Abyssinia Sentence Examples

On this frontier question, a treaty was concluded on the 15th of May 1902 between England and Abyssinia for the delimitation of the Sudan-Abyssinian frontier.

The greater part of Africa north of the equator is without any representatives of the conifers; Juniperus procera flourishes in Somaliland and on the mountains of Abyssinia; a species of Podocarpus occurs on the Cameroon mountains, and P. milanjiana is widely distributed in east tropical Africa.

The important exports are gums and resin, fibre, hides, ivory, ostrich feathers, coffee, ghee, livestock, gold ingots from Abyssinia and mother-of-pearl; the shells being found along the coast from Zaila to beyond Berbera.

History (12) Abyssinia, or at least the northern portion of it, was included in the tract of country known to the ancients as Ethiopia, the northern limits of which reached at one time to about Syene.

After 1897 British influence in Abyssinia, owing largely no doubt to the conquest of the Sudan, the destruction of the dervish power and the result of the Fashoda incident, was sensibly on the increase.

In Jurassic times the sea gained access to East Africa north of Mozambique, but does not appear to have reached far beyond the foot-plateau except in Abyssinia.

Within the eastern and southern Bantu area certain cultural variations occur; beehive huts are found among the ZuluXosa and Herero, giving place among the Bechuana to the cylindrical variety with conical roof, a type which, with few exceptions, extends north to Abyssinia.

The Nubians - that is the dwellers in the Nile valley between Egypt and Abyssinia - did not embrace Christianity until the 6th century, considerably later than their Abyssinian neighbours.

In this way a barrier was erected between the Christians of Nubia and those of Abyssinia.

Ismail subsequently (1870-1875) extended his sway over the whole coast from Suez to Cape Guardafui and garrisoned the towns of Berbera, Zaila, &c., while in 1874 the important town of Harrar, the entrepot for southern Abyssinia, was seized by Egyptian troops.

The dispute centred round the district of Bogos, lying not far inland from Massawa, which both the khedive and King John of Abyssinia claimed as belonging to their respective dominions.

War broke out in 1875, when an Egyptian expedition was despatched to Abyssinia, and was completely defeated by King John near Gundet.

Rudini, however, was able to conclude two protocols with Great Britain (March and April 1891) whereby the British government definitely recognized Abyssinia as within the Italian sphere of influence in return for an Italian recognition of British rights in the Upper Nile.

In 1268 the reigning prince abdicated in favour of Yekuno Amlak, king of Shoa, a descendant of the monarch overthrown by Judith (see Abyssinia).

He concluded peace with Abyssinia, but endangered relations with Great Britain by the unauthorized publication of confidential diplomatic correspondence in a Green-book on Abyssinian affairs.

The colony contains no navigable streams. For a short distance the Setit (known in its upper course as the Takazze), a tributary of the Atbara, forms the frontier, as does also in its upper course the Gash or Mareb (see Abyssinia).

The chief town in the interior is Asmara, the capital of the colony and under the Abyssinians capital of the province of Hamasen, and favourite headquarters of Ras Alula (see below and also Abyssinia).

In 1520 a Portuguese fleet, with Matthew on board, entered the Red Sea in compliance with this request, and an embassy from the fleet visited the negus, Lebna Dengel Dawit (David) II., and remained in Abyssinia for about six years.

Thereafter it suffered greatly from the civil wars which raged in Abyssinia, and was more than once sacked.

Unlike any other buildings in Abyssinia, the castles and palaces of Gondar resemble, with some modifications, the medieval fortresses of Europe, the style of architecture being the result of the presence in the country of numbers of Portuguese.

A vote of the Italian Chamber on the 4th of February 1887, in connection with the disaster to Italian troops at Dogali, in Abyssinia, brought about the resignation of the Depretis-Robilant cabinet.

The occupation, effected on the 5th of February, was accelerated by fear lest Italy might be forestalled by France or Russia, both of which powers were suspected of desiring to establish themselves firmly on the Red Sea and to exercise a protectorate over Abyssinia.

The extension of the Italian zone excited the suspicions of John, negus of Abyssinia, whose apprehensions were assiduously fomented by Alula, ras of Tigr, and by French and Greek adventurers.

The treaty, signed at Tjccialli on the 2nd of May 1899, arranged for regular intercourse between Italy and Abyssinia and conceded to Italy a portion.

Upon this clause Italy founded her claim to a protectorate over Abyssinia.

On the 11th of October Italy communicated article 7 of the treaty of Uccialli to the European powers, interpreting it as a valid title to an Italian protectorate over Abyssinia.

Pressed Abyssinia.

Under the arrangement concluded in 1891 by Rudini with native chiefs in regard to the Italo-Abyssinian frontier districts, relations with Abyssinia had remained comparatively satisfactory.

The treaty having been duly ratified, and an indemnity of 400,000 paid to Menelek, the Shoan prisoners were released, and Major Nerazzini once more returned to Abyssinia with instructions to secure, if possible, Meneleks assent to the definitive retention of the Mareb-Belesa-Muna line by Italy.

On the eastern side the southern flora finds representatives in Abyssinia, including Protea, and on the mountains of equatorial Africa, Calodendron capense occurring on Kilimanjaro.

Payva died at Cairo; but Covilhao, having heard that a Christian ruler reigned in the mountains of Ethiopia, penetrated into Abyssinia in 1490.

With Abyssinia the mission of Covilhao led to further intercourse.

In April 1520 Vasco da Gama, as viceroy of the Indies, took a fleet into the Red sea, and landed an embassy consisting of Dom Rodriguez de Lima and Father Francisco Alvarez, a priest whose detailed narrative is the earliest and not the least interesting account we possess of Abyssinia.

Da Gama was taken prisoner and killed, but his followers enabled the Christians of Abyssinia to regain their power, and a Jesuit mission remained in the country.

Father Francisco Paez acquired great influence in Abyssinia, and explored its highlands from 1600 to 1622.

Sennar, lying between Nubia and Abyssinia, was in ancient times under Egyptian or Ethiopian influence and its inhabitants appear to have embraced Christianity at an early period.

Recently a mission has been sent to the Falashas of Abyssinia, and much interest has been felt in such outlying branches of the Jewish people as the Black Jews of Cochin and the Bene Israel community of Bombay.

On the west its limit is in the Cape Verde Islands, and it is partially represented in Abyssinia.

The language and writing of the Semites who, at an unknown period, settled in what is now Abyssinia, show affinities with those of South Arabia, and these Semites may have been immigrants into Africa from that region.

His delineation of Abyssinia, though unduly spread over a wide area, is indeed wonderfully correct.

These British possessions, together with the whole of Somaliland and southern Abyssinia, are satisfactorily represented on the maps of the British general staff.

The trade with Abyssinia suffers owing to the absence of railway communication, which the neighbouring French colony possesses.

The other inland boundaries of the protectorate were defined by agreements with Italy (1894) and Abyssinia (1897).

The exports are chiefly coffee, hides, ivory (all from Abyssinia), gum, mother-of-pearl and a little gold; the imports cotton and other European stuffs, cereals, beverages, tobacco and arms and ammunition for the Abyssinians.

In 1884 Leonce Lagarde, subsequently French minister to Abyssinia, was sent to administer the infant colony.

It serves as a coaling station for men-of-war and as a highroad to Abyssinia.

The plant is now extinct in Lower Egypt, but is found in the Upper Nile regions and in Abyssinia.

The town and district form a small ethnographical island, having been peopled in the 18th century by a colony of Takruri from Darfur, who, finding the spot a convenient resting-place for their fellow-pilgrims on their way to Mecca and back, obtained permission from the negus of Abyssinia to make a permanent settlement.

The Axumite or Menelek dynasty was driven from northern Abyssinia by Judith, but soon after another Christian dynasty, that of the Zagues, obtained power.

The group is unknown in America, and in Africa is only represented in the mountains of the north, extending, however, some distance south into the Sudan and Abyssinia.

Apparently for this reason Christian Abyssinia was supported from Byzantium in its attempts to regain power.

Tradition tells that a few years before his death he did actually send letters to the emperor Heraclius, to the negus of Abyssinia, the king of Persia, and Cyrus, patriarch of Alexandria, the " Mukaukis " of Egypt, summoning them to accept Islam and threatening them with punishment in case of refusal.

The former fluke is found in Europe, North Africa, Abyssinia, North Asia, South America, Australia and the Hawaiian Islands; the latter in the United States.

The black rhinoceros (Rhinoceros (Diceros) bicornis) is the smaller of the two, and has a pointed prehensile upper lip. It ranges through the wooded and watered districts of Africa, from Abyssinia in the north to the Cape Colony, but its numbers are yearly diminishing, owing to the opening up of the country.

Within a year he and a fellow missionary were dispatched from that place to Abyssinia to act as spiritual directors to the Portuguese residents.

Having been redeemed by his order in 1596, he spent some years in mission work on the west coast of India, and it was not until 1603 that he again set out for Abyssinia, and landed at the port of Massawa.

The Alexandrian era continued to be followed by the Copts in the 15th century, and is said to be still used in Abyssinia.

With this mention Prester John ceases to have any pretension to historical existence in Asia (for we need not turn aside to Mandeville's fabulous revival of old stories or to the barefaced fictions of his contemporary, John of Hese, which bring in the old tales of the miraculous body of St Thomas), and his connexion with that quarter of the world gradually died out of the memory of Europe.(fn 3) When next we begin to hear his name it is as an African, not as an Asiatic prince; and the personage so styled is in fact the Christian king of Abyssinia.

Moreover, we know that the Ethiopic Church did long possess a chapel and altar in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and, though we have been unable to find travellers' testimony to this older than about 1497, it is quite possible that the appropriation may have originated much earlier.(fn 5) We know from Marco Polo that about a century after the date of Pope Alexander's epistle a mission was sent by the king of Abyssinia to Jerusalem to make offerings on his part at the Church of the Sepulchre.

Nothing is more likely than that the princes of the "Christian families" who had got possession of the throne of northern Abyssinia should have wished to strengthen themselves by a connexion with European Christendom, and to establish relations with Jerusalem, then in Christian hands.

From the 14th century onwards Prester John had found his seat in Abyssinia.

More than twenty years later, when the first book on Abyssinia was composed - that of Alvarez - the title designating the king of Abyssinia is "Prester John," or simply "the Preste."

We have little doubt that Abyssinia was the "regnum" here indicated, though it was a mistake to identify the Abyssinian Church with the Nestorians.

Harrar is a city of considerable commercial importance, through it passing all the merchandise of southern Abyssinia, Kaffa and Galla land.

The new amir held power until January 1887, in which month Harrar was conquered by Menelek II., king of Shoa (afterwards emperor of Abyssinia).

As a rule, however, the fauna of the Upper Semliki valley, of parts of Ankole, Buganda and Unyoro, of the Northern, Rudolf and Eastern provinces, is of that " East African," " Ethiopic " character which is specially the feature of South and East Africa and of the Sudan right across from Abyssinia to the river Senegal.

That Abyssinia was peopled from South Arabia is proved by its language and writing; but the difference between the two languages is such as to imply that the settlement was very early and that there were many centuries of separation, during which the Abyssinians were exposed to foreign influences.

Naturally difficulties would arise between Abyssinia and the Sabaean power.

The gelada inhabits the mountains of Abyssinia, where, like other baboons, it descends in droves to pillage cultivated lands.

A second species, or race, Theropithecus obscures, distinguished by its darker hairs and the presence of a bare flesh-coloured ring round each eye, inhabits the eastern confines of Abyssinia.

Only in Abyssinia the daughter church of the Coptic church succeeded in keeping the whole people in the Christian faith.

As the chronicle of Axum relates, Christianity was adopted in Abyssinia in the 4th century.

Abu Salih records (12th century) that the patriarch used always to send letters twice a year to the kings of Abyssinia and Nubia, till Al Hakim stopped the practice.

In 1439, in the reign of Zara Yakub, a religious discussion between an Abyssinian, Abba Giorgis, and a Frank had led to the despatch of an embassy from Abyssinia to the Vatican; but the initiative in the Roman Catholic missions to Abyssinia was taken, not by Rome, but by Portugal, as an incident in the struggle with the Mussulmans for the command of the trade route to India by the Red Sea.

In 1507 Matthew, or Matheus, an Armenian, had been sent as Abyssinian envoy to Portugal to ask aid against the Mussulmans, and in 1520 an embassy under Dom Rodrigo de Lima landed in Abyssinia.

Instead, the pope sent out Joao Nunez Barreto as patriarch of the East Indies, with Andre de Oviedo as bishop; and from Goa envoys went to Abyssinia, followed by Oviedo himself, to secure the king's adherence to Rome.

There are many early rock-cut churches in Abyssinia, closely resembling the Coptic. After these, two main types of architecture are found - one basilican, the other native.

It was included in the maritime province of northern Abyssinia, which was governed by a viceroy who bore the title of Bahar-nagash (ruler of the sea).

The German college, for the children of poor nobles, was founded in 1552; and in the same year Ignatius firmly settled the discipline of the Society by putting down, with promptness and severity, some attempts at independent action on the part of Rodriguez at Coimbra - this being the occasion of the famous letter on obedience; while 1553 saw the despatch of a mission to Abyssinia with one of the fathers as patriarch, and the first rift within the lute when the pope thought that the Spanish Jesuits were taking part with the emperor against the Holy See.

It is the chief depot for grain raised in the Gezira, has oil and soap works, and is a thriving commercial centre, being on the main trade route between Khartum and Abyssinia.

The chief town, Gondar, by which name the province is also known, was the residence of the negus negusti, or emperor, of Abyssinia from the middle ages up to 1854.

The speech of the inhabitants, Amharic, which differs in several features from the dialects spoken in Tigre and Shoa, is the official language of Abyssinia.

The cult of the white elephant is also found at Ennarea, southern Abyssinia.

The Nubian goat, which is met with in Nubia, Upper Egypt and Abyssinia, differs greatly in appearance from those previously described.

On the 26th of April 1441 the pope announced that the synod would be transferred to the Lateran; but before leaving Florence a union was negotiated with the Oriental Christians known as Jacobites, through a monk named Andreas, who, at least as regards Abyssinia, acted in excess of his powers.

A very large proportion represents simple transhipment; but Aden is also the centre of the exporting and importing business of the Red Sea commercial region made up of the Hejaz, Asir, Yemen, Hadhramaut, Eritrea, Abyssinia and British and French Somaliland.

In 1893 he investigated the ruins of Axum and other places in the north of Abyssinia, partially made known before by the researches of Henry Salt and others, and The Sacred City of the Ethiopians (1893) gave an account of this expedition.

Justinian also endeavoured, through the Christian prince of Abyssinia, to divert the trade from the Persian route along which silk was then brought into the east of Europe.

Being on the high road from Massawa to central Abyssinia, it is a meeting-place of merchants from Arabia and the Sudan for the exchange of foreign merchandise with the - products of the country.

The church of the Holy Trinity, one of the largest in Abyssinia, contains numerous wall-paintings of native art.

The most primitive of these is antinorii from Abyssinia, which is non-mimetic and has the two sexes nearly alike.

In the 4th and 5th centuries may be mentioned Gregory the Illuminator, the " apostle of Armenia " (about 300), Ulfilas, the " apostle of the Goths," about 325; Frumentius, 1 a bishop of Abyssinia, about 327; Nino, the Armenian girl who was the means of converting the kingdom of Iberia (now Georgia), about 33 0; 2 Chrysostom, who founded, at Constantinople in A.D.

Grotius also persuaded seven law students of Lubeck to go to the East as missionaries; the best known of them was Peter Heiling, who worked for 20 years in Abyssinia.

There is a Roman mission to the Gallas in Abyssinia.

In that town he printed a translation, little noticed at the time, and long forgotten, of a Latin book about Abyssinia.

He effected some reforms in the monastic orders; urged the conversion of the sectaries in Bohemia; and sent missionaries to America, India, Abyssinia and the Congo.

They mostly live in small streams and ponds, and many are mountain forms. They are almost entirely confined to Europe and Asia, but one species (Nemachilus abyssinicus) has recently been discovered in Abyssinia.

He sent 10,000 men to help to suppress a rebellion in Crete, and conquered the greater part of the (Nile) Sudan; but an expedition of 11,000 men, sent to Abyssinia under Prince Hasan and Rateb Pasha, well equipped with guns and all essentials, was, in two successive disasters (1875 and 1876), practically destroyed.

As the British troops retired to Upper Egypt, his followers seized the evacuated country, and the khalifa cherished the idea, already formulated by the mahdi, of the conquest of Egypt, but for some years he was too much occupied in quelling risings, massacring Lne Egyptians in the Sudan, and fighting Abyssinia, to move seriously in the matter.

The Eastern Sudan.In 1884 Colonel Chermside, governor of the Red Sea littoral, entered into arrangements with King John of Abyssinia for the relief of the beleaguered Egyptian garrisons.

Abu Angar entered Abyssinia and, in August 1887, attacked Ras Adal in the plain of Debra Sin and, after a prolonged battle, defeated the Abyssinians, captured their camp, and marched on Gondar, the ancient capital of Abyssinia, which he sacked, and then returned into Gallabat.

King John, the negus of Abyssinia, burning to avenge this defeat, marched, in February 1889, with an enormous army to Gallabat, where the amir Zeki Tumal commanded the khalifas forces, some 60,000 strong, and had strongly fortified the town and the camp. On the 9th of March 1889 the Abyssinians made a terrific onslaught, stormed and burnt the town, and took thousands of prisoners.

Internal strife prevented the new negus of Abyssinia from prosecuting the war, which thus, in spite of the Abyssinian success, resulted in the increased prestige of the khalifa.

The Fashoda incident was the subject of important diplomatic negotiations, which at one time approached an acute phase; but ultimately the French position was found to be untenable, and on the 11th of December Marchand and his men returned to France by the Sobat, Abyssinia and Jibuti.

Cakes of salt have been used as money in more than one part of the world - for example, in Abyssinia and elsewhere in Africa, and in Tibet and adjoining parts.

The chief buildings are the governor's palace, customs-house, post office, and the terminal station of the railway to Abyssinia.

Trade is confined to coaling passing ships and to importing goods for and exporting goods from southern Abyssinia via Harrar, there being no local industries.

The colony is bounded inland by the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Abyssinia and French Somaliland.

Dubbi and Alid are in Italian territory; the greater part of Afar belongs to Abyssinia.

On the plateau the fauna is that of Abyssinia.

Towards Abyssinia the chief towns are Saganeiti (capital of the Okule-Kusai province), Godofelassi and Adi-Ugri, the two latter situated in the fertile plain of the Serae; Adiquala, on the edge of the Mareb gorge; and Arrasa, the centre of the districts constituting the province of Deki-Tesfa.

There is a little trade with northern Abyssinia, but it is undeveloped.

The great arteries, however, number three, which, starting from Massawa by way of Asmara, run, two to Abyssinia, and one to Kassala and Khartum.

There are also two caravan routes from Assab Bay, across the Danakil country to southern Abyssinia.

The Egyptians took advantage of civil war in Abyssinia to seize Keren and the Bogos country in 1872 1, an action against which the negus Johannes (King John), newly come to the throne, did not at the 1 During the Second Empire unsuccessful efforts were made by France to obtain a Red Sea port and a foothold in northern Abyssinia.

An Egyptian garrison remained at Keren in the Bogos country until 1884, when in consequence of the revolt of the Mandi it was withdrawn, Bogos being occupied by Abyssinia on the 12th of September of that year.

This occupation led to wars with Abyssinia and finally to the establishment of the colony in its present limits.

The history of the Italian-Abyssinian relations is fully told in the articles Italy and Abyssinia (history sections).

The frontiers were further defined by a French-Italian convention (24th of January 1900) fixing the frontier between French Somaliland and the Italian possessions at Raheita, and also by various agreements with Great Britain and Abyssinia.

A tripartite agreement between Italy, Abyssinia and Great Britain, dated the 15th of May 1902, placed the territory of the Kanama tribe, on the north bank of the Setit, within Eritrea.

Theodore Bent copied carefully at Yeha in Abyssinia a few inscriptions, some of which had been already copied in 1814 by the English traveller Salt.

Muller,3 that the Sabaeans had colonized Abyssinia as early as woo B.C. Other inscriptions copied by Bent at Aksum belong to the 4th century A.D.

With the intention of proceeding to Abyssinia, whose Negus (emperor) Segued had been converted to Roman Catholicism by Pedro Paez, he left India in 1624.

The party landed on the coast of the Red Sea, and Lobo settled in Abyssinia as superintendent of the missions in Tigre.

In this he was successful, but could not induce the Portuguese viceroy to send an armament against Abyssinia.

On the African side there are in the north wide stretches of desert plain, which towards the south rise to elevated tablelands, and ultimately to the mountains of Abyssinia.

Pedro de Covilham had reached Abyssinia as early as 1490; in 1520 a Portuguese embassy arrived at the court of " Prester John," and in 1541 a military force was sent to aid him in repelling a Mahommedan invasion.

They include, to quote, the more noteworthy, the Descobrimento de Frolida, the Itinerario of Antonio Tenreiro, the Verdadeira informacao das terras do Preste Joao by Francisco Alvares,'and the Ethiopia oriental by Frei Joao dos Santos, both dealing with Abyssinia, the Itinerario da terra santa by Frei Pantaleao de Aveiro, and that much-translated classic, the Historia da vida do padre Francisco Xavier by Padre Joao de Lucena.

It has taken great interest in non-orthodox churches, such as those of Assyria, Abyssinia and Egypt.

The coast lands held by European powers, which cut off Abyssinia from access to the sea, vary in width from 40 to 250 miles.

Abyssinia is narrowest in the north, being here 230 m.

Abyssinia also includes part of the low country of the Sobat tributary of the Nile.

These tablelands and mountains constitute Abyssinia, Shoa, Kaffa and Galla land.

The valley between these hills and the eastern escarpment is one of the longest and most profound chasms in Abyssinia.

Only the left bank of the upper course of the river is in Abyssinian territory, the Mareb here forming the boundary between Eritrea and Abyssinia.

In the mountains and plateaus of Kaffa and Galla in the south-west of Abyssinia rise the Baro, Gelo, Akobo and other of the chief affluents of the Sobat tributary of the Nile.

The chief river of Abyssinia flowing east is the Hawash (Awash, Awasi), which rises in the Shoan uplands and makes a semicircular bend first S.E.

There are numerous hot springs in Abyssinia, and earthquakes, though of no great severity, are not uncommon.

The upper (Magdala group) contains much trachytic rock of considerable thickness, lying perfectly horizontally, and giving rise to a series of terraced ridges characteristic of central Abyssinia.

Of more recent date (probably Tertiary) are some igneous rocks, rich in alkalis, occurring in certain localities in southern Abyssinia.

But over the greater part of Abyssinia as well as the Galla highlands the climate is very healthy and temperate.

The rainy season is of great importance not only to Abyssinia but to the countries of the Nile valley, as the prosperity of the eastern Sudan and Egypt is largely dependent upon the rainfall.

In central Abyssinia the lion is no longer found except occasionally in the river valleys.

The civet is found in many parts of Abyssinia, but chiefly in the Galla regions.

With the exception of Harrar, a city of Arab foundation, there are no large towns in Abyssinia.

The absence of large towns in Abyssinia proper is due to the provinces into which the country is divided having been for centuries in a state of almost continual warfare, and to the frequent change of the royal residences on the exhaustion of fuel supplies.

The other towns of Abyssinia worthy of mention may be grouped according to their geographical position.

West of Adigrat is the monastery of Debra-Domo, one of the most celebrated sanctuaries in Abyssinia.

Apart from these market-places there are no settlements of any size in southern Abyssinia.

There are few roads in Abyssinia suitable for wheeled traffic. Transport is usually carried on by mules, donkeys, pack-horses and (in the lower regions) camels.

Telegraph lines connect Adis Ababa and several important towns in northern Abyssinia with Massawa, Harrar and Jibuti.

At the French and British ports there is freedom of trade, but on goods for Abyssinia entering Massawa a discriminating tax is levied if they are not imported from Italy.

In 1905 the Bank of Abyssinia, the first banking house in the country, was founded, with its headquarters at Adis Ababa.

A small standing army is maintained in each province of Abyssinia proper.

The following remarks apply solely to Abyssinia proper and its inhabitants.

Abyssinia appears to have been originally peopled by the eastern branch of the Hamitic family, which has occupied this region from the remotest times, and still constitutes the great bulk of its inhabitants, though the higher classes are now strongly Semitized.

The most remarkable buildings in Abyssinia are certain churches hewn out of the solid rock.

In early times, too, the Hebrews had commercial intercourse with the Ethiopians; and according to Abyssinian tradition the queen of Sheba who visited Solomon was a monarch of their country, and from their son Menelek the kings of Abyssinia claim descent.

Among others who had engaged in this search was Pedro de Covilham, who arrived in Abyssinia in 1490, and, believing that he had at length reached the far-famed kingdom, presented geese g g P to the negus, or emperor of the country, a letter from his master the king of Portugal, addressed to Prester John.

Between 1528 and 1540 armies of Mahommedans, under the renowned general Mahommed Gran (or Granye, probably a Somali or a Galla), entered Abyssinia from the low country to the south-east, and overran the kingdom, obliging the emperor to take refuge in the mountain fastnesses.

After this, quarrels arose between the negus and Bermudez, who had returned to Abyssinia with Christopher da Gama and who now wished the emperor publicly to profess himself a convert to Rome.

The Jesuits who had accompanied or followed the da Gama expedition into Abyssinia, and fixed their headquarters at Fremona (near Adowa), were oppressed and neglected, but not actually expelled.

James Bruce's main object was to discover the sources of the Nile, which he was convinced lay in Abyssinia.

In 1833 he returned to Europe, and published a journal of his residence in Abyssinia.

Bishop Gobat having conceived the idea of sending lay missionaries into the country, who would engage in secular occupations as well as carry on missionary work, Dr Krapf returned to Abyssinia in 1855 with Mr Flad as pioneers of that mission; Krapf, however, was not permitted to remain in the country.

Mr Stern arrived in Abyssinia in 1860, and after a visit to Europe returned in 1863, accompanied by Mr and Mrs Rosenthal.'

Northern Abyssinia was now divided into two camps, the one, Amhara and Ras Ali, under Protestant British, and the other, Tigre and Ubie, under Roman Catholic French, influence.

He had, further, a noble bearing and majestic walk, a frame capable of enduring any amount of fatigue, and is said to have been "the best shot, the best spearman, the best runner, and the best horseman in Abyssinia."

This, however, failed to influence the emperor, and the English government at length saw that they must have recourse to arms. In July 1867, therefore, it was resolved to send an army into Abyssinia to enforce the release of the captives, under Sir Robert Napier (1st Baron Napier of Magdala).

For the next three years the land was fairly quiet, the chief political events being the convention (6th February 1891) between Italy and Abyssinia, protocols between Italy and Great Britain (24th March and 15th April 1891) and a proclamation by Menelek (loth April 1891), all on the subject of boundaries.

On the 26th of October following a provisional treaty of peace was concluded at Adis Ababa, annulling the treaty of Uccialli and recognizing the absolute independence of Abyssinia.

The British one, under Mr (afterwards Sir) Rennell Rodd, concluded a friendly treaty with Abyssinia (15th of May 1897), but did not; except in the direction of Somaliland, touch on frontier questions, which for several years continued a subject of discussion.

But no contact was made, and the expedition returned to Abyssinia.

In December 1903 an American mission visited Adis Ababa, and a commercial treaty between the United States and Abyssinia was signed.

Ras Makonnen, the most capable and civilized of Menelek's probable successors, died in March 1906, and Mangasha died later in the same year; the question of the succession therefore opened up the possibility that, in spite of recent civilizing influences, Abyssinia might still relapse in the future into its old state of conflict.

Wylde's Modern Abyssinia (London, 1901), a volume giving the result of many years' acquaintance with the country and people; Voyage enAbyssinie 18 39-43, par une commission scientifique, by Th.

For latest geographical and kindred information consult the Geographical Journal (London), especially "A Journey through Abyssinia," vol.

Blanford, Observations on the Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia (London, 1870); C. Futterer, "Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Jura in Ost-Afrika," Zeit.

Texts of treaties between Abyssinia and the European Powers up to 1896 will be found in vol.

Dan, he declares, sooner than join in Jeroboam's scheme of an Israelite war against Judah, had migrated to Cush, and finally, with the help of Naphthali, Asher and Gad, had founded an independent Jewish kingdom in the Gold Land of Havila, beyond Abyssinia.

As the southern frontier town of Egypt proper, Assuan in times of peace was the entrepot of a considerable trade with the Sudan and Abyssinia, and in 1880 its trade was valued at 4.2,Ooo,000 annually.

The book was then lost sight of till 1773, when Bruce discovered the Ethiopic version in Abyssinia.

The emperor of Abyssinia had, for some time, detained some Englishmen prisoners in his country; and the government, unable to obtain redress in other ways, decided on.

The typical representative of the genus is the yellow baboon (P. cynocephalus, or babuin), distinguished by its small size and grooved muzzle, and ranging from Abyssinia to the Zambezi.

Less directly, other sides of his activity may be considered as fulfilled by the Portuguese penetration of inland Africa, especially of Abyssinia, the land of the "Prester John" for whom Dom Henry sought, and even by the finding of a western route to Asia through the discoveries of Columbus, Balboa and Magellan.

Throughout the greater part of Africa south of the Sahara galagos are widely distributed in the wooded districts, from Senegambia in the west to Abyssinia in the east, and as far south as Natal.

The coffee plant grows wild in such widely separated places as Liberia and southern Abyssinia.

In Abyssinia the Ashangi traps are certainly post-Oolitic. In East Africa the fissure eruptions are considered to belong to the Cretaceous.

The Arabian, or Nubian, ibex (C. nubiana) is characterized by the more slender type of horn, in which the front edge is much narrower; while the Simien ibex (C. vali) of Central Abyssinia is a very large and dark-coloured animal, with the horns black instead of brownish, and bearing only slightly marked front ridges.

Besides the Egyptian and Red Sea routes there is considerable trade between the eastern mudirias and Abyssinia and Eritrea, and also some trade south and west with Uganda and the Congo countries.

The khedive had also seized Bogos, in the hinterland of Massawa, a province claimed by Abyssinia.

This action led to wars with Abyssinia, in which the Egyptians were generally beaten.

The delimitation (1903-1904) of the frontier between the Sudan and Abyssinia enabled order to be restored in a particularly lawless region, and slave-raiding on a large scale ended in that quarter with the capture and execution of a notorious offender in 1904.

Among the striped species, or zebras and quaggas of Africa, the large Grevy's zebra (Equus grevyi) of Somaliland and Abyssinia stands apart from the rest by the number and narrowness of its stripes, which have an altogether peculiar arrangement on the hind-quarters, the small size of the callosities on the fore-legs, the mane extending on to the withers and enormous rounded ears, thickly haired internally.

Fan-palms, several species of dragon-tree and a banana, like one living in Abyssinia, represent the more peculiar Monocotyledons.

One of the most important questions which Gordon had to take up on his appointment was the state of the political relations between Egypt and Abyssinia, which had been in an unsatisfactory condition for some years.

After the conclusion of the financial episode, Gordon proceeded to the province of Harrar, south of Abyssinia, and, finding the administration in a bad condition, dismissed Raouf Pasha, the governor.

Shortly afterwards he went down to Cairo, and when there was requested by the new khedive to pay a visit to King John and make a definite treaty of peace with Abyssinia.

The imports are largely cotton goods, provisions, timber and cement; the exports gum, raw cotton, ivory, sesame, durra, senna, coffee (from Abyssinia), goat skins, &c. Forty miles north of Port Sudan is Mahommed Gul, the port for the mines of Gebet, worked by an English company.

It rises in Abyssinia to the N.W.

Possibly an adroit repetition in favor of Mangashh and against Menelek of the policy formerly followed in favor of Menelek against the negus John might have consolidated Italian influence in Abyssinia by preventing the ascendancy of any single chieftain.

This species is often considered as indigenous to India, but Dr Engler has pointed out that it is found wild in Upper Guinea, Abyssinia, Senegal, etc. It is the " tree cotton " of India and Africa, being typically a large shrub or small tree.

The incline is uniformly to the south-east, and apart from the few coast streams that reach the Gulf of Aden during the rains, all the running waters are collected in three rivers - the Nogal in the north, the Webi Shebeli in the centre, and the Juba (q.v.) I See also Abyssinia.

By a law passed by the French chambers in 1902 a subvention of £20,000 a year for fifty years was granted to the company owning the railway (see further Abyssinia).

By treaties with Somali sultans in 1889 and by subsequent agreements with Great Britain, Zanzibar and Abyssinia, the coast east of the British Somali protectorate fell within the Italian sphere of influence (see Africa, § 5).

Some confusion between Abash (Abyssinia) and Abhas seems to be possibly at the bottom of the imbroglio.

Abyssinia had been going through a long period of vicissitude and distraction.

He is famous for his invasion of Abyssinia, of which country he was virtual master for several years.

On the 1st of March 1896, in the hills north of the town, was fought the battle of Adowa, in which the Abyssinians inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italian forces (see ITALY, History, and ABYSSINIA, History).

When the Abyssinia mission was closed in 1838 one of the missionaries, Krapf, went among the Gallas and then on to Mombasa, working in company with Rebmann.

The chief rivers of Somaliland, the Webi Shebeli and the Juba, have their rise on the south-eastern slopes of the Abyssinian escarpment, and the greater part of their course is through territory belonging to Abyssinia.

A season of light rain may be sufficient for the needs of Abyssinia, but there is little surplus water to find its way to the Nile; and a shortness of rain means a low Nile, as practically all the flood water of that river is derived from the Abyssinian tributaries (see Nile).

For southern Abyssinia, Kaffa and Galla lands, Harrar is the great entrepot, goods being forwarded thence to Jibuti and the other Somaliland ports.

Of the tracts excepted, Abyssinia is inhabited mainly by Semito-Hamites (though a fairly strong negroid element can be found), and Somali and Galla-lands by Hamites.

Egyptian authority was withdrawn from the coast regions south of Suakin in 1884 (see below and also Abyssinia; Eritrea and Somaliland).

Kniphofia Leichtlini - Native of Abyssinia, and requires winter protection even in the south of England.

The frontier towards Abyssinia was fixed by a convention of March 1897 with the Negus Menelik.

After the treaty of Adis Adowa, recognizing the independence of Abyssinia, had been concluded in 1896, negotiations were opened for defining the Italian-Abyssinian frontier in the Somali regions.

It is known as a winter visitant to Egypt and Abyssinia, and is abundant at all seasons in Barbary, as well as in the Canaries and Madeira.

In Abyssinia, at Axum and elsewhere, there is a marvellous series of obelisk-like monuments, probably sepulchral.

They produced so little effect that the general election of 1895 gave Crispi a huge majority, but, a year later, the defeat of the Italian army at Adowa in Abyssinia brought about his resignation.

The Abyssinians then held the fort, but as the result of frontier arrangement the town was definitely included in the Sudan, though Abyssinia takes half the customs revenue.