A letter from Dr. Henri Blanc, one of the prisoners
confined by Theodore of Abyssinia, suggests a possible explanation of his conduct. He is possessed, the writer says, with hatred of white men. He hoped by their aid and his immense army, numbering at one time 750,000 men, to re-establish the old glories of Ethiopia, and reign from Magdala to Alexandria, like Sesostris. Foiled in this, he became bitter, and now finds apparently pleasure in any insult offered to Europeans. He chained the French Consul, for instance ; and M. Blanc—evidently a cool-headed, light- hearted person—thinks anything short of actual 'compulsion would be lost on him. We may add, that the fear df the execu- tion of the prisoners generally entertained in England may be taken as unfounded. They might be murdered five minutes before the King was killed, but up to that time he would keep them as other scoundrels keep valuable papers, to make terms with in extremity. Even Tippoo did that, and this man is to Tippoo what Tippoo was to his conqueror.
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