The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-05

mouth, and an obJect-leSSon In the mi
 gratory propensities of African races
 To Pedro de Covilhana belongs the
 credit of being the first western Euro
 pean to have set foot on Abyssiniar
 soil. Unfortunately, his records have
 been lost, and it is to Father Alvarez
 who followed nearly fifty years later
 O52O, that we are indebted for the ear
 Hest authentic information about Abys-
 sinia and its traditions. The informa-
 tion he brought back with him is of un-
 surpassed interest. That part of his
 published records which deals with the
 subject of this article had best be giv-
 en in his own words.
 A REMARKABLE PROPHECY.
 "We stayed" says Father Alvarez, 'in Aquaxumo (probably Axum) for
 eight months. This town was the city,
 chamber and abode of the Queen Saba l (Sheba is designated as a province in
 old Ethiopian maps), who took the cam
 els laden with gold to Solomon when he
 was building the Temple of Jerusalem.
 There is in this town very noble
 church, in which we found very great
 chronicle written in the language of | tllt NoulltIyb dIlu IL SldlCl III ito SViAA- | mencement how it had been written | first in Hebrew and afterward put | into Greek, and from Greek into Chal- | dee, and from Chaldee into the Abys- | sinian tongue, in which it now Is, and | it begins thus: How the Queen Sheba | hearing related the great and rich works which Solomon had begun in Jerusalem, she determined to go and see them, and she loaded certain camels with gold to give for these works, and
 on arriving near the city, and being about to cross a lake which they passed by some bridge, she dismounted and worshipped the beams, and said (mark the alleged prophecy, uttered 951 B. CD: Please God, my feet shall not touch the timber on which the Saviour of the world has to hang and she made cir cult of the lake, and went to see Solo,
 mon, and induced him to withdraw
 those beams from there; and she came
 to the works and offered her gifts, and
 said: These works are not such as they told me in richness and beauty, be- cause their beauty and richness have no equal, so that they are greater than what was related to me: so much so that the tongues of men cannot tell their nobility and richness, and much I grieve for the small gift which I brought. I will return to my countries and lordships and I will send whatever abounds, for the works of gold and blackwood to inlay
 The misunderstanding to Alvarez goes on to assert that King Solomon was smitten with the beauty of his fair visitor. She resided some time in Jeru- salem, and bore Solomon a son, called variously Melimelek (Ludolf), Menilek Ga Chatre), etc. The young man was brought up in the Jewish court, where he remained until he was seventeen, when, having rendered himself obnox- ious to the people-'he outraged the people of Israel and all Judea"-a dep- utation waited upon Solomon and begged the king to send him back to his mother, for we are not able to maintain him" Solomon, the chroni- cle tells us, sent him very honorably, giving him the officers that are usual in a kings household, and he made the journey to the country of his mother, where he was very great ruler" He ruled" says the chronicle, from sea to sea, and had sixty ships In the Indian Sea-" The discoveries of Alvarez were widely reproduced in Europe, where they must have created considerable sensation. Many old English works published in the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries contain references to Abyssinia, which could only have been derived from the writings of Alvarez,
 ;l.1. ~.c H. porary compatriots. Two different pas | sages are worth quoting, from a curi- ous old book, entitled "Fardle of Fa- cions conteining the anciente maners, | customes and lawes of the Peoples in- habiting the two partes of the earth | called Affricke and Asie," and pub lished in London in 1855. One passage reads: "The people of Ethiope under l the gouernaunce of Presbiter Tho Gohn?) perseauer in Christiane godli- ness howbeit after a sort much differ ent fro ours" the other reads: This | King Gias CD is of the the blaud of Dauid continued from one generation to | another by so many years of successio."
 Bruce, who visited Abyssinia in TITO, two hundred years after Alvarez, and
 
 ter the expulsion of the Portuguese, found Axum in ruins. He makes no of having seen the famous but had evidently heard of it, for he says, speaking of the small | church still remaining in Axum: Tn it are supposed to be preserved the ark of the Covenant and the copy of the law which Menilek, the son of Solomon, is said to have stolen from his father In his return to Ethiopia; and they were reckoned as it were the palladia of the 
 Of those who came later, Lord Napier, Hewett, Portal, Wylde, etc., none ap pear to have seen or heard of these an- cient writings. After the capture of Magdala many manuscripts were brought to the British Museum, but none of them were older than the if teenth century, and they threw no light on the historical records of the coun- try. But this is not to be wondered at. The jealous and exclusive priesthood of may be believed to have aken good care to prevent the precious relics from falling into the hands of the detested invader. Menelek, the Lion of Judah,' is the only man who can clear up a problem so pregnant with interest to Christendom. Let us nope that if he does visit Jerusalem the world may hear more of the Sacred