THE ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA. A ABYSSINIA, a kingdom or empire in Eastern Africa. On account of our little acquaintance with this country, the statements on its area and population widely differ. Brehm's Geographisches Jahrbuch (vol. i., 1866), one of the best authorities on population, puts down the area at 7,450 geographical square miles and the population at 3,000,000. Dr. Küppell (Reise in Abessinien, 1831-33, Frankfort, 1838) estimates the population in the territory from 12° to 16° north latitude, and from 37° to 40° east longitude, at not more than 500,000 inhabitants; and in the remainder of Abyssinia, comprising the western provinces of Quara, Madsha, and Agov, and the southern provinces of Gudjam, Damot, Amhara, and Begemeder, at 1,000,000, thus giving to the whole of Abyssinia (with the exception of Shoa) a population of 1,500,000. The province of Shoa has, according to the missionary Dr. Krapf, one of the best writers on this country ("Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labors in Eastern Africa," London, These 1860), about 1,000,000 inhabitants. statements, taken together, and the natural increase, indicate a population of about 3,000,000. The same estimate is made by the Roman Catholic bishop Massaja, who for many years lived among the Gallas (Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, January, 1865). According to the missionary Isenberg (Abessinien, Bonn, 1864), the population of Abyssinia, Shoa, and the country between 7° and 16° north latitude and 36° and 42° east longitude, amounts to five or six millions. The whole Ethiopian plateau, comprising Abyssinia, and the Sidama and Galla countries, has, according to Massaja, 12,000,000 of people, 9,000,000 of whom are Sidamas and Gallas. This statement agrees with that of Krapf, according to which the Galas number from six to eight millions. Abyssinia is ruled by emperors, who are supnosed to be descended from King Solomon and VOL. VI.-1 A the Queen of Sheba, but until the present mon- Mr. Plowden was killed in 1860, and Mr. Cameron was sent from some other Eastern post to succeed him. Mr. Cameron arrived in 1862, and shortly afterward the emperor told him that he desired to carry out the treaty made so many years before. Toward the end of 1862 he wrote an autograph letter to Queen Victoria, requesting permission to send an embassy to England. This letter reached London in February, 1863, and, for some reason or other, was left unanswered. Then came a quarrel with a missionary, Mr. Stern, who had committed the unpardonable offence of remonstrating against the flogging to death of two interpreters. The emperor's wrath appears to have been roused at these and perhaps other causes, and within a year after he had written with his own hand to Queen Victoria, asking to be admitted into the pale of friendly intercourse, he sent a body of troops to the missionary station, seized the missionaries and Mr. Cameron himself, put them in chains, and cast them into prison, Mr. Cameron being chained continually to an Abyssinian soldier. This was done in November, 1863, and from that time to this the unhappy men have been in confinement. With the consul were incarcerated his secretary Kerans, his servants McKelvie, Makerer, Petro, and Bardel; the missionaries Stern, Rosenthal, Flad, Steiger, and Brandeis, and the natural-history collectors Schiller and Essler. This outrage against British subjects produced the greatest excitement in England; but as the territory of the Emperor Theodore does not extend to the sea, and as the murderous climate puts the greatest obstacle to the success of an armed expedition, it was deemed best by the English Government to confine its efforts in behalf of the prisoners to diplomacy. In the second half of the year 1865 the English Government sent Mr. Rassam, an Asiatic by birth, well known in connection with Mr. Layard's discoveries, and at that time holding the office of assistant to the British resident at Aden, on a special mission to the Abyssinian emperor. Mr. Rassam started from Massowah on the 15th of October, with forty camel-loads of presents to the emperor. In a letter from Mr. Rassam, dated February 7, 1866, it was announced that the emperor had given him a magnificent reception, and ordered the release of all the prisoners. The fact was accordingly announced in the English Parliament by Lord Clarendon. But the hope thus raised was soon to be disappointed. When Mr. Rassam and the other prisoners were just on the point of taking leave of the emperor, he and his party were put under arrest, and informed that they were to remain in the country, not as prisoners, but as "state guests," until an answer could be obtained to a second letter which the emperor was about to write to the queen. This letter was duly indited, in a style worthy of some Lusitanian monarch of old, beginning: "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. From God's slave and His created being, the son of David, the son of Solomon, the king of kings, Theodore," etc. The ostensible reason assigned for the detention of Mr. Rassam was to consult with him in what way the friendly relations of the English and Abyssinian monarchy might best be extended. Theodore's letter was conveyed to England by Mr. Flad, the German missionary, who was also the bearer of a letter from Mr. Rassam, in which, by desire of Theodore, he requested that English artisans might be sent to engage in the Abyssinian service. It was supposed that these men were required more as hostages than as artisans, as the emperor dreaded that his unjustifiable conduct toward Consul Cameron and his associates would bring down upon him the vengeance of the British Government. In the mean time Consul Cameron and those who were imprisoned with him enjoyed comparative freedom; and the emperor, whose fitful and suspicious temper is his bane, renewed his friendly intercourse with Mr. Rassam and his companions, looking after their comforts personally, and endeavoring to relieve the pompous monotony of court life by taking them out on occasional shooting excursions. On August 25th, the Rev. Mr. Stern, one of the prisoners, wrote as follows: "Our present more rigorous captivity is to be attributed to an alleged report that English, French, and Turkish troops were on their way to invade Abyssinia. Mr. Rassam protested against the veracity of this statement; nay, every one of us would have discredited the story even had it been confined to a mere military expedition. On the same day that he charged the British Government with duplicity, he also reproached me with the stale offence of having traduced his character by throwing doubts on his lineal descent from Solomon. I tendered my wonted apology for this oft-repeated crime, but his majesty said he would not pardon me till I had atoned for the sin by rendering him some service. In the evening of the same day he made fresh proffers of his friendship to Mr. Rassam, and also told Mr. Rosenthal, and particularly myself, that we should not indulge in unpleasant surmises, as he had nothing against us; and, like the rest of our fellow-prisoners, we drank his health in good áraki, provided for that purpose from the royal distillery." Letters from Rev. Mr. Stern and Consul Cameron, dated September 15, 1866, stated that the emperor was expected at Magdala (the place where the prisoners were kept), and that a crisis in the fate of the prisoners was approaching. Later letters (written about the beginning of October) were received by Dr. Beke, a gentleman who has long resided in Abyssinia, understands the language of the country, is personally acquainted with the Negos (emperor), and has taken a special interest in the liberation of the prisoners, from which it appeared that Messrs. Rosenthal and McKelvie had been allowed to remain at Gaffat; that Messrs. Kerans and McKelvie had offered their services to the emperor-those of the former having been rejected, but those of the latter accepted; and that Messrs. Bardel, Makerer, Steiger, Brandeis, Essler, and Schiller, had also entered the emperor's service. A full account of the fate of the prisoners is given by Dr. Beke, in his work, "The English Captives in Abyssinia" (London, 1866). Interesting information on the Emperor Theodore is contained in the parliamentary papers published by the English Government. În 1855 Consul Plowden sent to the Foreign Office a report in which, after referring to the distracted state of Abyssinia, with its chief's generally at variance with each other, he says: "A remarkable man has now appeared, who, under the title of King Theodore, has broken the power of the great feudal chiefs; has united the whole of Northern Abyssinia under his authority, and has established tolerable tranquillity." It appears that from his earliest youth he has regarded this as his destiny. Mr. Plowden describes him as young, vigorous in all manly exercises, of a striking countenance, peculiarly polite and engaging when pleased, and mostly displaying great tact and delicacy; of untiring energy, both mental and bodily, and of boundless daring, personal and moral. His ideas and language are said to be clear and precise; hesitation is not known to him; he has neither councillors nor go-betweens. He salutes his meanest subject with courtesy, and is generous to excess, but also unsparing in punishment and terrible when his wrath is aroused. His faith is signal: "Without Christ,' he says, "I am nothing; but if He has destined me to purify and reform this distracted kingdom, who shall stay me?" Mr. Plowden, who thus sketched the king's character, stated that ne had made great reforms in Abyssinia; had enforced more decency of manners; was putting down trade in slaves, and removing vexaAs might be tious exactions on commerce. expected, he was jealous of his sovereign rights, and he objected to the establishment of an English consulate in his dominions as an innovation. "He found no such thing in the history of the institutions of Abyssinia." Mr. Plowden hinted that if he consented to the establishment of friendly relations the sea-coast and Massowah might possibly be given up to him; but though his ambition was roused at this, he feared the clause conferring jurisdiction on the consul as trenching on his prerogative, and the time for consideration was so short that he was too much startled at the proposal to accept it. The Roman Catholic mission had usurped the functions of the Aboona and the Abyssinian clergy, and the king feared that we should wish in like manner to usurp the political rights of the sovereign. At the beginning of 1865 a society was organized in France by the Count de Mounier, for establishing at Halaï, in Abyssinia, a commercial agency, but, on arriving in Egypt, the society dissolved. Another project of civilization had been started by the Count de Bisson, who, in a letter to the Paris journal, La France, stated that he had received from Theodore a concession of all the uncultivated lands of the empire, and that the Negos had put an armed force at his disposal for the protection of himself and his associates. In support of his assertion he quoted the following extract from the ordinance of concession: "We give to thee and concede forever all the lands which thou mayst choose and take in Abyssinia. They belong to thee. We engage by oath to defend thee and thy companions by our invincible arms; to furnish to thee aid of every kind thou mayst stand in need The emperor has for some time been engaged various vicissitudes, and what seems, if this ac- AFRICA. The most important event in the and a still larger army of insurgents of Tigré Madagascar concluded a treaty with Great is The long war between the Basutos and the Orange Free State was closed by a treaty signed by Moshesh, the chief of the Basutos, on the 3d of April. The Free State acquired by this treaty a valuable territory, and the Free State authorities at once adopted measures to colonize the new territory. Later advices (September, 1866) stated that the settlement of the Free State frontiers was being interfered with by the Basutos, and the land commissioners were unable to mark out the new farms without a considerable escort. They had encountered threatenings and warnings on every side. The Basutos were said to be starving, and a renewal of the war was feared. The English Cape Colony was enlarged by the annexation of Caffraria, and in June members for the Legislative Council were elected in the annexed territory in accordance with the provisions of the annexation and representation act adopted during the last session of the Cape Parliament. The third session of the third colonial Parliament was opened by Governor Wodehouse on September 6th. New government measures were announced in the form of three bills for the establishment of a new government paper currency, for the revision of the customs' import tariff, and for the imposition of an export duty. The Cape Government took formal possession for the Home Government of the unclaimed Guano Islands at the northern extremity of the colony. Penguin harbor, the Mercury Islands, and Ichaboe, are now in the absolute possession of the British Government. On the 26th of June, a detachment of the Fourth West India regiment, under command of Major Mackay, was ordered on an expedition against the "Maraboos," who had attacked several towns in British territory, in Western Africa. The expedition was completely successful, and on the 30th of June the last stronghold of the enemy was captured. Col. D'Arcy en tered the stockade at the head of his detachment. The enemy surrendered at discretion, after sustaining a loss of three hundred in killed and wounded. The French possessions remained at peace throughout the year, the insurrection in Algeria subsided about the close of the year 1865. The territory on the Senegal only was several times invaded by native chiefs, who were, however, without difficulty, driven beyond the French settlements. The area of Africa, and its population, continue to be very differently estimated by the ablest geographical writers. Brehm's Geographisches Jahrbuch (vol. i., 1866), which is regarded as the best authority on these matters, estimates the total area of Africa at 543,570 geog. sq. miles, and the aggegate population at 188,000,000. The following statistics are given for the several divisions and countries: * One geographical square mile is equal to 21.21 English quare miles. |