Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/66

ABYSSINIA Prester John, arrived at the court of Alexan- der, who then occupied the throne under the title of negus (king). On the death of Alexan- der, his successor, Negus David, was so young that his grandmother Helena acted for a while as regent, and through a mission to Portugal she secured the visit of an embassy from Lisbon to Abyssinia about 1520, an event which led to the subsequent active interference of the Portu- guese in the affairs of the country. Estevan da Gama, the Portuguese viceroy in India and a grandson of the celebrated navigator, was or- dered to aid the Abyssinians with a small armed force in their war against the Mohammedans of Adal, which had broken out about 1528, and had already lasted 12 years. Accordingly, in 1541, the first European military expedition into Abyssinia, numbering only 450 soldiers, with six cannon, landed at Massowa under the com- mand of Cristoforo da Gama, the viceroy's broth- er. He defeated the Turkish forces under Mo- hammed Gran in many engagements, but finally Abyssinian Warriors. his army was routed and he was killed in an important battle fought in 1542, probably near the Senafe pass. At this period began the barbarian incursions of the Galla tribes from the south, which occasioned a long series of wars between the Abyssinians and the more savage but fairer invaders, who finally suc- ceeded in establishing themselves on a strip of territory, which they still occupy, separat- ing Shoa from the rest of the country. The Jesuits never wielded a paramount influence in the state except in the early part of the 17th century. The authority of the negus ap- pears to have been maintained unimpaired until about the middle of the last century. The Gallas had by this time become of im- portance as prospective allies in intestinal quarrels; and to propitiate them, Yasous II. married a Galla woman. This act so incensed the native Christians that they practically withdrew their allegiance from the negus, who lived but a few years after his marriage, and gave it to Kas Michael Suhul, the hereditary chief of Salowa in Tigre, who then became in fact the ruler of the country and governed it as long as he lived, although a nominal negus was placed upon the throne after the death of Yasous. It was during the administration of Ras Michael that the English traveller Bruce visited Gondar, in 1770. The authority of the negus had already become a nullity, the ras, who was ostensibly his minister, being in real- ity the ruler of the state. Soon the indepen- dent chiefs of the other provinces refused to acknowledge his sway. Shoa, Tigre, and God- jam, the S. W. province of Amhara, were vir- tually separate sovereignties for many years. A line of chiefs descended from a female rep- resentative of the ancient royal house ruled over Shoa; while Tigre was governed from 1790 to 1816 by Ras Walda Selassye, who-was visited at Antalo, his capital, in 1804, by Mr. Salt, the first Englishman to enter Abyssinia in an official character. Ras Ali of Amhara was the de facto governor of central Abyssinia from 1831 to 1855, although two princes, to whom he was minister, nominally ruled the country during this period. Between these dates the visits of numerous explorers made extensive additions to European knowledge of Abys- sinia. In 1848 Mr. Walter Plowden, who had previously visited the court of Ras Ali at Debra Tabor in Tigre, was appointed British consul to Abyssinia. Ly Kasa, subsequently so famous as King Theodore, now appeared as an important character in Abyssinian poli- tics. Born in 1818, he had been educated in a convent, as a scribe, whence a chance foray turned his thoughts to military affairs, and he became the leader of a predatory band of dis- contented soldiery, which grew to such dimen- sions as soon to be a power in the state. He then attacked the army of the mother of Ras Ali, who governed the district of Dembea for her son, and being successful was himself ap- pointed to rule over it by the ras, who also bestowed upon the young chieftain the hand of his daughter in marriage. But this friend- ship was short-lived. Kasa recommenced war against his father-in-law, drove him from his dominions, subjugated the chief of Godjam and Dadjatch Ubye of Tigre, and in 1855 found himself master of Abyssinia. He now caused the abuna to crown him king of the kings of Ethiopia under the name of Theodore. Plow- den entered into official relations with the new government, and both he and his friend Bell, an Englishman in the emperor's service, resided in the country till 1860, when they were killed by insurgents. Up to this time Theodore had reigned tolerantly and with dis- cretion; but the death of Bell and Plowden, to whom he was devotedly attached, together with the loss of his first wife, the daughter of Ras Ali, whose influence over him had always been excellent, wrought a great change in his character. His new wife, the daughter of a hos-