On Jan. 7, 1868 a walrus-mustached British General named Robert Cornells Napier landed on the coast of Eritrea with 32,000 men, six cannon and a herd of baggage elephants. Into Ethiopia they marched to punish Emperor Theodore for the torture and imprisonment of a group of British officers. Three months later the British column had fought its way some 400 miles inland and had defeated Theodore's tribesmen at Magdala. Emperor Theodore promptly blew his brains out with a revolver presented to him by Queen Victoria. By June 18, five months after the expedition had started, the last British soldier...
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