King Theodore

KING THEODORE Origin and Rise.—LijKassa was born in Kwara, a small dis trict 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 Tana 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 (1841-47). 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 Tana) 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 of ter conquering Gojam and Tigre, he proclaimed himself negusa nagast of Ethiopia under the name of Theodore III. He now turned his attention to Shoa which still remained unsubdued.

Struggle with Shoa.

Retracingour steps for a moment in that direction, we find that in 1813 Sahale (or Sella) Selassie, younger son of the preceding ruler of Shoa, Wassen Seged, had proclaimed himself king of If at, Shoa and the Galla. His reign was long and beneficent, and 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 was succeeded in 1847 by his eldest son, Haile Melikot, who, by increasing his dominions at the ex pense of the Galla, and by concluding a treaty with Ras Ali against Kassa in 185o 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 of ter a desperate and futile at tack on Theodore at Debra-Berhan, Haile Melikot died of ex haustion and fever, nominating with his last breath his I I-year old son Menelek as successor (Nov. 1855). After a hard fight, Menelek was defeated and handed over to the negas, taken to Gondar and there trained in Theodore's service.

Decline of Power.

Theodore had by then reached 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 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 ca pable 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." Unfortunately, success turned his head, and he lost certain good influences around him by the death of his good queen Tavavich, and the murder by rebels of his two English friends and advisers, W. C. Plowden and J. T. Bell, whose deaths he avenged by the slaughter of 2,000 of the rebels.

His union with his second wife, Terunish, the proud daughter of the late Ras of Tigre, was a most unhappy one, and he seems to have given himself over to intoxication and lust, and to have exercised the most terrible cruelty in his campaigns against the Galla and the various districts in which rebellions broke out against him. This exhausted his strength and resources, and such of the country as he still dominated groaned under his heavy exactions.

Quarrel with Great Britain.

In Oct. 1862, Captain Cam eron, who had been appointed in Feb. of that year to succeed Mr. Plowden as British consul, was sent home by Theodore, with a letter to the queen of Great Britain, which reached the Foreign Office on Feb. 12, 1863. This letter was put aside and no answer returned, and to this in no small degree are to be attributed the dif ficulties that subsequently arose with that country. In Nov. des patches were received from England, but no answer to the em peror's letter, and this, together with a visit paid by Captain Cameron to the Egyptian frontier town of Kassala, greatly of fended him. Accordingly in Jan. 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 se lected Mr. Hormuzd Rassam to be its bearer. The British party on arrival at the king's camp in Damot, on Jan. 25, 1866, were received with all honour, and were afterwards sent to Kwarata, on Lake Tana, there to await the arrival of the captives. The latter reached Kwarata on March 12 and everything appeared to pro ceed favourably. A month later they started for the coast, but had not proceeded far when they were all brought back and put into confinement. 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, suffered hunger, cold and misery, and were in constant fear of death. Meanwhile one of them, Mr. Flad, had been sent by Theodore with a letter to Queen Victoria, asking for European workmen and machinery, and 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 British Govern ment at length saw that they must have recourse to arms.

Sir Robert Napier's Expedition.

InJuly 1867 it was re solved to send an army into Abyssinia to enforce the release of the captives, under Sir Robert Napier (1st Baron Napier of Mag dala). The landing-place 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 adven turous 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 necessitated a march over 400 miles of a mountainous and little-known country, inhabited by savage tribes, to the camp or fortress of Theodore. The commander-in-chief landed on Jan. 7, 1868, and soon after the troops began to move forward through the pass of Senaf 6, and southward through the districts of Agame, Tera, Endarta, Wojerat, Lasta and Wadela.

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 Dejaz Kassai his governor. The latter, however, in 1867 rebelled against his master and assumed the supreme power of that province. At the time when the British troops made their appearance in the country Theodore had thus been reduced to great straits. His army, which at one time numbered over oo,000 men, was rapidly deserting him, and he could hardly obtain food for his followers. He resolved to quit his capital Debra-Tabor, which he burned, and set out with the remains of his army for Magdala. During this march he displayed an amount of engineering skill in the construction of roads, of military talent and fertility of resource, that excited the admiration and aston ishment of his enemies. But after a heavy defeat near Magdala on April i o, Theodore sent Lieut. Prideaux, one of the captives, and Mr. Flad, accompanied by a native chief, to the British camp to sue for peace. Answer was returned, that if he would deliver up all the Europeans in his hands, and submit to the queen of Great Britain, he would receive honourable treatment. The cap tives were liberated and sent away, and accompanying a letter to the British general was a present of i,000 cows and Soo sheep, the acceptance of which would, according to Eastern custom, imply that peace was granted. Through some misunderstanding, word was sent to Theodore that the present would be accepted, and he felt that he was now safe ; but in the evening he learned that it had not been received, and despair again seized him. The next day, April 13, Magdala was stormed and taken, practically with out loss, and within they found the dead body of the emperor, who had fallen by his own hand. The inhabitants and troops were subsequently sent away, the fortifications destroyed, and the town burned. The queen Terunish having expressed her wish to go back to her own country, accompanied the British army, but died dur ing the march, and her son Alamayahu, the only legitimate son of the emperor, was brought to England, as this was the desire of his father.' The success of the expedition was in no small degree owing to the aid afforded by the several native chiefs through whose country it passed, and no one did more in this way than Dejaz Kassa or Kassai of Tigre. In acknowledgment of this, several pieces of ordnance, small arms and ammunition, with much of the surplus stores, were handed over to him, and the British troops left the country in May 1868.