ROMANTIC HISTORY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 4 October 1924, Page 13

ROMANTIC HISTORY.

ETHIOPIA, ANCIENT AND • MODERN. ‘‘There are not many States which for two thousand years have never suomitted to the rule- of alien conquerors, ’ ’ says t-lie Daily Telegraph. “The Regent of the Empire of Ethiopia, who lias been visiting London as the guest of the King, mayboast that his country has not endured the control of foreigners since Greek kings ruled in Egypt, if, indeed, tlieir tales of victory are true. Ethiopia has to our ears a somewhat- mythical sound.. Was not the Queen of Sheba sovereign of Ethiopia? Ethiopia is now the . proper name of Abyssinia, whose Emperor’s title is ‘the Conqueror and the Lion of Juda, the Elect of God, King of Kings of Ethiopia. ’ The authentic history of Abyssinia is romantic. That the Queen of Slieba came from the Abyssinian hills, that the modern Royal house of Abyssinia is descended from the son Menelek whom she. bore, to Solomon may be fable. It is certainly true that for sixteen hundred . years Abvssinia lias been the home of a Christian Church Avmeh has never been under the sway ox infidel or pagan. No other part of Christendom has. that unsullied fame, that it should have been' achieved by a community in the Dark Continent is m the nature of a miracle. “Abyssinia became Christian in the touicli century. In the seventh Islam conquered Egypt, whence its Christianity had come, and the Abyssinians were cut off from the rest cf Christendom, a territory surrounded by Mohammedanism and heathendom, ■‘'encompassed. by the .enemies of their religoiij- the Etliifipialis have 1 slept- for near a thousand years, forgetful of the v Grid by whom -tli ey were -forgotten, ’ So much is ascertained fact, but there are stranger stones still; that they were Jewish before they, were Christian, that they were converted not in the fourth century, but much earlier by St. Matthew the Evangelist. When the great age of. exploration began, Portuguese travellers discovered Ethiopia, and its-'Emperor, sent an embassy* to the King of Portugal to ask help against Islam, and with Portuguese musketeers delivered’ liis .country from the armies of the Crescent. The Christianity of Ethiopia was..again in Touch with Christendom, 'And for a hundred and fifty years received priests from Rome. But from“the middle of Tlie seventeenth century , the’ Abyssinians were again isolated, save, for such‘bold explorers as James* Bruce mu liis. quest of the source of the Blue. Nile, till-the opening of the gates of' Africa in ’the last century. In . the division" of . .the continent among the European Powers Abyssinia, successfully maintained -Tier independence, and now, jeurqHed iff The League of Nations, the Abyssinians)are iindertakingLUicv. deveiopmenU' of their own country':” Y _ ,'7 ...A