ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 137 



Christian for centuries ; and its late King John, who greatly enlarged 

 its boundaries and extended its influence in Central Africa, bore, 

 like some European monarchs, the title of "Defender of the Faith," 

 most dear to the kings of Abyssinia. 



The Christian period of Egypt, comparatively short in duration 

 and unimportant in influencing neighboring tribes or communities, 

 ended in the Arab conquest under Amru, which left but few vestiges 

 of Christians or Christianity. To-day, a small Coptic community 

 in Cairo, respected more for the intelligence of its members, the 

 chief accountants and clerks of the administration, than for their 

 numbers or influence, and a few more scattered over various vil- 

 lages, alone attest the anticjuity of Christianity in Egypt. 



RIGID PIETY OF ANCIENT ETHIOPIA. 



But Abyssinia, the ancient Ethiopia, claiming to possess the 

 primitive Christianity and boasting of preserving the relics of St. 

 Mark the Evangelist, has ever held fast to Christianity, even though 

 disfiguring it with strange superstitions, distorting it with fierce 

 fanaticism, and showing even sterner savagery than animated the 

 old Crusaders, with whom hatred to the heathen was ec^uivalent to 

 love of God. 



Three great mountain chains forming a triangle, with its base 

 resting on the Abai and the Kawash, and its apex at Massowah on 

 the Red Sea, are the boundaries of an immense elevated plateau, 

 upheaved by volcanic action from the sultry plains of tropical 

 Africa, but blessed with a climate as fresh and healthy as any in 

 Europe. Indeed, the table-lands of Abyssinia, bounded on the north 

 and west by the arid deserts of the Sudan, on the south by the 

 country of the ferocious Gallas, and on the east by Debeni, Adal, 

 and the great salt plains of Arrhoo, may be likened to some rocky 

 island rising in the midst of the ocean, rich with verdant plains, 

 bubbling streams and shady woods, but seldom visited by the 

 mariner, owing to its isolated position and the terrible cliffs by 

 which it is surrounded. 



Very seldom do the natives of the Abyssinian plateau venture 

 down into the fever-stricken plains, where dw^ell their hereditary 



