60 THEODORE II. AND THE 



cion ; but never has a traveller seen Abyssinia in a more false light 

 than M. Oobat. He was capable and devoted, but vain and credu- 

 lous, in fact, the last man in the world to influence the most deceit- 

 ful and Byzantyne people of the East. Three years he traversed the 

 country, preaching and disputing with the debteras and priests who, 

 for a few glasses of tedj (mead), made bim all possible concessions, 

 and loaded him with hyperbolical eulogies that he has registered in 

 bis journal with incredible simplicity. He left the country, per- 

 suaded that he had sown the seed in excellent soil ; and the Protest- 

 ant society of Missions, wondering, sent to Tigre the Moravian 

 brethren who, like missionaries in general, were men personallj 

 honourable ; but, for all that, blundering sectaries. The Moravians 

 thought to exhibit apostolic boldness in declaring a coarse and brutal 

 warfare against all traditions of Abyssinian worship, whether good 

 or bad. Thus on a solemn fast day they killed a cow, the flesh of 

 which they distributed gratuitously to every comer, looking upon it 

 as a great triumph to have brought some poor people to sacrifice their 

 conscientious scruples to gluttony. Their violent language with 

 regard to the worship of the Virgin and saints, and above all a cynical 

 remark upon the Virgin, brought down upon them the hatred of the 

 Tigreens and Oiibie, the official champion of the national religion, 

 did a very popular act in expelling them from Abyssinia. 



The propaganda of Home had not waited for this last moment to 

 attempt sending a mission to Abyssinia. In 1838 they had sent 

 them a Capuchin monk, a jovial, easy aud bold man, lettered withal, 

 and capable of standing up in argument with the most subtle of the 

 delteras ; but the mission was not constituted till towards 1840, on 

 the arrival of the lioman Catholic Bishop of Abyssinia, Mgr. de 

 Jacobis, of a noble Neapolitan family, one of the most eminent of 

 our contemporary missions. Mgr. de Jacobis brought into Abys- 

 sinia the true spirit of the church militant, invincible energy, indul- 

 gent and conciliating piety, and irreproachable morals. His enlight- 

 ened charity extended from Christians to Mahommedans, in thia 

 country more fanatical than elsewhere. To the present day, the 

 latter never speak of abouna Yalcoub (Mgr. de Jacobis) without 

 giving him the title oi Icedous (holy). The old sheik of Embirami, a 

 kind of marabout, who exercises regal authority over a circle of more 

 than fifty leagues around Massaona, replied to his disciples who 

 reproached him for going on foot in spite of his great age : " What 1 



