It is needless to dwell on the danger to the merchant in the case of revolted Chiefs, who plunder indiscriminately, and from whom, even if captured, the recovery of any property is hopeless. As tolls are taken each way at the places mentioned, all these observations apply equally to exporting as to importing.

A code of laws called the "Feth Negust," said to have been compiled by the Council of Three Hundred, in the earlier ages of the Church, and regarded originally as of almost equal authority with the Sacred Writings, is the guide of the Abyssinian Chiefs in their decision as judges. The twelve "Licks" of Gondar originally formed the Supreme Court of Justice, a Court of Final Appeal; but the office ceased with the power of the Emperors.

The "Feth Negust" is now expounded by some learned priest or scribe, and there are few in the country competent to the task. It is frequently consulted, more after the fashion of the "Sortes Virgilianæ," the book being opened with solemnity, and the first passage found that appears to bear upon the question, being hastily dressed to suit the case in hand, and present an aspect of oracular wisdom; in this light it is at least regarded by the uninformed multitude, that is, the whole nation save the priesthood, and it is invariably set aside when the passions or whims of the presiding Chief seem to require it.

On the accusation of any man in Abyssinia of any crime, he has the right to demand to be heard in the first instance by his own Judge, that is, either the Chief of his village or the master to whom he is attached for the time being, and to be forwarded to his residence, together with his accuser, by any authority to whom he shall appeal in the King's name.

Strangers may be judged by the district Chief or the Chief paramount, as they may choose; in every way the final right of appeal to the Supreme Ruler exists, but the Ras not being strong enough to enforce this right at present in the case of Oobeay, the decisions of that Chief are considered final. The Chiefs of the Agows of Lasta, called the " Wagshoom," and the Chief of Kwora, on the borders of Sennaär, although feudally subject to the Ras, claim also this privilege of final judgment; but with these exceptions the greatest Chief may, on the complaint of a peasant, be summoned from any distance to appear at the Ras's Court, and be obliged personally to answer the charge before the "Af-a-Negoos," or King's mouth, an officer who hears all cases, and reports them concisely to the Ras for his verbal decision.

After an accusation, before the pleadings can commence, both parties must give security approved of by the "Af-a-Negoos." These bails or securities are answerable for the execution of the sentence whatever it may be, or must suffer it themselves should the principals abscond. But at the end of the trial these first securities may declare off in case of doubting their principals, and others must be found; the only alternative to the convicted party being chains.

In all suits, civil or criminal, there is no prosecution by the Crown, and no police of any kind. The party aggrieved must lay the accusation, find out the aggressor, seize him, and convict him as he best may.

The Mosaic law of blood for blood being in full force, when a man is convicted of having killed another, whether purposely or by accident, or in self-defence, he is handed over to the relatives of the deceased to be put to death by them, unless they can be persuaded to accept the blood-money, a similar sum being also paid into the Royal Treasury. It not unfrequently happens that no relation is found sufficiently near of kin to interfere in the matter, and the homicide then escapes scotfree. With the greater Chiefs there is generally a desire to administer justice impartially, when not embarrassed by some political motive.

My Lord,

Consul Plowden to the Earl of Malmesbury.-(Received July 2.)

Massowah, March 23, 1853.

I HAVE the honour to inclose a short statement of our present relations with Northern Abyssinia.

I have much difficulty in presenting the information I would give, in a concise form, as I know of nothing that I can refer to analogous with the singular institutions of this country.

I have received no reply to my despatch of the 20th June, 1852, with an inclosure, upon similar matters as bearing upon our Treaty with the Ras Ali. I trust that your Lordship will now deem it fit to examine both the Reports, and to furnish me with instructions that shall consider the difficulties that I have endeavoured to point out, and inform me, as far as may be deemed expedient, of the views and intentions of Her Majesty's Government here.

I have, &c.

(Signed) WALTER PLOWDEN.

Inclosure in No. 2.

Statement of our present Relations with Northern Abyssinia.

THE power of the Ras of Begemder, Chief of Northern Abyssinia, dates nearly from the overthrow of the Ahtyee or Hatze, or Emperor of Gondar, by Ras Michael.

The present Ras, though no other Chief is powerful enough to encounter him in the field, can only retain his title by the maintenance of a large army, and constant wars against his rebellious vassals. Of all the inferior Chiefs "whose title is Dejajmatch," the greatest is Dejajmatch Oobeay, who, partly by the concurrence of the Ras, and more by subtlety, fortune, and the force of arms, governs with absolute sway the country from near the coast of the Red Sea to Gondar, and from Lasta to Sennaar.

The only conditions that should prevent him from being regarded as an independent Sovereign being, his title of Dejajmateh, held from the Ras, and the payment of a tribute of money to him yearly as his feudal superior; otherwise, the Ras does not interfere with his rule over these vast provinces, by which he commands every avenue to the interior of the country available for trade or policy.

The Ras is engaged in the siege of a hill-fort in Godjam now for four years; and another Chief in rebellion, after gaining two battles, has pillaged Gondar, and rendered all communication with Godjam circuitous or dangerous.

It is now doubtful if the Dejajmatch Oobeay will be faithful to his allegiance, or rebel in the hope of seizing the supreme power. In the latter case, the whole land will bristle with arms, and all communication become impossible.

Such is the present political state of Abyssinia.

The boundaries of Northern Abyssinia, at present defined as the districts inhabited by Christians, do not reach by 90 or 100 miles to the Red Sea at any point. This interval is occupied by various savage tribes: the Adaiel; the Azobo Gallas; the Areya Gallas; the Danakil; the Taltal; the Shiho; the Habab; and the Arab tribes of the Beni Ameer. These have adopted more or less strictly the Mussulman faith, and are all, excepting the Gallas, wandering tribes, living by their flocks or their camels; governed by no master, and occupied with incessant feuds or combats.

Through the district occupied by the Shiho is the nearest route to Abyssinia, and the most practicable. It is, indeed, the only one desirable, seeing that it bears directly on Massowah, the only good harbour, I believe, in the Red Sea from Sowakin to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.

These tribes of Shiho furnish guides to all passers for half-a-dollar each, and even conduct a party for the same sum; rich native caravans pay according to their numbers, but always moderately, and a white man is, of course, considered fair booty, to be fleeced according to the extent of his ignorance or his fears. Though vexatious by their delays, they are never known to rob or ill-treat any voyager; they fulfil strictly their contract of safe-conduct through their territories into Abyssinia, and no reasonable man can find fault with their moderate charge for this. It is true that occasionally the Taltal tribes make an incursion and plunder travellers not well armed, in spite of the Shiho, watching their occasion when the warriors of the latter tribe are engaged elsewhere; but this impugns not their good faith, having never been suspected of collusion.

They acknowledge no superior, save the elders of the tribe in council, now that the Naibs of Akeeko are politically extinct.

The Turkish Government occupying the Island of Massowah, their Pasha here claims also the coast for fifty or sixty miles inland, and forces various feeble tribes in those limits to pay tribute; but, in return, affords them no protection, when

devastated by the Shiho or the ruthless soldiery of Oobeay; these people are therefore sufficiently miserable and poor.

(Signed)

WALTER PLOWDEN.

No. 3.

The Earl of Clarendon to Consul Plowden.

Sir, Foreign Office, October 3, 1853. HER Majesty's Government have had under their consideration the observations respecting your position in Abyssinia, and the difficulties in regard to opening a commerce with that country, contained in your despatches of the 20th of June, 1852, and of the 23rd of March, 1853.

Her Majesty's Government were led by the representations formerly made by you to expect that advantage would result to British interests from the conclusion of a Treaty with the rulers of Abyssinia and from the establishment of a British Consulate in that country. It appears, however, from your reports now before me, that there is little reason to expect that such will be the case.

Nevertheless, Her Majesty's Government having concluded the Treaty and established the Consulate, are reluctant to renounce all hope of benefit from those measures: but their means of obtaining in this country information on which to act are necessarily very limited; and I must have recourse to you for a report as to the possibility of your establishing yourself either at Massowah or any other place on the sea-coast where you may retain an influence on the rulers of Abyssinia, and facilitate communication with the provinces under their government.

The measure which you have taken, as reported in your despatch of the 24th of May, for obtaining a public recognition of the Treaty and of the obligations resulting from it, appears to me to be judicious; but it is obvious from your despatches that the difficulty of dealing with Abyssinia results, in a great measure, from the absence of any place on the coast with which a safe communication can be kept up; and it is to the discovery of such a place at which you may fix your residence that I would particularly direct your attention.

I am, &c.

My Lord,

Consul Plowden to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Received November 2.)

Massowah, July 9, 1854.

I HAVE the honour to inclose a Report containing some information on Abyssinia, as directed in your Lordship's despatch of October 3, 1853.

I have endeavoured to give your Lordship a sketch of the laws, customs, government, and position of Abyssinia, with a short account of its neighbours.

I trust that this Report may assist your Lordship in deciding clearly the course to be pursued with reference to Abyssinia.

Struggling with the difficulties of the Abyssinian character and institutions; baffied by their ignorance, and more by the want of any supreme authority; obliged by my position to be recognized as a friend to the Abyssinian nation, yet forced by geographical circumstances to reside partly at a Turkish port, where the Governor necessarily regards me with suspicion and hatred, as one seducing from him the allegiance of his slaves; I can scarcely convey to your Lordship an idea of the difficulties I have had to contend with.

I inclose also a map which gives a rough notion of the northern frontier of Abyssinia.

The course of several of the rivers therein laid down will not be found in any other map, and have been hitherto the subject of much discussion amongst geographers. Your Lordship may depend upon the general accuracy of the map, though I do not pretend to astronomical exactness.

Both the map and the report are compiled entirely from my personal. observations.

Inclosure in No. 4.

Report.

NORTHERN ABYSSINIA is a State isolated from the sea and from the civilized world by surrounding tribes of savages, and is fast lapsing from its former condition as a Christian realm, governed by one absolute Sovereign, into subdivisions of small tribes, that will hereafter retain probably little of religion or

civilization.

It is separated also from its kindred province of Shoa by strong and fierce races called Galla, who are independent, notwithstanding the boastful title of King of the Gallas assumed by Sahela Selassie and his successor, whose actual dominions do not equal a fifth part of the Galla territory.

The country that I name Northern Abyssinia, and which is inhabited by professing Christians, is about 400 miles in length from north to south, inclining westerly, and 300 in its greatest breadth, which is from north-north-west to southsouth-east, that is, from the neighbourhood of Massowah to the town of Ayjubay in Godjam, and from Wayhaynee, the limits of the Egyptian dominion in that quarter, to the borders of Effat, belonging to Shoa.

Its north-western and western boundary is formed by the Pashalic of Sennaar; partly on the west and to the south-west vast forests, frequented by wild beasts, or hot plains inhabited by negro races, exclude Abyssinia from the navigable part of the Blue Nile. To the south, that river, an impetuous torrent, forms its boundary, almost its safety, from the Gallas-excellent horsemen, whose delight is war. To the east and south-east the Gallas of Borona, Wallo, Worahaimano, and Worrakallo, separate it from Shoa. The three last are the stronghold of Islamism; and these are again barred from the sea by the savage Adaiel, by whose hordes, led by Mahommed Grayne, Abyssinia was nearly destroyed, when saved by Portugal and the introduction of fire-arms. To the eastward again, more northerly, other tribes of Gallas called Areya and Azobo still interpose between Abyssinia and the seacoast and to the north-east and north various tribes with various tongues, Taltals, Danakil, Shihos, Hababs, &c., everywhere seclude that realm and join the dominions of Abbas Pasha, in the tribes of the Beni-Ameer, ruled by the Pasha of Taka.

A circle is thus completed that must somewhere be broken through, either by the Abyssinians themselves, had they the power, or by that nation desiring a free intercourse with them.

The tribes I have last mentioned, that seclude Abyssinia from the Red Sea, occupy a strip of land along its coast of 70 to 100 miles in breadth; and it is here that the Turkish Government has occupied several points, of which mention shall be made hereafter: and although these tribes were formerly Abyssinians, and still, in many places, as at Massowah, speak the ancient Ethiopic tongue, as they are now completely separated, I shall not include them in an account of Christian Abyssinia in its present limits.

Setting aside, therefore, this border along the sea, Abyssinia is a range of vast table-lands and fantastic mountains, alternating and varying in elevation from 4,000 to 14,000 feet above the sea level. Deep valleys, the beds of the larger rivers, intersect this in various directions; but these streams, however circuitous their course, almost all finally join the Blue Nile, or Abäi, as it is termed by the Abyssinians. These are nowhere navigable; and a few mountain torrents only, and when swollen by the rains, find their way to the Red Sea. The abrupt and high ranges from which these torrents descend are seen from the coast at the distance of 80 miles inland, and mark everywhere, as far north as the 16th degree of latitude, the confines of the Christian country.

The climate, on all the highland, is salubrious; but the valleys, at certain seasons, are rendered dangerous by fevers, particularly the low countries bordering on Sennaar, and these valleys produce the richest crops of grain. The tropical rains fall plentifully at the same season with those of Bengal, from June to September, and the soil, extremely fertile, might, from the variety of temperature at the different elevations, produce almost every article of human consumption. Two large inland lakes exist; the one near Gondar, called Tana, the other, in the province of Tehluderree, called Haik. The former is 60 miles in length, studded with islands, and abounds in excellent fish; singular to say the crocodile, that is found in most of the large rivers of Abyssinia, does not infest this lake, which

swarms however with hippopotami. The Blue Nile takes its rise a short distance from this, and after forcing its way through the waters of the lake at one corner, forms nearly a circle round Godjam, the southern province of this country.

The flat and overflowed lands round the Lake Tana, are kept as pasture for cattle, or partially sown with grain; but they are well adapted for the cultivation of rice, or sugar-canes, which both grow wild; or of indigo, which has thriven in

Shoa.

The cold plains of Waggera and Godjam, and the lofty mountains of Semen, where the blackberry, the hawthorn, and the fir, now usurp great part of the soil, are fitted for all the productions of northern latitudes. The more temperate provinces would probably be favourable to the growth of pepper, spices, and coffee, which last has already been planted at Korata; and even the coast, and hottest districts, might give crops of cotton of fine quality. Barley, wheat, peas, grain, beans, maize, Indian corn, millet, linseed, saffron, oats, and some kinds of grain unknown to us, are cultivated with little trouble; a small oblong potatoe, called "dennich," and the root of a very nourishing banana, the "ansett," form a great part of the food of some districts.

In the present confusion and supineness not a fiftieth part of the surface is, I suppose, cultivated; while such is the bounty of Nature that Edjow, and other provinces, produce two crops per annum on the same ground.

Fruit-trees, the plum, the orange, the lemon, and the peach, grow wild in the jungle; the vines are luxuriant, and the quality of the wine excellent; numerous streams everywhere irrigate and adorn this agreeable land, whose rich meadows, lowing herds, sparkling waters, golden harvest, and shady trees, often present a scene of European beauty to the traveller.

Gold and copper exist, and iron is found in great abundance; plains of sulphur and various salts, in the province now occupied by the Taltals, supply all Abyssinia with those commodities; and other wealth may lie hid in that volcanic tract. A search for coal would, elsewhere, be probably successful; but to describe the mineral and natural riches of this country should be the task of one better qualified for the investigation.

It is a country that combines mineral resources, a delightful climate, and tropical luxuriance, with so much general salubrity, that no waste of European life need be apprehended from frequenting it.

The temperature of the moderate elevations is very regular, in some places scarcely varying ten degrees throughout the year. Mineral and hot springs abound. All the colder provinces, particularly the Galla, are favourable to horse-breeding; sheep, goats, and cattle, thrive throughout the country; the mulberry has been grown; the potatoe, lately introduced, flourishes; and food is, in general, found too abundantly, as it is found almost without labour.

But while nature has done so much, human energy, or skill, has done nothing. The utter want of roads and bridges-the stagnant, or lawless, nature of the social system-the obstinate attachment to ancient customs-the multitude of rulers, indifferent to everything but their personal enjoyment-the constant wars, and consequent insecurity of life and property-are fast ruining a country of whose beauty and fertility its inhabitants may, with some reason, boast.

The divisions of language in Christian Abyssinia are two, Teegray and Amharic. The former, a slight corruption from the ancient Geez, itself derived from Hebrew and Arabic, and the latter, in my opinion, a distinct language, into which have crept many words from the former. The Amharic is now the written language of the country, the Geez character being used, with some aditions. The Teegray dialect is spoken in the province of Teegray, bounded by the River Takazzee, flowing from the south-south-east to north-north-west, and with some variations all along the seacoast from Massowah, inclusive, to the port of Aggeek. The Amharic, by the rest of Abyssinia, from the Takazzee to the Abäi: and also in the province of Shoa. In Teegray I include the tribe called Agow, that inhabit a district at the source of the Takazzee, anciently called the Kingdom of Lasta, whose origine I cannot divine, and whose language is totally different; and in the Amhara, the Agows of Damot, whose language is half Galla.

The manners of the Amhara are pleasing; their features are generally of the European or Asiatic, that is, Arab, cast, and they are remarkably quick and intelligent. Their standard of morality is very low; sensual pleasures, as intoxication, are gratified without scruple and without shame, in general, the interests or convenience of the moment are the only rule of conduct; want of tact and ill-temper the [171]

C