74 THEODORE II. AND THE 



by blind hatred of Europeans, be was ready to load with presents and 

 grants of land all who would come and initiate the Abyssinians in 

 the knowledge of agriculture and the manual arts. 



Under acts so contradictory from a moral point of view, it is easy 

 to discern the trace of a single thought which was wanting neither in 

 logic nor in grandeur. " The empire has decayed," said the negus, 

 " because the legitimate sovereigns have ceased to rule with a strong 

 arm, an intelligent head, and a pious heart. God has withdrawn His 

 favour from the line of Solomon ; He has given strength to the bar- 

 barians, to the Turks who have deprived us of Lennaar and Massaona, 

 to the Gallas who have driven us back as far as Alai j but as He does 

 not wish His people to perish, He has raised me from the dust and 

 commanded me to restore the imperial power, such as it was in the 

 time of the negus Kaleb and the glorious emperors who conquered 

 Yemen, and, finally, everywhere to reclaim from mussulman sway the 



ancient limits of Abyssinia. My empire extends to the sea " 



This last expression was a rather serious one, for it announced his in- 

 tention of regaining by the sword the wild and almost desert sea-board 

 snatched by the Porte in the sixteenth century from the careless and 

 feeble grasp of the King of kings. The governors of Massaona are 

 by no means sure, even to-day, as to the definite designs of their for- 

 midable neighbour, who is too intelligent not to perceive that, to a 

 great state, a seaport is absolutely necessary, and that without this 

 it must depend, even for its most fundamental necessities, upon more 

 favoured states. The Porte, which derives neither political nor pecu- 

 niary advantage from Massaona, is well aware that it possesses the 

 key of Abyssinia, and, too feeble to profit thereby, as it would have 

 attempted under Selim the Great, it takes a childish and mischievous 

 delight in weakening a great Christian state by keeping a sharp look 

 out that she receives neither arms nor munitions of war. It remains 

 to be seen what will become of this old prohibition when the negus, 

 with happier inspiration, will be pleased to reply frankly to the ad- 

 vances of Europe, and to ask from it these improved weapons which 

 he endeavours, with so much expense, to have imitated in his domi- 

 nions. 



His pretensions to Sennaar and Nubia are very questionable, and may 

 be explained by a misunderstanding that is supported by the pedantic 

 European courtiers who surround him. The Abyssinians, in adopting 

 Christianity, have endeavoured to identify themselves with some one 



