ADULIS— ZULLA -HANFILA. 181 



Adulis — ZuLLA — Hanfila. 



The long and narrow bay stretching from the north southwards some 30 miles 

 inland, which the Disseh islanders call the " GuK of Velvet " possibly on account 

 of the calmness of its well- sheltered waters, is much nearer to the upland Abys- 

 sinian plateaux than Massawah, and the commercial exchanges have often taken 

 this direction. This inlet of the seaboard, the Annesley Bay of the English, is 

 more commonly known by the name of Adulis Bay, as it was called some two 

 thousand years ago, when the fleets of the successors of Alexander rode at anchor 

 in its waters. A Greek inscription, copied in the sixteenth century by the 

 Egyptian monk Cosmas Indicopleustès, celebrates the great king Ptolemy, son of 

 Ptolemj' and " Arsinoë." A second, which relates the glorious expeditions of the 

 Abyssinian king " Eb Aguda," is of the highest geographical importance, as it 

 contains a series of twenty-three Abyssinian names, the first elements of the 

 comparative geography of the country. Mariette has proved, by identifying many 

 of the names engraved on the gates of Karnac with those of the Adulis inscription, 

 that Egypt had certainly established relations with Abyssinia as far back as the 

 time of Thotmes III., in the eighteenth century of the old era. A few capitals cut 

 in the lava, and marbles sculptured by the Byzantine artists, are all that has been 

 brought to light of the buildings of the ancient city, which now stands more than 

 three miles inland, a fact probably due to an upheaval of the coast, or else to the 

 gradual increase of the alluvial deposits. Its ancient name still exists under the 

 form of Zulla. To the south on the heights are the remains of a town, which was 

 probably the sanitorium of Adulis. During the second half of this century Adulis 

 has often been regarded as a future French colony, because the strip of land round 

 the bay, together with the island of Disseh, was conceded to France in 1840 by a 

 sovereign of Tigré ; but this written concession was followed by no act of occupa- 

 tion, and England is the power which, under cover of the Egyptian flag, possesses 

 this corner of Abyssinian territory. In no other region has Great Britain given a 

 more striking proof of her widespread power than on this arid coast of the Red 

 Sea. In this bay, where are scarcely to be seen a few wretched boats or fishing 

 rafts composed of three boards nailed together, some hundreds of vessels rode 

 at anchor in 1867 and 1868. A landing stage, of which a few traces still remain, 

 stretched over half a mile into the sea; a railway ran southwards as far as the base 

 of the escarpments ; and huge reservoirs, dug at the foot of the mountains, served 

 as watering-places for the elephants and forty thousand beasts of burden. Zulla 

 was the place where the British army landed and re-embarked, having brought to 

 a happy conclusion an expedition without parallel in the history of England and 

 modern times, not only for the justice of the cause and mathematical precision of 

 the operations, but also for its complete success, almost without bloodshed, and the 

 disinterested conduct of the victors. This march of an armed European force over 

 the Abyssinian plateaux ended without conquest, and the traces of the passage of 

 the English were soon effaced on the sands of Zulla. Nevertheless with this 

 passing visit of the stranger begins a new era in Abyssinian history. 



