Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/233

 obliged to take refuge in the interior. It also happened that the Abyssinian sovereigns, in whose interests it is essential that the port of Massawah should remain open to the outer world, have wasted the country to retaliate on the slavedealers and corsairs. By virtue of recent treaties, the approach to Massawah, now an Italian port, although the Egyptian flag still flies on the walls, is to be made

completely free to the trade of Abyssinia. This port of the Red Sea is therefore, if not politically at least commercially, more than ever a natural dependency of Abyssinia, and its importance, already considerable, cannot fail to increase rapidly if peace is maintained on the plateaux. Detached forts command the approaches of the town and mark the limits of an intrenched camp in which the Egyptian governor formerly maintained a corps of 3,000 troops.