CHAPTER IV.
News of Cameron's Imprisonment reaches Home--Mr. Rassam is
selected to proceed to the Court of Gondar, and is accompanied
by Dr. Blanc--Delays and Difficulties in Communicating with
Theodore--Description of Massowah and its Inhabitants--Arrival
of a Letter from the Emperor.
In the spring of 1864 it was vaguely rumoured that an African
potentate had imprisoned a British consul; the fact appeared so
strange, that few credited the assertion. It was soon ascertained,
however, that a certain Emperor of Abyssinia, calling himself
Theodore, had cast into prison and loaded with chains, Captain
Cameron, the consul accredited to his court, and several missionaries
stationed in his dominions. A small pencil note from Captain Cameron
at last reached Mr. Speedy, the acting vice-consul at Massowah,
giving the number and names of the captives, and suggesting that
their release depended entirely on the receipt of a civil letter
in answer to the one the King had forwarded some months before.
There is no doubt that much difficulty presented itself in order
to meet the request expressed by Consul Cameron. Little was known
about Abyssinia, and the conduct of its ruler was so strange, so
contrary to all precedents, that it became a matter of grave
consideration how to communicate with the Abyssinian Emperor without
endangering the liberty of others.
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