^64 OBSERVATIONS ON MR. SALT'S 
their visit to the Ras, as not onl^ to conciliate his esteem, but to 
leave a favourable impression of the national character throughout 
the country. It is therefore completely in our power to form that 
connection with Abyssinia, which will for ever shut out the 
French; but if we should neglect the opportunity, they will profit 
by our folly, as they have done in Arabia; and the discoveries 
made on the eastern shore of Africa, instead of becoming a national 
benefit to the English, will only tend to increase the already too 
preponderating power of her implacable adversary. 
" The advantages that Abyssinia will obtain, by a direct com- 
munication with European nations, are incalculable. At present, she 
is suffering under all those evils that attend an inefficient govern- 
ment. Her king is invariably in the power of one ambitious subject 
or another ; and receiving no revenue but from the nearly inde- 
pendent governors of his different provinces, he is incapable of 
securing a sufficient force to sustain himself, or to prevent them 
from wasting the resources of the country in mutual hostility. 
The consequence is, that the Abyssinian of Tigre fights against 
the Abyssinian of Begemder; and the Galla, taking advantage of 
their enmity, is gradully incroaching on both. The Governors of 
the different provinces are obliged to diminish the revenue by grants 
to their followers, who, conscious that they have no legal right to 
the sovereignty they assume, would otherwise desert them, and 
seek for a more munificent master. The result of these measures 
has been shewn in Mr. Salt's account of Tigre, the revenue of which 
seems to have been reduced to about one half of what it was in the 
time of Ras Michael Suhul. 
Still the power of Tigre preponderates ; and the Ras Welleta 
