ABYSsiniA, I867'I868: ARjists on CAffiPAicn Frederic A. Share Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries https://archive.org/details/abyssinia186718600shar ABYSSiniA, I867'I868: ARjists on CAmPAicn Watercolors and Drawings from Tine firitisin Expedition under Sir Robert Napier Frederic A. Share Wl itin Professor David N ortfirup and Professor Richard Panhinurst AcKnowLEDGmEnts Catalogue for an Exhibition at the McMullen Museum of Art Boston College — Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 11 June to 7 September, 2003 Lenders to the exhibition include: Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf: Nos. 1-24, 30 Humphrey Winterton: Nos. 25-27, 29 Hugh Bett: No. 28 Designed by: Paul Cyr of Newburyport Press, Inc. Printed and bound in the United States of America by Newburyport Press, Inc. Newburyport, MA 01951 www.newburyportpress.com TSEHAI Publishers and Distributors PO. Box 1881, Hollywood, CA 90078 www.tsehaipublishers.com; email to info@tsehaipublishers.com Copyright © Frederic A. Sharf, 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews as provided by United States of America copyright law. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2003104158 ISBN: 0-9723172-4-4 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Table Of ContEnTs Preface: Nancy Netzer (Director of McMullen Museum of Art and Professor of Art History, Boston College) 4 Introduction: Frederic A. Sh arf 5 Life of Robert Baigrie (1829-1877) 6 A. P. G. Hogg (I 836 -I 9 O 8 ): A Brief Biography Ethiopia s Openings to the West, 1306-1974: David Northrup (Professor of History, Boston College) The Abyssinian Expedition: Causes and Consequences: Richard Panhhurst (Professor, Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) 14 16 22 iography 30 Portraits of Sir Robert Napier, Emperor Theodore, and Prince Alamayou 32 Plates and A 1 ccompanying Text 33 Append) iixes: Schedule of AAarches, Napier Expedition AAap of Abyssinia The Abyssinian Expeditions Photographic Team 94 95 96 Preface t his exhibition had its genesis three years ago when my seminar at Boston College on The History and Philosophy of Museums from Antiquity to the Present paid its yearly visit to the Sharf "Wunderkammer.” outing has become a highlight of this course, a legend passed down from one class of students to the next. On this particular visit to the “cabinet of curiosities,” Mr. Sharf, with his customary infectious enthusiasm and energy, pulled out some of his Japanese prints, architectural drawings, diaries of various nineteenth-century travelers from England to the Far East, and albums of photographs. At the end of the session he brought out a newly-acquired diary of William Simpson, a British journalist who traveled to Abyssinia to report on the expedition of Robert Napier in 1868. Mr. Sharf and Professor Richard Pankhurst of the Institute of Ethopian Studies in Addis Ababa were in the process of transcribing and annotating the diary; it was published in 2002 as Diary of a Journey to Abyssinia, 1868. He had also purchased a portfolio of drawings by another member of the same expedition. Major Robert Baigrie, which were sent back from Abyssinia to be published in The Illustrated London News. The cache of drawings clamored for exhibition and study. To that end, I asked Mr. Sharf if I might contact a Boston College professor whom I thought might be interested in examining the works. When David Northrop of the History Department, an expert on African history of the nineteenth century, agreed to contribute an essay, Mr. Sharf generously offered to write and publish this exhibition catalogue and to allow the McMullen to exhibit the drawings. I should like to thank the members of the McMullen’s staff — chief curator Alston Conley; exhibition coordinator Naomi Blumberg; registrar John McCoy; and graduate assistants Bethany Waywell and Sofia Mavrides — who undertook the task of organizing the exhibition, designing its installation and writing its accompanying texts. Special thanks are also due Gary Gilbert of the University’s Office of Print Marketing, whose photographs of works from the Sharf collection are used in this catalogue. Thomas Lentz, director of the Smithsonian’s International Art Museums in Washington, D.C., kindly agreed to loan related objects to the exhibition. Finally, our greatest debt of gratitude is due Jean and Fred Sharf Their passion for and dedication to seeking out unknown treasures and expanding the meaning of these works through collecting, researching and publishing stand as an inspiration to us aU. Nancy Netzer Director, McMullen Museum of Art and Professor of Art History 4 IntRiDDUction Fred eric A. Sh arf m y collecting mandate has been to acquire works of art which were created in the years between the American Civil War and World War I, and are a response to a contemporary event or events. The numerous colonial wars, ranging from the Spanish-American War to the Russo-Japan War, from the British campaigns in the Sudan to their campaigns in South Africa, were my specific targets. The British campaign in Abyssinia in 1867-1868 thus fell just within the time period; I began by acquiring several groups of photographs taken by the 10th Company Royal Engineers, and then in April 1998 acquired the collection of watercolors by Robert Baigrie which form the basis of this exhibition. The drawings were in dreadful condition and required immediate conservation. I am grateful to my paper conservator, Susan Duhl, for her work in making them presentable to exhibit. Research was required to unlock the events which lay behind each drawing; I was fortunate to have the cooperation of Alison Booth and Richard Pitkin at The Illustrated London News archives, and the research skills of Peter Metcalfe (Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England) and Glenn Mitchell of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London. My special thanks also go to Humphrey Winterton ofTitley, Herefordshire, England and Hugh Bett, Director of Maggs Bros. Ltd., for their loans to the exhibition. The publication has been immensely enriched by the scholarly contributions of Professors David Northrup and Richard Pankhurst, whose introductory essays provide background to the reader on the history of Ethiopia’s relationships with the West and the causes of the conflict with Britain in 1868. This exhibition and the related publication required the skills of my art handler and framing consultant, Mark WaUison, and my framer, Sande Webster, as well as the editorial skills of Nancy TenBroeck of Salem, MA. Lastly, I wish to thank Dr. Nancy Netzer, Director of the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College, for her belief in the importance of presenting these drawings to the public. Notes to the reader: The works in the exhibition are referred to in the text as (No. — ). They are illustrated and described on pages 36-93 (except for No. 30.) Unless otherwise noted, all are watercolors with graphite underdrawing. Footnotes refer to the works listed in the Bibliography (pages 30-32). 5 LiFE OF R^berJ BAiGRiE ( 1829 - 1877 ) R obert Baigrie was born on 28 January 1829 in Ardmore, Ross-shire, Scotland. His father was s^“Gentleman Farmer,” with a landed estate but not necessarily a man of great wealth. Baigrie attended Tain Academy, located in Ross-shire, and graduated at the age of 18 with a “Classical and Mathematical” education. The “mathematical” aspect of Baigrie’s education included geometry, surveying, map-making, and drawing — all of which would be useful to a young man raised to run a family estate, and also skills much prized by the British army. The Army training colleges (Woolwich, Chatham, High Wycombe) had employed drawing masters since the 18th century. When the East India Company established its own training college at Addiscombe Military Seminary in 1809, drawing lessons were a standard part of the curriculum. Cadets were expected to be capable of producing topographical studies in which the locations of forts, rivers, and mountains were accurately placed; and they were trained to draw maps which could accompany written reports. Civil drawing was also taught, to enable future officers to record the sights and scenery which they would encounter. Having graduated from Tain Academy in June 1847, Baigrie sought admission to the Bombay Army — one of three East India Company Presidential Armies (Bombay, Bengal and Madras). These forces were designed for peacetime protection of the vast territories in India controlled by the East India Company, as well as for limited frontier engagements. Normally a two-year enrollment at Addiscombe was required for acceptance into one of the Presidential Armies; but the Baigrie family was well connected, and through the intervention of a Director of the East India Company in London, Baigrie was nominated in December 1847 for a direct appointment to the Bombay Army. His father signed the appropriate parental consent forms and on 3 February 1848 Robert Baigrie sailed from Southampton. Traveling from England through the Mediterranean to Alexandria, then overland to Suez, and finally via company steamship down the Red Sea to Bombay, Baigrie reached Bombay on 10 March 1848. He was accompanied for much of this trip by four other cadets bound for the same service. (Each cadet was expected to pay his own travel costs!) Service in India ( 1848 - 1867 ) One day after arriving in Bombay, Baigrie was on his way to the hiU station of Mahableshur, approximately 200 miles distant, to commence his military career. While training with the Bombay Native Infantry, Baigrie’s first job was to achieve a “colloquial proficiency” in the local language, Hindustani. He made rapid progress and on 14 October 1848 was assigned to the 3rd Native Infantry with the rank of Ensign (the entry-level officer rank). Before the end of 1848 Baigrie would get his first taste of combat, being present at the Siege of Mooltan [Multan], from December 1848 until January 1849 — the first event of the Second Sikh War. Once Mooltan was relieved, Baigrie moved on to Gujerat, where he participated in the British victory there on 21 February 1849. This campaign finally ended in March with the 6 surrender of Rawalpindi and the occupation of Peshawar, and early in April Baigrie was posted to the 8th Bombay Native Infantry. By January 1850 his service record contained the following comment; “Is an exceedingly steady young officer promising a very good general knowledge of his military duties, and promises to become a most efficient officer.” After three years on active service, Baigrie was granted a three-month leave of absence in February 1851. He used this time to travel along the coast of India and on to Ceylon. Returning to his regiment in the spring of 1851, Baigrie began to make rapid progress: in January 1852 his service record stated that he was a “smart and active officer;” in April he was promoted to adjutant; and in August he was promoted to Quartermaster of the 8th Native Infantry. Later that year he qualified as an interpreter in Hindustani. His military career was plainly on a fast track. After three more years of active service, Baigrie was granted a medical leave on 28 February 1854, and left India for Europe. Interestingly, his service record shows that he was present at the siege of Sebastopol, one of the major events of the Crimean war. This siege commenced in the September 1854 and lasted until September 1855, when the city surrendered. There is no explanation for why an officer of an Indian regiment would be present in the Crimea, nor was the Bombay Army prepared to consider his service in the Crimea as eligible for pension calculation — in fact, they deducted 2 years and 317 days from his official record of service. Nevertheless, while absent in the Crimea he was promoted to Lieutenant. On 1 November 1856 England declared war on Persia. Baigrie was assigned to the Second Division of the Persian Field Force, under the command of General Sir James Outram. Outram hurried back to India from London to take up his command and when he reached Bombay on 22 December, preparations for the campaign were well underway. The Division departed from Bombay on 15 January. Baigrie was present for aU the major engagements of this very brief campaign. On 8 February the Persian Field Force was victorious at Kooshab (Khushab); on 26 March they captured Mohumrah (Mohammerah); and on 1 April they were victorious in the final battle of the campaign, at Akwaz. Baigrie’s service in this campaign, while short, was very uncomfortable, due to cold, wet, and stormy weather for the entire period. By the time the Persian Force returned to India, early in June of 1857, India was in the grip of major internal strife. The Indian Mutiny started in mid-May among the soldiers of the Bengal Native Infantry in Meerut, and had then spread to Delhi. Baigrie was not involved in the major events of that year, which included the siege and relief of the British garrison at Lucknow, the surrender and massacre of the British garrison at Cawnpore, and the siege and capture of Delhi. He was instead assigned to deal with the revolt in Central India, acting as Deputy Assistant Quarter Master General of the Central India Field Force, under the command of Lieutenant General Sir Hugh Rose. This army was organized in the fall of 1857 with instruction to march across central India from Mhow to Calpee (Kalpi), a distance of approximately 1000 miles, subduing any local revolts they encountered and destroying forts of revolutionary forces. Baigrie was intimately involved in the planning of this arduous campaign. Baigrie served with distinction during the campaign, much of it under the field command of General Sir Robert Napier. The troops were in combat every few weeks from the capture of Ratghur at the end of January to the capture of Gwalior at the end of June. Campaign conditions 7 were brutal, due to the intense heat. Baigrie was wounded in combat — severely, according to some accounts — at the battle of Koonch on 7 May. He never fully regained his health. He served until the end of June, when the Central India Field Force was disbanded. Baigrie’s service in this campaign was the defining moment of his military career and the key to his rise to prominence within the Bombay Army. Before the end of 1858 he was named Deputy Assistant Quarter Master General of the entire Bombay Army, and within three years he was promoted to Captain, and assigned to the Bombay Staff Corps. In this period, which was prior to the integration of the three East India Company armies into the British Army, there was no formal staff corps training program. Selection of officers was based on their ability to train native soldiers and lead them in battle. Most members of the Staff Corps were engaged in military activities; but some men were chosen for their skills in performing civil functions, and they might easily achieve high rank without ever having been in combat. The Quartermaster’s Department, to which Baigrie belonged, was essentially responsible for providing quarters and transportation for troops. This broad mandate necessarily involved numerous details: storage and transportation of supplies; provision of clothing and camp equipment; making certain that camp sites had access to water; arranging burial of officers and soldiers. On some campaigns the horses and mules fell under this department, as did their food. Baigrie was a rising star. In 1865 he was promoted to Major, and named Assistant Quarter Master General of the Bombay Army. He was thus in a very important strategic position in the summer of 1867 when his Commander-in-Chief, Lieutenant General Sir Robert Napier, was ordered by the Foreign Office in London to prepare plans for a military expedition to Abyssinia. Baigrie possessed essential skills needed to pull together such an expedition. The Abyssinian Expedition (l867-I868) The imprisonment of a small group of British and Europeans by Emperor Theodore of Abyssinia, in defiance of normal international law, led to the idea of sending some sort of military expedition to free them. The British Foreign Office had considered this since April of 1867, but waited until the end of June to ask the War Office and the India Office to authorize the beginning of the planning process. Responsibility for planning the campaign was placed in the hands of the Bombay Army in India (whose area of coverage extended up the Red Sea as far as Aden). The Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army, and thus the man with primary responsibility for organizing the Abyssinian campaign, was Lieutenant General Sir Robert Napier. His staff, headed by Quarter Master General Lieutenant Colonel Robert Phayre, who was assisted by Major Baigrie, spent two weeks in July intensively calculating troop requirements and all associated estimates of transport and supplies, providing London with a realistic timetable for moving forward. They needed information about Abyssinia to start with. Napier reported to London on 23 July: When the prospect of an expedition to Abyssinia first came under consideration, all the avail- able sources of information contained in the Bombay Asiatic Society’s Library, and the 8 Government records, were placed at the disposal of the Quartermaster General, who... has waded through a vast mass of travels and correspondence, and has condensed the result in a brief report. By the end of July, agents of the British government were authorized to begin purchase of transport animals; by early August Napier’s team had arrived at the appropriate troop requirement; on 13 August the Cabinet voted to proceed; and on 18 August, Napier was officially selected to lead the expedition. Napier had already decided that his first step would be to select a small reconnaissance team, composed of officers known to be practical, to be despatched to the eastern coast of Africa to find a suitable landing place for an army. Napier chose Lieutenant Colonel William Merewether, the British Resident in Aden, as leader of this elite team. (Merewether had long believed that negotiations with King Theodore would prove futile, and that in the end some expedition would be needed.) The selection of Major Robert Baigrie as a member of the team was an honor, as well as a vote of confidence. Merewether travelled from Aden to Bombay in August to meet with the other members of the reconnaissance mission, now known as the “Reconnoitring Party.” Napier distributed a detailed memorandum outlining all aspects of their assignment, and on 15 September the entire Reconnoitring Party embarked from Bombay harbor. The officers were on board the Euphrates, while the troopers and followers were carried on the Coromandel. Their first stop on the 1600 mile trip would be at Aden. High winds, storms, and a rough sea made the passage to Aden unpleasant, and longer than usual. The officers spent the ten days of the voyage reading about conditions in Abyssinia. Both ships arrived on the evening of 26 September and departed on 28 September for Massowah, a seaport on the Red Sea that was controlled by Egypt and which had been considered as the gateway to Abyssinia. Arriving on 2 October, they quickly determined that Massowah was not a good place to land an army, and the officers on the Euphrates embarked the next day for Annesley Bay. There they were greeted by friendly chiefs, who showed them ample water supplies and described several passes through the mountains to the Abyssinian highlands. They travelled 4 1/2 miles inland to the village of ZouUa, where they found a seemingly ideal location for the encampment — a large open plain, approximately 17 miles in length and 12 miles in width. They decided to rename the camp site on the shores of Annesley Bay, abandoning the native name of Mulkutoo and using “Zoulla” instead. On 5 October the troops, followers, and horses were unloaded and the process of exploring the countryside commenced. A group of officers, led by Major Baigrie, was sent to a place called Weah where water was said to be plentiful, and which was the popular starting place for travelers going to the Abyssinian highlands (via the Hadas River and the Tekonda Pass). Another group, led by Lieutenant Colonel Phayre, went in a different direction to explore the possibility of a route via the Koomaylee Pass to Senafe, and from there overland to Magdala. Most of the month of October was consumed in examining these alternate routes in some detail. Major Baigrie spent the first few weeks of October exploring the Tekonda route. On 18 October, Lieutenant Colonel Merewether reported to Bombay: Major Baigrie has reconnoitred from his post at Uddoda [Hadoda] to Hamhamo. He reports the road practicable for everything but guns in its present state. The defects can be 9 remedied, but will involve a good deal of clearing away [of] stones and babul trees. The distance from Uddoda is 7 miles. Water is good, but scanty from a spring trickling out of a rock...i (Note: see Exhibition Drawing No. 3) Ships carrying the first regiments of soldiers began to arrive at Annesley Bay on 21 October, and Baigrie was urgently needed back at ZouUa: “Upon Major Baigrie... devolved the duties of making arrangements for the camp, landing of troops, stores etc., and he accompanied the troops to the outposts and surveyed the adjacent country . ”2 Baigrie was also responsible for supervising the construction of a pier extending into Annesley Bay which would allow ships to be unloaded directly onto the shore. (See No. 7.) Amid all of this confusion, with unloading of troop ships and surveying the Abyssinian countryside. Major Baigrie was busy turning out drawings. Some of these were sent to the Illustrated London News, but most were used by the officers of the Bombay Staff Corps. A selection of these drawings was dispatched to General Napier in mid-October, who acknowledged them by saying that “they explain everything very clearly” and ordered them photographed for wider distribution. A colleague on the Reconnoitring Party, Lieutenant Colonel Wilkins, recorded in his diary of the campaign the importance of Baigrie’s artistic contribution: “His drawings of the [Tekonda] Pass, and indeed all his sketches, give very accurate representations of the country... In mid-November there was a crisis at the Hadoda cavalry encampment, with an outbreak of African glanders disease which began to kiU off horses and mules. Baigrie was forced to leave ZouUa for a few days to supervise the removal of the camp back to Weah; then he hurried back to Zoulla where he was “superintending the clearance” of a road which would run from the pier at Annesley Bay to the proposed Koomaylee encampment. By 23 November, Merewether could report to Napier that the Reconnoitring Party had chosen the route through the Sooroo Pass [later named the Senafe Pass] as the only feasible way to move a vast army to the Highlands. As a result of Baigrie’s organization of the road-building team, there would soon be “an open smooth road [from the Pier to Koomaylee] by which wheeled carriages may travel with the most perfect ease.”-^ Unfortunately Merewether’s obsession with route selection and territorial exploration had left the base camp in ZouUa without leadership, and chaos had resulted. It was soon apparent that the pier was inadequate; ships were arriving with troops and much-needed stores, but could not be unloaded in a timely manner. Animals were dying, but their bodies were not disposed of properly and there was a bad smell. This power vacuum was resolved on 5 December with the arrival of Major General Sir Charles Staveley, who was authorized by Napier to assume absolute control of all aspects of the Expedition until Napier himself arrived early in January 1868. Staveley at once disbanded the Reconnoitring Party and placed Baigrie in complete charge of the Annesley Bay / ZouUa encampment, with instructions to oversee the following: 1. Disposal of dead animals by burning; 2. Completion of the Pier, and construction of storage buildings for supplies; 3. Connection of the Pier to the ZouUa camp by a light railway; 4. Sinking ot additional weUs to enlarge the critical supply of water; 5. Supervision of the arriving teams of specialists: Trigonometrical Survey; Telegraphers, Photographers, and SignaUers. 10 Writing on 12 December, the British journalist George Henty reported on the situation; Vessels and troops are arriving every day, and the accumulations of arrears of work are increasing in even more rapid proportion. Major Baigrie, the quarter-master-general [sic] is indefatigable, but he cannot unload thirty large vessels at one little jetty, at whose extremity there is only a depth of five feet of water.. ..Unless something is done, and that rapidly, and upon an extensive scale, we shall break down altogether.... ^ In the meantime the “disbanded” Reconnoitring Party had moved to Senafe and continued to reconnoitre. Staveley was forced to travel to Senafe at the end of December. Baigrie accompa- nied him; they reached Senafe on 22 December and departed in the afternoon of 25 December. Baigrie’s presence back at Zoulla was crucial, especially in view of the imminent arrival of Napier. George Henty, writing from Senafe on 23 December, evaluated the current situation; General Staveley, indeed, is the very man for an expedition of this sort. Whatever he sees is necessary, he takes upon himself the responsibility of ordering to be done. I consider his arrival at Zoulla to have been most providential. Everything was going wrong, disorder ruled supreme. All this is now at an end. General Staveley has taken the command, and unity of action is once more introduced. Whether Colonel Phayre, now that his commit- tee of exploration is dissolved, may go down to ZouUa or remain here, is now of little importance as Major Baigrie, the deputy quarter-master general, is fully capable of carry- ing on the duties, supported as he is by the weight of General Staveley ’s authority.^ It is quite clear that Major Baigrie had now assumed the responsibilities which normally would have come under the job description of Colonel Phayre, who was by title the Quarter Master General of the Bombay Army. The importance of Baigrie and Staveley as a working “team” has been overlooked in prior histories of this campaign. When Napier arrived at Annesley Bay on 3 January 1868, complete command of the Expedition passed from Staveley to Napier. Staveley and Baigrie assumed control of the Zoulla encampment, taking responsibility for quickly moving the arriving troops forward to Senafe. In order to reach Magdala and return before the start of the rainy season in May, the army needed to be able to leave Senafe early in February. To ensure that this was possible. Major Baigrie ordered a drastic reduction in the amount of baggage, camp equipment, and camp followers which men of the Indian Army were accustomed to taking with them on campaign. He also supervised construction of a telegraph line from Zoulla to Senafe, which was operational by mid-February. Staveley and Baigrie remained at Zoulla when Napier departed on 25 January for Senafe. They were awaiting arrival of a new team which would run the Zoulla base camp; Brigadier General Donald Stewart and his staff quartermaster. Major Frederick Roberts [later Lord Roberts of Kandahar] were sent from Bombay and arrived early in February, enabling Staveley and Baigrie to depart for the front on 23 February. By this time, the campaign was in motion. Staveley had been placed in command of the First Division, which would provide most of the front line soldiers who were expected to do whatever real fighting was needed. Staveley and Baigrie had to move rapidly, and they did not stop in 11 Senafe but proceeded to join the army at Dongolo on 3 March. They remained one march behind Napier until 21 March, when they finally reached his headquarters at Lat. Napier then made a final re-organization and ordered that all baggage be left behind in a rapid march to Magdala. Napier himself took command of the First Brigade, with Staveley in command of the Second Brigade; these were the troops that would do the actual fighting. The Second Brigade, with Major Baigrie at the forefront, took part in the only actual fighting of the entire campaign, at Arogee on 10 April. On 13 April Baigrie rode at the front of the Brigade for the attack and capture of Magdala. With their mission completed, Napier’s army departed from the Dalanta Plain on 21 April for the march back to Zoulla. They were assisted by the special railway which had been constructed from Koomaylee to the coast. They arrived at Zoulla on the morning of 2 June. Major Baigrie was granted a medical leave at the end of the campaign, and returned to England. On 15 August he was rewarded for his services in Abyssinia by promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. His artistic contributions to the campaign were acknowledged later in the year by the publication of a handsome lithograph (No. 22) and by inclusion of more than 30 drawings in Roger Acton’s The Abyssinian Expedition, published by The Illustrated London News. This was a handsome large-format history of the campaign with 100 illustrations. Baigrie s Later Life in India Baigrie finally returned to Bombay in March 1869 but it seems from his service record that his health was a constant problem during the remaining years of his life. In 1871 he was placed in charge of the Putchmuree [Pachmarhi] Sanatorium, one of many such facilities which the British maintained to look after the health of the soldiers of the Indian Army. In the following year he was named Honorary ADC to the Viceroy of India, Lord Northbrook. On 24 May 1873 he was awarded a Companion of the Bath (CB) for his services to the nation. Although he was only 44 years old, it seems as if his active military career was at an end. Some feeling for his life in India at this time is conveyed by the following passage from the memoirs of Lord Roberts, published in 1897; In the beginning of October (1873) my wife and I started for a fortnight’s trip to the top of the Chor, a fine mountain sixty-two miles from Simla, and close on 12,000 feet high. We were accompanied by a very dear friend of ours — now no more — Colonel Baigrie, who was soon afterwards made Quartermaster-General in Bombay. He was a talented artist and delightful companion, and notwithstanding the old adage that two are company and three none, we three enjoyed our holiday immensely.^ In September 1874 the British decided to send a small expedition to the Daphla [Duffla] hiU country on the border of Eastern Bengal and Assam. The Daphlas had taken a small number of hostages from British territory in 1872, and had refused all efforts to return them. A blockade of the Daphla territory had proved ineffectual, and a proper military expedition was ordered; Major General W. J. F. Stafford was placed in command and Baigrie, by now a full Colonel, was placed in charge of transportation and served as second in command. 12 The Daphla Expedition was composed of 30 British officers and over 2,100 soldiers and followers. They encountered no opposition; the Daphla villages were occupied in January 1875, the captives rescued, and they returned to their base by the end of February. Although successful, the Expedition was viewed as far too costly for the benefits achieved. It also seems a rather puzzling use of Colonel Baigrie’s talents. Baigrie’s military career was coming to a close. He was named Quartermaster General of the Bombay Army in 1875; this meant that he would live in Bombay for most of the year, going to Poona during the rainy season (mid-June to the end of September). In 1876, when Lord Northbrook was replaced as Viceroy of India by Lord Lytton, Baigrie was once again named as an Honorary ADC. Colonel Robert Baigrie, Quartermaster General of the Bombay Army (at the young age of 48), died on 25 September 1877 in Poona, from “remittent Fevers” (probably malaria) and was buried the next day. Had he been physically fit — and had he lived — he would almost certainly have achieved some measure of fame in the Second Afghan War, which broke out in 1878. He had risen steadily, and speedily, to a prestigious post at the time of his untimely death. End Notes: 1. Merewether, 39. 2. Wilkins, 101. 3. Wilkins, 215. 4. Merewether, 78. 5. Henty, 59 6. Henty, 103 7 Roberts, Volume II, 77. “Colonel Penns Battery, Royal Artillery, Abyssinia, 1868” Photo by Sergeant John Harrold, 10th Company Royal Engineers ADAm George Forbes Hogg ( 1856 - 1908 ) A Brief Biograpfiy A G. F. Hogg, who was a distinguished soldier and administrator but not known as an artist, . was born on 18 June 1836 in Poona, India into a military family of Scottish origin. His father served with the Bombay Fusiliers, and ultimately rose to the rank of Colonel. The young man was sent back to England to be educated for a military career. Hogg received the same “Classical and Mathematical” education as did Baigrie, while attending Major Brackenberry’s School at Wimbledon to prepare for the Addiscombe exams. In December 1853 Hogg took the exams at Addiscombe, and was judged qualified for immediate service in the East India Company army. He received his appointment as Ensign (the entry level rank at that time) in the Bombay Army and embarked for India at once, arriving in Bombay on 6 February 1854. It was customary for a young recruit to be assigned regimental duties with one of the existing Bombay regiments, and in April 1854 Hogg was posted to the 5th Native Infantry, stationed in Dharwar. By January 1856 Hogg had passed his interpreter’s exam in Hindustani, and by the following year he was ready for his first campaign assignment. He served under General Outram on the Persian Field Force, which left Bombay in January 1857 and returned in June. (Baigrie also served under Outram on this campaign, and the two young officers probably met.) With the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny in mid-May 1857, both Hogg and Baigrie were needed in India. Hogg rejoined the 5th Native Infantry, as a Lieutenant; by January of 1858 he was appointed Quartermaster and Interpreter of the 5th Native Infantry. Later that year he joined one of the field forces which was putting down the last stages of the Mutiny. In March 1860 Hogg was ordered with his regiment for service in China, where they provided garrison support to British residents in Canton. Returning to India in 1861, he was granted a leave of 15 months and returned to England. He returned to Bombay in February 1863, and was promoted to the rank of Captain in January 1866. Hogg had made rapid advancement as a staff officer, and was thus well positioned to receive an important posting when the Abyssinian Expedition was being assembled. He sailed from Bombay in November 1867 with the 27th Native Infantry (known as the Beloochies), and arrived at Annesley Bay on 4 December 1867. The regiment was one of the first to reach the encampment at Senafe later in December. After the arrival of Sir Robert Napier in January 1868, the troops of the Abyssinian Expedition were assigned their roles in the campaign. Hogg was named Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General on the staff of Brigadier General Schneider, who commanded the First Brigade of the First Division. The overall commander of the First Division was Major General Sir Charles Staveley, on whose staff Major Baigrie served as Assistant Quartermaster General. This division was destined to participate in the only actual fighting of the entire campaign. 14 Hogg was present at the battle of Arogee on 10 April 1868, and at the surrender of Magdala on 13 April. He had marched in the forefront of the army; he returned to Zoulla in June, having served with distinction, being mentioned in despatches, and in the field had the temporary rank of Brevet Major. He was again granted a leave of 15 months. In September 1870 Hogg was promoted to Assistant Quarter Master General of the Bombay Army, stationed at headquarters in Poona. In January 1874 he was made a Major, and in 1877 rose once again to Lieutenant Colonel. At this rank he served in the Afghanistan Campaign of 1878-79, where he once again served with distinction as Deputy Quarter Master General in charge of transport and supply with troops fighting in Kabul. In 1880 he returned to Bombay, where he was named Quartermaster General of the Bombay Army. In the spring of 1885 he became Political Resident at Aden; in the following year he was awarded a CB (Commander of the Order of the Bath). In 1890 he was promoted to a full Colonel. In 1891 Hogg finally left India and returned to England. He married in 1893, and had one son and one daughter. By the time of his official army retirement in 1895, he had made a leap in rank to Lieutenant General. He died in Eastbourne on 10 June 1908. Hogg was a talented artist, with skiU acquired as a young man at military school. His watercolor depictions of the campaign in Abyssinia were done after sketches made on the spot, completed after his return to England in the summer of 1868. Some of them were used by Holland and Hozier in their three-volume publication, Abyssinia: Ojficial Expedition History, published by the War Office in 1870. He also executed a number of watercolors while serving in Aden from 1885 to 1890. "Treasury and Mint, Magdala, Abyssinia, 1868" Photo by Sergeant John Harrold, 10th Company Royal Engineers EtHiQPiA’s OpEninGS t© The U/ESt, 1506-1974 by David N orthrup Professor of History, Boston College t he British expedition of 1868 had its particular causes and consequences, but it also deserves to be seen as a single moment in the centuries-long history of Ethiopia’s encounters with Europe. From that perspective, the expedition against Ethiopia in 1868 falls near the beginning of Ethiopia’s second effort to strengthen itself through an alliance with Western Christendom. The first of these openings to the West ran from the fourteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century. The second began in the nineteenth century and, from the perspective of the Ethiopian monarchy, may be seen as ending with the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, although the engagement of Ethiopian people with the Western world is ongoing. The state of Ethiopia can be traced back to the Red Sea state of Axum (Aksum), whose rulers adopted Christianity in the fourth century. Their Christian tradition — and that of the other Christians of northeast Africa — acknowledged the authority of the patriarch of Alexandria and held to the theological belief (rejected in 451 by the Council of Chalcedon) that Christ had a single nature (monophysitism). In modern times Ethiopian Christians have tended to align themselves with the Orthodox Christians of Greece and Russia, although strictly speaking they are not “orthodox” in the sense of conforming to the doctrines of the first seven church councils. A different historical separation of the Ethiopian Christians from those in the Latin West occurred as a result of the spectacular expansion of Islam across North Africa in the seventh century. This weakened the Ethiopians’ ties to other Christians, except for the Coptic Christian minority of Egypt. In its isolation Ethiopia turned inward, both in literally withdrawing to the rugged highlands of the Ethiopian interior and by constructing its own self-image using the Christian and Hebrew Scriptures. King Lalibela (c. 1180-1220) built a new capital with churches, each carved out of solid rock, laid out in a representation of the holy Christian shrines of Jerusalem. The new ruling dynasty that came to power in the fourteenth century claimed descent from King Solomon of Israel and the queen of Sheba. ^ These connections to Jerusalem were not just symbolic — Ethiopian pilgrims went there, and after the expulsion of the Latin Christian Crusaders, commu- nities of Ethiopian monks became guardians of some of the Christian Holy Places. Through Jerusalem, information on the changes taking place in the Mediterranean world filtered back to the Ethiopian highlands. The Scriptures also provided this Christian kingdom with the name Ethiopia, the Greek term (meaning “blackened faces”) used in the New Testament for Christians south of Egypt. To their Arab neighbors, with whom the Ethiopians had extensive trade, they were Habesha, from which comes the English word Abyssinian. In the nineteenth century Europeans used Abyssinia to designate the kingdom, but in the early modern period they used both Ethiopia and Abyssinia. 16 The Latin West also identified Ethiopia as the realm of the legendary Prester John, a Christian priest-king with fabulous wealth and powers whose legend had arisen in the Latin West as a beacon of hope after Christian failure to halt Muslim advances. It was thought that, if contacted, Prester John would be a powerful ally against the seemingly invincible Muslims. The first opening Despite the attraction of Prester John, it was Ethiopian rulers who made the first initiatives for an alliance with the Latin West. In 1306, Emperor Wedem Arad sent a delegation to Europe in search of Christian allies to counter the militant Muslims who were harrying Christians in the neighboring areas of Nubia and Egypt. The delegation called on rulers in Iberia and visited Pope Clement V at his palace in Avignon in southern France. On the pope’s recommendation they journeyed on to Rome to visit the churches of Saints Peter and Paul. No alliance emerged from this embassy, but the papacy did dispatch letters and a Dominican bishop to the kingdom.While the delegation was in Genoa awaiting a ship to take them back, the delegates were interviewed by the rector of St. Mark’s church, whose subsequent treatise provided the Latin West with the first detailed account of the kingdom’s location, government, and culture. Later Ethiopian emperors continued to direct embassies to Europe as the occasion warranted. In 1402 Ethiopian ambassadors presented gifts of leopards and aromatic spices to the Doge of Venice. In 1428 Emperor Yishak (r. 1413-30) proposed an alliance between Ethiopia and the kingdom of Aragon, which was to be sealed by a double marriage of King Alfonso V’s daughter to the emperor and of the king’s son to Yishak’s daughter. This proposal was not carried out, but Yishak’s successor. Emperor Zera-Yakob (r. 1434-68), in 1450 dispatched four Ethiopians to Alfonso on a mission to hire European artisans: miniaturists for manuscript illumination, gold- and silversmiths, architects, carpenters, organ-makers, glassmakers, trumpeters, and makers of aU sorts of arms. In 1452, an Ethiopian ambassador known as George went to Lisbon, and in 1459 another Ethiopian visited the Duke of Milan. Meanwhile, the Muslim armies conquered the last Christian state in Nubia and were encroaching on the territory of the Byzantine Empire. When the Ottomans took Constantinople (the Byzantine capital) in 1453, leaders in the Latin West knew for themselves the fear of Muslim power that had been worrying Ethiopia’s rulers for a century and a half. Belatedly, the pope called a church council to forge a united Christian front. Meeting in Ferrara and Florence from 1437 to 1445, the council was attended by the exiled Byzantine emperor and the patriarch of Constantinople, by the head of the Russian church, and by delegates from the Patriarch of Alexandria — including two monks sent from Jerusalem to represent the Ethiopians. In the end the Ethiopian church did not join the Christian coalition that briefly resulted from the council. We do not know precisely how news of the council was received and interpreted in Ethiopia, but between 1481 and 1490 three more Ethiopian delegations were sent to Europe to discuss Christian unity. To accommodate the first of these. Pope Sixtus IV ordered repair of the church of St. Stephen the Great and an adjoining house, both within the Vatican. Known thereafter as St. Stephen of the Ethiopians, this facility functioned as a hospice for Ethiopian visitors and pilgrims during the next two centuries and was as well a center for Ethiopian studies in Europe.^ In the 1420s Portugal, under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator, had sought information on the existence of Christian countries in the eastern and southern Mediterranean. They had 17 identified the legendary Prester John with Ethiopia; and hy the time Portuguese ships rounded southern Africa and sailed into the Indian Ocean in 1488, they had already gathered some information on access to Christian Ethiopia. The first Portuguese priest, Pero de Covilha, entered Ethiopia in about 1494 but was prevented from returning home. A new envoy, the priest Joao Gomez, reached Ethiopia about 1507 but died while on his way back to Portugal. In about 1510 the Ethiopian regent. Empress Eleni, sent a personal messenger to the king of Portugal, addressing him as her “very dear and well-loved brother” and proposing an alliance beUveen their two Christian countries to counter the Ottomans. Her messenger, Matthew, brought as tokens of esteem two tiny crosses reportedly made from the wood of the cross on which Christ had died — presumably from one of the Christian shrines in Jerusalem tended by Ethiopian monks. But by the time Matthew returned to Ethiopia with a new Portuguese embassy, interest in a military alliance had cooled on both sides. In 1517 the Ethiopians successfully defeated the neighboring Muslim state of Adal and took possession of several Red Sea ports. Emperor Lebna Dengel (r. 1508-1540) turned his attention to acquiring modern western weapons; this need was intensified by the rise of a new Muslim aggressor, the Somali upstart Ahmed ibn Ibrahim, who in the decade of the 1530s was successful in destroying churches and monasteries in Ethiopia and forced the Emperor to retreat to a monastery. Several months after the death of Emperor Lebna Dengel in 1540 a Portuguese rescue mission did reach Ethiopia, led by Christopher da Gama (son of the famous explorer). The Portuguese knights were soundly defeated by the Somali army, which was armed with Turkish muskets and artillery. It remained for a new Ethiopian Emperor, Galawdewos (or Claudius; r. 1540-1559) to restore the country, rebuild the churches and monasteries, and reconcile with those who had gone over to the Muslim side. He was also anxious to rebuild his country’s alliance with Portugal, but Portugal demanded changes in the Ethiopian church to bring its practices into line with those of the Latin church. Searching for a way to reconcile the Ethiopian and European traditions, Galawdewos argued that Ethiopian practices which seemed strange to Europeans (such as male circumcision and the avoidance of pork) were social customs, and not matters of religious doctrine. The Pope was anxious to find some way to reconcile the differences and assigned the problem to the talented and well-educated men of the new missionary order, the Society of Jesus. Shortly before his death in 1556 its founder, Ignatius of Loyola, drew up plans for a mission to Ethiopia. But in spite of good intentions, the efforts to establish closer religious and political ties between Ethiopia and Western Europe were unsuccessful. The Church of Rome had to deal with the Protestant Reformation, which had the effect of hardening doctrinal attitudes; and in Ethiopia, the church was led by a conservative hierarchy that needed the support of the almost equally conservative nobility. At the start of the seventeenth century. Emperor Susneyos (r. 1606-1632) found the need for access to European weapons and technology even more clear. He spent the early years of his reign consolidating his power and defeating neighboring kingdoms. Then in 1622, in an effort to secure the elusive European connection, he converted to Catholicism. The popular opposition in Ethiopia was predictable and immediate.The leader of the Ethiopian church was removed and replaced with a Catholic patriarch, chosen by the King of Spain. The new patriarch promulgated 18 decrees which alienated the Ethiopians and prompted open rebellion. Susneyos was worn out by all the controversy, and in 1632 he formally abandoned the union between the Church of Rome and the Ethiopian church, and resigned his throne. The Ethiopian people rejoiced, chanting “the sheep of Ethiopia [are] freed from the bad lions of the West [and the] follies of the Church of Rome.” Fasiladas, the son of and successor to Susneyos, ordered the Jesuits expelled and banishment or death of any Ethiopian Catholics who refused to return to the old ways. The Pope called for military intervention by Portugal and this ended any hope that the breach could be healed. In 1638 two Capuchin monks, sent to intervene, were executed along with the remaining Jesuits. As a result, political and religious connections to the West were suspended for the better part of two centuries. The interlude A key shaper of European ideas about Ethiopia after the collapse of the Jesuit mission was Abba Gregoryos, a remarkable Ethiopian priest and scholar. Gregoryos, who was a member of the Amharic nobility, had become the abbot of an important monastery at a young age. Contacts with Jesuit missionaries in Ethiopia stirred Gregoryos’ interest in the reconciliation of the Latin and Ethiopian churches. He spent some years studying with the Jesuits in Ethiopia and accepted reordination as a Catholic priest After the expulsion of the Catholics from Ethiopia in 1632, Gregoryos spent some time in exile, during the course of which he established contact with European Protestants. In 1649 he traveled to Europe and remained for a decade. He resided initially at the long-standing Ethiopian center of St. Stephan in the Vatican, learning Latin and Italian, but was soon drawn into contact with the Protestant German scholar Hiob Ludolf, an avid student of Ethiopian studies. From 1652 Gregoryos continued his studies at the court of the Saxon Duke Ernest in Saxe-Gotha with Ludolf, whom he tutored in the Ethiopian literary and liturgical language of Ge ez as well as the spoken vernacular, Amharic. This interest in Ethiopian languages stemmed in part from the fact that Ludolf and members of the Saxon court believed that Ge ez was closely linked to the first human language and that Ethiopian practices continued a purer form of early Christianity than the Western churches. A series of scholarly works on Ethiopia was published in Europe after Gregory’s death in 1658 — despite the absence of any direct contacts in that period. In 1660, scholars at Coimbra University in Portugal published a history of Ethiopia based on Jesuit accounts. Rudolf’s History of Ethiopia, owing much to Gregoryos’ input, was published in Latin in 1661 and translated into English in 1684. The detailed and insightful accounts of Jerome Lobo, a Jesuit who had been in Ethiopia in the 1620s and early 1630s, were published in French in 1728, and the young Samuel Johnson produced an English translation in 1735. Along with its other contributions. Father Lobo’s descriptions of the countryside are evocative of the images sketched by artists on the 1868 expedition, such as this description of a place in the southwesterly province of Damot: “as delightful a place to look at as can exist because of its terrain of fields[,] valleys, and mountains, all as perfectly proportioned and as beautiful as anything that could be imagined by a person of curious mind and described by his fine words and ingenuity. ”■* Ludolf and Lobo gave scholars something to sink their teeth into, but a wider readership was reached by the eight volumes of elaborate and colorful accounts of Ethiopia by the Scot James 19 Bruce, who had traveled there in the 1770s. First published in 1790, it went through several British and American editions. The Rev. Samuel Gobat, a Swiss missionary, had explored Ethiopia on behalf of the British Church Missionary Society in 1830s. In an account of his travels published in 1851, Gobat concluded that Ethiopian leaders were endowed with the usual range of human intellectual abilities and possessed a similar mixture of good and bad moral qualities as did those in other societies. Although critical of some aspects of the conduct of Ethiopian Christians, Gobat was inclined to rank their conduct above Europeans’ in other ways. The ability of Europeans to travel in Ethiopia was a sign of the kingdom’s growing openness to foreign visitors. Other European accounts would follow, of which the readable account published in 1853 by Mansfield Parkyns about his three years in Ethiopia is noteworthy for its temperate tone and its illustrations of people, places, houses, and implements. Richard Burton wrote a typically voluminous account of his ten-day visit to Harar in 1854, before the trading city was incorporated into the Ethiopian empire. Thus, on the eve of the British expedition of 1867-68, Ethiopia was neither unknown nor particularly mysterious to the British, although nearly five centuries of contacts had not deprived it of all of its exotic appeal. The second opening In some ways the second opening of Ethiopia to the West that began in the nineteenth century echoed the themes of the first opening, but on other respects it is distinctly different. During the first opening both sides had viewed each other as fellow Christians and potential mutual allies, and each had shared a sense that the other was special. Ethiopian leaders admired the political, military, and technological prowess of the Latin West, while Europeans had been inspired first by the legend of Ethiopia’s superhuman ruler and later by beliefs that this isolated kingdom was the home of the primal language and the purest form of Christianity. During the second encounter, Ethiopians maintained similar interests in Europe. In 1805 Ras Walda Sellase ofTegray, one of many Ethiopian rulers of his day, wrote to the British King George III, in terms that vividly echo the appeal of Lebna Dengel’s three centuries earlier, asking for technicians, arms, and ammunition — to no avail. Other rulers wrote to George IV and Queen Victoria during the following decades, renewing the appeals to European Christians for aid in dealing with the Muslim rulers of Egypt. However, Europeans’ views of Ethiopia in the nineteenth century were less likely to be inspired by religious motives and romantic legends. If the northern European Protestant churches stiU displayed a strong interest in Christian connections and reform, the power politics of their governments were a long way from the crusading mentality and the religious wars of early modern times. To the pragmatic realists of the day, Ethiopia’s feeble political and commercial power made it inconsequential compared to the importance of relations with neighboring Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and the Omani-dominated East African coast. The fact that aU three states were Muslim-ruled was of minor importance to British statesmen, to whom the ancient Christian heritage of Ethiopia was by then little more than a matter of curiosity. The asymmetry of these perceptions by Ethiopia and Britain and the disparity of their military power set the stage for the disastrous conflict of 1867-68. Yet for all their drama and tragedy, the historic importance of the British invasion, the burning of the citadel of Magdala, and the suicide of Emperor Theodore [Tewodros II] can be misunderstood if they are seen simply as an example 20 of the great wave of European imperialism that beginning to sweep across Africa. For all his faults, Theodore was a modernizer, carrying on the programs of political and military strengthening that his predecessors had been undertaking since the 1300s. He had successfully worked to reassert the authority of the emperor (the King of Kings) over the many lesser leaders whose warfare Bruce chronicled in such detail. As Theodore and his successors understood, the key to successful centralization was access to the modern weapons of Europe. It would fall to Emperor Menelik II (r. 1889-1913) to complete the task of unifying the empire and establishing Ethiopia’s modern boundaries. Equipped with modern weapons, his armies were able to turn back the Italian invasion of 1896 — a rare case of African victory over European imperialism. Under Haile Selassie in the first half of the twentieth century, independent Ethiopia would take its place in the family of nations as a member first of the League of Nations and then of the United Nations. In the Cold War era. Emperor Selassie’s quest for military equipment and support from the West would be satisfied by the American and Soviet governments, with dire consequences for the peace of the region and ultimately the survival of the imperial tradition. Finally, the dream of Christian unity would lead to closer ties with the Greek Orthodox and other Eastern Christians and in membership in the World Council of Churches. End Notes: 1. The author wishes to thank Oxford University Press, Inc., for permission to reproduce certain passages from his hook, Africa’s Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850. 2. For a more detailed survey of early Ethiopia see Richard Pankhurst, The Ethiopians: A History, 1-76. 3. It was there, between 1537 and 1552, that the remarkable Ethiopian scholar Tasfa Seyon (known to Europeans as Peter the Ethiopian) was instrumental in the publication of a New Testament and a Missal in Ge'ez, the ancient Ethiopian liturgical language, as well as a grammar of that language. 4. Ludolf, unpaginated preface. 21 The ABYSsiniAn ExPEoition: Causes add ConsEQUEncE by Richard fankhurst The Origins and Background t he origins of the British expedition to Magdala (known in Ethiopia as Maqdala or Maqdala) had their roots in the critical state of early nineteenth century Ethiopian society. The old Christian state, with its capital at Gondar in the north-west of the land, was seriously in decline. The centralising power of the monarchy had collapsed, and a succession of emperors had been reduced to the status of mere puppets, controlled by one feudal lord or another. The principal provinces had all come under the control of virtually independent chiefs. Civil war between these rulers was common, and their armies, swollen in numbers through decades of fighting, often ravaged the peasantry, spreading misery and desolation wherever they went. As a consequence, the standard of living in many areas was in decline and culture was imperilled. Ethiopia suffered from disunity and civil war at the very moment when the outside world was involved in the Industrial Revolution. This great transformation in technology, which was accompanied by immense advances in armaments as well as in transport, communications and medicine, had first manifested itself in Western Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and soon had major implications for other continents. Technological progress was symbolised by the steamboat, the railway, and faster-firing rifles, and it facilitated overseas expansion by Britain and France. This led to occupation by the British of the port of Aden in 1839, and the almost simultaneous landing of the French on the southern Red Sea coast of Africa. As the advance of modern technology began to spread to other lands, one of the first African countries to be affected was Ethiopia’s northern neighbour, Egypt. Taking advantage of its new economic and military power, that country’s rulers embarked on a policy of extensive territorial expansion. This took the Egyptians southwards into the Sudan and along the coast of the Red Sea. To the alarm of the rulers of Ethiopia, the Egyptian khedive then began annexing Ethiopia’s northern and western borderlands — which was the more serious in that it threatened the country’s access to the sea. By the middle of the nineteenth century it was clearly evident that Ethiopia, to maintain its territorial integrity as well as to benefit from the new inventions in technology, had to embark on a policy of modernisation. This, in the Ethiopian context, could be achieved only through unification and centralisation — processes which, it may be recalled, at that time had not yet been achieved in either Germany or Italy — which could be accomplished only by a strong ruler, able to crush aU rival warlords and make himself the undisputed master of the country. 22 TheR ise of Emperor Theodore The struggle between Ethiopian warlords, from which the country had been suffering for over a hundred years, culminated around the middle of the century in the advent of Emperor Tewodros II, then better known in Britain as Theodore, who is in a sense the central figure in our story. The Emperor had begun his career as a little-known rebel, but had rapidly fought his way to the throne. 1 He was crowned on 7 February 1855 and proved to be a charismatic leader. He impressed European contemporaries by his Messianic sense of purpose, and by his unbending determination to maintain his country’s independence and restore its greatness. The British Consul, Walter Plowden, reported to the Foreign office in London that: The king is young in years, vigorous in all manly exercises, of a striking countenance, particularly polite and engaging when pleased, and mostly displaying great tact and delicacy. He is persuaded that he is destined to restore the glories of Ethiopian Empire, and to achieve great conquests; of untiring energy, both mental and bodily, his personal and moral daring are boundless. The latter is well proved by his severity towards his soldiers, even when these, pressed by hunger, are mutinous, and he is in front of powerful foes; more so even by pressing reforms in a country so little used to any yoke, whilst engaged in unceasing hostilities, and his suppression of the power of the great feudal chiefs at a moment when any inferior man would have sought to conciliate them as the stepping-stones to Empire.^ Theodore’s overriding objective was to unify the country under his absolute rule. To this end he built up an army said to number over 150,000 men, and undertook a series of military expeditions to Tegray, Gondar, WaUo and Shawa. This brought most of historic Ethiopia under his nominal control, at least temporarily. His overall position was, however, extremely difficult. His power base, situated around his capital at Dabra Tabor in the north-west of the country, was far away from the coast, through which firearms were imported; and to which his rivals, the rulers of Tegray and Shawa, had far better access than he. Deeply conscious of the impossibility of his position, and of the need to increase his military strength, he was determined to reform and modernise his empire. He sought to abolish the old feudal levies, whose soldiers lived by looting the countryside, and to replace them by a trained (and as far as possible, regularly paid) army directly loyal to himself This was no easy task, for he was unable to raise sufficient taxes to pay his troops, who were thus often obliged to continue their practice of rapine. Realising the overwhelming importance of technological innovation and above all the necessity of acquiring modern firearms, in 1855 Theodore accepted an offer from Samuel Gobat, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, to send a group of young Protestant missionary craftsmen who were trained in technical as well as religious fields. He welcomed these missionaries warmly and immediately put them to work on the crafts in which they were skilled. Preoccupied by his over-riding desire for firearms, he asked them to assist him in an entirely new activity: cannon-making. They replied that they had “neither knowledge nor experience” of that 23 work. Theodore refused, however, to take no for an answer. “If you are my friends,” he declared, “try. If God allows the work to succeed, it will be well. If not, it wiU also be well!” Understanding that there could be no trifling with their strong-willed taskmaster, the craftsmen had no option but to obey his wishes. After many fruitless efforts at metal casting, they eventually succeeded. One of the missionaries, Theophilus Waldmeier, recalls that “The King was pleased beyond all measure with our little piece of metal, kissed it, and cried, ‘Now I am convinced that it is possible to make everything in Habash [i.e. Abyssinia]. Praise and thanks be to Him for it.’”^ The need to transport his artillery from one part of the country to another caused Theodore also to become Ethiopia’s first road-builder. “From early dawn to late at night,” recalls the foreign doctor Henry Blanc, the innovating monarch was “hard at work” on the roads. “With his own hands he removed the stones, levelled the ground, or helped to fill up ravines. No one could leave so long as he was there himself; no one would think of eating, or of rest, while the Emperor showed the example and shared the hardships. ”■* Though primarily concerned with military and related matters, he also attempted to carry out other reforms. He thus sought to abolish the slave trade; to reduce the then very extensive church holdings of land (a reform which created strong opposition from the Church); and to promote the written use of the vernacular tongue (Amharic) in place of the old classical language (Ge‘ez), which — like Latin in Europe — was largely dead. Theodore Writes to Queen Victoria Confronted with increasing Egyptian-Ottoman incursions at the coast, Theodore decided, on 29 October 1862, to send a friendly letter to Queen Victoria. In it he recalled that he had been told that she was “a great Christian queen,” who “loved Christians.” He therefore announced his desire to send her an embassy and inquired how he could send her presents, ending his letter by appeahng to her to “stand by him,” a fellow Christian, in the face of a threatened attack by Muslim Egypt, then a part of the Ottoman Empire. He also made several oral requests through Plowden: to help him purchase firearms; and to provide him with an engineer to build roads.^ Theodore’s letter, couched in terms reminiscent of the medieval Crusades, would a few centuries earlier have been enthusiastically welcomed by European Christendom which sought an alliance with the Ethiopian Kingdom of Prester John, against the Saracens. However the Emperor’s words evoked little sympathy from the more commercially-minded British government of the mid- nineteenth century. Britain was by then keenly interested in Egyptian cotton, upon which the mills of Lancashire depended, and which was the more important in that cotton was in short supply on account of the American Civil War. Moreover the Ottoman Empire, of which Egypt still formed a part, though a largely independent one, was regarded by the British government as a useful buttress against the expansion of Russia — ^which they saw as a potential threat to the British Empire in India. Britain had therefore no wish to alienate either Egypt or the Ottoman Empire by befriending — or offering protection to — Ethiopia, whose borderlands they were then annexing.The Emperor’s letter was forwarded by the Foreign Office to the India Office, where it was filed, and left unanswered. In April 1863, six months after Theodore’s letter had been sent, the British Foreign Secretary (Earl Russell) added insult to injury. He informed Consul Cameron that the British government. 24 not wishing to be embroiled in Ethiopian affairs, no longer wanted a British Consul in the country. Cameron was accordingly told to withdraw to the Red Sea port of Massawa. A proud man who was exceedingly conscious of his own dignity and importance, the Emperor was not amused by the British government’s continued failure to answer his letter. Moreover, he was disquieted by the (to his mind) inexplicable failure of Britain, which he regarded as his natural ally, to communicate with Ethiopia, a fellow Christian country. His displeasure was heightened by the news that Cameron, to whom he had entrusted his letter, had not taken it to the coast himself, but merely entrusted it to a servant. It later transpired that the Consul had been visiting the Egyptian rulers on Ethiopia’s western frontier in an attempt to curtail the slave trade in that area. However his exchange of courtesies with the Egyptian authorities appeared to the Ethiopian monarch as fraternisation with his enemies, the invaders of his country. In January 1864 Theodore, aware that Cameron was under orders to leave the country, responded by placing him in chains. British AAilitary Response While in Britain this action seemed a gross violation of the immunity traditionally accorded in Europe to diplomatic envoys, it was less surprising in the Ethiopian context — where messengers were considered of little consequence and where high-ranking dignitaries, and even members of the royal family, were often kept in detention. This action did, however, finally remind the British government that it had not answered the Emperor’s letter. A friendly reply was therefore hastily drawn up and entrusted to Hormuzd Rassam, the British Assistant Resident in Aden, who arrived with it at Theodore’s camp in January 1866, three years and three months after the despatch of Theodore’s first letter. The Emperor welcomed him graciously, but shortly afterwards ordered that he too be placed in detention, apparently in the hope that by holding Cameron, Rassam and others as hostages he would force the British government, which he probably still regarded as his potential friend, to inquire into the matter, and in particular to send him craftsmen of whose skills he was in urgent need. Though slow to act, the British government was increasingly inclined to the use of force to free the prisoners. This was reinforced in official circles by an awareness that Theodore’s power was collapsing on account of increasing rebellion, and that his writ extended hardly farther than the location of his army. After much discussion, the British government finally decided in August 1867 that the captives should be liberated by force of arms. An ultimatum was duly despatched to Theodore on 9 September. Confronted with the threat of British invasion, the Emperor burnt down his capital at Dabra Tabor on 10 October, and began a march with all his artillery, and the European captives, to the seemingly impregnable mountain fortress of Magdala. Sir Robert Napier, Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army in India, was chosen to organize and lead the expedition. He rejected the idea, then widely circulated, of a “rapid dash” by a small commando-like band of highly- armed men, in favour of marching to Magdala with a sizable army capable of holding its own in potentially hostile territory. His plans were accepted by the British government, and he eventually had at his disposal an expeditionary army of no less than 62,220 25 men. The fighting force was composed of 13,088 troops, of whom 4,038 were Europeans and 9,050 were Indians. The British troops carried the new Snider breech-loading rifles as well as the most modern types of artillery, and another innovation: rockets. They also brought supplies for a field telegraph, a short railway which would run 12 miles inland from the coast, water condensers for use by the sea, and well-drilling equipment to be employed in the interior. Transportation for this army was provided by forty-four elephants, 5,735 camels, 17,943 mules and ponies, 8,075 bullocks, and 2,538 horses, all shipped in for the occasion. The expeditionary force also utilised 75 steamers, 205 sailing vessels, and 11 smaller craft. On 21 October 1867 the British advance guard landed at Zoulla (also known as Annesley Bay). Napier himself landed at Zoulla on 2 January of the following year, and they proceeded toward Magdala. The British advance met no resistance, but the troops were forced to traverse extremely rugged countryside and suffered at times from acute shortages of both food and water. The advance guard reached Antalo, 200 miles from the coast, on 14 February. Eleven days later the Commander-in- Chief met with the ruler of Tegray,^ who, as a strong opponent of Theodore, promised the British his full co-operation. An equally significant meeting took place with the ruler of Lasta,^ who was another implacable enemy of Theodore, on 30 March. These agreements ensured that the Expedition was able to cross most of northern Ethiopia — right up to the gates of Magdala, where the Emperor was by then encamped — without encountering armed opposition. The campaign was thus reduced from the invasion of an entire country, as it had at one point appeared, to the capture of a single mountain which was defended by perhaps 4,000 men, of whom only 3,000 had firearms. The Battle of AAagdala Fighting began on Good Friday, 10 April, when the British were within sight of Theodore’s capital. The Ethiopians were commanded by one of the Emperor’s most loyal chiefs, Fitawrari Gabriye. Looking down from their mountain stronghold, they saw their much more numerous enemy from above; but undeterred, they charged down the mountain into the nearby Arogee plain. There they were confronted by massed British artillery. Clements Markham recalls. The Snider rifles kept up a fire which no Abyssinian troops could stand. They were mown down in lines, and unable to get within range themselves. Hope left them. Led on by their gallant old General. ...they returned again and again to charge with great bravery. But it was like a man struggling against machinery — the most heroic courage could do nothing in the face of such vast inequality of arms.^ Gabriye and most of the officers of the Ethiopian forces were killed. Early on the following day, Saturday 11 April, Theodore, realising the magnitude of his defeat, attempted to sue for peace. He sent two of the British prisoners down to Napier’s camp, with a message to the effect that he desired to be “reconciled with the English,” but the two prisoners were sent back to the Emperor with a written message from Napier, stating: 26 Your Majesty has fought like a brave man, and has been overcome by the superior power of the British army. It is my desire that no more blood may be shed. If, therefore. Your Majesty will submit to the Queen of England, and bring all the Europeans now in your Majesty’s hands into the British camp, I guarantee honourable treatment for yourself and all the members of your Majesty’s family.^ In his reply, revealing his determination never to surrender, Theodore proudly replied: Believing myself to be a great lord, I gave you [the British] battle; but, by reason of the worthlessness of my artillery, all my pains were as naught.... Out of what of evil I have done against them may God bring good. His will be done. I had intended, if God had so decreed, to conquer the whole world; it was my desire to die if my purpose could not be fulfilled 10 Theodore then made an attempt at suicide which was prevented by his men, who snatched the weapon from his hand. He decided that it was evidently not the will of God for him to die. He thereupon turned to the question of the European captives, in the belief, it appears, that by releasing them he could obtain peace. He called a council on their future with his chiefs, all but one of whom recommended that he should kill them immediately and fight on to the last. He rejected this advice, however, and decided to release the captives. On the following day, Easter Sunday, 12 April, Theodore, sent a letter to Napier, apologising for the brusqueness of his previous communication, and stating that because of the Easter festival — one of the most important of the Ethiopian Church calendar — he was sending the British a gift of cattle, presumably as a peace offering. Attempting to look at the situation in Ethiopian terms, Theodore seems to have believed that this letter, reinforced by his release of the prisoners and his gift of cattle, marked the end of hostilities. Napier, however, had no wish to make peace. As he subsequently explained, in a despatch of 14 April, he considered it “essential” for Britain’s “national honour” which Theodore had “so grossly insulted,” that there should be no negotiation with him, and that “he should be removed for ever from his place. He at first agreed to accept Theodore’s gift; but on seeing the number of cattle sent down to his camp, realised that they were intended as a peace-offering, and ordered his men not to receive them. When Theodore learnt that his gift had been rejected, he realised that a final British assault was imminent. Understanding the impossibility of his position, the defeated Emperor contemplated flight; but, finding most of his men reluctant to accompany him, he dismissed them, telling all those not willing to share his fortunes to the end to provide for their own safety. Virtually the whole army then disbanded, only a few chiefs and Theodore’s personal followers deciding to remain with him. The British storming party, firing continuously with their Snider rifles, began the assault on the citadel at 4 p.m. A quarter of an hour later this party had broken into the fortress, at the gateway of which it found only four dead bodies. The advancing troops rushed in, and waved the Union Jack in triumph: Magdala had fallen! Theodore fought on for a short time, but almost immediately afterwards dismissed his surviving followers. “Flee,” he said, “I release you from your allegiance; as for me, I shall never fall into the 27 hands of the enemy.” As soon as his men had gone he turned to his sole companion, his faithful valet Walda Gaber, and declared, “It is finished! Sooner than fall into their hands, I will kiU myself.” He then put a pistol to his mouth, fired the weapon, and fell down dead. 12 The End O f the E xpedition The victorious British and Indian troops dispersed to loot the citadel. Within an hour they had succeeded in acquiring a vast amount of manuscripts, many of them beautifully illustrated, as well as processional objects and crosses and sundry other booty .12 Fifteen elephants and almost 200 mules were required to transport it to the coast. On 15 April, only two days after the battle, Napier gave orders for the British troops to prepare for the long journey back to the coast. At that time Britain had no interest whatsoever in Ethiopia, or desire to colonise it. The British government had become involved in matters Ethiopian only on account of Theodore’s detention of the European captives, and had moreover promised to withdraw as soon as the latter’s liberation had been effected. At the request of the Queen his mother, the victors took the Emperor’s son and heir. Prince Alamayou, to Britain, where he was befriended by Queen Victoria. He died there without ever returning to his native land. The Expedition’s return journey from Magdala to the coast proved almost as difficult as the original advance because the rainy season had begun. Many violent tropical storms rendered such roads as existed often impassable. However the return journey took only six weeks, and the troops quickly embarked and were on their way home by early June. In the aftermath of the Emperor’s defeat and death, Ethiopia was left still weak and territorially divided. A period of further civil war followed, in which the important nobles struggled for supreme power. Only when that struggle was resolved could Theodore’s successors begin to face the problems with which he had grappled so heroically, but unsuccessfully. 28 End Notes: On Theodore’s life see Rubenson, 2. House of Commons, Correspondence, report of 25 June, 150-1. Waldmeier, 82-6 and 138-9. Blanc, 342. For detailed accounts of the negotiations between Theodore and the British government see Beke; Hooker; and Arnold. The original Amharic text, and an English translation of this letter to the Queen, appear in Rubenson, 197-201. See also Markham, 76-7. Dajazmach Kasa, the ruler of Tegray, subsequently became Emperor Yohannes IV. (The title of Dajazmach was roughly equivalent to Prince.) Tegray was the most northerly, and at this time probably the most powerful, of Ethiopia’s Christian provinces. For his life, see Zewde Gabre- Sellassie and Bairu Tafla . Wagshum Gobaze Gabra Madhen was the hereditary ruler of Lasta. The district of Lasta, in which the rock churches of Lalibala are situated, was located some fifty miles north-north-east of Magdala. Markham, 320-2. Ibid, 327. Ibid, 330-1. House of Commons, Further Papers, 6. Markham, 351-2. On the looting of Magdala, the subsequent diffusion of looted manuscripts, and their influence on European scholarship see Rita Pankhurst, 15-42; also House of Commons, Memorandum from the Association for the Return of Maqdala Ethiopian Treasures (AFROMET), 354-358. “King Theodore’s House, Magdala, Abyssinia, 1868” Photo by Sergeant John Harrold, 10th Company Royal Engineers BiBLiOGRAPHY Acton, Roger. The Abyssinian Expedition and the Life and Reign of King Theodore. London, 1868. Alvares, Francisco. The Prester John of the Indies: A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John, Being a nar- rative of the Portuguese Embassy to Ethiopia in 1520, trans. Lord Stanley of Alderley (1881) ed. C. F. Beckingham and G. W. B. Huntingford. London: Hakluyt Society, 1961. Arnold, Percy. Prelude to Magdala: Emperor Theodore of Ethiopia and British Diplomacy. London, 1992. Bairu Tafia (Editor). A Chronicle of Emperor Yohannes IV (1872-89). Weisbaden, 1977. Beckingham, C. F. “Introduction,” The Itinerario of Jeronimo Lobo, trans. Donald M. Lockhart from text estab. and ed. by M. G. da Costa. London: Hakluyt Society, 1984. Beke, Charles Tilstone. The British Captives in Abyssinia. London, 1867. Blanc, Henry. A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia. London, 1868. Bruce, James. Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, 2nd ed. Edinburgh: A. Constable, 1804, 7 vols. Burton, Richard F. First Footsteps in East Africa; or, an Exploration of Harar (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1856; reprinted New York: Dover, 1987 Crawford, O.G.S., ed. Ethiopian Itineraries, circa 1400-1524. London: Cambridge University Press for the Hakluyt Society, 1858. de Azurara, G. E. The Chronicle of the Discovery of Guinea, eds. C. R. Beazley and E. Prestage. London; Hakluyt Society, 1896. 1: 28-29. de la Ronciere, Charles G. La decouverte de lAfrique au moyen age. Cairo: Institut Fran 9 ais d’Archeologie Orientale pour la Societe Royale de Geographie d’Egypte, 1924-27. 1:67-68, 11:112-20, 111:79. Debrunner, Hans Werner. Presence and Prestige: Africans in Europe: A History of Africans in Europe before 1918. Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 1979. Devisse, Jean. “The Image of the Black in Western Art,” vol. 2, From the Early Christian Era to the “Age of Discovery,” part 2, Africans in the Christian Ordinance of the World. New York: William Morrow, 1979. Gobat, Sszmxsd. Journal of Three Years’ Residence in Abyssinia, trans. Sereno D. Clark. London: M. W. Dowd, 1851; reprinted New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969. Hastings, Adrian. The Church in Africa, 1450-1950. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. Henty, George Alfred. The March to Magdala. London, 1868. Holland, Trevenen J. and Henry M. Hozier. Record of the Expedition to Abyssinia. 3 vol. London, 1870. Hooker, J. R. “The Foreign Office and the Abyssinian Captives.” of African History, 2 (1961) 30 House of Commons. Correspondence respecting Abyssinia 1848-1868. London, 1868. Further Papers Connected with the Abyssinian Expedition. London, 1868. “Memorandum submitted by tbe Association for the Return of Magdala Ethiopian Treasures (AFROMET).” Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Seventh Report on Cultural Property: Return and Illicit Trade. Ill: 354-58. London, 2000. Hozier, Henry M. The British Expedition to Abyssinia. London, 1869. Ludolf, Hiob. A New History of Ethiopia: Being a Full and Accurate Description of Abessinia, trans. J. P. Gent. London: Samuel Smith, 1684. Markham, Clement Robert. A History of the Abyssinian Expedition. London, 1869. Merewether, William Lockyer Correspondence Relative to the Abyssinian Expedition. London: Smith, Elder & Company, 1868. Northrup, David. Africa's Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pankhurst, Richard. The Ethiopians: A History. Oxford: Blackwells, 1998. Pankhurst, Richard, with Peter Harrington and Frederic A. Sharf Diary of a Journey to Abyssinia, 1868 (Diary and Observations of William Simpson of The Illustrated London News). Hollywood, CA: Tsehai Publishers, 2002. Pankhurst, Rita. “The Library of Emperor Tewodros II at Maqdala.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 36 no. 1 (1973): 15-42. Parkyns, Mansfield. Life in Abyssinia, Being Notes Collected during Three Years’ Residence and Travels in That Country. London: John Murray, 1853; 2nd ed. 1856. Roberts, Frederick Sleigh. Forty-One Years in India, Vol. 11. London: Richard Bentley &. Son, 1897. Rubenson, Sven. King of Kings: Teodoros of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa, 1966. . Tewodros and his Contemporaries, 1855-1868. Addis Ababa and Lund, 1994 Sanceau, Elaine. The Land ofPrester John: A Chronicle oj' Portuguese Exploration. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944. Stanley, Henry Morton. Coomassie and Magdala: The Story of Two British Campaigns in Africa. London, 1874. Tadesse Tamrat, “Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn,” in The Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 3, from C.1050 to C.1600, ed. Roland Oliver. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977. Waldmeier, Theophilus. Erlebnisse in Abessinien. Basel, 1896. Wilkins, Henry St. Clair. Reconnoitring in Abyssinia: A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Reconnoitring Party Prior to the Arrival of the Main Body of the Expeditionary Field Force. London: Smith, Elder &L Company, 1870. Zedwe Gabre-Sellassie,/(57»flntt« IV of Ethiopia: A Political Biography. Oxford, 2975. 31 Sir Robert N apier 32 Works in tHE ExHiBition AAajor Robert Baigrie: The Illustrated London News Series On 30 November 1867, the Illustrated London News, a weekly journal published on Saturdays, printed five drawings which they had received from “A Staff Officer” accompanying the Napier Expedition to Abyssinia. The identity of this officer remained a secret until the successful completion of the campaign; on 30 May 1868 they finally revealed that he was Major R. Baigrie. In the period from 30 November 1867 to 13 June 1868 the paper published 32 drawings that were identifiable as by Major Baigrie. We have no reference on how he became associated with the paper, nor do we know for certain how he was compensated. We do know that it was quite common during the 19th century for talented army and navy personnel to send unsolicited artwork to the London media — especially depiction of exotic events or places — and to be paid for each drawing published. The llustrated London News was fortunate to have such an inexpensive resource for gathering first- hand information. Professional journalists required a monthly fee, plus travel expenses, plus living expenses during the campaign; also the cost to mail or wire their reports was very high. Major Baigrie’s drawings usually went in diplomatic or official pouches, thus traveling more quickly and at no cost to the newspaper. Drawings sent from the Abyssinian coast at ZouUa to London took approximately four weeks, with another week to ten days needed to allow a London art studio to prepare the drawing for publication. The work which Major Baigrie sent to London was a logical outgrowth of accurate topographical drawings he was creating for use by Napier and his staff, who had no other way to understand the countryside through which the troops might need to travel. These drawings became the source for the more finished art sent to London. He also supplied brief summary text, usually written in pencil on the reverse of the drawing. This was used as the basis for their published reports; but the comments were never attributed to him or enclosed in quotation marks. The ILN came to consider Major Baigrie as their “scenery specialist.” He was not especially proficient in drawing people in a lifelike way; the editors often turned to their own in-house team of artists to insert appropriate figures to complete a Baigrie composition. Ultimately the paper sent William Simpson, an experienced artist-correspondent, specifically to draw Abyssinian people. The editors of the /LA^ occasionally published drawings from other sources: Captain C. F. James of the Bombay Staff Corps; Captain C. A. Moore of the Bombay Cavalry; Count (Graf) von Seckendorff, the Prussian Military Attache; George A. Henty, a correspondent for the London Standard; and finally the colorful freelance writer and sportsman, Henry Astbury Leveson. The editors always acknowledged these men by name, and their submissions did not duplicate the images by Baigrie or Simpson. The first illustrations dealing with the Abyssinian Expedition appeared on 21 September 1867, and the final ones were printed on 5 September 1868. During this time 100 illustrations were published, of which almost one-third were supplied by Major Baigrie. The first Simpson artwork appeared on 9 May 1868 and from that point until the completion of the series, Simpson’s work dominated. 34 William Simpson: The Illustrated London News Series William Simpson (1823-1899) was already known to a world-wide audience for his series of watercolor illustrations of the Crimean War, executed in 1854 and published by the London firm of Colnaghi; and for his illustrations of scenes in India at the time of the Indian Mutiny, completed in 1858. He was sent to Abyssinia by the editors of The Illustrated London News with the specific charge of drawing people, places, customs, and antiquities. By the time he left London on 3 March 1868, the events in Abyssinia had been well covered in the pages of the ILN, but not by anyone with Simpson's artistic and literary credentials. He hoped to arrive in time to see the capture of Magdala, but unfortunately reached the army headquarters exactly a week after the fall of the citadel. His presence in Abyssinia proved important in conveying to Western audiences a sense of this country. His drawings continued to be published in the ILN long after the capitulation of Magdala was known in England. Without military action to report, his strong ethnographic interests led him to create a very important portfolio which depicts life in this far-away country. "British Army Encampment, Senafe, Abyssinia, 1868” Photo by Sergeant John Harrold, 10th Company Royal Engineers 36 Surveying Camp at Weak at the AAouth of the Tekonda Pass Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 20 October 1867 Size: 9 3/4" x 13 3/4" Major Baigrie landed at Annesley Bay on 4 October 1867 with the Reconnoitring Party. Their first responsibility was to find a site for the base camp on the seacoast and then determine the best route for the army to follow from the coast to the Abyssinian highlands. Baigrie was assigned the job of exploring Weah, a location where water was known to be available. Weah stood at the mouth of the Hadas River, which led to the wells at Hamhamo and ultimately to the Tekonda Pass. This was a route to the highlands much used by travelers seeking to explore Abyssinia. Baigrie depicts the tented encampment at the lower left where his team was based while exploring the surrounding countryside, with some of his surveyor team members at work in the lower right — significantly assisted by a local Shoho native! This illustration was one of five published on 30 November 1867, the first of Baigrie’s numerous submissions to The Illustrated London News. His text accompanies it: [This] illustration... shows the camp of the surveying party, at Weah, a place situated on the Ali Code torrent, fourteen miles from the camp near ZouUa. The stream here affords a mile of clear running water, which is worth gold in the dry country below these passes. From Weah there is a fine view of the Abyssinian mountains, and of the mouth of the Tekonda Pass, which is the most frequented of the several routes leading to the highlands, having good water at convenient distances 37 38 2 . Reconnoitring Up the Hadoda Pass Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 20 October 1867 Size: 10" x 13 3/4" This drawing, published on 30 November 1867, was chosen by the editors of the Illustrated London News as the cover illustration for their official launch of the artwork sent by Major Baigrie. Extensive text described the illustration: Across the narrow plain, fifteen miles west of the ZouUa landing-place, is the mouth of the Hadoda Pass, where the chief outpost of the reconnoitring party has been established. The situation is healthy, with plenty of delicious running water.... The Hadoda Pass, with a couple of Shohos in the foreground awaiting the approach of the mounted British officers, to whom they served as guides in the reconnoitring party, is the subject of our third illustration. It gives a view of the wild and rugged scenery of the rocky defile, formed by the Haddas torrent, which cuts its way here for two miles through a range of hiUs, presenting on each side perpendicular cliffs of schist and quartz, haunted by eagles, ravens, and troops of dog-faced baboons.... The name of Hadoda wiU not be found in Mr. Wyld’s map [No. 30, not illustrated], but the valley or glen of the Haddas is there laid down. It seems to lie just above the upper end of the ShiUiky Pass, by which a party landing at Massowah or Areeko must approach the highlands. StiU higher up, towards Halai, the Pass of the Haddas takes the name of the Taranta Pass, according to the map and the description of most travelers. 39 40 3 . Group of Sfiofios at the Hamhamo Spring, Tehonda Pass >pring, Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 20 October 1867 Size: 7" x 9 3/4" This is an unusual drawing for Baigrie to have attempted. He must have realized that the appearance of the native population would be of great interest to the readers of the Illustrated London News and temporarily put aside his preoccupation with topography to focus on the local people. Baigrie provided basic text to accompany the drawing: ...[Tjhere is another pass called the Tekonda Pass; and here is the Hamhamo Spring, where a group of Shohos, the native people of this country, are seen filling their water-skins.... These Shohos are a branch of the great Danakil tribe, who inhabit the country between the Abyssinian table-land and the Red Sea. They are reputed incorrigible thieves and beggars; but are on their good behavior towards the English, as two of their most influential chiefs have been won over by “the almighty dollar,” to accompany the reconnnoitring party. Their women are copper-coloured but comely, with pleasing voice and manner, and their behavior is modest, though their dress is scanty, usually consisting of a petticoat made of tanned sheepskin sewn together. 41 42 4 . Portrait of a Danakil Warrior Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 20 October 1867 Size: Size: 4 3/4" x 3 1/4" Text from the Illustrated London News: . . .The Shohos are two or three small tribes in the plains along the coast and at the foot of the mountain passes near ZouUa, and further south, till the Danakil region is succeeded by the Tantal, with its staple produce of salt. They are Mohammedans, and are now claimed as subjects of Turkey, though formerly ruled by the Nail of Aarkeeko, a tributary of the kingdom of Abyssinia. They were very useful to the British army in cutting grass or wood, fetching water, and carrying burdens. Some of them, however, are great rascals; they murdered poor Mr. Henry Dufton, when travelling alone, just at the end of the campaign. They robbed the camp when they could, and used to cut down and steal the telegraph-wires . . . . A Shoho always carries a wooden skewer stuck in his hair to scratch his head with, as his thick frizzled wig, projecting on each side, makes it difficult to do so with his fingers. 43 44 5 . Deema, Third Halting Place Up the Tekonda Pass Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 10 November 1867 Size: 10" x 14" Baigrie has created a wonderful sense of the mountainous scenery of Abyssinia, but he has also reminded his viewer of the military reason lying behind this drawing; note the discreet placement of a soldier with his telescope in the lower left corner of the drawing. Presumably this man is one of Baigrie’s surveying colleagues, and he is looking down the Tekonda Pass in an attempt to calculate the suitability of this route for transporting an army to the interior highlands. The Illustrated London News text was as follows: The Tekonda Pass, writes our correspondent, is perhaps the best of several leading from Annesley Bay to the uplands. There is good running water at convenient distances, and a good deal of forage at several of the halting-grounds. The scenery is very grand; rocks of every form and hue and magnificent mountains, generally covered with wood, which gradually changes, as the pass is ascended, from the provoking thorny acacia of the lowlands to the candelabra tree, the sycamore, the tamarind, the wild olive, and juniper of the highlands. The water is fringed with taU green bulrushes, and the rocks are covered with several varieties of ferns. The climate improves rapidly as the pass is ascended, until at Tubboo, five miles from the foot of the last ascent into Abyssinia, it is pleasant to be in the sun at mid-day. There is a great variety of game in the pass. While surveying here, we shot two species of antelopes, numbers of guinea-fowl of two varieties, a large species of jungle-fowl, wild ducks, and teal; and we saw the footprints of a lion and two leopards which had come to drink the previous night. The road is now passable for camels, mules, and cavalry. 45 46 6. Tubboo, Fourth F^alting Place Up the Tekonda Pass Artist: Baigrie Date: 10 November 1867 Size: 13 3/4" x 19 3/4" Arriving at Tubboo, on his ascent up the Tekonda Pass, Major Baigrie found himself at a uniquely attractive place with “large trees and deep shade for a Repast.. .on the sides of the stream. Climate delightful. Pleasant in the sun at Noon.” From a military point of view, this place offered “strong running water” and “hills covered with green grass 3 feet high.” He met many Abyssinians en route to Tubboo and noted that they were “very civil” and “wish to join us in a finish of Teodorus.” He was however somewhat put off by the constant demand of the Abyssinians for “baksheesh” or gifts of money. There was plenty of evidence that Tubboo abounded in game: antelope, guinea fowl, wild duck, jungle fowl, squirrels — all of which could be useful in feeding an army. An unidentified correspondent was quoted in the ILN o^ 14 December: ...Tubboo, though a little paradise, has not a single permanent dwelling-house. It is a small valley inclosed by mountains, which attain, in some instances, an altitude of some 4000 ft. The air, after an experience of a ten days’ residence at Zoulla, is deliciously cool; we are up among the mountain breezes, for the heights are easily climbed.... I gathered from the natives that we shall gain Tekonda with no more trouble than it has cost us to gain Tubboo. I rode the whole way from ZouUa to the latter place without experiencing any inconvenience but that of being obliged to go often at a walk, and I was accompanied by heavily-laden mules. When our roads to the plateau are in working order I see no reason why our whole force should not march throughout the length of these torrent courses. 47 48 7. Pier and Landing Place at Zoulla, Annesley Bay (23 November 1867) Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 25 November 1867 Size: 10" x 13" The Illustrated London News published this drawing on 4 January 1868 with the accompanying text: Our esteemed correspondent the Staff Officer, whose name we are not authorised to print, contributes. . .a drawing copied from a photograph of the pier and landing-place at ZouUa, taken by Captain Pottinger, Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General, on Nov. 23. This pier, which was mentioned once or twice before, is about 300 yards long. It has been constructed with great labour; every stone being carried across by the boats from the opposite shore of Annesley Bay. Rails have been laid down to the end of the pier, and trucks are now running to and fro, busily working to convey the vast supplies of commissariat stores and ammunition which are continually being landed here, and several piles of which may be seen on the land, near the abutment of the pier, in the view shown by our Engraving. Two lines of tramway, from the beach to the foot of the highlands, are now at work; and a line is being levelled for the construction of a railway to Koomaylee, the first camping-ground on the road of the army to the interior of the country. The locomotives and plant for twenty miles of railway are purchased already, at Bombay, and will soon be transported to the shore of Annesley Bay. This pier at ZouUa has been constructed by the Bombay Sappers, under the direction of Captain GoodfeUow, R.E. The chief materials were blocks of coral, many of which are of a briUiant colour and of a beautiful feathery form. Baigrie’s recognition of his use of photography is significant. Neither Pottinger nor Baigrie was known as a photographer; yet photographic equipment did accompany the Reconnoitring Party in an unofficial capacity. From the very beginning of the planning process, the army had been determined to prove the usefulness of photography to a military expedition. 49 50 8. Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: December 1867 Size: 14" x 20" The Senafe Pass (so named by the British) was a narrow mountain defile which rose from sea level at Koomaylee to the highlands at Senafe. While en route to Senafe with Sir Charles Staveley at the end of December, Baigrie recorded in this drawing the arduous work of clearing the rocks which blocked the projected road. He lavished attention on the large sycamore tree which dominated the foreground — ^yet another example of how taken he was with the scenery of Abyssinia. The Illustrated London News text was as follows: The Tekonda Pass from the coast has now been given up as the route to be followed by the British army in ascending to the Abyssinian table-land. A pass leading more directly to Senafe, from the landing-place at ZouUa in Annesley Bay, has been found, which presents fewer difficulties, and troops are now daily pushed up to Senafe by this road; but it has required many days’ labour to make the road passable for guns upon wheels. The Senafe Pass, as it wiU henceforth be called, is fifty miles in length. The worst places, where much work is to be done for the improvement of the road, are the defiles of the Upper, Middle, and Lower Sooroo; the pass between the Upper and Lower Rayry Guddy; and the last ascent, coming up to Senafe. One of our correspondent’s sketches shows the Middle Sooroo defile, with a pioneer party making their way along it. The Sooroo is by far the most difficult part of the Senafe Pass. It is a very narrow gorge, between high and precipitous mountains; and for about four miles the bed of the stream is completely choked up with enormous boulders, which must either be removed by blasting, or built over, to construct a practicable road. By the labour of several companies of Sappers, and working parties of the 10th, 21st, and 27th Beloochee Regiments of Native Infantry, very much has been done. 51 52 9 . First View of the Ah yssinian i iig FHiqfiland! Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: December 1867 Size: 14 1/2" x 20 1/2" Major Baigrie wrote upon arriving at Rayry Guddy that “there is a good view of the iron wall that surrounds the Empire of Theodorus on the East” and this wall is clearly shown here. The Illustrated London News used Baigrie’s text, as follows: ...First view of the Abyssinian table-land, or, rather, ol the almost perpendicular wall of rock, or cliff, which forms its eastern boundary, approached through Rayry Guddy, in the Senafe Pass. The situation of Rayry Guddy itself is elevated 6100 ft. above the sea level. It is the first step into the region of pines and fir-trees, which are of two kinds, the juniper-pine of North America and the spruce-fir. A juniper-pine which appears in the foreground of the sketch is 50 ft. or 60 ft. high, and 9 ft. in circumference of its trunk 6 ft. above the ground. From this point the pine-tree becomes more common till it grows most abundantly on the plateau above. The last section of the route from Rayry Guddy to Senafe was especially difficult, as the road rose almost 3000 feet in eight miles before reaching the plateau. 53 54 10. Looking Down Senafe Pass Aft er Leaving Rara GucJd eaving Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: December 1867 Size: 14" x 20" iy Once Baigrie and Staveley left Rayry Guddy, they needed to climb to reach the highlands at Senafe. Looking back as they ascended, Baigrie was attracted to this dramatic view down the Pass to the wide river bed at a place called Undel Wells (also known as Mayen Wells). This drawing does not seem to have been published, but a closeup view of “The Mayen Wells, Half Way to Senafe” appeared in the Illustrated London News on 8 February 1868 with the following text: The halting-place of Mayen... is situated half way from the foot of the mountains to Senafe. It has been made a halting-place only since the practical application of Norton’s tube-weUs, which we lately described, gave a supply of water at this place. There was an old disused well at Mayen, which was not sufficient for the wants of the long trains of weary mules and camels. The patent tube-weUs now yield as much as 700 gallons an hour, so that the laborious thirty-mile march will henceforth be divided, to the great relief of our troops and transport service. 55 56 11. View of the Abyssinian Plateau at Senafe, Looking Towards Ad owa Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: December 1867 Size: 14" x 20" Baigrie and Staveley finally reached the camp at Senafe in late December 1867. The camp itself was located on a flat, treeless plain. Baigrie, probably in his official capacity as an officer responsible for using topographical drawings to establish the best route forward, climbed to a hiU beyond the camp. He recorded this view and provided the following text: [This sketch] looks in a south-west direction, across the rocky basin in which Senafe lies, and over the level surface of the upland platform beyond it, as far as the city of Adowa, which is not, however, itself visible, but the situation of which is perceived by the singular group of peaked hiUs that surround it. Adowa is one of the largest towns in Abyssinia; and Axum, in its neighborhood, contains the mins of the ancient metropolis of the kingdom of Ethiopia. These places, belonging to the province ofTigre [Tegray], which has rebelled and seceded from the empire of King Theodore, may not, perhaps, lie in the way of the British military operations. 57 58 12. Sketch in Senafe Camp, Abyssinia: View f, amp, 7\byssinia: Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: December 1867 Size: 9 3/4" x 20" From my Tent D oor Baigrie and Staveley found the camp at Senafe stiU in the process of being organized. Before being chosen as the British base camp, Senafe had been described as “but a poor village of about a dozen huts;” however the same commentator recorded that “the climate is certainly excellent, [with] fresh bracing air, like fine October weather in England” — which probably explains why the British chose it (Merewether, 96, 98). George Henty had arrived at Senafe on 16 December, and said it was ...Prettily situated on the side of a little valley, and faces north.. ..a plain stretches away, and upon this the troops will be encamped as they arrive... The soil of the vaUey-side and of the plain beyond is a mere sand, covered with grass and bushes, but in the hollow of the valley, where the stream runs, or rather used to run, it is a deep black peat. Wells are now being sunk in this peat, and these rapidly fill with water. Looking from the opening of his tent, Baigrie saw a huge rock formation which he noted as being 600 feet high, dominating the flat plain. He was intrigued by the native people who hung about the camp. Henty described the scene as follows: The natives completely swarm about our camp. The men do not do much, but loiter about with their swords and spears, and shields made of elephant-hide. These spears are really formidable weapons. They are from six to ten feet long, and weighted at both ends (Henty, 91.) 59 60 15 . Water Girl at Senafe [study for larger drawing] Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: December 1867 Size: 8" x 5" The figure shown in this drawing was used in No. 12 (right, foreground and middle ground) and also in No. 17 (right foreground). George Henty noted in his diary: The women appear to do all the work. They come into the camp in hundreds laden with firewood, and keep up a perpetual cry of “Lockaree” (wood) and “Parne” (water). Even the children bring their bundles of wood. The women are not nearly so pretty as some of them I saw down the pass, nor are they so neatly clad. They are dressed in cotton and leather; but neither are these so tastefully arranged or so fancifully ornamented with shells.... (Henty 91-92) 61 62 14 . On the AA arch Near Dongolo, 26 February 1868 Artist: A. G. F. Hogg Date: 26 February 1868 Size: 14" x 20" Captain Hogg came to Abyssinia with the 27th Native Infantry, known as the Beloochies. They arrived at Annesley Bay on 4 December 1867 and were among the first troops to be encamped at Senafe, at the end of December. They were also among the first to leave Senafe for Magdala. On 26 February 1868 the Beloochies were marching from Adabaga to Dongolo, with the Headquarters Staff of Lord Napier. The march was fifteen miles, over a road which Henty described on that day as lying across “a much more undulating country than that over which we have previously passed.” (Henty 269-70) Hogg has captured exactly the appearance of this day’s march, described by Holland and Hozier as taking place over a “stiff undulating country.. .covered in part with a scrub jungle” and proceeding over a “gradual but rugged descent.” (Volume I, 418.) Henty comments that the descent, “although long and steep,... was straight, and so the artillery got down with comparative ease and without any accident.” (Henty 270) 63 64 15 . Chelicut (Chilecut) 1st AAarch 1868 7\rtist: A. G. F. Hogg Date: 1 March 1868 Size: 14" x 20" On 1 March 1868, Hogg marched with Sir Robert Napier on a relatively short nine-mile march from Dolo to EikhuUet, well known to Abyssinians as the place where tax was collected from salt caravans heading for the important cathedral town of Chelicut. Since they had an easy march, and since the cathedral was a weU-known landmark, Napier decided to take some officers on the three-mile descent to visit the town and the cathedral. Hogg was fortunate to be able to join the party, and decided to record his impression of the town rather than to depict the cathedral. Both sights were well described in Holland and Hozier, as follows: This place was far superior to any of the ordinary Abyssinian villages: the houses were constructed of rough stones, held together by loam. None were more than one story; some were circular, some square, and many had steep roofs thatched with the long grass which grew in the neighbouring valley the town contained about 400 houses, the inhabitants of which poured forth in crowds, to stare at the strange white men who had come from some unknown far-off land to join in battle with the mighty Theodore.... By the word “cathedral” it must not be supposed that any massive pile of towering architecture was encircled by these trees. The church was but a circular building one story high, roofed with thatch, and built in two concentric circles. (Volume I, 421—422.) On the next day (2 March) Napier and his companions arrived at the Antalo camp. 65 66 I6. ViewofAntalo from HalfWayUptkeAmbal or hill post) Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 10 March 1868 Size: 14" x 20" The British encampment was actually located six miles from the collection of villages which made up the Abyssinian town of Antalo. The town was built on a series of small hiUs above the valley where the camp was located, and was protected by a precipitous hiU rising up 1500 feet, on top of which was a fortress. Baigrie used a vantage point high enough above the countryside to record distances and topographical features. This drawing was sent back to The Illustrated London News along with at least one other which showed one of the villages and the sheer precipice of the Amba (or fort). They pubhshed the closeup view but used in their text much of the information written on this drawing. Baigrie knew that it was not publishable but included it for the information it showed. He noted on the drawing: On account of the high wind and mildewed paper, this sketch has been spoiled, but the outline is quite correct and may be depended on — the camp is seen very small at 6 miles distance. Our road to Ashangi and Magdala lies up the distant valley over a very tough country. Antalo is a tumble down old place half in ruins — the fair on Wednesday [is] rather an interesting scene — I will attempt a sketch of the fair next time — our advanced posts are now at Lake Ashangi, that is to say some of our people — we have to make every inch of the road but hope to be at Magdala by the 31st of March. 28 elephants arrived this morning to the interest and astonishment of the natives. 67 68 17 . Fair at Antalo, Ab yssinia Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 10 or 12 March 1868 Size: 14" x 20" This unfinished drawing was sent off to The Illustrated London News in haste, just as the army was leaving Antalo. Baigrie had promised to send such a drawing and probably assumed that one of their London-based staff artists could finalize it. This was done, and the final version was published on 6 June. Baigrie’s drawing shows that he had not made great progress in depicting figures, and relied on a handful of types which he had used in previous submissions. The Illustrated London News provided its readers with an interesting description of the fair: The fair at Antalo, of which we give an Illustration, is held every Wednesday. All the inhabitants of the country within twenty miles then congregate at Antalo to dispose of their grain, vegetables, bullocks, and other agricultural produce, returning with bricks of salt which are the current coin of the realm, though now the dollar is rife during the stay of the British troops. The fair is held in the old ruined portion of the town, which is half-way up the side of the Amba or hill fort. The man with a turban is the priest; the man next to him is the soldier, a real specimen of the blustering “swash buckler.” The Abyssinians are a most hospitable people, and our officers had many invitations to drink tedge during their visit to Antalo, where the honours of the house are invariably done with grace and kindness. 69 70 18 . View of Lake Asfiangi from the AAah an Road Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 19 or 20 March 1868 Size: 13 3/4" x 20" Baigrie, traveling with Sir Robert Napier’s staff, reached the summit of their ascent from Makan on 19 March 1868 and saw Lake Ashangi below them. They reached their camp site on the shores of the lake on the following day. At the moment they first viewed the lake Baigrie would have been at approximately 9,400 feet. The lake itself was far below them and five miles away. It was a stunning sight according to contemporary commentators. Henry Morton Stanley wrote: We stood upon the topmost height. ..and beneath us 3000 feet lay Lake Ashangi. An army cannot stand long idly looking down upon scenery and so, though we all should have dearly loved to have lingered. ..to enjoy the tropic beauty of the scene, troops upon troops swarmed around us and bore us along in their invisible current. (Stanley, 305) This particular drawing was not published, but on 16 May a fliU page of the paper was devoted to two views: the same scene from a much higher vantage point, and the troops marching along the shores of the lake to their camp. Both were based on Baigrie sketches. 71 72 19. AAagdala from the Dalanta Plain Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 8 April 1868 Size: 14" x 20" Baigrie produced this handsome topographical study on 8 April 1868 while stationed with the pickets of the Second Brigade on the Dalanta Plain. Theodore had constructed a road from the Bashilo river valley to Magdala (identified slightly left of center), and Baigrie identifies it as the probable route that the British army would use in attacking the citadel. The drawing was published on 30 May, after the addition of two small figures standing on the rock formation in the lower left — one a soldier standing guard, and the other a staff officer with a telescope. George Henty, writing in his diary on 7 April, provides a more detailed description of this view: Yesterday almost every officer in camp went to the edge of the ravine to have a look at Magdala. It is a ride of a little over two miles, and the ravine goes down in an almost unbroken precipice of 500 or 600 feet from the upper edge. This view is one ot the finest, if not the very finest, we have had in Abyssinia. It is grand in the extreme. At our feet was the perpendicular precipice, then a short shoulder, and then another sharp fall down to the Bachelo, which is 3900 feet below us.... Upon the other side... the ground rises in a succession of billows one behind another, higher and higher, to the foot of some very lofty mountains, which form the background forty miles away. Such an extraordinary set of hiUs I never saw. It was magnificent, and stretched away east and west as far as the eye could reach. Above aU this Magdala rose like a great ship out of the surrounding biUows. There was no mistaking it, with its precipitous sides, its frowning aspect, and the cluster of tents clearly discernible on its summit. As the crow flies it was about eight miles distant. (Henty, 367-68.) 73 74 20. AAagdala, 13tli April 1868 Artist: A. G. F. Hogg Date: 13 April 1868 Size: 14" x 20" On Good Friday, 10 April, the British army descended from the Dalanta Plain to the Bashilo River valley, crossed the river, and estabHshed their camp on the Magdala side of the Bashilo River. On 12 April, Sir Robert Napier presented King Theodore with one last chance to peacefully surrender; the offer would expire at 9 am on Easter Monday, 13 April. Long before the deadline, Napier and his staff were aware that the fortress would not be surrendered without a fight. Magdala at sunrise, as Hogg saw it that morning, was a spectacular presence looming in the distance, with numerous native huts on the approaching hiUs and with British soldiers and Abyssinian followers standing in the foreground. The vantage point here is approximately 4000 feet below the level of the Dalanta Plain (from which Baigrie drew No. 19). The hero of Hogg’s work is the mountaintop citadel itself Unhke other observers, he has not chosen to focus on the army camps where the British troops were preparing for combat. It was more usual for Westerners to limit their attention to colorful martial scenes of soldiers mustering themselves into formations with bugles and musicians playing, and then setting off for the fortress. (Henty, 367-68) 75 JME EXP&ITffiOiM. ' ’ .1 GRAND DIVERTIMENTO. f i DESCRIPTIVE. OF THE BATTLE AND ENTRY into MAGDALA, rH£ “WilSM.™,™ , PmcE 3 76 21 . The Storming of AAagdala on Easter AAonday, 13 April 1868 Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: Lithograph June 1868 Size: 13 1/2" x 10" [Sheet Music Cover; Lithograph from Baigrie drawing in 7LA/] On 6 June 1868 the Illustrated London News published a double-page centerfold illustration with this title, based on a drawing by Major Baigrie. It was accompanied by explanatory text: “He has sent us. ..a graphic and most accurate sketch of the actual storming of the gateway and palisade of Magdala, showing the whole face of the rock up which our soldiers had to climb.” The publisher of this piece of sheet music, which was entitled “The Abyssinian Expedition: Grand Divertimento,” copied most elements of Baigrie’s drawing almost exactly — the distinctive rock formation on the right side, the piece of artillery in the left foreground, the zig-zag pattern of the bayonets atop each rifle, the distinctive group of soldiers in the left foreground who fire over the heads of their advancing comrades, and the floating white patches in the sky which come from the rockets being fired by the Naval Brigade. The central figure of the officer on horseback comes from a different Baigrie illustration, and was inserted into this composition by the sheet music publisher. The fact that his drawing was so readily adapted is testimony to the power of Baigrie’s artwork, but also shows the lack of control over that work which existed in this period. While all the soldiers here are shown wearing red jackets, an eyewitness described a different scene: It was a fine sight to see the long line of red, Royal Engineers and Sappers. ..the 4th King’s Own in their grey kakee, the Beloochies in their dark green, the Royal Artillery in blue, and the mountain batteries on mules, winding up the steep and picturesque path... (Hozier, 227.) 77 78 22. The Capture of AAagdala April 13, 1868 Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: September 1868 Size: 13 1/2" x 10" Lithograph Published by British War Office: from Baigrie Drawings This lithograph from the Topographical Department of the British War Office was produced after the campaign had ended. The composition was based on Baigrie drawings: on the right side are the formidable cliffs surrounding Magdala, and on the left the British troop formations are shown climbing toward the main gates of the fortress. On 6 June The Illustrated London News had published a two-page illustration entitled “The Storming of Magdala on Easter Monday, April 13” which incorporated a lot of soldiers in action. This lithograph was not meant to duplicate the illustration, but to create a topographical overview of the scene. The events shown here take place after 3 pm on April 13. The advance party of the army had been ordered to halt as they reached the steep section of the ascent to the fort entrance. Artillery bat- teries and the naval rocket brigade had begun to open fire, and the smoke from these weapons can be seen in the center left. At 4 pm the fort was stormed, and immediately taken. The Baigrie drawing (or drawings) on which this lithograph was based showed the final assault (not necessarily the actual capture); the infantry are advancing in line while rockets from the Naval battery pass over their heads. The original drawing was modified for publication, emphasizing the vast landscape in which Magdala was set and the hostile cliffs upon which the fortress was built. As Quarter Master General of the First Division, Major Baigrie was actually riding in advance of the army as it advanced toward Magdala, and could not have had the panoramic view which the lithograph presents. The journalist George Henty was able to witness a scene very much like that depicted in the lithograph, and wrote “As the long line wound up the steep ascent. . .the effect was very pretty, and elicited several remarks that this was our Easter Monday review.” (Henty 395.) 79 80 23 . View from a Point N ear the King s House, AAagdala Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 14 or 16 April 1868 Size: 16 1/2" x 11 1/4" This drawing, published on 13 June 1868, was one of the last three Baigrie drawings published by The Illustrated London News; it is also one of the best-known of his drawings in this series. Henry Morton Stanley’s editors borrowed it to include in his book, and it was frequently reproduced in contemporary publications. From the ILN: Another of Major Baigrie’s sketches gives a view of the precipitous cliffs and ledges or platforms of rock on the side of Magdala towards the deep valley of the Bashilo, with the opposite ascent from that river to the highland plain of Dalanta. The view is taken from a point near one of the houses occupied by King Theodore at Magdala, from which he could see the approach of the British troops as they came down the rugged declivity from the plateau of Dalanta and crossed the Bashilo on Good Friday morning. The level of Dalanta is as high as 10,800 ft. above the sea, which is 200 ft. higher than the summit of Magdala itself; so that Magdala, with its connected hilltops of Selassee and Fahla, does not really tower above the surrounding countr)^ as a conspicuous mountain, but forms a detached portion of the elevated table-land, cut off from it by the valley or ravine of the Bashilo. The steepness of the descent from Dalanta to the Bashilo is as much as 3800 ft. in four miles; and we may, therefore, understand what a difficult and arduous task it was to bring the troops, with their guns and stores, down that portion of the road, and, after the battle of Arogee, to lead them up the ascent of Fahla. 81 82 24 . TheB urning o f AAagd lala Artist: Robert Baigrie Date: 17 April 1868 Size: 14" x 20" This is another of the last group of Baigrie drawings in the ILN, appearing on 13 June. The next View is the destruction of Magdala, which was burnt, on April 17, at four o’clock in the afternoon, by order of Sir Robert Napier, the troops having left the place shortly before. This operation was executed by Captain Goodtellow, R.E. The gates had been first blown up with gunpowder, and all King Theodore’s brass guns, except three or four to be kept for trophies, were at the same time destroyed. Nothing but “a scorched rock’’ was left of this celebrated Abyssinian fortress. The houses, such as they were, constructed of small timber and reeds in the rudest fashion, were reckoned at more than a thousand. This view was included in the large-format volume with 100 illustrations produced later that year by the ILN, engraved from the original artwork sent by Major Baigrie, Simpson, and others. Entitled The Abyssinian Expedition, it was meant to serve as a comprehensive history of the campaign. 83 84 25. Abyssinia: Tbe New Pier at Annesley Bay, 25tb AAarcb 1868 Artist: William Simpson Date: 25 March, 1868 Size: 9" x 14" Simpson arrived at Annesley Bay at 3 am on 25 March. He disembarked later that morning to make travel arrangements for his overland trip to join Napier’s army near Magdala. The New Pier, completed shortly before his arrival, was longer than the original pier which had served since November 1867. It was primarily used to unload army supplies. The light railroad shown running along the pier went all the way to Koomaylee. The smokestack on the upper left marks an island which the British had constructed, on which they placed water condensers purchased in the United States. An old friend of Simpson’s, Commodore Heath, was in command of the British naval ships in Annesley Bay, and Simpson visited him after landing. On the lower right Simpson shows the small boat which carried him to Heath’s warship, which was anchored further out in the bay. 85 86 26. Burninq C urning v^ameis, AAules, Etc. in the Pass, AAarch 1868 Artist: William Simpson Date: 28 March, 1868 Size: 8" x 10 1/2" Simpson left Zoulla on Friday, 27 March, and reached the Senafe Pass the next day. He stopped at Upper Sooroo at nightfall on 28 March. Unable to sleep because of the insects that invaded his tent during the night, he wandered about the encampment and came across the scene depicted in this watercolor. The Expedition was forced to deal with dead animals on a daily basis. For health reasons, they were destroyed by fire as soon as possible. 87 27. Near to AAai Wahiz, Tigre, Abyssinia, 7tb April 1868 Artist: William Simpson Date: 7 April, 1868 Size: 5 1/2 x 10" Simpson traveled from Mai Wahiz to Ad Abaga on 7 April. The “curious castle” depicted in this drawing was a landmark on the route. It protected the village behind it on the hill. This drawing was refined by studio-based artists in London and was included later in the year in Roger Acton’s history of the campaign. Several years later, the altered version was used as an illustration in Henry M. Stanley’s history of the campaign. 89 90 28. Dejaz Alamayou, 1st AAay 1868, Sketched at Dild ee, Abyssinia Artist: William Simpson Date: 1 May, 1868 Size: 8" x 7" On the morning of Friday, 1 May, the march from Dildee to Marawar was delayed hy rain. Simpson made use of this time to visit King Theodore’s son Alamayou in Mr. Rassam’s tent. He was then seven years of age. He came into the tent dressed and with a shanah over all — that is the white sheet with a broad red stripe near one of its edges — a necklace, and the matab, or blue cord of his baptism. The finishing touch, according to Abyssinian ideas of the toilet, has been given to him, by putting some butter or grease on his head. A small stream of it was trickling down the side of his face. (Pankhurst with Harrington and Sharf, 101.) 91 92 29. The Kosso Tree, Abyssinia, AAay 1868 Artist: William Simpson Date: May 1868 Size: 7 1/2" x 10 1/2" The kosso tree was a prevalent and picturesque feature of the landscape of the Abyssinian highlands. The flower from this tree was made into the principal medicine for tapeworm — a disease common in the country, due to the custom of eating raw meat. 93 Schedule oe ITIarches From Zoulla to AAagdala [from AAyatt, AAarcfi to AAagdala] Stage Distance Cumulative (miles) Mileage Zoulla (Zulla, Zoolla) - - Koomaylee (Kumayli) 14 14 Sooroo (Sum) 13 27 Undel Wells (Undul Wells) 13 40 Rayry Guddy (Rara Gudi) 17 57 Senafe (Senate) 9 66 Goun-Gouna (Goon Goona) 12 78 Focada 14 92 Adigerat (Adigrat) 14 106 Mai Wahiz (Mai Wahez) 14 120 Ad Abaga (Adabaga) 17 137 Dongolo 10 147 Agoola (Agula) 10 157 Dolo 16 173 EikhuUet (EikuUet) 9 182 Antalo 12 194 Masgeh (Masgah) 9 203 Mashik 8 211 Attala (Atsala) 10 221 Bulago (Belago) 9 230 Makan 6 236 Ashangi 14 250 Mussagita (Mesagita) 8 258 Eat 7 265 Marawar (Marrawah) 10 275 Dildi (Dildee) 14 289 Wandach 8 297 Muja (Moja) 6 303 Takazze (Tacazze) 6 309 Santara 4 313 Gahso (Gaso) 11 324 Sindi 18 342 Bethor 7 349 Jedda Ravine (Djedda, Jidda) 6 355 Dalanta (Talanta) 9 364 Bashilo Ravine (Beshilo) 15 369 Magdala (Maqdala, Maqdala) 12 381 94 The Exhibition also includes a map prepared before the campaign by James Wyld, Geographer to the Queen, which is not illustrated here: No 30. Map of Abyssinia; Lithograph in Color, 16 pieces mounted on Linen. 18" x 26" 95 "fHE ABYSSinmn ExPEoition’s PHOtOGRfiPHiC "tEAm From the very beginning of the planning process for the Expedition, the army intended to demonstrate the usefulness of photography in a campaign. This was the first time that a dedicat- ed team of photographers had accompanied a military expedition. Their primary responsibility was to photograph topographical drawings, surveying charts, and maps in order to make multiple copies of them for the commanders in the field. i A seven-man photographic team was authorized in September 1867, and arrived at Annesley Bay on 5 December. The men were attached to the 10th Company Royal Engineers. Sergeant John Harrold was in charge of the photographic equipment and was also the man responsible for the photographs. As the campaign proceeded, photographs were taken of a small number of people and places in order to create a record of the campaign. A series of 78 albumen photographs was produced and distributed to selected officers and government officials after the expedition returned to London. 1. “15,200 prints of plans and views were supplied, all the copies of plans being mounted on linen.” Holland and Hozier, Volume II, 359. "Expedition Supply Depot, Zoulla, Abyssinia, 1868” Photo by Sergeant John Harrold, 10th Company Royal Engineers The rail line running from the pier to Zoulla and on to Koomaylee is shown in left foreground (See Nos. 7, 25.) Supplies that have been unloaded are arranged beside the tracks: the encampment is seen in the background. Through these illustrations, the rugged and haunting scenes of a long-lost Abyssinia come alive. Handsomely crafted watercolor illustrations by Robert Baigrie, A. G. F. Hogg, and William Simpson are accompanied by an informative text. This book offers a fascinating tableau of an important era. Anecdotes of military expeditions and adventures give an additional and new perspective to European imperialism and the colonial invasion of Africa by Europe. Overall the book is an essential historic document. Achamyeleh Debela. Professor of Art and Computer Graphics at North Carolina Central University. Internationally acclaimed as an artist, he has also written extensively on contemporary Ethiopian art and artists. Artists on Campaign is a wonderful companion to the recently published diary of Illustrated London News war correspondent William Simpson. The twenty-nine reproductions of watercolors and drawings, and the authors’ commentaries concerning the context in which they were produced, offer fresh insights into British perceptions of nineteenth-century Ethiopia and the celebrated military expedition against Tewodros II. Raymond Silvennaii, Professor of Art History and Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan. Author (^Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity. 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