146 PROGRESS OF 1SLAMISM 



worship the Deity he adored. Is it, therefore, to 

 be wondered at, that princes of superior intellects 

 should reject the former and adopt the latter faith, 

 as we know to have been the case with the pre- 

 viously Christian King of Enarea, who, within the 

 last few years, has professed the Mahomedan belief. 

 Sahale Selassee, the monarch of Shoa, universally 

 acknowledged to be the greatest of Abyssinian 

 potentates, was on the verge of a similar repudia- 

 tion of the religion of his predecessors, when the 

 worthy and exemplary missionaries, Messrs. Isenberg 

 and Krapf appeared in his country. I am too apt 

 to feel the zealot, but every one must admit with 

 me, that that important visit was not a human 

 ordination, for Sahale Selassee's conversion would 

 have been the downfall of the Christian religion in 

 Abyssinia. Even the political mission to Shoa, 

 which has failed in its proposed objects, yet affords 

 some consolation 'by supposing that the evidences 

 of our wealth and power, demonstrated by the 

 presents which were laid at his feet by our repre- 

 sentative, will confirm him in his renewed attach- 

 ment to our religion, which only requires his coun- 

 tenance, to contend successfully in Abyssinia against 

 the encroachments of the Islam faith, until fresh 

 efforts shall be made by the friends of the Gospel 

 in this country, more firmly to establish the pure 

 faith of Christ in that benighted land. 



Among more savage tribes, again, Islamism has 

 other recommendations, for the missionaries of that 



