supposition is, that this circumstance, together with a quarrel with Mr. Stern, a missionary, who in a book on Abyssinia, had spoken disrespectfully of the King, and who had remonstrated against the flogging to death of two interpreters, roused the King's temper, and a year after having dispatched the unanswered letter, he sent an armed force to the missionary station, seized the missionaries, and put them in chains. He also cast Mr. Cameron into prison, and had him chained continually to an Abyssinian soldier.
Great excitement prevailed in England on the arrival of the news of this outrage against British subjects: but in consideration of an armed expedition having to undergo many hardships in such a warm climate, it was deemed best by the English government to use diplomacy in its efforts to have the prisoners released. It was not until the second half of August, 1865, that Mr. Rassam, an Asiatic, by birth, was sent on a special mission to the Abyssinian potentate, and was received on his arrival in February, 1866, in a truly magnificent style, the release of the prisoners being at once ordered by the King. But the hope thus raised was soon to be disappointed, for when Mr. Rassam and the other prisoners were just on the point of taking leave of the Emperor, they were put under arrest, and notified that they would have to remain in the country as State guests until an answer could be obtained to another letter which the King was going to write to the Queen.
After exhausting all diplomatic resources to obtain from Theodore the release of the captives, the English government declared war against Theodore. The war was chiefly to be carried on with the troops, European and native, which in India had become
