98 



The National Geographic Magazine 



tercoiirse could have been maintained 

 between this upper region and lower 

 Bgypt. For a thousand years the Abys- 

 sinians were cut off from the rest of the 

 world, and maintained the Christian 

 doctrine as implanted by Frumentius. 



Then came a period of contact with 

 the Church of Rome, through the efforts 

 of Portuguese missionaries and soldiers, 

 at a time when that brave little kingdom 

 sent its intrepid sons to every quarter of 

 the globe. This missionary effort, how- 

 ever, added a very blood}^ chapter to 

 the history of Abyssinia, and finally all 

 white men were expelled, and again the 

 gates were closed, and a period of some- 

 thing like I, so years elapsed before any 

 further knowledge was had of things 

 Abyssinian. 



Since that time travelers have given 

 very complete accounts of the country 

 and its people ; the touch with Europe 

 has been again made intimate and 

 bloody, through the efforts of the Italians 

 to extend their power over Abyssinia. 



This effort closed in the terrible trag- 

 edy at Adowa, where the flower of the 

 Italian army was destroyed by Menelek' s 

 hosts. In spite of the errors, which it 

 is easy now to mark, in the conduct of 

 the Italian army, I feel very strongly 

 that the Adowa campaign must have 

 more nearly represented the probable 

 outcome of any other European effort 

 against united Abyssinia than did the 

 Magdala campaign which the British 

 conducted in 1867. Theodore, the em- 

 peror, after years of factional strife, was 

 bereft of nearly all his followers when a 

 British force, consisting of 13,000 men 

 and 7,000 camp-followers, took, with- 

 out the loss of a single life in action, the 

 stronghold in which he had been left by 

 his own people. 



Attached now to the British agency 

 as a sort of pensioner is a certain Irish- 

 man, wholly Abyssinianized, who was 

 one of the servants of these imprisoned 

 officers- whom the great army at Mag- 

 dala released. He was pointed out to 



me by Colonel Harrington as represent- 

 ing something like ^2,000,000 to the 

 British Government, that being thepro 

 rata cost of saving the lives of Theo- 

 dore's captives. He cannot be disposed 

 of at cost price. 



Due to the trouble which the white 

 man seems to have brought into his 

 country, Menelek has been, for one so 

 eager, to tread the path of civilization, 

 rather slow to give permanent hold to 

 white interests. The concession to the 

 railway people was a marked departure, 

 and subsequentl}^ the concession to some 

 English mining people for work in west- 

 ern i\byssinia marks another step toward 

 progress and national destruction. 



Menelek is indeed at the parting of 

 the ways, and all the while is earnestlj^ 

 seeking the betterment of his people as 

 well as his own glory. I believe he is 

 leading them to the brink of destruction. 

 Such are the ways of the Omnipotent in 

 bringing about the spread of what we 

 call civilization, to drink of whose cup 

 is to the barbarian to drink of poison. 

 What will happen when Menelek dies, 

 nobody knows. If some strong man of 

 the ' ' Abyssinia - for - the- Aby ssinians ' ' 

 variet}^ can grasp the reins, the auton- 

 omy of the country may 3^et be main- 

 tained for a long while, and together 

 with it the ignorance of the people. 



Their Christianity sits upon them 

 lightly, as I found, for example, in re- 

 spect to the institution of polygamy. 



Menelek himself sets an example of 

 monogamy, having one wife, who is a 

 woman of considerable influence and of 

 very good heart. But many others have 

 not received that part of the Christian 

 doctrine which forbids more than one' 

 wife and live more or less happilj^ with 

 several wives in the same household. 



SLAVERY IN WESTERN ABYSSINIA. 



In respect to polygamy's monster 

 twin, namely, slavery, many of the 

 Abyssinians are quite ready themselves 



