Beke, Charles T. — THE BRITISH CAPTIVES IN ABYSSINIA.

Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer 1867. 2nd Ed. 398pp. + 4pp. + [i]. Tinted litho. frontis., folding map, 2 ills. Much pencil underlining and some pencil marginalia, light age toning, rebound in modern half calf with marbled boards, gilt motifs with gilt lettered label to spine. Inscribed to head of title page ‘William Henry Black Esq. F.S.A. From the Author IN Memoriam 13 Nov. 1867’.D.N.B. Charles Tilstone Beke (1800-1874). ‘... In 1864 Captain Cameron and other British subjects and missionaries were imprisoned by the King of Abyssinia for pretended insults. Beke at once undertook a journey to Abyssinia to urge on King Theodore the necessity of releasing the British consul and his fellow prisoners. Beke obtained the temporary liberation of the prisoners, but his mission appears to have been of questionable prudence and to have irritated the king, whose subsequent conduct, in again imprisoning and ill-treating the captives, led to the Abyssinian war, which resulted in the complete defeat, and the death, of King Theodore.’