Archceologia. 233 



would yield pepper, spices, and coffee, and the hottest districts 

 give crops of cotton. Barley, wheat, peas, oats, beans, maize, 

 millet, linseed, saffron, and some grain unknown to us, are 

 cultivated with little trouble. A small potato called ' dennich/ 

 and the root of a very nourishing banana, form great part of 

 the food of some districts. 



" At present not a fiftieth part of the surface is cultivated, 

 while Edjow and other provinces produce two crops per annum 

 on the same ground. 



" Fruit-trees — the plum, the orange, the lemon, and the 

 peach — grow wild in the jungle ; the vines are luxuriant, and 

 the quality of the wine excellent. Numerous streams every- 

 where irrigate and adorn this agreeable land, whose rich 

 meadows, lowing herds, sparkling- waters, golden harvest, and 

 shady trees often present a scene of European beauty to the 

 traveller.'" (" Correspondence respecting the British Captives 

 in Abyssinia, presented to the House of Lords, 1866, p. 7.) 



jSTote. — It may be interesting to the reader to be reminded in a few words of the 

 history of the quarrel between Abyssinia and England. It is as follows : — Captain 

 Cameron succeeded Mr. Plowden as Consul at Massowah, in February, 1861. At 

 that time civil war had broken out in the country. Early in 1863 a letter from 

 King Theodore to Queen Victoria was received and forwarded, in acknowledgment 

 of some present that had been sent to the king, on account of kindness shown to 

 the late Consul Plowden ; and an embassy to England from Abyssinia was 

 suggested in this letter. It was not till May, 1864, that a reply was despatched 

 from England, Mr. Passam, then Assistant President at Aden, being appointed to 

 convey it. In February, 1864, however, news had arrived in England that 

 Mr. Cameron, with seventeen other Europeans (chiefly missionaries and their 

 families), were imprisoned at Grondar. Mr. Passam in due time reached the 

 king, and obtained release of the captives in March, 1866. They were, however, 

 almost immediately recaptured, and, with Mr. Passam himself, have since been 

 in close confinement at Magdala. 



ARCELEOLOGIA. 



The great archaeological event of the month has been, doubtless, 

 the opening of the Blackmoee Museum, in Salisbury. The muni- 

 ficent founder of this interesting institution, Mr. William Blackmore, 

 is a native of the city of Salisbury, though he has been established 

 during, we believe, the greater part of his life in Liverpool and 

 London, where he has amassed the wealth which has enabled him 

 to confer this great benefit on the place of his birth. In a very 

 excellent address delivered on the occasion we are briefly describ- 

 ing, Mr. Blackmore gave a history of the formation of his museum. 

 In a visit to New York towards the end of the year 1863, he found 

 the remarkable collection of the primeval antiquities of the valley of 

 the Mississippi, formed by two world-known American antiquaries 

 and explorers, Mr. E. G. Squier and Dr. E. H. Davis, for sale and 

 undisposed of, and he bought them. They had been well described 



