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
Wlitin

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 14

Ethiopia s Openings to the West, 1306-1974: David Northrup

(Professor of History, Boston College) 16

The Abyssinian Expedition: Causes and Consequences: Richard Panhhurst

(Professor, Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) 22

iography 30

Portraits of Sir Robert Napier, Emperor Theodore, and Prince Alamayou 32

Plates and A ccompanying Text

1

33

Append)iixes: Schedule of AAarches, Napier Expedition 94

AAap of Abyssinia 95

The Abyssinian Expeditions Photographic Team 96

 Preface

when my seminar
t his exhibition had its genesis three years ago Boston College on The
at
History and Philosophy ofMuseumsfrom 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 it was published in 2002 as Diary of a
of transcribing and annotating the diary;
Journey to Abyssinia, 1868. had He
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 accompanying texts. Special thanks are also due Gary Gilbert of the
its

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 which were created in the years
art

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 drawing lessons were a standard part of the
in 1809,
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 June 1847, Baigrie sought admission to the Bombay
in
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 Addiscombe was required for acceptance into one of the

a two-year enrollment at
was well connected, and through the intervention of
Presidential Armies; but the Baigrie family
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, theydeducted 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 up his command and when he reached Bombay on 22
to take
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 atKooshab (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, under the field command of
much of it

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 was wounded in combat
to the intense heat. Baigrie — 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.

campaign was the defining moment of his military career and the key to
Baigrie’s service in this
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 program. Selection of officers was
staff corps training
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
storage and transportation of supplies; provision of clothing and camp equipment;
details:
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.

Baigriewas 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 “Reconnoitring Party.” Napier distributed a detailed
as the
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 Water is good, but scanty from
7 miles. 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 was a crisis at the Hadoda cavalry encampment, with an outbreak of

there
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
army to the Highlands. As a result of Baigrie’s organization of the road-building team, there
a vast
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. Staveleywas 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 upon himself the responsibility of ordering to be done. I consider his

necessary, he takes
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.^

Major Baigrie had now assumed the responsibilities which normally would
It is quite clear that
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 campaign was in motion. Staveley had been placed in command of the First
this time, the
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, withMajor 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. blockade of A
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 alsoseems a rather
puzzling use of Colonel Baigrie’s talents.

was coming to a close. He was named Quartermaster General of the

Baigrie’s military career
Bombay Army meant that he would live in Bombay for most of the year, going to
in 1875; this
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 firstcampaign assignment. He served under General Outram on the Persian
Field Force, which left Bombayin 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 postingwhen 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 of the army; he returned to Zoulla in June, having
in the forefront
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 and returned to England. He married in 1893, and had one son
finally left India
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 with skiU acquired as a young man at military school. His watercolor
a talented artist,
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.

"Treasuryand 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 own self-image using the Christian and Hebrew
its

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-
nitiesof 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 PresterJohn 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
1508-1540) turned his attention
(r.

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.

Itremained for a new Ethiopian Emperor, Galawdewos (or Claudius; r. 1540-1559) to restore the
country, rebuild the churchesand 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 of good intentions, the efforts to establish closer religious and political ties between
in spite
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 Emperor Susneyos (r. 1606-1632) found the need for

the start of the seventeenth century.
access toEuropean 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 Susneyos was worn out by
rebellion.
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 the long-standing Ethiopian center
initially at
of St. Stephan in the Vatican, learning Latin and but was soon drawn into contact with
Italian,
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 ofEthiopia,
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 of Europeans to travel in Ethiopia was a sign of the kingdom’s growing openness to
ability
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
firstopening 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 of 1867-68. Yet for all their drama and tragedy, the
set the stage for the disastrous conflict
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 hook, Africa’s Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850.
his
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

from the new inventions in technology, had to embark on

territorial integrity as well as to benefit
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 between Ethiopian warlords, from which the country had been suffering for over
struggle
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
He was crowned on 7 February 1855 and proved to be a charismatic leader. He impressed
throne. 1
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 1855 Theodore accepted an offer from Samuel Gobat, the Anglican
firearms, in
Bishop of Jerusalem, to send group of young Protestant missionary craftsmen who were trained
a
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 government was increasingly inclined to the use of force to free
to act, the British
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 new Snider breech-loading rifles as well as the most modern types
British troops carried the
of and another innovation: rockets. They also brought supplies for a field telegraph, a
artillery,

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 were forced to traverse extremely rugged

resistance, but the troops
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 when the British were within sight of Theodore’s
Friday, 10 April,
capital. The commanded by one of the Emperor’s most loyal chiefs, Fitawrari
Ethiopians were
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 myno more blood may be shed. If, therefore. Your
desire that
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 honour” which Theodore had “so grossly
“essential” for Britain’s “national
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 found only four dead bodies. The advancing troops rushed
it 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 government had become involved in matters
British
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 proved almost as difficult as the
to the coast
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 ofJeronimo Lobo, trans. Donald M. Lockhart from text
and ed. by M. G. da Costa. London: Hakluyt Society, 1984.
estab.

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 ofAfricans 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.” ofAfrican 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 ofEthiopia: Being a Full and Accurate Description ofAbessinia, 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 ofEthiopia. 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 ofAfrica, 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’sdrawings 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 themore 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 /LA^ occasionally published drawings from other sources: Captain C. F. James
editors of the
of the Bombay Moore of the Bombay Cavalry; Count (Graf) von
Staff Corps; Captain C. A.
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
on 5 September 1868. During this time 100 illustrations were published,
the final ones were printed
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 London News with the specific charge

sent to Abyssinia by the editors of The Illustrated
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 thelower 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
theHadoda 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 upper end of
lie just above the
the ShiUiky Pass, by which a party landing at Massowah
Areeko must approach the
or
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,
>pring, Tehonda Pass

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 “strongrunning 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

Tekonda with no more trouble than it has
shall gain

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
work; and a line is being levelled for the
at

construction of a railway to Koomaylee, the camping-ground on the road of the army

first

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 aphotographer; 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 was

narrow mountain defile which rose from sea level
British) a
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 wiU henceforth be called, is fifty miles in length. The worst places,
it

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 FHiqfiland!
iiig

Artist: Robert Baigrie

Date: December 1867
20 1/2"
Size: 14 1/2" x

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 eaving Rara GucJdiy
Leaving
Artist: Robert Baigrie
Date: December 1867
Size: 14" x 20"

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 way from the foot of the mountains to

halting-place of Mayen... is situated half
Senafe. It made a halting-place only since the practical application of Norton’s
has been
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 Senafe in late December 1867. The camp
camp at
itself was located on a flat, treeless probably in his official capacity as an officer
plain. Baigrie,
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,
amp, Abyssinia:
7\byssinia: View From
f, my Tent D oor
Artist: Robert Baigrie
Date: December 1867
Size: 9 3/4" x 20"

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 27th Native Infantry, known as the Beloochies. They
to Abyssinia with the
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 1868, Hogg marched with Sir Robert Napier on a relatively short nine-mile march
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 —
Lake Ashangi, that is to say some of our people we have to make every inch of
at

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, Abyssinia
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 down in an almost
over two miles, and the ravine goes
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. was magnificent, and stretched away east and west as far as the eye could
It

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 and estabHshed their camp on the Magdala side of the Bashilo
river,

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 was a spectacular presence looming in the

that morning,
distance, with numerous on the approaching hiUs and with British soldiers and
native huts
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 GRAND DIVERTIMENTO.

EXP&ITffiOiM.
'

.1
f

DESCRIPTIVE.
OF THE BATTLE AND ENTRY
rH£
into MAGDALA,

“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 News published a double-page centerfold illustration with

6 June 1868 the Illustrated London
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 take place after 3 pm on April 13. The advance party of the army had been
shown here
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 AAagdlala
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
William Simpson
Artist:
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 completed shortly before his arrival, was longer than the original pier which had
Pier,
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.

Tsehai Publishers and Distributors

P.O.Box: 1881
CA 90078
TSEHAI
Publishers and Distributors
Hollywood,
WWW.tSehaipublisherS.COm