We halted here the next day in order to let General Staveley’s Brigade reach Ashangi. This they did upon the day after we had left it. There was considerable regret in camp to hear that General Staveley himself, who had been attacked at Atzala with acute rheumatism, was very much worse, and had been carried in a palkee. He had entirely lost the use of his limbs, and it was considered improbable that he would be able to come on farther with the army. This would be a very great loss for the expedition, and I sincerely hope that their apprehensions will not be verified.
The morning of our halt, a general order was promulgated which filled us with consternation. No baggage whatever is to be henceforward allowed either for men or officers. Soldiers are to carry their greatcoat, a blanket, and waterproof sheet, in addition to their rifle, ammunition, havresack, &c. This will bring the weight to be carried by each man up to fifty-five pounds; an overwhelming weight over such a tremendous country as that which we have to traverse, and beneath a tropical sun. I question very much whether the men will be able to stand it, and several of the medical staff to whom I have spoken are quite of that opinion. What the roads are likely to be, is manifest enough by a portion of the general order, which says that in future no mule is to carry over 100 pounds; and yet the authorities put more than half that weight upon a man’s shoulders. It is not even as if the men had their knapsacks, in which the greatcoat, &c. could be packed, and carried with comparative ease; they will have to be slung over the shoulders by the coat-arms, and will distress the soldier far more than they would have done if [pg 329]carried in knapsacks. It was an extraordinary oversight leaving the knapsacks behind at Antalo; for it was evident even then that they would be required. Unmounted officers are to have a greatcoat, blanket, and waterproof-sheet carried for them, and mounted officers may carry what they can put upon their horses. No baggage-animals whatever are to go forward with luggage. The men are to be packed twenty in a bell tent, and twelve officers are to have the same accommodation. More than a fourth part of the soldiers are out on picket and guard every night; therefore the number of men in each tent will be practically about the same as the officers. Fancy twelve officers in a tent! They will be packed like herrings in a tub; and men are calculating to-day how many square inches of ground each will possess. Everyone takes it good-humouredly, and there is no grumbling whatever; but for all that, it is rather a serious business. If it were for two or three days, it would be all well enough; but Magdala is a considerable distance from here. The Quartermaster-general’s department talk about a six days’ march. Captain Speedy says that sixteen is very much nearer the mark; and as he has a knowledge of the country, while the Quartermaster’s department have uniformly been wrong in their distances, it is safe to assume that it is a fifteen days’ march; that is to say, even without allowing a day for the capture of Magdala, or for arranging matters there, we cannot be back to Lât under a month. There is some talk of the baggage coming up after us; but this will certainly not come to anything. I know that we have barely animals enough with us to carry our food, and every available mule in the rear is coming on with Staveley’s Brigade. We may, then, calculate with tolerable certainty that we shall not get any of our bag[pg 330]gage until we return to Lât, which, at the very earliest, will be a month hence, and not improbably twice that time. We are told that the cold at night is very great on ahead, and that the rains are heavy and frequent. It is therefore a very serious matter for men to start without a single change of clothes of any kind. Putting aside the rain, the men will suffer so greatly from the heat, and from the labour of climbing mountains with so heavy a load upon their backs, that it would be a most material matter for them to have at any rate a dry flannel-shirt to put on when the cold evening wind begins to blow. Time will show how the men stand it; but it is certainly a hazardous experiment.
This morning we started for this place. Lât has always been spoken of as a place where we should halt and form a dépôt, and we had therefore expected to have found a large village; but as far as I have seen, there is not a native hut in the neighbourhood. Upon leaving our last camping-ground, we ascended a lofty and steep hill, and then had to wind for a long distance upon a rocky ledge, where a false step would have been certain death. After several minor rises and descents, we came down to the valley in which the stream, near which we are encamped, runs. Although there are no villages in sight, there must be a considerable native population in the neighbourhood, for a large number of natives have come in with supplies. The officers of the transport-train are buying every sword and spear brought in, for the use of the muleteers; as, although Theodore is reported at Magdala, he might at any moment make a sudden march down with a few thousand men, and might be upon us before we knew that he was within fifty miles’ distance. Should we be attacked in one of these gorges, or on a narrow ledge with a precipice [pg 331]below, scattered as we should necessarily be over an immense length of road, Theodore might, by a sudden attack upon our baggage, do such damage in a few minutes, that we might be obliged to retire to Antalo, to fetch up fresh supplies. There is no disguising the fact, that in making our rush from such a long distance we are running no inconsiderable risk.
Sir Robert Napier’s original plan was to have formed a dépôt with five months’ provisions at some place about half-way between Antalo and Magdala, and to have marched forward from that place with two months’ provisions. Instead of this we are starting from Lât with only fifteen days’ provisions, and there is no dépôt of any importance, nor will there be, nearer than Antalo itself. The whole of the available mules will accompany the advancing division, and we shall have to depend entirely for future supplies upon the native carriage. The stock of food we have with us will barely last us to Magdala; we know not whether we shall be able to purchase any flour on the way, or how we may fare for forage for our animals. Between Antalo and Magdala are many tribes and chiefs,—we have already passed Waldo Yasus and the Gallas,—and some of these, after we have passed, may take it into their heads to stop the native animals going up with stores; and the whole of the system upon which we have solely to depend would then break down, and our position would be as precarious a one as it is possible to imagine. It is indeed a tremendous risk to run; but then we are playing for a very high stake. We are running a race with the rains. If we were to stop here for a fortnight or three weeks, and to send the whole of the transport animals down to Antalo to fetch up more provisions, we should infallibly have to wait [pg 332]out here over the rainy season; and the difficulties of provisioning the force during that period, and the probable mortality which might ensue, would be so great that Sir Robert Napier no doubt considers himself justified in running a very considerable risk in order to reach the sea-coast before the rains. Of course the matter has been discussed and talked over in every light among the officers; and the general opinion is, that unless we obtain an unlooked-for supply, as we did at Antalo, somewhere between this and Magdala, our position will be a very critical one. With most other generals, men would, I think, be inclined to take rather a gloomy view of it; but everyone has such confidence in Sir Robert Napier that they are quite content to leave matters in his hands.
Dildee, March 24th.
I sent off a very hurriedly-written letter two days since from Lât. In these two days we have crossed thirty-one miles of as rough a country as the warmest admirer of the desolate and savage could wish to see. Around us, as far as the eye could reach, was stretched a perfect sea of mountains; and up and down these we have tumbled and stumbled—not a few horses getting tremendous falls—from morning until long after nightfall. It has been one long monotonous toil. Sometimes we climb upon smooth slippery rock; then we ascend steep paths covered with loose boulders of every size; then we are upon a narrow ledge on a mountain’s face; then we are crashing through thick bushes. One can no longer keep count of the number of ravines we cross, for we climb a dozen hills a day. It would puzzle even the engineers of the Topographical Department to lay down this rugged and [pg 333]broken country in a map. It would be as easy to make a map of the Straits of Dover, and to draw each wave to its proper scale. The toil of the troops during these two days has been tremendous. The first day’s march was thirteen miles; yesterday’s was eighteen,—many say it was twenty; but I think a long eighteen was about the mark. Eighteen miles would be a long march in England, but here it is a tremendous journey. Each man is carrying with him ammunition, &c.—fifty-five pounds—more than half a mule-load. In addition to this, most of the troops are now upon baggage-guard, and have to assist in constantly adjusting loads and looking after the mules. Lastly, a fourth of the troops are out every night upon picket. I had occasion, in a letter written from Mahkan, to speak upon the cruel over-marching of men and animals; but that was nothing to these two days’ marches. The country now is much rougher, the distances longer, and the men have in addition to carry their kits. The troops came in last night in a prostrate state; very many did not come in at all. I should say that not more than half the baggage arrived until this morning; and to add to the other disagreeables, we had a tremendous thunderstorm about eight o’clock, which wetted every soul, except the very few who had been fortunate enough to get up their tents, to the skin. The men have no change of clothes with them, and of course had to sleep in their wet clothes. Of those who were on the road when the rain began, some held on and came straggling in up to ten o’clock; the greater number, however, unrolled their blanket and waterproof-sheet, and lay down where they were for the night. I say fearlessly that such a march over such a country was never before made by similarly-weighted men. Of course we have to halt to-day, [pg 334]and then by to-night we shall have progressed a less distance towards Magdala than we should have done had we made three days’ marches of, say, eleven miles each. Nor is there any reason why we should not have done so. We are fortunately now in a well-watered country. Good-sized streams run between each of the higher ranges, and we crossed four or five of them yesterday.
General Staveley, who I am glad to hear is better, is only one day in our rear. An officer has gone back this morning to direct him to halt to-night at the stream three and a half miles behind. The weather has been warmer for the last two days, and this has of course increased the labour of the soldiers. Had it not been for the frequent occurrence of water, I do not think that one quarter of the troops would have got in last night. Yesterday’s camp was admirably chosen for defensive purposes, being surrounded on all sides by a deep nullah. To-day’s camp is convenient, and is also defended on one side by a nullah, but has the disadvantage that the nullah is two hundred feet deep, and is extremely precipitous, the water being only accessible even on foot at two places, and consequently the difficulty of watering the animals is very great. The water, however, and indeed all that we have met with for the last day or two, is delicious. This is indeed a treat. Hitherto the water has been singularly nasty—thick and full of insects when stagnant, earthy and bad-tasting when running. Here it is fresh, clear, and pure. Rum is quite at a discount. The ravine through which the stream runs is very picturesque. The slope is steep, but well-wooded down to the bottom of the nullah; but the stream itself has cut a way from twenty to thirty feet wide through the solid rock at the bottom. The sides [pg 335]are as perpendicular as walls, and are in some places thirty feet deep. It is only, as I have said, at two points that we can get down to the water. This narrow gorge is overhung with trees, and in every cranny and on every tiny ledge grow lovely patches of green ferns. It requires no stretch of fancy to imagine oneself by the side of a pretty mountain-stream in Wales or Ireland. The vegetation is too bright and varied for a Highland stream. Nearly every officer in camp, and a good number of the men, have been down this morning for a bathe, which is doubly refreshing after the fatigue of yesterday and the paucity of our present washing appliances. The camp yesterday morning presented quite an unusual appearance. The head-quarter camp had shrivelled in dimensions from twenty tents down to four; and outside of them, soon after daybreak, the whole staff might be seen engaged in the various processes of washing and dressing. Twelve men may manage to sleep in a tent, but it is quite impossible that they can simultaneously dress there. Not, indeed, that any of the tents contained their full complement. Some had slung their blankets like hammocks upon the trees; others were content to roll themselves in their rugs, and sleep upon a waterproof-sheet under a bush; and besides this there was a hospital-tent, and as there are no sick, some of the officers were drafted off into this. Indeed, all might have been very much more comfortable, had those of their number who, like ourselves, have brought tentes d’abri, been allowed to carry them on their horses. I was very fortunate in getting into shelter before the storm came on last night. I had ridden on before my spare horse, which, with my tent and etceteras upon his back, was nearly at the rear of the column. I arrived here about half-past four, [pg 336]having been nearly nine hours upon the road; and I was fairly exhausted when I got in from fatigue and want of food. Fortunately, however, the natives had brought in bread for sale, and after eating some of this, and going down to the nullah for a bathe, I was quite restored again. I was not, however, comfortable in my mind; for the clouds had been banking-up fast, and the thunder had been almost incessant in the hills for the last two hours. I could see by the baggage which was coming in, that my animal could not, if he kept his place in the line, be in for hours, if at all. When I got up to the camp, I was delighted to see my little tent pitched. My companion, who had been behind me, had, finding that the road was badly blocked, got them along by other paths, fortunately without more damage than one of the horses falling over a precipice twelve or thirteen feet high, into some bushes, which broke the animal’s fall. The horse was but little hurt; and with this slight mishap, which is nothing here, where horses and mules are constantly rolling over steep places, he had succeeded in getting into camp three or four hours before the animals could have possibly reached it, had they kept in their original place in the line; indeed it was most improbable that they could have got in last night at all. The lightning during the next half-hour was incessant, and before the dinner could be cooked, great drops began to patter down. We shouted to the servants to do the best they could for themselves with their blankets and waterproof-sheets, while we took refuge in our little tent, with an officer whose baggage, like that of the great majority, had not arrived. In a minute or two, it came down almost in a sheet. We lit our pipes, and consoled ourselves that if we had nothing to eat, we were no worse off than anyone else, [pg 337]whereas we were in shelter, while hardly another soul was so. While thus philosophising to our own contentment, the front of the tent was suddenly opened, and a hand was thrust in with a dish of cutlets, then plates and knives and forks. Our fellows had nobly stuck to their work, preferring to get drenched to the skin rather than that their masters should go without dinner. These Goa-men are certainly excellent servants. They are not physically strong: they are quiet, weakly-looking men, with little energy and no habitude to hardships. They make capital hotel-waiters, but could scarcely have been expected to have supported the fatigue of a campaign like this. They do so, however, and seem none the worse for it. Altogether they are worth any money upon an expedition of this sort, and are infinitely more serviceable than an English servant would be.
The storm ceased last night at about half-past ten. It is now thundering among the distant hills, and it is evident that we shall have, this afternoon, a repetition of last night’s storm. It will, however, find us better prepared to withstand it. The natives are bringing in an abundance of goods of all kinds. Honey, grain, onions, goats, sheep, fowls, bread, and eggs. The fowls and eggs are the first we have seen since Attegrat. Prices rule about the same. Two little fowls, a dollar; twelve eggs—about half of which average bad—at the same price. A bottle of honey, a dollar, &c. Dear as things are, it is unnecessary to say that they are all eagerly bought up. We are accustomed to high prices now; and I heard a soldier, who did not get in until this morning, say that he paid a dollar in the night for a drink of water.