Amhara, to the west of the Tacazze; and the provinces of the south. The province now called Tigre was the seat of the ancient monarchy. At the north-west end of an extensive and fertile valley, between two hills, about one hundred and twenty miles from the coast, stood the capital, the city of Auxuma, or Axum, the ruins of which still bear witness to its former magnificence.[1] The annals of the Ethiopians trace its origin to the time of Abraham.[2]
The Ethiopians were a people little known in the earlier periods of history. Many circumstances make us believe that the ages in which they flourished preceded the earliest authentic annals of the gentile writers. Settled in an elevated region, which in tropical climes has generally been found to be the seat of civilization,[3] they seem to have been once celebrated for learning, and in the early ages of the post-diluvian world, the district of Auxuma was probably the mother country of the wisdom and inhabitants of Egypt.[4] The Ethiopians boasted,
- ↑ See Valentia, Bruce, &c.
- ↑ Bruce, vol. ii. p. 305.
- ↑ In America, Humboldt found that the traces of ancient civilization were always confined to the cool climate of the mountain plains. "In ganz Mexico und Peru findet man die Spuren grosser Menschenkultur auf der hohen Gehirgsebene. Wir haben Ruinen von Pallästen und Bädern in 1600 bis 1800 Toisen Höhe gesehen." (Ansichten der Natur, p. 147, band. i.) The civilization of ancient Arabia was confined to the mountain plains of Hamyar; in Africa, to the high plateau of Auxuma
- ↑ A thorough investigation of the early connection between
