for reasons the justice of which was only too evident, encourages me to bring the proposal again to your notice, now that I understand you can entertain it without inconvenience.

I have, &c. (Signed)

FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE.

Inclosure 2 in No. 258.

Mr. Seward to Sir F. Bruce.

Washington, August 12, 1865.

Sir, 1 HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 10th instant, renewing a proposal, which you did me the honour to make on the 10th of June last on behalf of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, to obtain the co-operation of the cruizers of the United States in putting down the Slave Trade.

In reply, I have the honour to state that a copy of your note has been submitted to the Secretary of the Navy, and I have recommended to that officer the adoption of the proper measures to carry into effect the Treaty of 1862 in this respect.

The kindly motive which induced you to forbear pressing this proposition at an earlier day is thankfully appreciated.

I have, &c.

Earl Russell to Sir F. Bruce.

Foreign Office, August 31, 1865.

Sir, I HAVE received your despatch of the 14th instant, inclosing a copy of the reply of Mr. Seward to your note of the 10th instant, in which he states that he has recommended to the Secretary of the United States Navy the adoption of proper measures to carry into effect the Treaty of 1862 for the suppression of the Slave Trade; and I have to instruct you to express to Mr. Seward the satisfaction of Her Majesty's Government at this intelligence.

I am, &c. (Signed) RUSSELL.

No. 260.

My Lord,

Sir F. Bruce to Earl Russell.-(Received October 16.)

Washington, September 26, 1865 IN compliance with the instructions contained in your Lordship's despatch of the 31st ultimo, I addressed a note to the Secretary of State of the United States, a copy of which I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship herewith.

I have, &c. (Signed)

FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE.

Inclosure in No. 260.

Sir F. Bruce to Mr. Seward.

Washington, September 22, 1865.

Sir, I TRANSMITTED to Her Majesty's Government copy of the note you did me the honour to address to me, informing me that you had recommended to the Secretary of the Navy of the United States the adoption of proper measures to carry into effect the Treaty of 1862 for the suppression of the Slave Trade.

I am instructed to express, in reply, the satisfaction felt by Her Majesty's Government on receipt of this intelligence.

I have, &c.

(Signed) FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE.

FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE

RESPECTING THE

BRITISH CAPTIVES IN ABYSSINIA.

Presented to the House of Lords by Command of Her Majesty.

1866.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS.

Further Correspondence respecting the British Captives in

Abyssinia.

My Lord,

No. 1.

Consul Plowden to Earl Granville.-(Received August 6.)

Massowah, June 20, 1852. I HAVE the honour to inclose some remarks on a few points of the social system of Abyssinia that bear directly upon the Treaty* we have concluded with his Highness Ras Ali. So peculiar is that system; so difficult to assimilate to European ideasa difficulty felt by Bruce, and the cause, perhaps, of his ill-reception in England,-that each despatch must swell to a volume should I endeavour to explain it in all points of view; nor will it ever be thoroughly understood until, by proximity, a free and frequent communication take place betwixt the two nations.

I may, by affording such information as I possess, induce each to think more, perhaps more favourably, of the other; but no efforts f mine can annihilate the 3,000 miles that interpose, or the more fatal barrier of the Turkish domination along the line of coast.

I have, &c.

Remarks on the Social System of Abyssinia, in some points bearing upon the Treaty lately

concluded.

IN speaking at all of Abyssinian institutions, it must be remembered, as a general key to their peculiarities, that the form of government and its military spirit are feudal; whilst in the laws and customs, the Jewish institutions are everywhere traceable.

The title of Ras signified, in the times of prosperous and hereditary succession, the Prime Minister and Commander-in-chief of the Emperor, and the highest rank in the Empire.

The Ras now claims the right, as then possessed by him, of appointing all other Chiefs of Provinces, and officers of every kind, at his will and pleasure; and having a sufficiently commanding force at his disposal, is, in fact, master and king of the country, the form even of consulting the Emperor having been disregarded for many years.

Amidst the conflicts, however, of great families, whose members claim the hereditary Chieftainship of different provinces, and whose name will at any moment conjure into existence a numerous army for rebellion or rapine, the Ras is obliged to employ a subtle and tortuous policy, rather than violence, in order to retain his control over those fierce warriors-his equals by birth, impatient of a superior, and in some instances sufficiently powerful to be nearly independent. The resemblance is apparent to the times of Louis XI of France and his rebellious vassals.

Each Chief holding the rank of "Dejajmatch," quasi Duke, appointed by the Ras, or as often only obtaining his consent after a successful contest with his own immediate rivals, is entire master of all sources of revenue within his territory, with full power really of life and death, theoretically vested in the Ras alone. His feudal Treaty, November 2, 1849; British Ratification delivered to the Ras of Abyssinia, March 1, 1852; laid before Parliament, June 1852.

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subjection consists in the obligation to send, from time to time, some presents to his superior, and to bear his shield; that is, to follow him to war with as large a force as he can muster: against private enemies he is generally expected to protect himself. He takes tolls from all merchants passing through his district.

The most powerful of these feudal inferiors of the Ras is the Dejajmatch Oobeay, Chief of Yemen, who, having added by conquest the whole of Teegray and other provinces, has become in point of warlike equipments fully the equal of the Ras, possesses every avenue leading from the interior to the sea, and acts in every respect as an independent Sovereign, though still nominally subject to the Ras, and paying to him a small yearly tribute of 5,000 to 10,000 dollars.

The immediate troops of the Ras consist of a number of petty Chiefs, governing one, two, or more villages, who imitate, as far as they dare, the independence of the greater Barons, and who take the field, when called on, with 5 or 500 men, according to their means.

Besides these, who are numerous, the Ras has his matchlock men, and four or five bands of rude and disorderly soldiery, his guards. From the lax system of government, and the manner of paying these men by quartering them on the country-people with instructions to levy so much grain or other property, it may be supposed that these undisciplined troops, when at a small distance from the camp, are almost equally independent of the Ras, and frequently are simply organized bands of robbers, the rather that after the commission of any profitable crime they have but to reach the camp of some great feudal Chief at a distance from the Ras, and by entering his service obtain perfect immunity, or, would they enjoy in ease their spoil, to take shelter in the nearest well-reputed church, which is inviolable as the "city of refuge " of the Mosaie Law.

Regarding the collection of duties, each Chief claims them as part of his revenues, excepting those levied at Gondar, Adowah, and a few other towns, collected by an officer called the "Negadeh Ras," who pays a fixed sum yearly to the Ras or Oobeay, and extorts as much as he can from the merchants for his own profits.

Custom-houses, or rather passes, have been established in Abyssinia on every spot where Nature in that mountainous country has confined the road to some narrow defile, not to be avoided without an immense détour, if at all, and near some commanding elevation where a good look-out can be stationed, or perhaps at a brook fordable only at one spot; and as the different Chiefs sometimes give orders on the sudden to allow no one to pass, great trouble ensues, not only to merchants, but to all wayfarers. Frequent quarrels, and even deaths, occur at these posts, always kept by armed men, and it requires no little temper and knowledge of the country to avoid these inconveniences, or to send messengers, &c., to any distance in safety.

A merchant starts from Massowah for Basso, the last mercantile station to the southward of Christian Abyssinia; he pays at Massowah the import or export duty to the Turkish Governor he must then engage a guide from the Shohos, an independent tribe inhabiting the hills near the coast, and in possession of the only passable roads winding through defiles for fifty or sixty miles; according to the agreement made, and his appearance, wealthy or otherwise, he may pay this guid from 10 dollars to dollar. Arriving then in Oobeay's dominions, he will be stopped four or five times before he reaches Adowah, and on each occasion must arrange with those in charge of the tolls as he best can as regards payment, the amount being arbitrary, and the system in fact one of legalized plunder. On arrival at Adowah he pays certain more regulated duties to the Negadeh Ras of that town, a douceur, moreover, being expected as the price of a friendly settlement of dues; after meeting the exactions of several minor posts he will next have to pay at the town of Doobaruk, in the province of Waggera, duties on the same scale with those of Adowah, generally about 1 dollar per mule-load of merchandize, and being then clear of the territories of Dejajmatch Oobeay, enters those of Ras Ali, whose tolls commence at Gondar. Here the duties are nominally somewhat settled, though long disputes almost invariably occur, and after three or four more detentions and payments on a smaller scale in Begemder, he passes the Nile, and arrives in the domains of the Chiefs of Godjam or Dámot. These may be in a state of entire rebellion or of sulky submission to the Ras: as in the latter case they pay him a fixed tribute, he does not interfere with their toll-levying, and the merchant must disburse at some eight or ten more stages of his journey ere he can reach Basso.