We had no precise information as to
the steps that were taken at home for our rescue; and, until certain
that troops had landed, we felt very anxious lest some _contretemps_
should, at the last instant, occur, and the expedition be abandoned,
or some more or less chimerical plan adopted in its stead. We had
received a little money of late, but as everything was scarce and
dear, we had to be very careful, and refuse many a "friend's"
request--rather a dangerous proceeding in those days.
We believed--but events proved we were wrong--that if any great
rebel, any rising man of influence, should present himself before
the Amba, the discontented, half-starved wretches would be only too
glad to open the gates and receive him as a saviour. The garrison,
we knew, would not on any account surrender to the Gallas. For years
they had been at enmity, and the marauding expeditions which the
soldiers of the mountain had lately made into their territory, had
increased that bad feeling, and quite destroyed any hope of
reconciliation. This was the more vexatious, as now that Mastiate
had, by her treaty with Gobaze, obtained possession and garrisoned
all the districts around Magdala, it was but natural to expect that
she would make some efforts at least to seize upon a fortress that
lay within her dominions. Not many days after the departure of
Gobaze for Yedjow, she issued orders to the people of the
neighbourhood to cease supplying the Amba, and forbade any of her
subjects from attending the weekly market; she even fixed a day for
the troops she had detached to Dalanta and Dahonte to rendezvous
at a short distance from Magdala, as she intended to destroy the
whole of the country for miles around, and reduce the garrison by
famine.
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