Abyssinia and King Theodore, Part I-VI [pp. 265-281]

Abyssizia and King Thzcodore.
him among Protestants, had destroy ed all religious belief in his mind.
Religious England always believing,
though erroneously, ought to be
startled by the consideration that her
missionaries, real mercenaries as
they are, only succeed in propagating doubt and incredulity instead of
spreading the gospel.
M. Gobat, who was somewhat of a
diplomatist, in writing to King Theodore, did not state his object to be
the foundation of a Protestant mission. He merely announced that
skilful mechanics, desiring to improve the physical condition of the
country, wished to settle in it. King
Theodore, who was desirous of obtaining blacksmiths, gunners, and
engineers, to make cannon and mortars, and build bridges and roads,
gave his consent. M. Gobat hinted
that the workmen wanted the free
exercise of their religion. Theodore
referred the matter to the abun,
who, knowing the tricks of his old
teachers, bluntly told Mr. Sterne, one
of the missionaries, who spoke of his
intention to convert the Talasa, or
native Jews, as the sole object of his
coming to Gondar, "This mission
to the Jews is only a pretext to plot
against the faith of the Christians."
Pretending not to take the hint, Mr.
Sterne repeated his assertion, anc
the king consented to receive the
English mechanics, who were to be
the instruments in the hands of the
pious missionaries in "evangelizing" the barbarous Ethiopians.
But on the testimony of Mr. Sterne
himself, and that of other Protestants,
the scheme was a complete failure.
Many of the "mechanics," or "pious
laymen," became as immoral as any
of the natives. Besides, in violation
of their solemn promise made to the
abun, the missionaries distributed,
as Plowden informs us, "hundreds
of Bibles, and taught the great truths
of salvation to many pagans and
Christians." We extract these facts
from the work of the Rev. Mr. Badger, considered a most trustworthy
witness in official circles in England.*
After a short stay at Gondar, Mr.
Sterne went to London, was made
bishop, and published a wordy volume containing but one fact worth noticing, namely, the intrinsic proof that
the author was ignorant of the most
ordinary customs of Ethiopia. By
an imprudence which has cost him
dear, Mr. Sterne related the story of
the vender of koso in his book. A
former student of the English missionaries informed Theodore of the
fact, and the Protestants had reason
to feel bitterly that a man's friends
often prove to be his greatest enemies.
V.
THE English government was indignant that its agent Plowden, as it
is known, should have been massacred on the highway near Gondar.
Theodore avenged his death, however, by the barbarous slaughter of
its authors and their associates. But
the party of the "saints" in England
was not satisfied with this reparation.
Theodore was weak, and no match
for England. It was safe, therefore, to
insult him. Had he been as powerful as the United States, England
would have been as loath to touch
him as she is afraid to refuse satisfaction to America for the ravages of
the Alabama on the high seas. She,
however, suppressed the consulship
of Gondar, and sent Captain Cameron as her consul to Massowah,
under the protection of the Turkish
flag. Captain Cameron was a brave
officer who had served in the Crimea,
but he was no diplomatist. We all
know that, as much from lack of this
* Tme Story of the British Ca/tives ib A byssiniag
x86,,!864. By the Rev. George Percy Badger.
277