THEODORE OF ABYSSINIA

Matamata Record, Volume XIX, Issue 1692, 3 January 1936, Page 7

THEODORE OF ABYSSINIA

CRUELTY TO THE BRITISH

Lord Napier’s expedition to Abyssinia in 1868 was carried out because Theodore, who was then Emperor of Abyssinia, had imprisoned and ill■'r ‘~ treated British subjects living in his country. Among these was Captain Cameron, British Consul. He came under , the Emperor’s displeasure because Theodore did not receive a reply to a letter which he had written to iQueen Victoria. The blunder regarding the letter was really caused by delay among officials of the Foreign Office. New light on Captain Cameron’s terrible ordeal in prison is thrown by facts < which were recently disclosed by Mrs Violet Cameron Sinclair, of Toronto, Canada, in an interview given to the “Star Weekly.” In 1862 Captain Cameron succeeded Consul W. C. Plowden in Ethiopia, following the murder of the latter when he was returning to his post from the court of Emperor Theodore in March, of 1860. “One day when I was staying with my grand-aunt, Margaret Bruce Cameron, in London,” Mrs Sinclair related, “she asked me to get something for her from lier bureau and when I pulled out what she wanted I also found a crudely-fashioned chain. I asked her what it was aud she told me the story. “She said that when Captain Cam■eron had gone to Abyssinia to fill the post things had gone well for a while, but in less than a year he ran into ‘difficulties with Emperor Theodore. He was taken prisoner, along with other Europeans, and remained chained, hand to foot, for the whole time until rescued by Lord Napier’s ' expedition in 1868.. « . “When I looked at the chain, which was not any more than 14 or 15 inches long, I couldn’t iinagine how he had been held by such a short manacle,” Mr Sinclair continued, “I was then told that it‘had been fastened to one wrist and the other end to one ankle. In this manner, bent over almost X-Sdouble, he had been imprisoned for all i links, each about four inches long, and at each end were loops. “The loop for the ankle was oval- . ahaped, while the loop for the wrist \ was ;a circle. The iron was crudely fashioned, and had jagged, square edges. These edges were so rough the loops must have been forged on at. first, because, they had to-., be off "when he : was ' released. Tbe . chain has been kept in the family “ • mhce that:, time and is now ,in Stirling; Scotland;,, aifd Calf hough it belohgs I have not senfipyer v for ‘ &**'■»>:**• "v,V . r:; .

A strongman, a true Scot,"Captain Cameron survived the imprisonment for almost seven years, but when released he was in such terrible physical condition that he died within a few weeks. “I was told by my grandaunt,” Mrs Sinclair added, “that when thp British captured the fortification of. Magdala, many of the prisoners were unable' to walk, even after their cut off. Captain Cameron, as the result of being bound in-, such a manner, could not stand up, but had to walk on his hands as Well as- his feet. His back was perfectly stiff, bent over so that he walked like an animal, right )ip until the tinie of ihis death.”

Mrs Sinclair’s grand-aunt, who told her the, tragic story in 1901, died in 1902 in London. “She was a great friend of Florence Nightingale,” Mrs Sinclair stated. “She was a nurse in the Crimean War and associated with Florence Nightingale a great deal. I have many evidences to prove that.”