The captive missionary being an account of the country and people of Abyssinia, embracing a narrative of King Theodore's life, and his treatment of political and religious missions

London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1868. First edition, 8vo, pp. xvi, 397, [1], [2] ads; 8 wood-engraved plates; original pictorial blue cloth stamped in gilt on upper cover and spine; binding a bit soiled and small cracks at the spine extremities, but generally a good, sound copy, or better. Henry Aaron Stern (1820-1885) was an Anglican missionary and captive in Abyssinia. "In August 1842 he was admitted into the Hebrew College of the London Jews' Society, with the ultimate intention of becoming a missionary to the Jews." He was sent first to Jerusalem, then Baghdad, and Istanbul where he stayed for nearly six years. "The London Jews' Society then directed Stern to travel to Ethiopia to preach to the Beta Israel Jews, arriving on March 10, 1860. Tewodros II of Ethiopia initially welcomed Stern, and Stern fixed his headquarters at Gondar. "Following various slights by Lord John Russell of the British Foreign Office and others the Ethiopian emperor's attitude to the British changed. Stern was summoned to appear before the emperor at Gondar in October 1863 where Stern was beaten and imprisoned together with a Mr. Rosenthal, his LJS assistant. By the time they were transferred to prison at Amba Magdala, in November 1864, they were joined by the British consul, Charles Cameron, and other Europeans. Stern's situation was made more difficult by the fact that the emperor was made aware of uncomplimentary material in Stern's book - including having stated that the emperor's mother was a vendor of kosso - in Wanderings among the Falashas in Abyssinia: together with a description of the Country and its various Inhabitants 1862" (Wikipedia). This lead to the British 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia under the command of Robert Napier who captured the Ethiopian capital and rescued the prisoners.