deputies will accompany me afterwards to Rome-if not to tender their submission to the successor of St. Peter, at least. to implore his friendship and protection as the most powerful of sovereigns". And so saying, he unrolled a map to show the king and courtiers the wide domain of the pontiff's spiritual sway, extending from the rising to the setting sun.

The king without difficulty assented to these conditions, and from that moment we may date the triumph of the Catholic mission in Abyssinia. On the 21st of January, 1841, M. de Jacobis, with the royal embassy, started for Cairo. We will not dwell on the many incidents of their painful and tedious journey. Their equipment, indeed, corresponded but little with the honours which they every where received. They were badly clothed, their feet were bare, they sat on the ground, and their only bed was a bullock's skin. Their meat was eaten raw, and their only utensils were those which nature supplied. For two months they were detained in little Arab boats along the coast of the Red Sea, with nothing to distract their thoughts save the barren shores and the rugged mountains beyond, reflecting the brazen glare of an eastern sun. M. de Jacobis, however, whiled away the tedium of the voyage by imparting instruction from time to time to his fellow-travellers, and by reflecting on the marvels which God had wrought in that sea and in the surrounding desert in behalf of His chosen people.

On the 30th of April they at length reached Cairo: but here new trials awaited them. The plague at this time devastated that Egyptian capital, and all the European consulates were closed against the travellers. The object of their mission and the special privileges promised by the king to the Catholic missioner were soon bruited abroad, awakening the jealousy of the Patriarch, and exciting alarm among the schismatics of Cairo. The members of the embassy were soon threatened with excommunication: some of them fled in terror to Jerusalem: no fewer than seven others fell victims to the plague, and those that remained having received the assurance that the Abouna Salama would be appointed for the Abyssinian Church, started with M. De Jacobis for Alexandria.

The embassy, which consisted of fifty members on their arrival in Cairo, numbered but twenty-three when taking their departure for Alexandria. The heart of the zealous missionary was bent on conducting them to Rome. He felt from his intercourse with them, that their isolation, and ignorance, and prejudice were the only obstacles to their union with the Holy Sce, and he knew that the surest means for overcoming all these obstacles was to lead the representatives of the nation to the Shrines of the Apostles. But how were funds to be secured to meet the

expenses of such a journey? De Jacobis had hoped that through Mehemet-Ali or the French Consul, he might be able to secure some funds for the purpose; but in this he was disappointed. To a pious Italian lady, wife of M. Rosetti, resident in Alexandia, he was indebted for his chief support; and through the kind contributions of friends, together with some aid received from the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, he was at length, in the month of July, enabled to set sail for Italy. A letter of De Jacobis from Malta, discloses the hopes he entertained for the happy results of this expedition: "This journey", he writes, "will change the whole idea of my poor Abyssinians, and will render the conversion of their country comparatively easy. Pray for this result. In a little while the end shall come, and we will be all united in Him to whom the redemption of these souls is so dear”.

In Rome the Abyssinians were filled with admiration at the outward splendour of religion, and it seemed as if a new terrestrial paradise had been opened out before them. The Holy Father at their first audience conversed with them for a long time through the medium of Cardinal Mezzofanti and M. De Jacobis; he caused King Oubié's letter to be read and translated before him, and accepted with fatherly benevolence the presents of incense, birds, and Abyssinian products which they had brought to him. At a subsequent audience he gave to each of them medals and crosses of silver and gold, and likewise an autograph letter with several rich presents for their king. The kindness and affability of the Holy Father won the hearts of the Abyssinians, who were moved to tears, and went away contrasting the charity and love shown to them in Rome with the vexation and persecution they had experienced at Cairo. On their way homeward, de Jacobis conducted his companions to Jerusalem to visit the holy sepulchre, and thence started once more for his loved mission of Abyssinia. Passing on their return through Cairo, they met with six other missionaries journeying on to India and China, to take the place of their martyred brethren. At Suez they witnessed the arrival of a little colony of nuns, the Sisters of Jesus, who were on their way with the Abbé Caffarel to open a school for the education of children at Agra. At Jambo they met a crowd of Hadjis returning from Mecca. "Lying on wretched mats", (it is thus M. de Jacobis describes these Mahomedan pilgrims), "sickly, covered with vermin, and half starved, no sooner did they see the green flag of our vessel, which promised them a speedy return to their own land, than they rushed upon the deck of the little schooner, regardless of the blows from the jannisaries who were endeavouring to keep them back. Only a portion of them

could be crammed into the ship, and the rest returned to shore disconsolate, to wait for the next vessel that might arrive. See-ing how their pilgrimage, the most solemn act of Mahomedan worship, is now held in discredit among the people, one could not but feel that the last hour of the Koran was at hand”.

At Djedda the travellers received at length some intelligence from Abyssinia. During their absence Oubié, the King of Tigré, had been defeated by Ras-Ali, the King of Gondar. The Abouna Salama had arrived just as the war broke out, and was summoned to accompany the troops of Tigré. The abouna refused; but Oubié said to him: "The only difference between you and my other slaves is the enormous price I have paid for you in Cairo"; and Salama was forced to comply. The news of the defeat of Oubié filled our good missionary with alarm, lest all his cherished hopes might thus be blasted, and hence he resolved on hastening on without delay to Adoua. His Abyssinian companions had ere this been all received into the Church, and his caravan had been overtaken by new missionaries, destined to join him in cultivating this distant mission. He was thus enabled to leave at Massouah two priests named Bianchieri and Cyrillo: he kept with himself a lay brother named Abatini, and in the beginning of April he set out for Tigré, where he was destined to find Oubié again triumphant and peace restored. A narrative of this journey, written by de Jacobis himself to one of his order in Paris, gives a most interesting account of the country through which he passed, and of the manners of its people. :

"I am, at last, arrived (he writes), and hasten to give you an account of our long and perilous journey. There were two routes, which equally led to the centre of my mission-that of Dexa and that of Galaguora. I chose the latter, as being safer. The former passes across the desert of Samahar to the mountain of Taranta, as this St. Bernard of the Ethiopian Alps is called. I had taken this route on my first arrival in Abyssinia, and beheld that singular phenomenon by which this chain of mountains forms, as it were, an insuperable barrier between the two seasons-perpetual sunshine and incessant rain alternating every six months on the opposite sides of the range.

"Our route by Galaguora was equally striking. After leaving Laguaja, we found ourselves as in a labyrinth of mountains, the blackened cones and craters of which gave evidence of their volcanic origin. In one of the gorges, the good Frère Abatini was startled by the appearance of a fine lion; but he disappeared on our approach, and all I saw was a multitude of gazelles feeding in the valleys. After a four hours' march, we came on a stream in a little valley, where a whole army of monkeys were gathered together, both small and large. They screamed fright

fully when we attempted to make a halt, and, retiring to the lower spurs of the hills around, effectually succeeded in making us feel that we were intruders on their domains. The next day brought us a succession of misfortunes. The Naib of Arkiko, on a pretended dispute as to the right of passage, made us pay heavily for our safe-conduct through his dominions; then four of our mules fell sick and died in a few hours of some unknown epidemic; the four that remained were already insufficient for the baggage, and were, moreover, needed for such of our party as were too ill and fatigued to continue their march. Altogether, any one coming unexpectedly on our sickly caravan would have imagined that we were the ambulance-wing of au invalided regiment.

"Towards night, our provisions were as completely exhausted as our strength. We were obliged to lie down fasting, with no beds but a mat laid on the stones, with the additional terror of the wild beasts, whom the carcases of the dead mules had already attracted to our encampment. It was a terrible night; and, to add to our misfortunes, the black clouds began to gather ominously round us, and a heavy tropical rain drenched our clothes and put out our fire. As sleeping on these hard rocks and in this condition was impossible, I resolved to precede my companions, and resumed my march. How vividly, in the midst of a vast solitude like this, does one realise the greatness and presence of God! Full of thoughts of Him and the mercy which had followed me ever since (thirteen months before) I had begun this Abyssinian mission, I climbed up the hill, forgetful of fatigue, amidst the harmony of thousands of singing birds, and in an atmosphere embalmed with jessamine, sweet acacia, and other flowering shrubs. As I walked on, I heard a step behind me, and turning round, found a monk of Gondar who had been with me in Egypt and at Rome, Abba Gebra Tensaite by name, and who had been cured of a frightful fever in Jerusalem, where I had administered to him the last sacraments. He had come to implore me to allow him to remain with me, as he thought his cure had been miraculous. I told him that, in the present state of things in the Tigré country, I did not know if I should find even a roof to cover my head; but that if he would throw in his lot with mine, I would share with him my bed and my last bit of bread, and we would labour together for our Lord. He was overjoyed, and followed me gaily and gladly along the stony and precipitous track. All those who were with me at Rome seem to be filled with the same spirit-they only burn to become apostles in their own country; and fervent souls of this sort, under the direction of the mission, is the one object I have had most at heart. At the same time, the Abyssinian people are

proverbially insincere. The words of the Père Lobo were always recurring to my memory: The moment an Abyssinian shows you great affection, be assured he has determined to compass your ruin'. So, was I or was I not to believe in the protestations of my cherished friend? After mature reflection, I resolved to trust; and the result proved that I was right in following simply the dictates of my own heart.

"Towards evening we reached Waha-Negus, the most beautiful spot which heart of painter could conceive. I never saw such flowers and plants: mimosas of enormous height, and other tropical shrubs; while the birds' notes had a sweetness which I had never before heard in any country. Yet this was in the heart of an enormous desert, rarely, if ever, visited by human footstep, How miserable are man's conceptions in the face of God's works! We could hardly tear ourselves from this enchanting spot to toil up the steep mountain-ridge which separates the desert of Samahar from the pasture-lands on the opposite side, inhabited by a nomad and shepherd people called the Chohos. The bitter cold and the hardness of our couches roused us early on the 2nd of May, and we were thankful to come down into the valley of Rerié-Malé, which village we reached towards mid-day.

"In going from this desert of Samahar to Adoua, the missionstation to which we were bound, the course is straight from north to south. Here a young Scotchman met me, a Mr. Bell, bearing letters from the mission; and with him came an Abyssinian boy who had cried bitterly at my departure, and who was almost beside himself with joy at seeing me again. The news they brought was favourable. Oubié had expressed great joy at the prospect of my return, and his people were ready to receive me with open arms. The next day we crossed the mountain called Wamba,camping afterwards in a fertile valley by the side of a rushing stream, under the shade of a gigantic tree, called mefleh, and which is exactly like a citron or lime in flower and leaf. On the 4th of May, we arrived in Caikor, the first Christian province on the frontiers of Tigré. The mountain which separates the two countries towers above one's head in colossal proportions, and a rent in the rocks appears to afford a passage, cut in squared stones, seeming as if created by human workmanship or by the force of artillery-till the gigantic size of each stone, and the enormous masses of granite standing up on either side of the narrow passage, make one realise a Power above that of man. Caikor is a rich and magnificent plain, watered by rivers and entirely surrounded by an ampitheatre of hills. Elephants and lions abound, and we saw their traces every where. The hospitality of the people was remarkable, and made us feel instantly