Note 12 — Chapter XXVIII

Major Harris, in his “Highlands of Ethiopia,” has made the following assertions:—“In utter abhorrence of the country and its inhabitants, the Moslem servants who accompanied the Embassy from India all took their departure, willing to brave the dangers and difficulties of a long journey through the inhospitable deserts of Adaîel, rather than prolong a hateful sojourn in Abyssinia. One half of the number were murdered on their way down, and the places of all long remained empty.” This is most unjust both to the Dankalli and the Abyssinian, for of the twenty native and Arab servants, independent of the two tent Lascars mentioned as having accompanied the Mission, eight only were dismissed in Shoa—Sultaun, Hadjji Abdullah, Allee Chous, Berberah Allee, Abbas, Mahudee, Hadjji Ohmed, and an Indian boy, whose name I have forgotten. These servants had been led to expect, on their arrival in Abyssinia, the payment of the high wages which, in some of their cases, had alone induced them to accompany the Mission through Adal. Their disappointment may be conceived when they were then informed that a moiety only of their wages would be paid to them in Shoa, and that the remainder would run on in arrears until their return to Aden. This injustice, as it was conceived to be, was resented, and the discharge of these eight, in this remote country, was the consequence. The unfortunate servants appealed to the Negoos for redress, who condescended (but without avail) to intercede for their return to the Mission. This affront to the royal dignity was never forgotten, whilst a very injurious prejudice was raised by the conduct that was pursued by our representative with reference to the non-performance of the engagements entered into with these men. This being followed shortly afterwards by the infliction of corporeal punishment upon a soldier for a breach of martial law, when no other kind of discipline was even pretended to be kept up, astonished the Abyssinians not a little, and gave the finishing blow to all popular respect for English civilization, or wishes for any connexion whatever with our country.

But this is not all. Of the eight discharged servants, instead of the whole of these men showing any abhorrence of the country, the greater part of them took to themselves wives, and upon what little they had saved lived near me in Aliu Amba. Three of them however (Hadjji Ohmed, Mahudee, and the Indian boy), were induced to attempt a passage to the sea-coast. The Kafilah they accompanied was attacked on the eastern bank of the Hawash by the Takalee tribe. The Indian boy was slain, but Hadjji Ohmed and Mahudee, being mounted, fled different ways; the former fortunately found protection and shelter for more than a month with Omah Batta’s sub-division of the Sidee Ahbreu tribe, whilst Mahudee contrived to reach a much more distant portion of Adal, the country of Chur-Chur, on the road to Hurrah from Shoa. Here he also remained several weeks, receiving the greatest attention and kindness, and finally was restored, as was also Hadjji Ohmed, to the Negoos of Shoa, who rewarded their Adal entertainers for their hospitality to British subjects.

It may be naturally supposed that the author of the “Highlands of Ethiopia” was ignorant of these facts, but this is impossible, for Mahudee, who had visited Chur-Chur, was reinstated in his situation as horsekeeper to Major Harris himself, in return for the interesting information it was supposed he could give of the little-known country where he had been living.