INCIDENTS OF THE ATTACK OF MAGDALA.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 310, 29 July 1868, Page 2

INCIDENTS OF THE ATTACK OF MAGDALA.

Theodore seems to have been very much impressed with the novelty and appearance of the missiles fired by the rocket brigade. He picked up the case of one said to have passed within two yards of his own head, and exclaimed to Mr Flad, " How am Ito fight with people who use such weapons as those ?" The Snider bullet was still more terrible in its effects its rapid fire mowing down the foe by dozens, and encouraging small knots of our soldiers to advance with calm confidence upon masses of the enemy. The wounds it inflicts are extremely serious, the head of the bullet, having its lead hollowed away, is soft, and expands upon entering the flesh. One man is said to have fired as many as 130 rounds, and another assured oui? correspondent that he fired over twenty in five minutes.

During the fight the European captives suffered great anxiety. At midnight Theodore sent for Mr Rassam and admitted that he had been beaten. At dawn he sent for Messrs Prideaux and Flad, and told them that he had been a man before, but now he found. that he had his superiors—that the battle of the previous evening had ruined him ; half his army was gone and all his bravest killed ; what wera left were women ; and Flad and Prideaux must reconcile him with the English. Balancing all probabilities, the total number of the Abyssinian dead from the first engagement could not fall far short of 500; and the loud wails of women could, after the battle, be distinctly heard in the British camp, coming from Salse and Magdala.

With respect to the horrible butchery of the 37S victims who were slaughtered on the Bth, the correspondent says: —

"Theodore mustered them together and told his soldiers that he could no longer feed them, so they must be killed ! "and now," he added, " let me see how quickly you can despatch them, and by that I can judge the time you will take to despose of the English " The English captives more than once were threatened with the same fate, but after the action of the 13th thev were able to reply flf we go over the precipice all of you will assuredly follow."

In reference to the actual defence of Magdala the correspondent says:— " Although Theodore had no more than thirty pieces of cannon on the mountain, he had taken none of them into Magdala itself. It is very hard to guess what force defended the fort, or indeed were at any time with Theodore. Possibly he had SOOO or 10,000 on the 10th; 1500 of these we are now pretty certain were killed and and wounded on that day, and many deserted; not less than 3000 laid down their arms on the 13th outside Magdala, and there were at least 9000 men capable of bearing arms that day on the mountains. Perhaps as many as 600 remained with the Kin» in Magdala to the last, or nearly the last; but only fron 40 to 100 took at the critical moment any active part in the defence. To such a mere speck had Theodore's host dwindled. The rapid defection of his men was the offspring of the terror produced by the slaughter, and of the complete superiority which they were suddenly taught we possessed in race, discipline, and weapons." The correspondent estimates that the number of dead in the fortress may have been in all abont 200 j and in the assault seven of our men, including Major Pritchard, E. E., were wounded

The discovery of the body of Theodore is described as follows: " A little beyond the second gateway I saw a hammock slung from a pole, and containing a dead body, borne by four Hindostani bearers • it was set down in the road, and upon being examined by the late prisoners, English and native, who recognised both the face and a broken finger, declared to bo the corpse of Theodore. The king's forehead was both high and broad, his chin square and massive, his nose small and tolerably well shaped; his lips were thin, and his mouth was wreathed in what appeared to me a melancholy smile; his complexion was as dark as the average of his countrymen, and far darker than that of many I have met. Theodore had no dress shirt, and except an inner vest made of fine linen his clothing was extremely coarse. Ho appeared to have been wounded in the leg, and there was in addition a large hole at the back of his i head." j

Mr W. C. Bryant.—Mr W. C. Bryant the American poet, who has recently passed his seventy-first birthday, in replying to a letter requesting him to write some verses for a meeting of his old college friends declines, alleging that he was ever ill at occasional verses. He adds : "Besides, it is the December of life with me. I try to keep a few flowers in pots —mere remembrances of a more genial season, which is now with the things of the past. If I can have a carnation or two for Christmas, I think myself fortunate. You write as if I had nothing to do in fulfilling your request but go out and gather, under the hedges and by the brooks, a bonquet of flowers that spring spontaneously, and throw them upon your table. If I were to try, what would you say if it proved to be-only a little bundle of dead stalks and withered leaves which my dim sight had mistaken for fresh green sprays and blossoms ?" Six American Citizens Imprisoned and also Flogged at Monterey.—The outrages on American citizens in Mexico cannot long be permitted by the great Republic, unless its sensitiveness is wounded only when its citizens suffer at the hands of monarchical governments. The following is from a late Panama paper: —"A special express from Monterey, April 24th, brings an official complaint from Consul Abrich to Secretary Seward of another outrage upon six American merchants of Monterey namedLachard, Potter, Kathreus, Montgomery, Scoptha, and Bice, who were sent to the enh'boose by order of the Govenor's Secretary, and detained among filth and vermin and the vilest felons till morning, when they were commanded to perform the most disgusting offices and sweep the prison. On refusing, they were flogged by a felon at the order of the gaoler, and arraigned before the alcalde, fined, and compelled to pay for the return of their watches and money. No apology or redress has been offered." Great Pedestrian Match.—ln New York city, at noon, on the 2-3 th of April, " Young Mills" and John Goulding commenced the feat of walking 1,000 miles in 1,000 consecutive hours, for a purse of $2,000. Should both the contestants accomplish the prescribed task, then each is to continue his mile per hour until one succumbs.

A. Slave Question in Cuba. —Two slaves, belonging to the English director of the copper-mines, have appealed to the presiding Syndic, claiming their liberty upon the foil owing extraordinaryplea : —" We are slaves of the consolidated mines. These mines belong to the English. The English law prohibits slaveholding. Ergo, we are free." It is impossible to tell how the case will be decided, as all depends upon the private sentiments of the solitary Judge who constitutes the Spanish tribunal.

A Substitute for Coal.—So long ago as 1835, Babbage, in his " Economy of manufactures," foreseeing the coal difficulty which now occupies so many minds, had begun to conjecture what subject science next might find* The passage will perhaps interest our readers : —" Supposing heat still to remain necessary when the exhausted state of our coal-fields renders it expensive, long before that period arrives other methods will probably have been invented for producing it. . . . In many parts of the Island of Ischa' by deepening the sources of the hot springs but a few feet, the water boils ; and there can be little doubt that, by boring a short distance, steam of high pressure would issue from the orifice. In Iceland the sources of heat are still more plentiful, and their proximity to large masses of ice seems almost to point out the future destiny of that island. The ice of its glaciers may enable its inhabitants to liquify the

gases with the least expenditure of mechanical force, and the heat of its volcanoes may simply the power necessary for their condensation. Thus, in a future age power may become the staple commodity of the Icelanders and of the inhabitants of other volcanic districts ; and possibly the very process by which they will procure this article of exchange for the luxuries of happier climates may in some measure tame the tremendous element which occasionally devastates their provinces.'