142 THEODORE II, AND THE 



the kindliest assurances, but entered into no more than the necessary engage- 

 ments, and invited Mgr. de Jacobis to remain for some time still at Massaorat, 

 tinder the pretext that to enter Abyssinia during the rainy season might endanger 

 his health. 



A little while after, M. Chamin-Belliard, the French consular agent at Massaoma, 

 a man entirely devoted to the designs of Mgr. de Jacobis, came to visit Negourie 

 at Diksan near the frontier, and made the first step towards engaging the Fremels 

 government in the affairs of Abyssinia. That government, confiding in the 

 agreement of the reports addressed to it by its direct or indirect agents in the 

 Red Sea, recognized Negousie, who hastened to send to Paris two native ambass- 

 adors, escorted by a Piedniontese Capuchin monk, the bearers of an act, cediug 

 to France the islands of Desset and Ouda near Massaoua, as well as the port of 

 Zoula, the ancient and celebrated Adulis of the Ptolemies. Mgr. de Jacobis 

 pushed forward this matter with a zeal more ardent than his superiors approved 

 of, they being desirous of avoiding reproach against the interference of missi<»- 

 aries in politics. The embassy was well received at Paris. The French goverm- 

 meut, only possessing information of doubtful accuracy, adopted a line of conducfe 

 which has since been unjustly criticised, and which, then, was the only one possi- 

 ble. It recognized Theodora the Second as king of Central Abyssinia and 

 Wegousie, as king of Tigre, and, while entering into relations with the latter 

 remained upon amicable terms with the Negus, who thought fit, without acknow- 

 ledging the change, not to break with France. 



The success of Negousie in diplomacy had to be supported by vigorous militar j 

 action. The provinces in the north of Mareb, were still in the power of Dedjax 

 Hailo, a Theodorist general. This general imagined himself quite secure from am 

 attack on the part of the pretender, separated from him by two provinces and the 

 rude valley of Mareb ; but he had counted without one of these strategic thtm- 

 derbolts unknown in Abyssinia till the time of Theodore the Second, and whiefci 

 Negousie was happily able to imitate. The pretender passed in a single daj 

 (September 1858) from Diksan to the heart of Seraoue, by a fifteen hours' marcls 

 across a wild and very broken country; he crushed Hailo in a single contest sear 

 Sahzega, killed his son Tesfa-Zion and chased Haiilo himself into the coinadegeB. 

 (middle plateau) of the Bojos ; then he subdued Seraoue, Hamazene, and 

 Demblas, the northern provinces of Tigre, without striking a blow. The warlike 

 inhabitants of the Kolla or lowlands of Konayn, tried to resist him ; entrenched 

 on a mountain, inaccessible in part, they defied the invader and beat their nagamt 

 (war drum) till the moment when a body of picked men taking them in rear, 

 surprised and made a fearful massacre of them. 



These victories of the pretender did not take the Negus by surprise. His 

 principal agent in Tyre wrote to him to make all possible haste, and gave bim 

 the news (absurd indeed, yet which filled all Abyssinia and even Soudan WBtl!>, 

 the liveliest apprehension) that 12,000 French soldiers had landed at Massaoua. 

 Theodore the Second was undoubtedly better informed by his agents at MassaoBia* 

 for, had he believed in the arrival of a single French battalion, he would have 

 taken good care not to risk a battle ; but he knew the true character of the 

 relations of France with his rival, and, as if to bid defiance to Europe and civili- 



