priests. Messrs Isenberg and Krapf went south, and established themselves at Shoa. The former soon after returned to England, but Mr Krapf remained in Shoa till March 1842, when he removed to Mombasa. Dr E. Ruppell, the German naturalist, visited the country in 1831, and remained nearly two years. M. E. Combes and M. Tamisier arrived at Massawa in 1835, and visited districts which had not been traversed by Europeans since the time of the Portuguese. One who did much at the time to extend our geographical knowledge of the country was Dr C. T. Beke (q.v.), who was there from 1840 to 1843. Mr Mansfield Parkyns was there from 1843 to 1846, and wrote the most interesting book on the country since the time of Bruce. Bishop Gobat having conceived the idea of sending lay missionaries into the country, who would engage in secular occupations as well as carry on missionary work, Dr Krapf returned to Abyssinia in 1855 with Mr Flad as pioneers of that mission; Krapf, however, was not permitted to remain in the country. Six lay workers came out at first, and they were subsequently joined by others. Their secular work, however, appears to have been more valuable to Theodore than their preaching, so that he employed them as workmen to himself, and established them at Gaffat, near his capital. Mr Stern arrived in Abyssinia in 1860, and after a visit to Europe returned in 1863, accompanied by Mr and Mrs Rosenthal.[1]
(17) Wolda Selassié of Tigré was succeeded in 1817, through force of arms, by Sabagadis of Agamé, and the latter, as ras of Tigré, introduced various Englishmen, whom he much admired, into the country. He increased the prosperity of his land considerably, but by so doing roused the jealousy of Ras Marié of Amhara—to whom he had refused tribute—and Ubié, son of Hailo Mariam, a governor of Simen. Rivalry of British and French factions.In an ensuing battle (in January 1831), both Sabagadis and Marié were killed, and Ubié retired to watch events from his own province. Marié was shortly succeeded in the ras-ship of Amhara by Ali, a nephew of Guxa and a Mahommedan. But Ubié, who was aiming at the crown, soon attacked Ras Ali, and after several indecisive campaigns proclaimed himself negūs of Tigré. To him came many French missionaries and travellers, chief of whom were Lieut. Lefebvre, charged (1839) with political and geographical missions, and Captains Galinier and Ferret, who completed for him a useful triangulation and survey of Tigré and Simen (1840–1842). The brothers Antoine and Arnaud d’Abbadie (q.v.) spent ten years (1838–1848) in the country, making scientific investigations of great value, and also involving themselves in the stormy politics of the country. Northern Abyssinia was now divided into two camps, the one, Amhara and Ras Ali, under Protestant British, and the other, Tigré and Ubié, under Roman Catholic French, influence. The latent hostility between the two factions threatened at one time to develop into a religious war, but no serious campaigns took place until Kassa (later Theodore) appeared on the scene.
(18) Lij (＝Mr) Kassa was born in Kwara, a small district of Western Amhara, in 1818. His father was a small local chief, and his uncle was governor of the districts of Dembea, Kwara and Chelga between Lake Tsana and the undefined N.W. frontier. He was educated in a monastery, but preferred a more active life, and by his talents Rise of the emperor Theodore.and energy came rapidly to the front. On the death of his uncle he was made chief of Kwara, but in consequence of the arrest of his brother Bilawa by Ras Ali, he raised the standard of revolt against the latter, and, collecting a large force, repeatedly beat the troops that were sent against him by the ras (1841–1847). On one occasion peace was restored by his receiving Tavavich, daughter of Ras Ali, in marriage; and this lady is said to have been a good and wise counsellor during her lifetime. He next turned his arms against the Turks, in the direction of Massawa, but was defeated; and the mother of Ras Ali having insulted him in his fallen condition, he proclaimed his independence. As his power was increasing, to the detriment of both Ras Ali and Ubié, these two princes combined against him, but were heavily defeated by him at Gorgora (on the southern shore of Lake Tsana) in 1853. Ubié retreated to Tigré, and Ras Ali fled to Begemeder, where he eventually died. Kassa now ruled in Amhara, but his ambition was to attain to supreme power, and Growing power of Shoa.he turned his attention to conquering the remaining chief divisions of the country, Gojam, Tigré and Shoa, which still remained unsubdued. Berro, ras of Gojam, in order to save himself, attempted to combine with Tigré, but his army was intercepted by Kassa and totally destroyed, himself being taken prisoner and executed (May 1854). Shortly afterwards Kassa moved against Tigré, defeated Ubié’s forces at Deragié, in Simen (February 1855), took their chief prisoner and proclaimed himself negūs negusti of Ethiopia under the name of Theodore III. He now turned his attention to Shoa.
(19) Retracing our steps for a moment in that direction, we find that in 1813 Sahela (or Sella) Selassié, younger son of the preceding ras, Wassen Seged, had proclaimed himself negūs or king. His reign was long and beneficent. He restored the towns of Debra-Berhan and Angolala, and founded Entotto, the strong stone-built town whose ruins overlook the modern capital, Adis Ababa. In the terrible “famine of St Luke” in 1835, Selassié still further won the hearts of his subjects by his wise measures and personal generosity; and by extending his hospitality to Europeans, he brought his country within the closer ken of civilized European powers. During his reign he received the missions of Major W. Cornwallis Harris, sent by the governor-general of India (1841), and M. Rochet d’Héricourt, sent by Louis Philippe (1843), with both of whom he concluded friendly treaties on behalf of their respective governments. He also wrote to Pope Pius IX., asking that a Roman Catholic bishop should be sent to him. This request was acceded to, and the pope despatched Monsignor Massaja to Shoa. But before the prelate could reach the country, Selassié was dead (1847), leaving his eldest son, Haeli Melicoth, to succeed him. Melicoth at once proclaimed himself negūs, and by sending for Massaja, who had arrived at Gondar, gave rise to the suspicion that he wished to have himself crowned as emperor. By increasing his dominions at the expense of the Gallas, he still further roused the jealousy of the northerners, and a treaty which he concluded with Ras Ali against Kassa in 1850 determined the latter to crush him at the earliest opportunity.
Thus it was that in 1855 Kassa, under the name of the emperor Theodore, advanced against Shoa with a large army. Dissensions broke out among the Shoans, and after a desperate and futile attack on Theodore at Debra-Berhan, Haeli Melicoth died of exhaustion and fever, nominating with his last breath his eleven-year-old son Menelek[2] as successor (November 1855). Darge, Haeli’s brother, took charge of the young prince, but after a hard fight with Angeda, one of Theodore’s rases, was obliged to capitulate. Menelek was handed over to the negūs, taken to Gondar, and there trained in Theodore’s service.
(20) Theodore was now in the zenith of his career. He is described as being generous to excess, free from cupidity, merciful to his vanquished enemies, and strictly continent, but subject to violent bursts of anger and possessed of unyielding pride and fanatical religious zeal. He was also a man of education and intelligence, superior to those among whom he lived, with natural talents for governing and gaining the esteem of others. He had, further, a noble bearing and majestic walk, a frame capable of enduring any amount of fatigue, and is said to have been “the best shot, the best spearman, the best runner, and the best horseman in Abyssinia.” Had he contented himself with the sovereignty of Amhara and Tigré, he might have maintained his position; but he was led to exhaust his strength against the Wollo Gallas, which was probably one of the chief causes of his ruin. He obtained several victories over that people, ravaged their country, took possession of Magdala, which he afterwards made his principal stronghold, and enlisted many of the chiefs and their followers in his own ranks. As has been shown, he also reduced the kingdom of Shoa, and took Ankober, the capital;
