The Highlands of EthiopiaHarris, William Cornwallis, Sir
History
The Highlands of Ethiopia
Harris, William Cornwallis, Sir
Ethiopia -- Description and travel
I state in my travels, that through the interference of the British
Embassy, four thousand seven hundred persons, reduced by an arbitrary
edict of the king to bondage, were liberated; upon which the critic,
full of the "strange stories" which his strange associates had related
to him, immediately concludes that Dr Krapf might have had some hand in
that transaction. At all events he must contrive to make it appear so,
otherwise what would become of his primary thesis, that the Embassy
"fell into such disrepute?" Montaigne, the reader will doubtless
remember, observes somewhere in his essays, that in order to catch his
critics napping, he often put forth the opinions of the greatest writers
of antiquity, without making the least allusion to the author, in order
that, if these should be turned into ridicule, as was not unlikely, he
might show that it was not himself that they had attacked, but Seneca,
or Cicero, or Plato. Without having any such intention, I have caught
my critic in a similar trap. Believing he could attribute the honour to
Dr Krapf, he does not call in question the issuing of the edict or the
liberation of the slaves, but inquires knowingly, "had _he_, the
missionary, nothing to do with their deliverance?" Next, with a skill
which does him much credit, he connects the liberation of the princes
with this other transaction, so that if the reader believes his
unfounded assertion that it was Dr Krapf, not the Embassy, whose
influence prevailed with the king in the one case, he may be led to
suppose that it was so in the other. This, it must be acknowledged, is
a very ingenious piece of workmanship, and has, I doubt not, earned its
author much credit. Nevertheless, it will not bear the touch of
examination. The simplest statement of facts in the world will suffice
to destroy it, together with the critic's main theory on the subject of
my loss of influence at the court of Shoa. Dr Krapf quitted Angollala
on the 12th of March, 1842, and during May of the same year, left
Massowah for Aden. His active influence, it may fairly be inferred,
terminated at this date. The forlorn Embassy was now abandoned to its
own resources. There was no one to interest the king in its behalf; no
one to perform great and benevolent actions, in order that I might
obtain the credit of them. While we were in this state of torpor, the
proclamation in question was published by the herald. Before Dr Krapf
quitted Massowah? Alas! no. For that event took place in May, whereas
the royal edict was only promulgated on the 3rd of August. It was by
me, therefore, and not by Dr Krapf, that the remonstrance was forwarded
to Sahela Selassie, which produced the liberation of the slaves. This
fact is known to every member of the Mission, and it ought to have been
within the recollection of some of those infallible authorities who at
once supplied the critic with facts and with learning, who remembered
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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