THE 



ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA. 



A 



AFRICA. The relations between Egypt 

 and Turkey continued in an unsettled condi- 

 tion during 1871. In the beginning of the 

 year new preparations were made by the Khe- 

 dive for a declaration of independence, but in 

 April he asserted his readiness to comply with 

 the demands of the Sultan, and particularly to 

 abandon the project of building forts on the 

 Suez Canal. During the latter part of the year 

 the relations appeared to be of a friendly char- 

 acter. The Khedive received assurances of 

 a most friendly disposition on the part of his 

 sovereign ; at the same time, however, he was 

 given to understand that, in future, he must 

 not make any warlike preparations without 

 having previously received the consent of the 

 Sultan. The Egyptian Government had sev- 

 eral differences with foreign powers, the most 

 serious of which was with Spain. All of them 

 were, however, peaceably settled. 



The Bey of Tunis was threatened by the 

 Turkish Government with a considerable re- 

 duction of power. After protracted negotia- 

 tions, an agreement was arranged. A firman 

 of the Sultan provides that the Bey, as regent 

 of Tunis, remains subject to the Ottoman Em- 

 pire, and abandons the right of having diplo- 

 matic intercourse with foreign powers. The 

 tribute heretofore paid by Tunis will be dis- 

 continued, and its amount applied to the reduc- 

 tion of the taxes. The regency in Tunis re- 

 mains hereditary in the family of the Bey, pro- 

 vided that it shows itself permanently worthy 

 of this favor. The Bey engages to introduce 

 into Tunis all the state institutions of Turkey, 

 and to restore order in his finances. 



Important news has, after a long interval, 

 again been received from Abyssinia. The 

 English Colonel Kirkham, who commands the 

 regular troops of Prince Kassa, of Tigre", writes 

 on July 12, 1871, from Adowah: "At last the 

 long conflict with Gobazie (the wagshoom or 

 chief of the Agows of Lasta, who, in 1869, 

 caused himself to be proclaimed as Emperor 

 VOL. XL 1 A 



under the title of Hazie Giorghis) is at an 

 end. We had, on July 9th, a battle, in which 

 we took Gobazie and his whole army prison- 

 ers, and now Kassa will become Emperor of 

 Abyssinia." Letters from Munzinger, the dis- 

 tinguished German traveller, to the Khedive 

 of Egypt, fully confirmed this news. The fact 

 that the decisive battle was fought near 

 Adowa, the capital of Tigre", indicates that 

 Gobazie must previously have been in the as- 

 cendency. The subsequent successes of Kassa 

 are partly attributed to the cannon which Lord 

 Napier presented to him, and to the Congreve 

 torpedoes which the brothers Powell gave to 

 him in recognition of the services rendered by 

 Prince Kassa to them while searching for their 

 murdered brother. Later accounts from that 

 country state that the whole of Central Abys- 

 sinia was in a state of rebellion, and that a 

 number of towns had fallen into the hands of 

 Ali Bira, the chief of Yadyoo, who had been 

 liberated from the prison of Magdala by the 

 English army under Lord Napier. 



The Legislature of the Cape Colony ap- 

 pointed a committee of federation to examine 

 whether the better administration of the col- 

 ony, and its prosperity in general, would not 

 be promoted by dividing the province, accord- 

 ing to the example of Canada, into provinces, 

 each of which would have its own legislature 

 for local purposes. A party is beginning to 

 form in the Cape Colony which aims at the 

 establishment of a confederation of South- 

 African states. In Natal a confederation of 

 this kind is likewise the subject of a lively 

 discussion. 



Valuable works on Tunis and Tripoli have 

 been published by H. Freiherr von Maltzahn 

 (" Reise in die Regentschaften Tunis und Trip- 

 olis," 2 vols., Leipsic, 1870), and by A. Perry 

 ("Carthage and Tunis, past and present, "Provi- 

 dence, 1869). Perry was, until September, 1867, 

 consul of the United States in Tunis. Maltzahn 

 gives a tabular view of the population of 



