coming and going wherever they will freely for their own advantage, whether they are our subjects or Frenchmen, and whatever you shall do to or for them, we shall regard as done to or for ourselves."
☞The address is—"To the basha, princes, and lords governing the town of great Cairo, may God favour them with his goodness."
There are several things very remarkable in this letter. The king of Abyssinia values himself, and his predecessors, upon never having molested or troubled any of his neighbours who were kings, nor borne any envy towards them. We are not then to believe what we see often in history, that there was frequent war between Sennaar and Abyssinia, or that Sennaar was tributary to Abyssinia. That stripe of country, inhabited by the Shangalla, would, in this case, have been first conquered. But it is more probable, that the great difference of climate which immediately takes place between the two kingdoms, the great want of water on the frontiers, barriers placed there by the hand of Nature, have been the means of keeping these kingdoms from having any mutual concerns; and so, indeed, we may guess by the utter silence of the books, which never mention any war at Sennaar till the beginning of the reign of Socinios.
I apprehend, that protecting distinguished persons upon great occasions, alludes to the children of the king of Sennaar, who frequently fly after the death of their father to Abyssinia[1] for protection, it being the custom of that state
- ↑ Abdelcader, son of Ounsa, retired here.
