat in a former letter; and as this was precisely the same scene upon a rather larger scale, I have little to add to what I then said. Very large quantities of flour were brought in, and the commissariat secured a considerable supply. Numbers of mules, donkeys, and cattle were also there. The small-goods market too was crowded, and herbs and grain of all sorts – onions, chillies, cloth, and most of the other articles I mentioned as having seen at Attegrat – were here, with the exception only of pumpkins, of which I did not see a single specimen. I, however, bought three pounds of coffee, which I look upon as a great prize, as it will be a change from the excessively bitter herb termed by courtesy tea. The commissariat have purchased a considerable quantity of coffee, and I am told we shall find it much more plentiful as we go forward. This will be a very great boon for the men.
I think that the people here are more merry and full of fun than those at Attegrat; they enter, or rather attempt to enter, into conversation much more freely, and really seem anxious to do anything for one. I had at least a dozen of them yesterday all talking together, and endeavouring to make out what I wanted to find out about some small packets of lead-ore which were used as a medium of exchange. It was a rich flaky ore, containing quite eighty per cent of lead, and marking paper freely. I was very desirous of finding out which part of the country it came from; but neither my pantomime nor the united endeavours of the lookers-on to understand me availed to elicit the required information.
During my progress through the country I have not seen any sign of mineral ground, with the exception of some very rich samples of ironstone. During the last three or four days’ march the formation has changed several times from sandstone to a hard blue limestone, and vice versâ. On the faces of these bare hills it would be easy even at a distance to detect the change of colour or the rising ridges which generally indicate the existence of a vein of mineral; but, as I have said, although I have carefully examined the country as I passed through it, I have seen no mineral indication whatever.
To return to the fair. The scene, as at Attegrat, was very amusing; and the attitude of the groups – the women sitting about everywhere with their baskets, the men leaning upon their spears, the cattle standing about in groups – the whole scene reminded me strongly of an Irish fair, barring only the absence of the friendly pig, with his agonised shriek of expostulation and disgust.
Antalo consists of four or five villages, each standing upon the summits of small rises. They were formerly connected together, and even now are surrounded by ruined huts. The last blow Antalo suffered was three years ago, when it was attacked by the Gallas, incited and led by a rebel against Kassa, named Waldo Yasus. Both Antalo and the villages on the plains suffered greatly at that time; and a terrible attack of cholera, which swept over the country shortly afterwards, completed their ruin. The houses have all high conical roofs, thatched with rushes. Each house has a courtyard surrounded by a high wall. The women here are less picturesque in dress and less pleasing in feature than those of Attegrat. Their morality is lax in the extreme. “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband:” I fear there are very few crowned heads in Abyssinia. I had left my horse at the foot of the ascent from the plain up to Attegrat, and had walked the last two miles. It was a very hot day, and one of our first inquiries upon reaching the fair was for “tedge.” We were conducted to what answered to a public-house. Here we entered, and passing through a sort of outer passage, found ourselves in almost outer darkness. It was some time before we could see sufficiently to avail ourselves of the invitation to be seated, but presently descried two seats or couches, built up of stone and covered with skins. The room was semicircular in form, and very lofty, going up to the thatched roof, which was lined with bamboo; on either side were small chambers, which appeared devoted to miscellaneous purposes; for after we had been some minutes in the place, and were able to see a little, we made out that a donkey was standing placidly at the door of one of these chambers, and that a goat and a fireplace were the principal articles of furniture in the other. The walls of the room were smoothly plastered, and as an abode it no doubt possessed the advantage of coolness, even in the hottest weather. Tedge, as I have before said, is a liquor made from fermented honey and water, with herbs, and tastes like a mixture of small beer and lemonade made from mouldy lemons, and was brought in in a flask very like a Lucca oil-flask, but rather flatter, and with a larger neck. From the neck of this flask we drank by turns; and as it did not hold more than half a pint, and as we were four in number and the clay was hot, we demanded more. It seems that no more was strained; so a large jar was brought, the wife of the proprietor put a fold of her very dirty garment over its mouth, and strained the liquor through it into the flask, and we drank it. In calmer moments and in other climes, it is probable that we should not have done so – probable even that a feeling of sickness would have overpowered us. I am happy to say, however, that the army in Abyssinia has altogether overcome any feeling of squeamishness. I have seen some rum drank in which several cockroaches had committed suicide; and I have assisted to eat honey which was black with ants whose appetites had caused their untimely death. As for cooking, I confess that I avoid the cooking-fires. I have seen sights which have tried my philosophy to the utmost, and am now quite content to eat the very excellent dinners our servants prepare from rations, and not to think of the processes the meat has undergone. My tent-companion and myself pride ourselves much upon our cooks. They are two Goa Portuguese, and are, we flatter ourselves, beyond all comparison the best cooks in camp. Their soups are excellent, their cutlets the best I ever tasted, their preserved potatoes, baked in cakes, delicious. They sent up birds in as good a style as I can get them in a London club. Their pumpkin-pie – when we could get pumpkins – was the talk of camp; the fame of their baked sheep’s head, with brain cutlets, came to the ears of Sir Robert Napier himself. Imagine, then, our feelings, when the stern decree was emanated – all native servants whatever are to be sent away; each officer is to carry 75 lb. of luggage, including bed, cooking-utensils, and plates and dishes; and three officers are to be allotted to each bell-tent. Heads of departments only are to be allowed a bell-tent between two. At first we had believed that this order did not apply to us; that having our own baggage-animals, and providing our forage, &c. at our own cost, and the tent being our own property, we thought that it was a matter which concerned no one but ourselves as to what or who we took on with us. But we were deceived. Quartermaster-generals, eager to effect the greatest possible cutting down, had their eyes upon the special correspondents and the scientific gentlemen who accompany the camp; and we were officially informed that we must be amenable to the same rules as others. We pointed out that we found our own carriage, and therefore that the weight we carried mattered to no one; but were sternly informed that if we purchased grain for our animals, there was so much the less available for the public service. To a certain extent this was true; and so we said that we were ready to go on with the weight that other officers were allowed, but that the tent in the first place was our own, and that it would be quite impossible for three men to write in a tent together. We were ready, therefore, to carry less than the permitted 75 lbs. of baggage, in order to have half a tent each; so that our total kit, including tent, would not exceed the prescribed 140 lbs. Our friends in the quartermaster department were quite unable to grant us this request, and it was only upon a personal application to Sir Robert Napier that we gained our point, as, upon our stating the case, he at once consented to our retaining our own tent to ourselves. The next question was that of servants. “All servants to be sent back, a grass-cutter only being allowed for each horse.” At first we thought we should be obliged to send our servants back. Fortunately, however, a grass-cutter is allowed for each horse; and as we have each two horses, we have retained our cooks under the title of grass-cutters for our second horses. We are not singular in our management, and there are very few staff-officers who have not managed in some such manner to retain their servants. The fact is, that a rule of this sort bears very much more hardly upon a staff-officer, or a civilian living as we are, than it does upon a regimental officer. A soldier-servant is allotted to each officer upon application, and regimental officers who pick handy men from their own companies, and who live three in a tent, have their three soldier-servants between them as usual. It is far otherwise with a staff-officer: he may obtain a soldier-servant from a regiment; but that soldier does not know him, and will not work for him as he will for his own officer. In the next place, the soldier has certain regimental work to do, which will take him away from his master’s tent for a considerable portion of the day; and lastly, a staff-officer is liable to be sent away on duty from the camp where the regiment to which his servant belongs is stationed. In our own case a soldier-servant would be useless; we might wish at any moment to push on to the pioneer force, or to accompany the Commander-in-chief upon a short expedition, and we should then be left without any servant whatever. At any rate, the order is generally evaded. Were it not that two months must elapse before a copy of this letter can come out to us, I should not speak so freely upon this point, as we should be having a special committee of officers of the quarter-master-general’s department assembling to consider the question of “evasion of the general order relating to servants by officers and civilians attached to the army.”
