Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/237

 The long and narrow bay stretching from the north southwards some 30 miles inland, which the Disseh islanders call the "Gulf of Velvet" possibly on account of the calmness of its well-sheltered waters, is much nearer to the upland Abyssinian plateaux than Massawah, and the commercial exchanges have often taken this direction. This inlet of the seaboard, the Annesley Bay of the English, is more commonly known by the name of Adulis Bay, as it was called some two thousand years ago, when the fleets of the successors of Alexander rode at anchor in its waters. A Greek inscription, copied in the sixteenth century by the Egyptian monk Cosmas ludicopleustjs, celebrates the great king Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy and "Arsinoe." A second, which relates the glorious expeditions of the Abyssinian king " Eb Aguda," is of the highest geographical importance, as it contains a series of twenty-three Abyssinian names, the first elements of the comparative geography of the country. Mariette has proved, by identifying many of the names engraved on the gates of Kamac with those of the Adulis inscription, that Egypt had certainly established relations with Abyssinia as far back as the time of Thotmes III., in the eighteenth century of the old era. A few capitals cut in the lava, and marbles sculptured by the Byzantine artists, are all that has been brought to light of the buildings of the ancient city, which now stands more than three miles inland, a fact probably due to an upheaval of the coast, or else to the gradual increase of the alluvial deposits. Its ancient name still exists under the form of Zulla. To the south on the heights are the remains of a town, which was probably the sanitorium of Adulis. During the second half of this century Adulis has often been regarded as a future French colony, because the strip of land round the bay, together with the island of Disseh, was conceded to France in 1840 by a sovereign of Tigré; but this written concession was followed by no act of occupation, and England is the power which, under cover of the Egyptian flag, possesses this comer of Abyssinian territory. In no other region has Great Britain given a more striking proof of her widespread power than on this arid coast of the Red Sea. In this bay, where are scarcely to be seen a few wretched boats or fishing rafts composed of three boards nailed together, some hundreds of vessels rode at anchor in 1867 and 1868. A landing stage, of which a few traces still remain, stretched over half a mile into the sea; a railway ran southwards as far as the base of the escarpments; and huge reservoirs, dug at the foot of the mountains, served as watering-places for the elephants and forty thousand beasts of burden. Zulla was the place where the British army landed and re-embarked, having brought to a happy conclusion an expedition without parallel in the history of England and modern times, not only for the justice of the cause and mathematical precision of the operations, but also for its complete success, almost without bloodshed, and the disinterested conduct of the victors. This march of an armed European force over the Abyssinian plateaux ended without conquest, and the traces of the passage of the English were soon effaced on the sands of Zulla. Nevertheless with this passing visit of the stranger begins a new era in Abyssinian history.