FOOTNOTES:[21]By a letter which Bruce addressed from London to his friend Mr. Wood, it appears that it was on the 16th of March he left Kenné for Cosseir, but the 16th of February is the day stated in his "Travels."[22]Salt's Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 267.[23]Four hundred miles in four days is not five miles an hour.
[21]By a letter which Bruce addressed from London to his friend Mr. Wood, it appears that it was on the 16th of March he left Kenné for Cosseir, but the 16th of February is the day stated in his "Travels."
[21]By a letter which Bruce addressed from London to his friend Mr. Wood, it appears that it was on the 16th of March he left Kenné for Cosseir, but the 16th of February is the day stated in his "Travels."
[22]Salt's Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 267.
[22]Salt's Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 267.
[23]Four hundred miles in four days is not five miles an hour.
[23]Four hundred miles in four days is not five miles an hour.
Previous to Bruce's landing at Masuah, the ancient port of Abyssinia, it would seem proper to lay before the reader some account of this country, and of the continent to which it belongs.
Of Africa in general it may be justly said, that ninety-nine parts of it are unknown; and that, at several points, a man might travel from the Mediterraneanvery nearly to the Cape of Good Hope, and from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, over ground which has never been trodden or seen by any European traveller.
We have surveyed its coasts; we are acquainted with part of the Nile; and, in a very few directions, we have attempted to penetrate into the interior of the country; but it must be confessed that Africa is an immense blank in geography which remains yet to be filled up. Instead, therefore, of presuming to offer a map of this continent, we propose to attempt nothing more than a short verbal description of its general features, with a few observations thereon; and as Bruce's memoranda on the topography and history of Abyssinia are, with little attention to arrangement, scattered over the seven volumes of his travels, and would alone fill three or four times as many pages as the whole of this little book contains, we shall merely add to our sketch of Africa a slight descriptive outline of the kingdom of Abyssinia, and an abstract of its history up to the time when Bruce landed in that country.
We are but indifferently prepared to do justice to these subjects; but we feel that it is impossible for the general reader, going merely step by step, like a man walking in the dark with a lantern, to judge of Bruce's life in Abyssinia, unless he previously takes into consideration the general character and history of that country, and the character of the continent of which it forms a part.
SKETCH OF THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA.
That vast portion of the globe which we call Africa is in length about five thousand miles, which is about the distance from the line to Iceland, or from Calcutta to the North Pole: in short, it is about one thousand miles more than the distance from the earth's centre to its circumference. The greatest breadth of Africa is very nearly equal to its length. This immense expanse of country is situated in exactly the hottest region of the globe; for, from the equator, it is twothousand five hundred miles to its northern boundary, the Mediterranean Sea, and about the same distance to its southern extremity, the Cape of Good Hope. The burning heat of both the torrid zones forms, therefore, the scorching climate of the middle portion of this continent; and the northern and southern extremities, its coldest regions, are, as we all know, nearer to the line than the most southern or hottest parts of Europe. To describe the climate, it may therefore, in general terms, not unjustly be observed, that what is marked by Nature upon our European scale of climate as excess of heat, is all that the African knows of the luxury of cold, excepting that which is produced by elevation or evaporation.
Although Africa is thus perpetually exposed to a scorching sun, yet, if it were well watered, it would be highly productive, and not unlike a luxuriant garden. But, although heat and water give this exuberant fertility to any soil, we also know that, without water (the blood of the vegetable world), the richest land remains acaput mortuum—rudis indigestaque moles—an inert, lifeless mass. Water being, therefore, an element of such vital importance in the production of vegetation, it becomes necessary to take a very short practical view of the tropical rains which deluge the centre of Africa.
During the half-yearly visits which the sun pays in succession to the torrid regions on the north and south of the line, the air, heated by his presence, becomes rarefied, and flies upward: its place is immediately filled; and thus a constant rush of air, or, as we call it, a trade-wind, is produced, which, being also influenced by the diurnal motion of the sun, is constantly flowing towards the equator. The air, thus rushing towards the sun, is by heat made capable of absorbing a greater quantity of water than it could contain in a colder state; and therefore, as soon as this air and vapour united rise into high and consequently colder regions, a divorce between the two elements suddenly takes place; the air now loses its power of retaining the vapour, which, beingimmediately condensed, becomes water; and its companion, the dry air, thus deserted by it, falls to the earth in what we term tropical rains, which, accompanying the sun from one torrid zone to another, are, by a most wonderful provision of Nature, perpetually assuaging the thirst which this immense heating mass tends to create. The rains are always most violent where the sun is in the zenith; and, as a remarkable instance of the effect which they produce, it may be stated, that Bruce observed, when the sun was immediately over Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, that the thermometer was invariably about twelve degrees lower than when he was in the southern tropic, thirty-six degrees from the zenith of Gondar: so happily does the approach of rain compensate for the heat of a burning sun! But, while the centre of Africa, or, to speak more correctly, a belt of about eleven hundred miles on each side of the line, is thus periodically deluged with water, yet, in the vast remainder of the continent, it may be said, with very few exceptions, that it never rains at all. The burning heat and the unequal distribution of water in Africa being understood, the following picture of the country is the natural consequence.
Within the limits of the tropical rains, the soil, rank from excessive heat and moisture, in some places is found covered with trees of most enormous size, encircled by kossom and other twining shrubs, which form bowers of a most beautiful description, enlivened by the notes of thousands of gaudy birds, and perfumed with fragrant aromatic breezes. These trees are often the acacia vera, or Egyptian thorn. They seldom grow above fifteen or sixteen feet high, then flatten; and, spreading wide at the top, touch each other, while the trunks are far asunder: and thus, under a vertical sun, for many miles together, there is a free space, in which both men and beasts may walk in a cool, delicious shade. Other parts of this region produce coarse grass, high enough to cover a man on horseback, or a jungle, composed of tall underwood and briers, which would be almost impervious tohuman beings were it not for the elephant and other large animals, which, crushing everything in their progress, form paths in various directions. In many places the land is highly cultivated, divided into plantations, fenced in as in England, possessing towns of more than thirty thousand inhabitants, and swarming with an immense population.
Strangely contrasted with this picture of the wet portion of Africa are its dry, lifeless deserts, composed either of mountains and plains of hot stones, or of vast masses of loose, burning sand, which, sometimes formed into moving pillars by the whirlwind, and sometimes driven forward, like a mist, by the gale, threaten the traveller with death and burial, or, rather, with burial and then death; a fate which befell the army of Cambyses. In some places, however, the sand is found, like a layer of mortar, firmly cemented on the surface by an incrustation of salt; and it is in these scorching regions of salt and sand that the traveller experiences what he has emphatically termed "the thirst of the desert;" and yet, with all its horrors, the desert parts of Africa are more healthy, and afford a residence which is often more desirable than the rank, luxuriant regions; for the excessive rains bring into existence vast numbers of flies, moschetoes, and ants, which not only torment the body, but even devour the garments. Denham says (vol. ii., p. 91), "After a night of intolerable misery to us all, from flies and moschetoes, so bad as to knock up two of our blacks, we mounted, &c.... Another night was passed in a state of suffering and distress which defies description: the buzz from the insects was like the singing of birds; the men and horses groaned with anguish. I do not think our animals could have borne another such night." Besides producing these flies, the rains cover the country with extensive lakes, and, as far as the eye can reach, with immense miry swamps, which at first drive the wild beasts among the human race, and then putrify and corrupt the air; converting a verdant, smiling country into what may be termed a painted sepulchre.In the desert, on the other hand, there are no flies; the air is comparatively healthy; and, as the heat penetrates only a few inches into the ground, a cool bed can always be obtained after sunset by clearing away the hot sand from the surface.
The moral outline of Africa is far more gloomy than the physical face of the country. The whole of the interior (as far as Europeans have been able to judge, or, rather, to conjecture, from their slight acquaintance with it) may be said to be one scene of incessant civil war. Of all the various tribes, nations, colours, and races of men who inhabit this immense country, there is not one which has not its enemy; and the universal creed of Africa seems to be, that the freedom and happiness of one tribe rest upon the slavery and misery of another. The Sultan of Mandara, on the marriage of his daughter, lately made an incursion into the Kerdy country: three thousand unfortunate wretches were thus dragged from their homes, and doomed to perpetual bondage.
Across scorching deserts, in which not a living animal, or even an insect, exists, in various directions are seen one tribe of human beings driving another to slavery. The unfortunate captives, starting from their native seats in health, and, strange to say, even in spirits, gradually decline in both: their bodies become emaciated, their legs swell, and, as Denham says, "on approaching the wells, they run forward several miles like things distracted, their mouths open, and eyes starting from their heads." The water they seek is sometimes brackish, or the well itself is found to be dry; and around its exhausted source stand grouped this crowd of disappointed beings, surrounded by the countless skeletons of those whose captivity and troubles have alike ended on the same spot; who have perished from thirst and fatigue; and whose bones the hungry camels of the Cafila are oftentimes seen to chew.
From the northern coast of Africa, where the Christian captive has so often ended his days in silent misery and anguish, down to the country of theHottentots and Caffres, a space of about five thousand miles, and from the eastern mountains of Abyssinia to the waters of the great Western Ocean, a distance of nearly four thousand miles, we have every reason to believe that, throughout the whole of this immense region, the system of slavery more or less prevails.
A Short Description of Abyssinia.
A Short Description of Abyssinia.
The kingdom of Habbesh, Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, the oldest monarchy in Africa, is a small, highly-elevated, mountainous district, lying in the middle of the north torrid zone, within the limits of the tropical rains, enclosed by forests of enormous extent, a small part of the Red Sea, and unknown, trackless regions. This secluded spot, cut off from communication with the civilized world by poisonous winds, burning deserts of moving sand, and by the character of its people, far more dangerous to the traveller than either their climate or country, is nevertheless connected with Europe by two circumstances that distinguish it from the rest of Africa. The two ties which thus connect the Christian world with Abyssinia are its river and its church; and it is surely pleasing to reflect, that Egypt—the granary of the East, a field annually enriched by a triple harvest, a smiling, luxuriant garden, in a remote corner of the blank, lifeless desert of Africa—owes its fertility to a river which, rising in a Christian country, may not unjustly be considered as a type of that religion which, calmly proceeding on its course, is ever offering to the vast moral deserts through which it flows, the blessings of peace, civilization, and abundance here, and everlasting happiness hereafter.
Abyssinia, surrounded by enemies, expands or contracts its boundaries with every victory or defeat; but, in general terms, it may be said that it is about equal in extent to Great Britain. It is bounded on the north by Sennaar and the great woods of the Shangalla; on the south it is hemmed in by various tribes of the Galla nations, which also approach its borders on the west and partly on the east, while the rest of its eastern frontier is formed by the Red Sea. Abyssinia has therefore been compared to a bow, of which the Shangalla tribes on the north form the string, and the various nations of the Galla the arch. It is, generally speaking, mountainous; or, to describe it more minutely, it is composed of groups and ranges of very high mountains, overlooking the plains and deep valleys which surround them.
Before it is possible to give a clear idea of the climate of this country, there are certain phenomena which it is necessary to describe. It is well known that, from Suez to Masuah, the ancient harbour of Abyssinia, and from thence to the Straits of Babelmandel, a chain of mountains runs nearly parallel to the western coast of the Red Sea. These mountains, to the north of Abyssinia, pass through the country of the Shepherds, and there separate vast districts, which, though exactly in the same latitude, have nevertheless a most remarkable difference in the period of their rains. Both countries are deluged with rain for six months in the year; but the wet seasons on the two sides of these mountains are diametrically opposite to each other. On the east side, or in the country which lies between the mountains and the Red Sea, it rains during the six months which constitute our winter in Europe; while on the opposite side it rains during the whole of our summer months. From the violence of these rains, and on account of the fly that accompanies them, either region becomes, for six months of the year, almost unfit for the habitation of man; while the country on the opposite side of the mountains is teeming with luxuriance, and basking under the rays of a prolific sun. Theshepherds, or inhabitants of these adjoining territories, availing themselves of this singular dispensation of Providence, annually migrate from one side of the mountains to the other; so that, although one or the other country is always suffering from the rain and fly, the natives of both manage to enjoy a perpetual summer; and while their cattle are feeding, in the cool of the morning, on the most luxuriant pasture, and, during the burning sunshine of the day, are browsing on exuberant foliage, a mere geographical line divides them from a land deluged with a pouring rain, deserted by almost every living creature, and condemned to gloomy and cheerless solitude. It may easily be conceived that this wandering life of the shepherd creates predatory, pilfering habits; and the old Abyssinian proverb, "beware of the man who drinks two waters," agrees with our own experience, how badly men of roaming, unsettled dispositions are suited to the enjoyment of stationary, civilized life.
These periodical rains, which in themselves constitute one of the wonders of nature, produce another which is almost equally extraordinary; for, as soon as the fat, black earth of the mountains of Abyssinia becomes saturated with water, immense swarms of flies burst into existence; and, with the rains, assist in driving almost every living creature from them. This insect, called by the Abyssinians tsaltsalya, although it is scarcely larger than a common bee, becomes formidable from its immense numbers; and the buzzing sound announcing its arrival is no sooner heard, than the cattle forsake their food and run wildly about the plain, till they actually die from fear, pain, and fatigue. The camel, whose patience under every other affliction is proverbially unalterable, becomes ungovernable from the violent punctures of these flies; his body is soon covered with lumps, which break and putrify, and the wretched creature sinks and dies. Even the rhinoceros and elephant, whose hides are considered almost impenetrable to a musket-ball, are severely persecuted by these insects; but they instinctively fortify themselves against theirattack by wallowing in the mud, which, when dried by the sun, forms a coating that is impenetrable to their stings. All the inhabitants of Melinda, down to Cape Gardfui, Saba, and the south coast of the Red Sea; and all those of the countries from the mountains of Abyssinia to the confluence of the Nile and the Astaboras, are obliged annually to quit the region of black earth, and, driving their cattle before them, to seek refuge in the cheerless sands of the desert; and so many human beings and huge animals thus flying before an army of little flies, certainly forms a very remarkable and surprising feature in the great picture of Nature.
Of all the writers on these countries, Isaiah is, we believe, the only one, before Bruce, who has given an account of this insect. "And it shall come to pass," says the prophet, "in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys."
For one moment we must stop to observe, that Bruce's account of the number and the effect produced by these flies is a part of his narrative which was long pointed at and ridiculed as being particularly unworthy of belief; yet the description already quoted from Denham (page 100) strongly corroborates Bruce's statement, which has also been confirmed by the testimony of the Abyssinian, Dean, who was publicly examined at Cairo by Dr. Clarke. No author has ever yet been able to impart to his reader an adequate idea of the clouds of locusts which, in some parts of the world, suddenly convert, for a hundred miles together, a green country into a brown one, by the total destruction of vegetable life. Bruce's account, therefore, of the havoc which the tsaltsalya, zimb, or fly of Abyssinia produces among living creatures, however strange it may sound in this country, does not, in the natural history of the world, stand unsupported.
Why a portion of the animal and vegetable creation should be annoyed by such scourges as the zimb and the locust; why parts of the world should bedisordered by hurricanes and earthquakes; and why the whole of mankind should occasionally suffer from pestilential disorders, &c., are problems which Bruce need not be called on to solve. He has merely added one to a number of facts, concerning which all we know is, that they form parts of a wise and beneficent system which it is entirely beyond our power to comprehend.
Abyssinia being mountainous, lying in the middle of the torrid zone, and being subject also to the heavy periodical rains just described, the effect naturally produced by these three causes is, that the climates of the high and low country are totally different. The mountainous or high land of Abyssinia, which, it may be observed, is covered with long grass and destitute of wood, is at all times dry, cool, temperate, and healthy, and often even extremely cold; while the low, woody country, hazy, close, and insufferably hot, suffers severely from the sickness invariably produced by the excessive rains. Part of this low country, however, is not covered with wood; and, though equally hot, from being better ventilated, it is, generally speaking, healthy, while it is as productive as Egypt, and covered with the finest cattle of all descriptions. But where the waters of the rainy season, for want of descent, stagnate on the plains, these hot, swampy marshes produce no pasture, and are exceedingly unhealthy.
The little kingdom of Abyssinia, thus possessing within itself districts of such various climates, is inhabited by people of races and complexions as different as the soil and altitudes which they respectively occupy. In Abyssinia, royalty sits perched on the tops of the highest mountains; the great bulk of the community enjoy themselves on the sides of the hills, or in the wide, healthy plains; and in the hot, feverish, putrid atmosphere of the low woods, we meet that wretched, unfortunate being, the black, woolly-headed negro, who there, as in other regions of the world, finds his fellow-creature, pagan as well as Christian, a more cruel, cunning, relentless enemy than the savage beasts of the field.
THE SHANGALLA.
The Shangalla of Abyssinia, the ancient Cushites or Ethiopians, occupy a low, flat, sultry country, with a dark, rich soil, on an average about forty miles broad. They are pagans, black, naked, and inveterate enemies of the Abyssinian government. During the first half of the year, the Shangalla live under the friendly shade of their own trees, the lower branches of which they bend downward and fix into the ground, thus forming a verdant tent, which they cover on the outside with the skins of animals. For food and amusement they hunt the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and those other large animals which either inhabit their woody territory, or are found wallowing in the sultry pools which it encloses; and hence it follows, that where the forest is the broadest, the jungle the thickest, and the stagnant ponds the largest, there the tribes of the Shangalla are the most numerous and formidable. In those parts of the country where the large animals do not abound, the Shangalla subsists on buffaloes, deer, boars, lions, and even serpents: in places where there is little wood, whole tribes of them eat the crocodile, fish, locusts, lizards, and ostriches; and thus they are still the rhizophagi, elephantophagi, acridophagi, struthiophagi, agriophagi, &c., which Ptolemy, in his account of the Ethiopians, has so accurately described.
During the summer, the Shangalla tribes subsist on the animals which they catch; but, in order to provide for the rainy season, they prepare their food in a very singular manner. Venison and other flesh is cut into strips or thongs about as broad as a man's thumb. These are dried in the sun until they resemble tough leather; even locusts are dried and packed in baskets for the winter's consumption. Before the rainy season commences, they strike, or, rather, uncover their tents, leaving the boughs still pinioned to the earth; and thus bidding adieu to the skeleton of their deserted village, they seek refuge in caves which are rudely excavated in gritty, sandy rocks, so soft that they areoften made to contain several apartments. Soon after the rains subside, the high grass becomes dry, brown, and parched; and, being inconvenient to the Shangalla, they set fire to it. The flames rapidly extend over the country, and run down the ravines and gullies, in which, but a few weeks before, another element was seen rushing on its course!
The Shangalla have but one language, which has a highly guttural sound. They worship trees, serpents, the moon, planets, and stars in certain positions. They have, of course, many superstitions: for instance, a star passing near the horns of the moon denotes, they conceive, the approach of an enemy. They have priests, but only to defend them from evil spirits: to their good, benevolent spirits they fancy they may appeal without human assistance.
They are all archers from their infancy. Their bows, which are made of wild fennel, are usually long and thick, and so elastic that the same weapon is used in childish sports which afterward defends them when they grow up—the only difference being that whereas, when boys, they are obliged, from its length, to hold the bow horizontally, the being able to bend it vertically is, among the Shangalla, the admitted sign of manhood. As a sort of religious, or, rather, superstitious, offering, they place on their bow a ring or strip of every animal they kill; and when the bow, covered with these rude trophies, becomes too heavy to be used, they carefully preserve it.
The old Shangalla has always, therefore, a number of these weapons in his possession. From them he selects a favourite one to be buried with him, in order that, when he rises again, he may not be at a loss to defend himself from his enemies; for these poor people, as we shall soon learn, are so accustomed to enemies in this world, that they cannot conceive that even a future existence can be without them; and yet, rude and mistaken as their notions are, we must all admit that there is no one idea more deserving of respect—which more directly tends to civilize the human mind, making all men act towards each other as brothers,than a belief, however vague, in a state of future existence.
It would be difficult to point out a more striking contrast than what is presented in the sedentary life of the negro or Cushite of Abyssinia, compared with the wandering habits of his neighbour the shepherd. The former, whether he lives in a tent or in a cave, moves only to avoid the zimb or the rain; the latter is constantly migrating from one side of the mountain to the other, or else driving camels laden with merchandise across the burning deserts of Africa.
Although the Shangalla live in separate tribes, yet they are in the habit of joining together, and of forming alliances offensive and defensive, but principally to assist each other in repelling the barbarous attacks which are made upon them by the Abyssinians and Arabs.
Mothers, who stand most in need of protection, naturally look for it to their own offspring; and it is a habit among these women, as among the Galla tribes, to entreat their husbands to maintain a plurality of wives, that, by the number of children in the family, the means of safety may be proportionally increased. Their moral character is, nevertheless, defended by Bruce with so much good feeling, that we must give it to the reader in his own words:
"I will not fear to aver, as far as concerns these Shangalla, or negroes of Abyssinia (and, I believe, most others of the same complexion, though of different nations), that the various accounts we have of them are very unfairly stated. To describe them justly, we should see them in their native purity of manners, among their native woods, living on the produce of their own daily labours, without other liquor than that of their own pools and springs, the drinking of which is followed by no intoxication, or other pleasure than that of assuaging thirst. After having been torn from their own country and connexions, reduced to the condition of brutes, to labour for a being they never before knew; after lying, stealing, and all the long lists of European crimes have been made, as it were,necessary to them; and the delusion occasioned by drinking spirits is found, however short, to be the only remedy that relieves them from reflecting on their present wretched situation, to which, for that reason, they most naturally attach themselves; then, after we have made them monsters, we describe them as such! forgetful that they are now not as their Maker created them, but such as, by teaching them our vices, we have transformed them into, for ends which, I fear, one day will not be found a sufficient excuse for the enormities they have occasioned."
It would be well for the character of human nature if we could here close the history of the Shangalla; but, as yet, nothing has been offered but a sketch of theirlives: the account of theirdeath, or, what is even worse, of theirslavery, remains still to be told.
On the accession of every new king to the throne of Abyssinia, and on many other occasions, it has been the custom to amuse the country by a great hunting match, which lasts several days; and in this pastime rewards are given, according to a fixed scale, for each of the wild beasts that are killed.
As soon as the hunting of the animals is concluded, license is granted for a general hunt after the Shangalla; and exactly the same reward is offered for the murder of one of them as for slaying an elephant, a rhinoceros, or any other of the larger species of beasts.
The moment usually preferred for the persecution of these ill-fated people is just before the rains, while they are yet living in their vegetating tents, and before the soil of their country, by dissolving into mire, obliges them to seek refuge in their winter-quarters.
In order to hunt these people, the Abyssinians, in overpowering numbers, and armed with every sort of weapon they can collect, enter the forest, and then, like hounds, they regularly draw the covers which contain their game. The men of the Shangalla being extremely active, intelligent, and accustomed to the intricacies of their native woods, could easily evade their pursuers; but each man, tethered by hisaffections to his own little family, can only retreat at the rate of the weakest, and they are consequently very soon overtaken by the Abyssinians. In the hot, gloomy, unhealthy recesses of the forest, far beyond the regions of civilization, out of the hearing of mercy, out of the sight of every people that would rush forward to prevent such enormities, the sport or slaughter begins. The grown-up men are all killed and then mutilated, parts of their bodies being carried away as trophies: several of the old mothers are also killed, while others, frantic with fear and despair, kill themselves. The boys and girls of a more tender age are then carried off in brutal triumph; the former are afterward to be found as servants in all the great houses in Abyssinia; while the latter, the weaker sex, are dragged into more remote and distant countries, to be sold as attendants to the Turks, who profess to admire the Ethiopians in summer, because, as they say, like toads, they have a cold skin.
Any one who has ever had the misfortune to witness an African slave-market, and for a moment to stand surrounded by its wretched, emaciated victims, must, after his first feelings have subsided, have found himself filled with astonishment that human nature could ever be induced deliberately to continue so guilty a traffic! To account for it, or, rather, to excuse it, it has often been urged that negroes are a race of inferior beings, whose minds are not susceptible of those painful sensations which we should suffer were we to be placed in their unfortunate condition. In short, to explain the problem, we paint the map of the world in our own way, and then gravely say, "the inhabitants of these (our countries) have acute feelings, and those who dwell in that have none!"[24]But this strange assertion is most curiously contradicted by the history of the negroes or Shangalla of Abyssinia; for they and their enemies, the persecuted and the persecutors, absolutely live under the same sun, in thesame country, and separated only by a few hundred feet of elevation. No one can therefore rationally maintain that these children of one family can be divided by feelings of such different degrees of susceptibility; for the Shangalla must surely enjoy freedom and independence in the valley, as much as the Abyssinians can enjoy them on the higher ground.
But the real truth is, that the sun is hotter in the lower stratum than it is in the upper. The human body, exhausted by its heat, becomes weaker; and it is because the Shangalla are less powerful than the Abyssinians, and for no other reason, that the former are murdered and persecuted by the latter. The African slave-trade rests precisely on the same foundation.
THE GALLA.
The Galla are a very numerous race of shepherds living to the south and west of Abyssinia, and also in parts of the interior of that country. As their land is high, and the rains screen it for a considerable time from the sun, the general complexion of these people is brown; though some who inhabit the valley of the lower country are perfectly black, with long hair of the same colour. They are divided into tribes, for every seven of which a king or chief is elected. There exists, also, a sort of rude nobility among them, whose ancestors have been raised to this dignity by valorous feats in war; and it is from these families alone that the chieftain can be chosen.
No one of these superiors can be elected until time has conferred on him forty years of experience. However, in their savage calculation, the killing of an enemy is considered as equivalent to a year's experience; and, therefore, any noble becomes eligible for supreme command whenever, between years of age and enemies slain, he shall have made up the number of forty. The Galla are almost all mounted on horses, which, from constant practice, they of course manage with great dexterity. In passing rivers they dismount, and grasp the tails of their horses, which inthis way tow them across. The amount of assistance they thus receive does not exceed a few ounces; whereas, by remaining mounted, they would subject animals badly adapted for swimming, and scarcely able to support themselves, to the extra burden of the whole of that part of their body which is above the water. Their arms consist of a shield made of bull's hide, and a long lance sharpened at the end, and then hardened by fire.
The attack of these wild people is very much dreaded by the Abyssinians; for, besides their cruelty, they utter, in charging, such a shrill, barbarous, frantic howl, that the Abyssinian horses are said to tremble with fear, in which their riders very readily participate.
When they march into the country of an enemy, they carry with them small balls about as big as pigeon's eggs, composed of a particular sort of bean, pulverized and mixed with butter; and it is affirmed that, by eating one of these boluses, a Galla soldier can, in health and spirits, endure a whole day's fatigue.
Both sexes are rather below the middle size, but they are remarkably light and agile. The women are generally very prolific; and the sun which shines on the infant's birth seldom sets before the mother has resumed her occupations: such is the healthy state of savage life! The dress, or, rather, undress of some of the tribes of the Galla, present a costume which, although curious, has not yet reached our fashionable world. Round their persons they wind as ornaments the entrails of oxen, which also hang in festoons or necklaces from their throats. Their bodies are anointed with grease, poured so copiously on their heads that it melts, and, like our pomatum, is continually dropping on their shoulders, over which is thrown a piece of goatskin. Like the Abyssinians, they eat raw meat; but Pierce, the English sailor, describes a Galla who drank blood warm from the neck of the cow, and still, from an odd refinement, refused to eat the flesh of the animal until it had been broiled.
The Galla of the south are principally Mohammedans, but those of the east and west are Pagans. The religion of the latter is very little understood; and it has, therefore, as usual, been said that they have none at all. It appears, however, that the Wansey-tree, under which their rude kings are crowned, is worshipped as a god by every tribe; there are also particular stones which they have been observed to venerate. They worship the moon and some of the stars: they have no idea of future punishment, but believe that, after death, they will live again and for ever.
Their form of marriage is as follows: The bridegroom comes to the parents of the bride with some food for a cow in his right hand, and he then very seriously and solemnly says, "May it never enter the cow or leave her if I do not perform my promise;" which is, that he will give to this young wife meat and drink while she lives, and bury her tidily when she dies.
As in the Abyssinian climate, girls marry at eleven, ten, and even nine years of age; and there being no difficulty in supporting children, it is, by a Galla, reckoned creditable to be encircled by a numerous family; and, therefore, if his wife presents him with only a few children, she herself endeavours to persuade her husband, for her sake, to take another to assist her in surrounding him with his most natural protectors. To any objections he may urge, she replies by naming and describing to him all the most interesting girls of her acquaintance; and, as soon as he relents, her next step is to proceed to the house of the person selected, whom she asks of her parents to be her husband's wife, that their united families may be strong enough in the day of battle not to fall into the hands of the enemy.
After this second marriage is concluded, the old wife still retains her precedence, treating her companion, not as a rival, but more like a grown-up daughter.
When the father, from old age, has become useless and unfit for war, he is obliged to surrender the wholeof his effects to his eldest son, who is bound to support him; and in case this son dies, leaving a widow, the youngest brother of all is expected, out of respect to his memory, to marry her.
Bruce's description of the Gallas, from which the above sketch has been principally taken, was one of the many parts of his narrative which were very generally disbelieved; and yet no one acquainted with savage life but must recognise in Bruce's description all those general lines which form its characteristic features.
Bruce described the Galla tribes as being intelligent and active, but, at the same time, dirty, ignorant, and having the most absurd religious notions; and this general description being strictly correct, his details should in justice never have been doubted. But he unfortunately experienced that a man may suffer from prejudices and narrow-minded incredulity long after he has bid adieu to savage society.
The uncivilized tribes which surround, as well as inhabit Abyssinia, having been now described, the character of the Abyssinians themselves will appear in the following short abstract of their history.
FOOTNOTE:[24]The Chinese have a map which consists of a very large country, and a little speck; the former, they say, is "China;" the latter, "the rest of the world."
[24]The Chinese have a map which consists of a very large country, and a little speck; the former, they say, is "China;" the latter, "the rest of the world."
[24]The Chinese have a map which consists of a very large country, and a little speck; the former, they say, is "China;" the latter, "the rest of the world."
A Sketch of the History of the Kingdom of Abyssinia.
A Sketch of the History of the Kingdom of Abyssinia.
It is a tradition among the Abyssinians, which they say they have had from time immemorial, and which is equally received by the Jews and Christians of that country, that, almost immediately after the flood, Cush, grandson of Noah, with his family, passing through Atbara, then without inhabitants, came to the chains of mountains which separate the flat country of Atbara from the elevated part of Abyssinia. The tradition farther says, that they built the city of Axumearly in the days of Abraham; and that they spread from thence until they became (as Josephus says) the Meröetes, or inhabitants of the islands of Meröe.
While population was thus extending towards the north, it is supposed that the mountains parallel to the Red Sea, which in all times have been called Saba or Azaba (which means south), became peopled with the Agaazi, or Shepherds, who first possessed the high country of Abyssinia, called Tigré, several tribes afterward occupying the other countries, many of which still retain particular languages of their own.[25]
In the most ancient of these languages, tribes or assemblies of people are called Habesh, which appellation was therefore supposed to have been given to the whole country now known to us by the name of Abyssinia.
The inhabitants of Saba, Azab, or Azaba, all of which mean south, were a separate and distinct people from the Ethiopians or Arabs; and it was a custom among these Sabeans to have women for their sovereigns in preference to men.
One of these queens, called Balkis by the Arabs and Maqueda by the Abyssinians, having heard not only of the wisdom of Solomon, but of the immense riches which he had accumulated in the north, determined to witness for herself the reality of scenes, to the description of which she had listened with so much delight; and, accordingly, this Queen of Saba (Sheba), Azaba, or the South, suddenly appeared before Solomon. Pagan, Arab, Moor, Abyssinian, and, indeed, the inhabitants of all the countries around, vouch for this expedition very nearly in the language of Scripture, which states, "And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions;" and again, "The Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shallcondemn it, for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here."
It is said by the Abyssinians that this Queen of Sheba or Saba left her country a Pagan; but that, having received Solomon's answers to the hard questions which she put to him, she returned converted to Judaism, bringing with her a young child called Menilek, whose paternity was ascribed to Solomon; and it may here be observed, that both the Jews and Christians of Abyssinia still believe that the fourteenth Psalm is a prophecy, not only of their queen's journey to Jerusalem, but that there she should have a son, who was to be king over a nation of Gentiles.
The Abyssinians declare that Menilek, after residing some years with his mother, was sent by her to his father, Solomon, to be instructed; that he then took the name of David, and was anointed and crowned, in the Temple of Jerusalem, as King of Ethiopia. After this ceremony he is said to have returned to Azab, or Saba, accompanied by a colony of Jews, and by a high-priest, Azazias, who brought with him a Hebrew transcript of the Law. The moment had now arrived for the Queen of Saba to carry her great and hitherto secret objects into execution. Abyssinia was converted to the religion of Jerusalem; and, by the last act of the queen's reign, she settled a new mode of succession to the crown, which has existed very nearly to the present day.
She enacted, first, that the throne should be hereditary in the family of Solomon for ever; secondly, that, on her demise, no woman should be capable of wearing the crown, which should thenceforward descend to heirs-male, however distant; and, lastly, that the heirs-male of the royal house should be kept imprisoned on a high mountain, there to remain until their death, or until they should be called to the throne.
The queen having decreed that these laws should be irrevocable, died, after a long reign of forty years, in the year 986 before Christ. She was succeededby her son Menilek, whose posterity, according to the annals of Abyssinia, and according to the belief of all the neighbouring nations, have reigned ever since; their device being a lion passant, with this motto: "Mo ansaba am Nizilet Solomon am Negade Juda;" which signifies, "The Lion of the race of Solomon and tribe of Judah hath overcome."
Separated from the present day by a period of nearly three thousand years, the history of the Queen of Saba is unavoidably involved in great obscurity; yet this faint outline of her character denotes a mind possessed of superior abilities. Secluded in the remote country where she reigned, it required no inconsiderable enterprise and determination to have undertaken the great journey which Scripture records that she performed; and this desire to introduce herself into the society of her superior, and to become acquainted with a country in a higher state of civilization than her own, shows a liberality which, in every situation of life, has always been considered highly creditable. Her wish that her sex should surrender to man, its natural guardian and protector, the dignity of command and the power of dominion, is also a remarkable trait in her character; and, whoever may have been the father of her son Menilek, in establishing a succession of heirs-male, it was certainly not impolitic to confer upon him dignity, in the real or imaginary claim of being descended from the wisest as well as one of the most powerful of kings.
With respect to her precaution of imprisoning all the heirs-male, in order the more surely to maintain a succession to the crown, this involves explanations respecting the habits and manners of the Abyssinians which will better appear in another place: it may, however, be here observed, that time is the best test of the fitness of any law for the particular tribe or people for whom it is designed; and therefore that, if this law has existed, as we are informed, for nearly three thousand years, and during that immense period has practically effected its object, the Queen of Sheba may very fairly be considered as a person of wisdom,equal at least to many less ancient legislators, whose laws and families are alike extinct.
We must now leave the Queen of Sheba, and speak of scenes which, being nearer, are for that reason more worthy of our attention.
About one thousand three hundred years after the death of the queen, and more than three hundred years after the birth of our Saviour, Meropius, a Greek philosopher, accompanied by Frumentius and Ædesius, two young men whom he had educated, embarked on board a vessel in the Red Sea for India. As they were proceeding on their voyage, the vessel was wrecked on the coast of Abyssinia, and they were instantly attacked by the natives, who seemed more merciless than the rocks on which they had been stranded. Meropius was killed, and the two youths were taken as prisoners to Axum, which had been made the capital of Abyssinia by Menilek, who removed his court from its ancient residence at Saba to a place near Axum, which is called "Adega Daid" (the house of David) to this day.
Frumentius and Ædesius, having received a good education, in a short time learned the language of the country; and, as soon as their talents and acquirements became known, they rose rapidly to distinction. Ædesius was appointed to be keeper of the king's household, while the young prince was intrusted to the care of Frumentius, who, after gradually gaining possession of the affection as well as the mind of his pupil, at length succeeded in imparting to him a love and veneration for the Christian religion; and, as soon as this good feeling was confirmed, Frumentius sought and obtained leave of absence, and hastened to St. Athanasius at Alexandria, to whom he declared his belief that the Abyssinians might easily be converted to Christianity if proper ministers were sent to instruct them. Athanasius listened to the statement with the earnest attention which it deserved, and in a very short time Frumentius returned to Abyssinia as bishop of that country. He found the young king firmly cherishing the religious hopes which he hadbeen taught to entertain, and, encouraged by Frumentius, he now formally embraced Christianity.
His example was rapidly followed throughout the greater part of the kingdom; and never did the seed of the Christian religion find a more genial soil than when it first fell among the rugged mountains of Abyssinia. There was no war to introduce it, no fanatic priesthood to oppose it, no bloodshed to disgrace it; its only argument was its truth, its only ornament its simplicity; and around our religion, thus shining in its native lustre, men flocked in peaceful humility, and, hand in hand, joined cheerfully in doctrines which gave glory to God in the highest, and announced on earth peace, good will towards men.
Arianism, however, breaking out under the Emperor Constantius, he was applied to by Athanasius to recall Frumentius; but, although the lightning of heaven had illumined Abyssinia, the thunder of the Roman Church was but faintly heard in so remote a region.
About one hundred and eighty years after the establishment of Christianity, a religious war is said to have taken place between the converted and unconverted Abyssinians (the Christians and the Jews). After this event there is nothing of importance in the uncertain annals of Abyssinia for upward of four hundred and forty years. Nine hundred and sixty years after Christ, a strong party was formed among the Jews, who, ever since the conversion of the race of Solomon to Christianity, had preserved on the mountain of Samem, on a pinnacle which was named the Jews' Rock, a separate royal family of their own.
Supported by their king and by his daughter Judith, a woman of great beauty and possessing uncommon talents for intrigue, the Jews resolved to attempt the subversion of the Christian religion, and the destruction of the race of Solomon. They accordingly surprised the Mountain of Damo, the residence of the Christian princes, the whole of whom, about four hundred in number, were massacred, with the single exception of an infant, Del Naad, who escaped into the powerful and loyal province of Shoa. A solitary descendantof the blood of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was thus preserved to represent the royal line. Thus the Jews, by means of their sanguinary victory, succeeded in interrupting the succession; and, contrary to the long-respected law of Abyssinia, Judith took possession of the throne, and not only enjoyed it herself for forty years, but transmitted it to five of her posterity, whose names are said to have been Totadem, Jan-Shum, Garcina-Shum, Harbai, and Maravi. On the death of Maravi the crown descended to one of his relations, a Christian, and it is said to have remained in his family (who, although Christians, were not of the line of Solomon) for five generations: however, about three hundred years after the murder of the princes, Tecla Haimanout, a monk and native of Abyssinia, who had founded the famous monastery of Debra Libanos, and been ordained abuna, or chief priest of Abyssinia, persuaded the reigning king nobly to restore the crown to the line of Solomon, which, as before stated, had been preserved in the province of Shoa. A treaty was accordingly drawn up by Tecla Haimanout, by which it was agreed that the kingdom of Abyssinia should be resigned to one of the royal princes; that a portion of land should be given to the retiring sovereign; that one third of the kingdom should be ceded to the abuna (Tecla Haimanout himself), for the maintenance of the Christian Church of Abyssinia; and, lastly, that no native Abyssinian should thereafter be chosen abuna, but that that great dignitary should always be ordained and sent from Cairo; by which arrangement Tecla Haimanout wisely intended to secure to his church the incalculable advantage of always having at its head a man independent of the narrow prejudices and interests which would probably govern any native of Abyssinia, and who would also bring into their secluded country the books, knowledge, and improvements of the more civilized part of the world.
This treaty having been concluded, a prince of the race of Solomon was peacefully restored to the throne of his ancestors, and the title which he assumed,"Icon Amlac," which means, "Let him be made our sovereign," was expressive of the general approbation which attended the measure. The place of confinement for the princes of the blood of Solomon was now established on the summit of the mountain of Geshen, in the province of Amhara, instead of being, as it had been for the space of two hundred years before the massacre of the princes, on the rock of Damo, in Tigré.
We need not linger over the petty wars and provincial troubles which make up the Abyssinian history for several succeeding generations. About the year 1418, Prince Henry of Portugal, who was half an Englishman, being the youngest son of John I. of Portugal, by Philippina, sister of Henry IV. of England, having long turned his attention to astronomy and the higher branches of mathematics, prevailed upon his father to attempt a passage to India by sailing round the Continent of Africa; and while this expedition was, by slow degrees and repeated voyages, groping its way over the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, Prince Henry suggested that, to avoid all disappointment, it would be well to attempt also to reach India by land; for it had long been reported by Christians from Jerusalem, that monks occasionally resorted to the holy city who declared themselves to be the subjects of a Christian prince, whose dominions were in the heart of Africa. The King of Portugal, therefore, determined to send ambassadors in search of this country, which was supposed to be governed by Prester John; and accordingly, Peter Covillan and Alphonso de Paiva sailed for Alexandria, carrying with them a rude map which had been constructed under the direction of Prince Henry. Embarking on the Red Sea, they sailed beyond the Straits of Babelmandel. Alphonso de Paiva died; but Covillan, after a series of adventures, reached Shoa, where the court of Abyssinia then resided; and here he was greeted by the fatal intelligence, that an ancient law of the country forbade him ever to revisit his native clime; that no stranger was ever permitted to depart; thatAbyssinia was but too truly the bourne from which no traveller returns; and Covillan, in fact, never did return to Europe.
He was, however, very well treated by the king and his people, and permitted to send to Portugal descriptions and plans of all his discoveries, which he most earnestly recommended should be followed up by other expeditions from his country. But the foundation on which he was building all his hopes suddenly gave way. Cape Tormentoso (the Cape of Good Hope) was doubled; the barrier to India was thus broken down; and the journey by land, as well as the importance of Abyssinia, were alike neglected and forgotten. During two reigns Covillan remained quietly at Shoa; but the Abyssinians then becoming embroiled in a war with the Turks of Arabia, entreated Covillan to obtain for them the assistance of Portugal, the King of Abyssinia promising that, as soon as his throne should be re-established in security, he would submit himself to the pope, and resign one third of his dominions to the Portuguese. A letter was accordingly despatched by an Armenian merchant named Mateo, who, after encountering for many years difficulties which often appeared to be insurmountable, at last succeeded in reaching Portugal, where he was received with every mark of attention and respect. A very numerous embassy was accordingly sent out from Portugal; and, landing at the north of Abyssinia, on the 16th of April, 1520, Don Roderigo, the ambassador, his numerous retinue, and Mateo the Armenian (all equally ignorant of the country), rashly resolved to proceed by land to the king, who was in one of the southern districts of his dominions. They crossed the whole extent of the empire, passing through unknown woods and mountains, "full of savage beasts, with men more savage than the beasts themselves," and intersected by large rivers, which were daily swelling with the tropical rains. They had occasionally to pass over deserts in which no sustenance was to be found either for man or beast. At last they were placed in a situation which, by theirdescription, appears to have been still more dreadful; for, in their journey to the convent of St. Michael, the wood or jungle became so thick that it was almost impossible to penetrate it: thorns and briers impeded their progress; unlooked-for ravines suddenly yawned beneath them; while mountains upon mountains were towering above them, their black and bare tops appearing, as it were, calcined by the rays of a burning sun, and by the lightning which was incessantly flashing around them.
As the little band proceeded, terrified at the thunder which was resounding in their ears, tigers and other wild beasts at times presented themselves, their voracity seeming for the moment to be appeased by astonishment; while immense baboons hurried by, clambering up the trees, as if eager to view creatures so strangely resembling themselves. At last the woods grew thinner, and some fields appeared; but Mateo and Don Roderigo's servant, worn out by fear, fatigue, and fever, became unable to proceed, and died.
After incredible difficulties the embassy reached the king at Shoa, on the 16th of October, 1520; but, bringing no presents (it was with no small difficulty that they had been able to bring themselves), they were very coolly received. After they had explained the object of their mission, the king was anxious to send back an answer to Portugal; and, contrary to the custom of Abyssinia, he at last allowed Don Roderigo to return, though he forcibly detained several of his attendants.
Roderigo reached Lisbon in safety with Zaga Zaab, ambassador from the court of Abyssinia. About twelve years afterward, the abuna or patriarch of Abyssinia, an imbecile old man, being at the point of death, the king, for political as well as religious reasons, prevailed on him to nominate as his successor John Bermudez, one of the Portuguese who had been detained in the country ever since Roderigo's arrival. Bermudez, anxious to revisit Europe, consented to accept the office, provided he received the approbation of the pope; and the king, being hard pressed in hiswars, and fully aware of the value of European troops, proposed that Bermudez should go first to the pope, and then to his own court, to solicit for Abyssinia the assistance of Portugal. After some difficulty, Bermudez set out for Rome, and, arriving there without accident, was confirmed by Paul III. as patriarch not only of Abyssinia, but of Alexandria likewise; nay, gratified at receiving a mission from a Christian state so remote that he had hardly been aware of its existence, the pope lavished on Bermudez the additional and incomprehensible title of "Patriarch of the Sea." With these distinctions Bermudez proceeded as ambassador from the King of Abyssinia to Lisbon, where, on his arrival, his titles were all acknowledged, and he himself treated with corresponding attention. His first act was to give the Portuguese a specimen of Abyssinian discipline, by putting Zaga Zaab in irons for having wasted so much time without effecting the objects of his embassy.
Bermudez then addressed the King of Portugal; and he drew such a picture of the wealth and power of Abyssinia, and of the advantages which would be derived from an alliance with so remote and magnificent a country, that the king promised to furnish him with four hundred troops; and many more than that number eventually landed at Masuah, and advanced into Abyssinia under the command of Don Christopher de Gama.
After marching for eight days to meet the king, Don Christopher received a message from the Moorish general full of opprobrious expressions, to which he returned a contemptuous answer; and on the 25th of March, 1542, these rival commanders came in sight of each other at Airial, a small village in the country of the Baharnagash. The Moorish army was composed of a thousand horsemen, five thousand foot, fifty Turkish musketeers, and a few pieces of small artillery. Don Christopher's forces consisted of three hundred and fifty Portuguese infantry, and about twelve thousand Abyssinians, with a few horsemen badly mounted, commanded by the Baharnagash, andRohel, governor of Tigré. A slight action ensued, which terminated in favour of Don Christopher; and on the 30th of August he again offered battle to the Moorish general.
The Portuguese had, early in the morning, strewed loose gunpowder in front of their line; and on the first approach of the enemy they set fire to it, which burned and frightened them very severely. The Abyssinians, however, shortly afterward giving way, the little band of Portuguese was instantly surrounded. Gallantly they resisted the fierce attack that was made on them; and, Don Christopher having been wounded, they cut their way through the enemy and retreated. During the night, the Portuguese commander crawled into a wood alone, where he was discovered by some Moorish horsemen, who, delighted at their prize, immediately carried him before their general. This worthy no sooner saw his prisoner than he began to load him with reproaches. Don Christopher, who was as impetuous as he was brave, replied in terms full of indignation and contempt; and this so enraged the Moor, that he flew upon his defenceless captive, and with his own hand cut off his head. The body of this brave man was severed into pieces, which were forwarded to different parts of Arabia, and the scull was packed off for Constantinople—the tribute of a barbarian to his superior in barbarism.
The victorious Moors then surrounded and attempted to seize a number of women belonging to their enemy; but a noble Abyssinian lady, who was married to a Portuguese officer, aware of the brutal character of the Moors, set fire to some barrels of gunpowder that were in the tent, when a terrific explosion took place, and the fears of the one sex, and the savage passions of the other, were instantly hushed for ever!
The king expressed his unfeigned sorrow at the tragical fate of Don Christopher, and sent three thousand ounces of gold to be divided among the surviving Portuguese, who flocked around his throne, earnestly entreating him to lead them to revenge thedeath of their commander. This they had shortly afterward an opportunity of doing, in a battle in which the Moors were defeated with great slaughter.
But, while the Portuguese troops were thus fighting for the Abyssinian cause, their religion, from the conduct of Bermudez, was becoming unpopular. For a long time the distinction between the Roman Catholic and the Abyssinian, Greek, or Coptic system, was too trifling to be observed. The Portuguese and the Abyssinians not only intermarried, but their children were christened sometimes by the ministers of one church and sometimes by those of the other: but Bermudez, in his intemperate zeal, soon gave another aspect to affairs. His bigoted policy continued for some time to disturb the country, but it at last reacted on himself: the king in public firmly resisted his arguments, and the flame which he had kindled only promoted his own downfall.
Deserting society, sullen, forlorn, and neglected, for some time he attempted to occupy his mind by saying daily mass to some ten miserable individuals. He then repaired to the port of Masuah, where, in squalid insignificance, this "Patriarch of the Sea" embarked upon his fickle element, and quitted Abyssinia for ever.
About this time, St. Ignatius, the founder of the order of Jesuits, was at Rome. To his active and grasping mind the conversion of Abyssinia to the Romish church seemed of so much importance, that it is said he proposed himself to go and be the apostle of that kingdom. The pope, however, who had need of Loyola's talents for higher purposes, refused this offer; but one of the same fraternity, Nunez Baretto, was fixed upon as patriarch. On his arrival at Goa, however, the king's continued aversion to the Catholic church being communicated to him, he resolved not to hazard his own patriarchal dignity, but to send Andreas Oviedo, bishop of Hieropolis, and Melchior Carneyro, bishop of Nice, with several other priests, as ambassadors to the court of Abyssinia. These ecclesiastical emissaries arrived at the port of Masuah in1558. The king, fancying that they were Portuguese troops who had come to fight for him, received them with marks of great delight; but when, on opening their credentials, he found that they were priests instead of soldiers, his countenance fell, and he became much troubled; "wondering," he said, "that the King of Portugal should meddle with his affairs:" and adding, "that he and his ancestors had paid obedience only to the chair of St. Mark, and acknowledged no other patriarch than him of Alexandria." The king and Oviedo had a violent discussion in public, which, of course, ended in the defeat of the latter, who, for a considerable time, lived in great obscurity. On the death of the king, however, his successor accepted the congratulations of Oviedo; but, hearing that he continued to preach, and to cause divisions among the people, he called him into his presence, and ordered him to desist. Oviedo refused; and the king, losing his temper, very improperly beat him with great violence, and then banished him to a desert mountain.
After the departure of Bermudez, the Catholic religion had no longer any support: the fathers who had remained in Abyssinia being dead, and the gate of the kingdom closed by the violent animosities of the Turks, and the cruelties they exercised on the missionaries who fell into their hands, the few Catholics remaining in these regions were only lingering out a wretched and hopeless existence. Affairs were in this state, when, in the year 1600, Peter Paez, the most enterprising, enlightened, and successful missionary that ever entered Ethiopia, landed at Masuah. He had been taken by the Turks in the Red Sea, and had just escaped from a seven years' imprisonment: adversity had thus given him a severer lesson and a clearer knowledge of the world than generally falls to the lot of members of his fraternity. On landing at Masuah, instead of rushing forward with hasty, intemperate zeal, in the hope of converting all at once a country, the language, habits, and prejudices of which he had as yet no knowledge of except frombooks, he calmly and deliberately set himself to work to learn the Geez, or written language. He next set up a school, which gave him privately, and without danger, a thorough insight into the Abyssinian character; and, after he had thus cautiously practised on the minds of his pupils, he at length felt himself prepared to encounter, by argument and persuasion, the passions and prejudices of the Abyssinian court. In April, 1604, therefore, Peter presented himself before the king, who received him with the same honours that he bestowed on his own people of rank: a distinction which the monks of the Abyssinian church viewed with great jealousy, foreseeing that the exaltation of Paez would eventually be the cause of their own humiliation. Mass was now said according to the ritual of the Romish church; and a sermon followed, which was almost the first ever preached in Abyssinia. Such was the eloquence of Paez, and so convincing did his arguments appear, that the king resolved to embrace the Catholic religion; and, guided by the persuasive missionary, he afterward went so far as to write to Pope Clement VIII. and to Philip III. of Spain, to ask for Jesuits to instruct his people.
Many of the courtiers soon followed the royal example. Latin prayers were now repeated; mass was said; the incense smoked; and the host was elevated in triumph. A party, however, was suddenly raised against Paez: the abuna not only declared him excommunicated, but pronounced a curse on all those who had supported, or who might support him or his cause. A battle was in consequence fought; and the King of Abyssinia, the first who had publicly avowed the Romish religion, died in the field.
After a series of sanguinary changes and contests, in the course of which another sovereign had fallen, Socinios succeeded to the throne, and began his reign with professions of moderation and neutrality. He, however, very soon privately made profession of the Catholic faith; and Paez, thus encouraged, asked the king for the territory of Dembea. This province, lying around the great lake Tzana, is the most fertileand cultivated country in Abyssinia. It is entirely flat, and seems to have been formed by the subsidence of the water of the lake, which, from visible marks, appears to have once covered four times its present surface. Dembea, although fruitful, has, however, one inconvenience, to which all level countries in this climate are subject: a mortal fever rages in the whole extent of it from March to November. On the north side of this lake, the country rises towards a rocky promontory, which forms a peninsula running into the lake. Nothing can be more beautiful than this small territory, moderately elevated above the water which surrounds it on every side except the north. Its climate is delightful, and no fevers or other diseases rage within it. The prospect of the lake and distant mountains is magnificent beyond European conception, and nature seems to have pointed out this lovely spot for pleasure, health, and retirement.
As soon as Paez had obtained possession of his territory, he began to build a convent. He had previously not only made tools of the European shape, but taught several of the natives how to use them; and accustomed to very rude habitations of but one story, the Abyssinians, to their utter astonishment, now beheld the rapid erection of a stately fabric of stone and lime. Paez was soon requested by the king to build him a palace, which he readily undertook; and, as story was mounted upon story, the fame of the builder rose with the edifice. This feeling Paez artfully exerted all his abilities to turn to the advantage of the see of Rome: his attempt, however, caused most violent dissensions; and the mild principles of Christianity were disregarded and disgraced on both sides. The chief point of controversy between the Coptic and the Romish priests was the number of natures in Christ. The abuna declared that no one could be saved who believed in more than one; the Catholics, that those who did not believe in two were reprobate, and condemned to everlasting punishment. This latter opinion was soon expressed otherwise than by words. In a short time the bleeding head of theabuna, or Patriarch of Abyssinia, was sent, as a religious offering, to Socinios, who, hearing a monk deny the two natures of Christ, put a sudden stop to his heresies by cutting out his tongue; while, on the other side, La Selasse, a priest of Selado, refusing to deny the two natures of the Saviour, was instantly stabbed with lances, and died exclaiming, "God and Man! God and Man! God and Man!"
A rival king now stood up to oppose Socinios, and the whole country was filled with rebellion and bloodshed. Socinios resolving publicly to renounce the Alexandrian faith and to profess the Catholic, Paez most willingly came forward, and with great pomp received his confession. Delighted that his great object was at last attained, Paez, during the heat of the day, returned to his house with his head uncovered, triumphantly saying the "Nunc dimittis!" "Lord! now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation!" and from being thus exposed to the burning sun, aided perhaps by the highly excited state of his feelings, he was taken violently ill, and died of a raging fever on the 3d of May, 1624.
After the death of Paez, Alphonso Mendez, a Jesuit doctor of divinity, and a man of great learning, having been ordained at Lisbon on the 25th of May, 1625, reached Abyssinia the following year. Accompanied by several missionaries, they experienced very great difficulties and dangers in crossing the country to join King Socinios. When they at length presented themselves before the king, he ordered Mendez to be placed on his right hand; and at that very audience (on the 11th of February, 1626) it was settled that Socinios should take an oath of religious submission to the See of Rome. This ceremony was celebrated with all the pageantry of a heathen festival. The palace was adorned with great pomp, and Mendez there preached a sermon to the king and his people, in Portuguese and Latin, not a word of either of which languages could they understand. In return, a sermon was preached to Mendez, and the missionaries who attended him, in the Amharic, which was equallyunintelligible to them. When this prelude was over, Mendez advanced, holding in his hand the New Testament, and upon that sacred volume Socinios, the degraded king of Abyssinia, was made to take the following oath, the Jesuit Mendez standing by his side: