Abyssinia — The Country and People ioi 



northward, and southward, or with beads 

 or with empty tin cans, all of which 

 served my purpose in various places, 

 rather than to have the convenience of 

 using the Maria Theresa or the Menelek 

 dollar, which coins are now quite readily 

 taken along the caravan routes from 

 Addis Abeba to the east. 



Rather this inconvenience of crude 

 methods, with the greater simplicity 

 and straightforwardness of the untu- 

 tored native, than the coarse cunning 

 which begins to appear when the native 

 begins to suspect and compete with 

 the superiority of the white man and 

 to truckle only to one thing, namely, 

 backsheesh. 



THE FUTURE OF ABYSSINIA. 



Today Menelek and the Sultan of 

 Morocco control the only two territories 

 independent of actual occupation or dip- 

 lomatic claim on the part of some Euro- 

 pean power. As between these powers, 

 this division has been made without 

 bloodshed, and is a notable triumph for 

 diplomacy ; and I believe that the Euro- 

 pean domination of African territories 

 may be counted as blessed, for certainly 

 those territories which have passed be- 

 yond the first paroxysms of savage re- 

 sistance now show larger and more 

 comfortable populations than existed 

 under native rule and misrule. This is 

 not set forth as an apology for the grasp- 

 ing of territories held by lower races, 

 since our ethical standard is not well 

 enough determined for application to 

 these cases, and since, moreover, the 

 graspingcontinues to take place, whether 

 we count it as right or wrong. 



The ultimate determination of the 

 Abyssinian and Morocco territories will 

 put a much more severe strain upon dip- 

 lomacy than it has yet been called upon 

 to bear in regard to African affairs. 

 The population now in occupancy of the 

 territory is in both cases far above the 

 average of African intelligence, and in 



one case community of religious form 

 with European countries will tend to 

 complicate the situation, in that the mis- 

 sionary cannot appear so opportunely as 

 a casus belli. However, to overcome 

 that difficult}^ we may convince our- 

 selves that the Christianity of the Abys- 

 sinians is not quite the correct style, 

 and may thus approximate this case to 

 others in which the itching palm is 

 stretched forth as if in prayer. 



Here again let me say that it is not my 

 desire to criticise missionary methods. 

 To me, believing, as I do, that the uni- 

 verse is absolutely law-ordered, even to 

 the lifting of a finger, the blood-thirsty 

 missionary appears to be as solemn and 

 as necessary a part of the scheme of the 

 universe as any other part. 



Quite as convenient , perhaps even more 

 so, than the missionary as a casus belli is 

 the railway — that is, the railway of civ- 

 ilized man laid in barbarian country. 

 Not only may it furnish the cause of 

 war, but it, of course, immensely simpli- 

 fies the problem of carrying out the war 

 which it ma)' have produced. While 

 the French, together with the English, 

 Italians, and Russians — the four nations 

 which have sent emissaries to Mene- 

 lek — are doubtless of the firm convic- 

 tion that this is not the time for war- 

 making, that the enlightened peace of 

 Menelek serves best all purposes which 

 can now be served, it remains that when 

 disorders I 'f any sort arise, if the railway 

 may have then been completed up to the 

 top of the Abyssinian plateau, the French 

 will have obtained a very great advan- 

 tage for the playing of such part as they 

 may then choose. 



An extension of the British-Egyptian 

 Railway up the Nile, now stopping at 

 Khartum, may be made without great 

 difficulty along the route which I fol- 

 lowed, and which I pointed out in a 

 paper about to appear in the Journal of 

 the Royal Geographical Society of Lon- 

 don. Such extension would practically 

 equate advantages in respect to transpor- 



