Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 60
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[Page 60]
hope & pray that the biting of the dust at the last ditch will be for those who are against us.
I enclose for your amusement a few pleasant anecdotes about Menelik, lately King of Abyssinia. At the time the one about, le flair des lions, may have had more in it than met the eye ear or nose of M. Klobukowski. He may not have known that there is one thing, above all others, for which the black man can never forgive the white. The educated black man is not slow at proclaiming it. He says out loud: "No matter what happens we shall never be allowed to forget the objectionable odour which is always with you, nor can we forgive it." Menelik may have had this in his mind when he "ajouta avec un sourire", the words about the Italian & his not being in correct uniform.
Adis Abeba [also spelt Addis Ababa] is in the center of Abyssinia. The country was just to the West of us as we passed through the straights of Bab-el-Mandeb. According to a 1913 map at which I am looking British & Italian land separates Meneliks country from the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, the Straight of Tears, and the Red Sea. This must be a sore point with the Emperor of Ethiopia, because the French presents and other goods to reach any part of his country must pass do so by the leave of the English or French rulers. An anterior King of Abyssinia was taught a severe lesson by British troops led by General Napier, when in April 1868 they stormed Magdala, a mountain fortress believed at the time to be impregnable, and to which, in the Northern portion of the country the authorities had retired. The leader was afterwards created Lord Napier of Magdala. Memory takes me back to the illustrated papers of the day upon the pages of which there were reproductions of the stronghold built upon a rock and of the soldiers of Britain as they surmounted the walls and planted the Union Jack upon the battlements. When you have read the anecdotes you might send them on to Molly, she may be amused at by them.