A Narrative Of Captivity In Abyssinia With Some Account Of The Late Emperor Theodore, His Country And People By Henry Blanc
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They Had Been Seen
Descending A Steep Ravine, Not The Road They Had Taken On Going,
But A Shorter One.
Soon afterwards horses and men were perceived
on the plain; and something like confusion, and cattle being hurried
down could be made out by the glasses.
The party from the garrison
were seen to halt at a short distance from the ravine they had
descended, and march on very slowly. Something was wrong evidently;
horsemen were at once despatched by the Ras to ascertain the result
of the expedition. They returned with a doleful tale, and the Amba
soon rang with the wailing of widows and orphans; eleven dead,
thirty wounded, scores of fire-arms lost, the fugitives at large,
was in sum the intelligence they brought back to the desponding
Ras.
A Galla renegade had the night before led Damash and his men straight
to the village of the chief in whose company they had been seen in
the morning, and under whose hospitable roof he justly surmised
that they would spend the night. At first all succeeded as they had
expected. They reached the doomed village an hour before day-dawn,
and surrounded at once the house of the chief, whilst a small body
was sent to search and plunder the village itself. A fearful massacre
took place; surprised in their sleep, the men were murdered before
they were aware of the presence of the enemy; only a few were spared,
together with some women and children, by the less blood-thirsty
of these midnight assassins.
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