62 THEODORE II. AND TBE 



was no stranger to his appointment. This man, who thinks of 

 nothing but money and sensual indulgence, is the most fanatical 

 promoter of religious persecution. Thus, hardly was he installed 

 in Gondar than, finding himself unable to contend with the influence 

 of the Catholic mission, he had recourse to Oubie for its expulsion. 

 Oubie, who used forcible means much against his will, was obliged 

 to remove Mgr. de Jacobis ; but he allowed him to take a good posi- 

 tion upon the frontier in the Catholic villages of Halai, Alitiena, and 

 in the province of Zenadegle. 



We now understand why, in 1854, Kassa summoned Oubie to pay 

 tribute, and send the nhouna to him. These were two signs of spi- 

 ritual and temporal subanssion that a man, as powerful as Oubie, 

 could not grant at the first set-off". For twenty-two years he bad 

 exercised royal authority over a country as great as the present 

 kingdom of Poland, and had commanded these Tigreens, who looked 

 upon themselves rightly as the elder branch of the Abyssinian people, 

 the central and southern population, the Amharas being, in their 

 eyes only successful fighting barbarians. The success of the latter, 

 I ought to state en pas.sant, has been greatly owing to their disposi- 

 tion, riper and more solid than that of the Tigreens : they, witty, 

 amiable, careless, and anachical are, to some extent, the Irishmen of 

 the Kile region. The cunning old man, who had conquered Tigre 

 with the help of his mountaineers of Semen, found himself in turn 

 face to face with a younger and more engaging Amhara than himself 

 and who, for this was a great affair, believed in " his star." The 

 viceroy temporised. He sent money to Kassa and then, as negotia- 

 tors, his son Goangoul and his general {belatta) Kokobie. A provi- 

 fiional treaty was signed, and, during the preliminaries, Kassa had 

 no trouble in discovering in the lelatta one of these "wise" men 

 who swarm about falling thrones. They plotted together the perfi- 

 dious design which they did not delay to carry into execution. In 

 the meanwhile, the ahuuna came to Gondar from Adona, the capital 

 of Tigre. Kassa only w aited for this moment to take a more decided 

 attitude : he advanced his claim to the throne of the Negus and 

 summoned to Gondar the representatives of the armed nobility, of 

 the churches, of the towns and villages to decide between Oubie and 

 himself, under the direction of the ahouna. 



The chances in this decisive struggle between Kassa and Oubici 

 were unequal enough. The former had the prestige of youth, vie- ' 



