friends and enemies.

In order to make the reader familiar with the subject, it was also
necessary to say a few words about the Europeans who played a part
in that strange imbroglio--the Abyssinian difficulty. My knowledge
of them, and of the events that occurred during our captivity, was
acquired through personal experience, and also by intercourse with
well-informed natives, during long months of enforced idleness.

In preparing this work for the press, I found it necessary to the
completeness of the narrative, to incorporate some portions of my
Report to the Government of Bombay on Mr. Rassam's mission, which
appeared in an Indian newspaper, and was subsequently republished
in a small volume.

For the same reason I have also included a few articles contributed
by me to a London newspaper.

The sufferings of the Abyssinian captives will be ever associated,
in the annals of British valour, with the triumphant success of the
expedition, so skilfully organized by its commander, whose title,
Lord Napier of Magdala, commemorates the crowning achievement of a
glorious career.

_London, July 23, 1868._



A NARRATIVE OF CAPTIVITY IN ABYSSINIA.