S90 
CHELICUT. 
Holy Communion.* On our return from the church, the high 
priest accompanied us home, and continued with us nearly an 
hour. He paid me many compliments on what had passed, and 
declared, that I had done an act which would for ever be re- 
corded in iheir books ; as the baptism of the boy most clearly 
proved, that the English were not Franks" (alluding to the 
conduct of the Jesuits about baptism,) but that we adhered to the 
pure religion of the Apostles. After some conversation of this 
kind, in which he expressed the highest opinion of our doctrines, 
he ended by repeating nearly the same words which he had 
before used to the Ras : we go on in the dark, not knowing 
what is right or what is wrong, but I believe we shall do no gpod 
until we get a lesson from you '' and now," he added, rising 
from his seat, '' at the desire of the Ras, and from the friendship 
I bear you, I have to pray to God for your future prosperity 
he then recited a long prayer for our safe return, to which we with 
great sincerity answered, Amen." 
I have been induced to dwell at some length upon the pre- 
ceding ceremony of baptism, from its determining one of the 
most disputed points respecting the Abyssinian Church, the 
Jesuits having always accused it of an error in the form of admi- 
nistering the ceremony, which rendered it of no avail. In con- 
formity with this opinion, they insisted on the re-baptism of all 
those whom they converted to the Romish Church, a circumstance 
which ultimately gave great offence, and tended to occasion their 
dismissal from the country. Many erroneous observations and 
* Ritum Eucharistiss suscipiendee post Baptismum non solum adultis, verum etiam 
infantibus fuisse coramunem. Vide the same author, p. 60, 
