I 
VISIT TO ABYSSINIA. ^71 
much lower price than they have hitherto obtained them, either 
from Egypt, by the way of the caravan, direct to Sennaar, or by the 
more circuitous rout of Mecca, Jidda, and Suakin, or from India, by 
Mocha, and the fair of Berbera. 
Cobbe, the capital of Darfilr, is at a distance of nine hundred 
miles from Siout in Egypt, whence the caravans enter the desert. It 
is only necessary to read the interesting travels of my friend Mr. 
Browne, to perceive the many, and almost insurmountable difficul- 
ties, under which the merchants labour, who pass from one country 
to the other. On the other hand, Cobbe is only distant fromGondar 
between five and six hundred miles, and the greater part of the road 
is through a fertile country, instead of the inhospitable deserts of the 
interior of Africa. Even in the present disturbed state of Abys- 
sinia, caravans still make their way to Darfur unattacked, and find a 
safer passage than among the predatory tribes of wandering Arabs. 
It is so difficult to turn a trade from its ancient channel into a 
new course, that I should be less confident of the success of my spe- 
culation, were it not that the circumstances of the present times are 
particularly favourable. Egypt, whence all supplies were formerly 
received, is divided into two kingdoms, the upper half under the 
Beys, and the lower under the Turkish Pacha, without any com- 
mercial communication being permitted between them. The Mame- 
lukes are consequently themselves distressed for all European 
articles, and have none to spare for the supply of Cobbe or Sennaar. 
The pilgrimage to Mecca having been also put an end to by the 
conquests of the Wahabee, the great concourse of merchants, who, 
in fact, only made religion a cloak for their commercial specula- 
tions, has ceased to visit Arabia, and my friend, Emir Mohammed 
I 
