The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-09


rounded nation. or again. 70 sne AEA 1
woru haoesta' meaning ~isnous -
TOTS Wnat We pooItiVey Know spsS
Apyssinians' resentiul Vi |"
wnlcn CneT curronS nahno P"ssoe $3.50"
Mosleam ups, ave "non spossans '
other q u III ha'0r u = 49,
~ossAsna.ion OF EtnioPian' y wHS TS.
nave u nIsIorleaA anu raeA 49,
autnor OF tnhs oook' O0mmission1s ~"
Toes noe profess 20 nave oosn SOL.
snorS time neodeu ior inc Sr~
M on1oiai business Tue nesv.lHsSn
treaty OF oommcroe, 70 Nny
exhaustive stnoles WINE In VI" IANpT.
commons ne expresses tns noPo' ~
ever. tnat tne neio lor truISluA
CAL historical inc hnguisto rese.IVn p
sented In Aoyssinls wiz SOME usy 10 aP-
preciated' we aeVote Hniho"s; no 49,
10 Ihe uhooVerlng Oh shOions ou ~-
YET we heglect an ahcionI
a clVliZatlon Whlch iouno us AnSP"e''O.AH
COURT ano wnicn, Pr0sef'ins
iUs Cnrstian iaItn through INV y's
although cut on Tor many centuries iIonn ~.
contact witn tne outsiue "or'u' nanus So
down TO US In all essential respccOs lueu sDo
with the civll1auoh WHOM P'oN~"0u ="
betn'enem z'Ooc years ago
IL seems that the project OF sending an
American mission to Ethiopia was orig
inally laid before President Mckinley by
Mr.. Skinner in 1900. The matter received
at tho time some consideration but It was
not until 1908 that President Roosevelt
appointed the author OF this BOOK TO 9
tate a needed commercial treaty with
Emperor Menelik's Government. Inc
members of the commission left New YORK
on November 8. 1908, joined the Cniteo
States war vessel Machias at Naples Inc
proceeded In it 20 Beirut, where Admiral
Cotton's squadron was then protecting
American interests. At this point a guard
Of marines was taken on board and the
whole party went forward to D1ioouh,
the seaport created with a view to the
absorption Of Abyssinian trade In French
Somaliland. Mr.. Skinner and his associates
landed at Djibouti in 1908 about the middle
of November. when the heat Is enduraole,
because IL ceases when the sun il low. In
the summer the difference between day
and night Is tina the night is the warmer
of the two. A word should be said by way
Of introduction about the political division
of the coasts adjoining Nbysslnia' Inc
country OF the King OF Kings, like Switzer-
land, has now no seacoast, though formerly
it had an extensive one. To the north
east the Italians acquired In 1882 the island
of Massowa and the adjoining strip OF the
African mainland, which is known as ETY.
threa. Where the Italian territory leaves
OF on the south the French section or
Somaliland begins and when II IN turn
ends the British coast commences. British
Somalland is a sort OF political inheritance
from an effective Egyptian occupation
dating from 1884. The southern border OF
British Somaliland adjoins another Italian
coast colony. so that from north to south
what Is left OF ancient Ethiopia Is cut on
from any contact with the sea.
To most OF US Djibouti Ia but a name
upon the very latest maps. Our author
describes IL as a monument to French per-
siste 1cy and creative skill. A few years
ago it did not exist. Military necessity
required, or was supposed to require. that
a coaling port should be created. Straight
way It was provided. Sea walls were con-
structed, harbor lights were located and the
tricolor hoated from a huge and comforta-
BILE mansion. Here under a steadily NOV
ing punkah, kept in motion by a Somali
soldier in white headgear shaped X a
brimless tall hat, our American commits
sioner learned from the Governor the story
OF Djibouti az they slipped the iced cham
payne. With the public works created for
a coaling station came a railroad aimed
at the interior, and with it the French man
OF business, who erected houses of coral
rock and made himself comfortable therein,
This was the period OF the boom, for the
railroad work required an army OF en-
ployees, temporary shops nd much else OF
an ephemeral character. When the rail-
road had pushed its length more than 800
kilometres across the desert Djibouu re-
sumed its status A. a port OF call for nu-
merous African steamer lines and waited,
a. 1t is still waiting, for the great expected
development OF Ethiopia, which was to
make the capital Of French Somallland its
natural point OF contact with the modern
world. II was, indeed, his expectation
and the partial completion o. the railroad
that took the American commission TO
Abyssinia. Hitherto trade in general, and
American trade in particular, had drifted
to Alden, at the southwestern corner OF
Arabia, and e across to any N Of