458 
MOCHA. 
I still retain the opinion I have given in my former observa-^ 
tions on this subject,* that the Abyssinians, or Axomites (as they 
were called by the Romans) are descended from a race of the 
aboriginal inhabitants of Africa, composed of native Ethiopians 
who became in the course of time mixed with settlers from Egypt, 
and that they do not exhibit any claims to an Arabian descent, 
as was supposed by the late Mr. Murray ;t though I confess 
that I feel considerable regret in entertaining a different opi- 
nion from that gentleman on a subject, upon which, from his 
extraordinary acquirements in Oriental literature, he was, in 
some respects, so eminently qualified to decide. The chief, and 
indeed sole argument on which Mr. Murray founded his opinion, 
was drawn from the similarity between the Geez and the Arabian 
languages, but surely this circumstance may be sufficiently 
accounted for, from the supposition, that both might have been 
derived from the same common stocky namely the Hebrew, which 
Mr. Murray himself appears to have satisfactorily explained to be 
the most ancient language in existence ; whereas, on the other side 
of the question, the general tenor of the history of the Abyssinians, 
their buildings, written character, dress, and the description of 
them given in the earliest Arabian and Byzantine writers, all tend 
to prove them a distinct race from the Arabs. 
As the last argument has not before, to my knowledge, been 
used, though it appears to bear very strongly on the question, I 
may be excused for entering into it a little more at large. In the 
history of Arabia Felix, collected from various Arabian authors. 
* Lord Valentia's Travels, VoL III. p. 242-3. f App. to Bruce's Travels, Vol. VII. p. 435, 
