British Expedition to Abyssinia peaceable inhabitant shall be molested. The sole object for which the British Force has been sent to Abyssinia is the liberation of Her Majesty's subjects. There is no intention to occupy permanently any portion of the Abyssinian Territory, or to interfere with the government of the country." The two most powerful Ethiopian princes in the north, Dajamach Kassai of Tigray and Wagshum Gobeze of Lasta both pledged to cooperate and aid the British Army, thus transforming an apparent invasion of Abyssinia into a conquest of a single mountain fortress defended by only a few thousand warriors in the employ of
SS Abyssinia sale of "Oregon" to Cunard. In 1885, Stephen Guion himself died and his firm was reorganised with Sir William Pierce of Elders as the new chairman. In 1887, Pierce chartered Guion's "Abyssinia" along with Elder's two other former Cunarders to Sir William Van Horne to begin steamship service in the Pacific, extending the Canadian Pacific Railway's transportation services from England, across the Atlantic to Canada by steamship, across Canada by railroad, and finally across the Pacific to Japan, China and India by steamship. "Abyssinia" opened the new Pacific service, with 22 first-class and 80 steerage passengers. She required only 13