e graced our naval annals. The two young
seamen, Smale and Rayner, who had been wounded at the same time as the
commodore, died within a few hours of him."

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION--1867.

Far to the south of Egypt, beyond Nubia, lies a little known and
mysterious country now called Abyssinia, formerly a part of Ethiopia,
the wonderful kingdom of the renowned Prester John and once of the Queen
of Sheba.

Bounded on the north by the Eastern Soudan, on the east by a stretch of
sterile, uninviting ground varying in width to the Red Sea from a dozen
to at least two hundred miles, and a sort of "no man's" land unless
claimed in a measure by Egypt and in a kind by Italy in these latter
days; adjacent in the south to the broad lands of the warlike Gallas
tribes, and approached from the west by the barren Southern Soudan,--
Abyssinia has from time immemorial been the arena of rebellions, of
inter-tribal hostilities, of inroads by neighbouring tribes, of attacks
by civilised powers. Least of all has the land produced signs of
progress in the arts of peace. Its mountains, towering to heights of
8000, 10,000 and 13,000 feet, have been the hiding-places of cruel
robbers, of deposed chiefs, of disappointed insurgents; and its valleys
have rung with countless cries of dying men in hotly contested battles.

Abyssinia has throughout the ages been divided into provinces, although
the greatest authority has been nominally centred in one royal
personage, or Negus. In the fact of these divisions, or principalities,
we have largely the secret of continual disturbance. Jealousy has been
responsible for much. The three principal provinces are Amhara, Tigre,
and Shoa; the first being in the centre, with Tigre in the north, and
Shoa in the south. Gondar is the capital of Amhara, Adowa is the main
town of Tigre, and Amkobar is the most important place in Shoa. The
prince, or governor, of each province, is known as "Ras," a term we
often find in reference to Abyssinian matters.

In the seventh century of the Christian era, 200 years after the country
had passed the zenith of its power and glory, the Mohammedans swept like
a great avalanche upon Abyssinia, stifled but did not utterly destroy
Christianity, which had been introduced in the middle of the fourth
century of the era in which we live; and maintained such a strong
influence, that for century after century the whole land was in darkness
and ignorance