A SWEET KING.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2652, 20 September 1881, Page 3

A SWEET KING.

I write in haste, but I will sum up my impression of Abyssinia. The king is rapidly growing mad. He cuts off the noses of those who take snuff, and the lips of those who smoke. The other day a man went to salute Ras Aloula. In saluting him his tobacco box drooped out. Ras Aloula struck him with his sword, and his people finished him. The king is hated more than Theodore was. Cruel to a degree, he does not, however, take life. He cuts off the feet and hands of the people who offend him. Ho put outs their eyes by pouring hot tallow into their ears. Several came to tell me this. I remonstrated with the king against his edict forcing men to become Christian from Mussulman. He said they wished it. I also remonstrated about the tobacco edict, but it was of no, use. No one can travel without the king’s order if he is a foreigner. You can buy nothing without the king’s order, no one will shelter you without his order —in fact no more complete despotism could exist. It cannot last; for the king will go on from one madness to another. Orders were given that no one was to approach me; nor was Ito speak to any. The officer who conducted me to the king, the second in command to. Aloula, met his uncle and cousin in chains and durst not ask why they were chained. The king is a man some 45 years, a sour, ill-favored looking being. He never looks you in the face, but when you look away he glares at you like a tiger. He never smiles ; his look, always changing, is one of thorough suspicion. Hated and haling all, I can imagine no more unhappy man. Avaricious above all his people, who do not lack this quality, his idea of a free port is that fleets of steamers will arrive from the powers of Europe with presents for him, to which he will reply by sending a letter, with the Lion seal, saying, “ You are my brother, my mother, &c. How are you?” Johannis is delighted with her Majesty, because she called him her son. He carries with him all his great prisoners—the poor Goobasie, with his eyes out, and the rest. At the great feast, on September 27, he had one bullock killed for some hundreds of persons.—(Colonel Gordon’s “ Central Africa.”)