te subject, we revert to the intelligent and animated volumes
of Captain (now Major) Harris.

A letter from the Bombay government, 29th April 1841, gave him this
distinguished credential:--

"SIR--I am directed to inform you that the Honourable the Governor in
Council, having formed a very high estimate of your talents and
acquirements, and of the spirit of enterprise and decision, united with
prudence and discretion, exhibited in your recently published travels
through the territories of the Maselakatze to the Tropic of Capricorn, has
been pleased to select you to conduct the mission which the British
Government has resolved to send to Sahela Selasse, the king of Shoa, in
Southern Abyssinia, whose capital, Ankober, is supposed to be about four
hundred miles inland from the port of Tajura, on the African coast."

[Then followed the mention of the vessels appointed to carry the mission.]

(Signed) "J.P. WILLOUGHBY,"

"Secretary to Government."

The persons comprising the mission were Major W.C. Harris, Bombay
Engineers, Captain Douglas Graham, Bombay army, principal assistant, with
others, naturalists, draftsmen, &c., and an escort of two sergeants and
fifteen rank and file, volunteers from H.M. 6th foot and the Bombay
Artillery.

On the afternoon of a sultry day in April, Major Harris, with his gallant
and scientific associates, embarked on board the East India Company's
steam ship Auckland, in the harbour of Bombay, on their voyage to the
kingdom of Shoa in Southern Abyssinia, in the year 1841. The steam frigate
pursued her way prosperously through the waters, and on the ninth day was
within sight of Cape Aden, after a voyage of 1680 miles. The Cape, named
by the natives, Jebel Shemshan, rises nearly 1800 feet above the ocean, is
frequently capped with clouds, a wild and fissured mass of rock, and
evidently intended by nature for one of those great beacons which announce
the approach to an inland sea. On rounding the Cape, the British eye was
delighted with the sight of the Red Sea squadron, riding at anchor within
the noble bay. The arrival of the frigate also caused a sensation on the
shore; and Major Harris happily describes the feelings with which a new
arrival is hailed by the British garrison on that dreary spot, their only
excitement being the periodical visits of the packets between Suez and
Bombay. In the dead of the night a blue light shoots up in the offing. It
is answered by the illumination