power ascend beyond the records of history. The conflict of zeal and persecution rekindled some sparks of their national spirit. They abjured, with a foreign heresy, the manners and language of the Greeks: every Melchite, in their eyes, was a stranger, every Jacobite a citizen; the alliance of marriage, the offices of humanity, were condemned as a deadly sin; the natives renounced all allegiance to the emperor; and his orders, at a distance from Alexandria, were obeyed only under the pressure of military force. A generous effort might have redeemed the religion and liberty of Egypt, and her six hundred monasteries might have poured forth their myriads of holy warriors, for whom death should have no terrors, since life had no comfort or delight. But experience has proved the distinction of active and passive courage; the fanatic who endures without a groan the torture of the rack or the stake, would tremble and fly before the face of an armed enemy. The pusillanimous temper of the Egyptians could only hope for a change of masters; the arms of Chosroes depopulated the land; yet under his reign the Jacobites enjoyed a short and precarious respite. The victory of Heraclius renewed and aggravated the persecution, and the Patriarch again escaped from Alexandria to the desert. In his flight, Benjamin was encouraged by a voice, which bade him expect, at the end of ten years, the aid of a foreign nation, marked like the Egyptians themselves with the ancient rite of circumcision. The character of these deliverers, and the nature of the deliverance, will be hereafter explained; and I shall step over the interval of eleven centuries to observe the present misery of the Jacobites of Egypt. The populous city of Cairo affords a residence, or rather a shelter, for their indigent patriarch and a remnant of ten bishops; forty monasteries have survived the inroads of the Arabs; and the progress of servitude and apostasy has reduced the Coptic nation to the despicable number of twenty-five or thirty thousand families;* a race of illiterate beggars, whose only consolation

* This number is taken from the curious Recherches sur les EgypCiens et les Chinois (tom. ii. p. 192, 193), and appears more probable than the six hundred thousand ancient, or fifteen thousand modern, Copts of Gemelli Carreri. Cyril Lucar, the Protestant patriarch of Constantinople, laments that those heretics were ten times more numerous than his orthodox Greeks, ingeniously applying the woλλai kev

is derived from the superior wretchedness of the Greek patriarch and his diminutive congregation.*

VI. The Coptic patriarch, a rebel to the Cæsars, or a slave to the khalifs, still gloried in the filial obedience of the kings of Nubia and Ethiopia. He repaid their homage by magnifying their greatness; and it was boldly asserted that they could bring into the field a hundred thousand horse with an equal number of camels;† that their hand could pour or restrain the waters of the Nile; and the peace and plenty of Egypt was obtained, even in this world, by the intercession of the patriarch. In exile at Constantinople, Theodosius recommended to his patroness the conversion of the black nations of Nubia,§ from the tropic of Cancer to

dekádes devoiato oivoxóouo of Homer (Iliad. 2. 128), the most perfect expression of contempt. (Fabric. Lux Evangelii, 740.)

The history of the Copts, their religion, manners, &c. may be found in the Abbé Renaudot's motley work, neither a translation nor an original; the Chronicon Orientale of Peter, a Jacobite; in the two versions of Abraham Ecchellensis, Paris, 1651, and John Simon Asseman, Venet. 1729. These annals descend no lower than the thirteenth century. The more recent accounts must be searched for in the travellers into Egypt, and the Nouveaux Mémoires des Missions du Levant. In the last century, Joseph Abudacnus, a native of Cairo, published at Oxford, in thirty pages, a slight Historia Jacobitarum, 147 post 150. [The letters of Dr. Lepsius from Egypt in 1844, furnish the most recent account of the Copts; and place them in a far more respectable position. See p. 268-278, edit. Bohn.-ED.]

About the year 737. See Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex, p. 221, 222. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 99.

Renaudot,

Ludolph. Hist. Ethiopic. et Comment. 1. 1, c. 8. Hist. Patriarch. Alex. 480, &c. This opinion, introduced into Egypt and Europe by the artifice of the Copts, the pride of the Abyssinians, the fear and ignorance of the Turks and Arabs, has not even the semblance of truth. The rains of Æthiopia do not, in the increase of the Nile, consult the will of the monarch. If the river approaches at Napata, within three days' journey of the Red Sea (see D'Anville's maps), a canal that should divert its course would demand, and most probably surpass, the power of the Cæsars. [Lepsius (p. 223) says, that the ancient Napata was situated near the present town of Meraui, which is far inland and separated from the Red Sea by ridges of porphyry and wide sandy deserts.-ED.]

§ The Abyssinians, who still preserve the features and olive complexion of the Arabs, afford a proof that two thousand years are not sufficient to change the colour of the human race. The Nubians, an African race, are pure negroes, as black as those of Senegal or Congo, with flat noses, thick lips, and woolly hair. (Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. v. p. 117, 143, 144, 166, 219, edit. in 12mo, Paris, 1769.) The

the confines of Abyssinia. Her design was suspected and emulated by the more orthodox emperor. The rival inissionaries, a Melchite and a Jacobite, embarked at the same time; but the empress, from a motive of love or fear, was more effectually obeyed; and the Catholic priest was de tained by the president of Thebais, while the king of Nubia and his court were hastily baptized in the faith of Dioscorus. The tardy envoy of Justinian was received and dismissed with honour; but when he accused the heresy and treason of the Egyptians, the negro convert was instructed to reply that he would never abandon his brethren, the true believers, to the persecuting ministers of the synod of Chalcedon.* During several ages, the bishops of Nubia were named and consecrated by the Jacobite patriarch of Alexandria: as late as the twelfth century, Christianity prevailed; and some rites, some ruins, are still visible in the savage towns of Sennaar and Dongola. But the Nubians at length executed their threats of returning to the worship of idols; the climate required the indulgence of polygamy, and they have finally ancients beheld, without much attention, the extraordinary phenomenon which has exercised the philosophers and theologians of modern times. [The conversion of Abyssinia, by Frumentius in the time of Athanasius, is related by Bruce, from the records of that country (Travels, i. 508), and by Neander (3, 169) from the ecclesiastical History of Rufinus (1. 1, c. 9). The two accounts do not materially differ till the latter cites the "Apologia Athanasii;" to show that the emperor Constantius "considered it necessary to persecute the disciples of Athanasius, even in those remote regions." The traveller, on the contrary states, that the conversion was as quietly conducted as, at an earlier period, had been that of the same people from Paganism to the Jewish religion; that there were "no fanatic preachers, no warm saints or madmen, and no persecution."-ED.]

* Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. i. p. 329.

The Christianity of the Nubians, A.D. 1153, is attested by the sherif al Edrisi, falsely described under the name of the Nubian geographer (p. 18), who represents them as a nation of Jacobites. The rays of historical light that twinkle in the history of Renaudot (p. 178, 220-224, 281-286, 405, 434, 451, 464), are all previous to this era. See the modern state in the Lettres Edifiantes (Recueil 4), and Busching (tom. ix. p. 152-159, par Berenger). [For the present state of the Nubians, see the Letters of Lepsius, Nos. 15, 24, 26, 28, and the physical geography of their country, Appendix, p. 516. He says,

(p. 127), "the Nubians or Barâbra (plur. of Berberi) are an intelligent and honest race, peaceful, but of a disposition anything but slavish, with well-formed bodies, and a skin of a light reddish brown colour,” --ED.]

preferred the triumph of the Koran to the abasement of the cross. A metaphysical religion may appear too refined for the capacity of the negro race: yet a black or a parrot might be taught to repeat the words of the Chalcedonian or Monophysite creed.

Christianity was more deeply rooted in the Abyssinian empire; and, although the correspondence has been sometimes interrupted above seventy or a hundred years, the mother-church of Alexandria retains her colony in a state of perpetual pupilage. Seven bishops once composed the Ethiopic synod: had their number amounted to ten, they might have elected an independent primate; and one of their kings was ambitious of promoting his brother to the ecclesiastical throne. But the event was foreseen, the increase was denied; the episcopal office has been gradually confined to the abuna,* the head and author of the Abyssinian priesthood; the patriarch supplies each vacancy with an Egyptian monk; and the character of a stranger appears more venerable in the eyes of the people, less dangerous in those of the monarch. In the sixth century, when the schism of Egypt was confirmed, the rival chiefs, with their patrons, Justinian and Theodora, strove to outstrip each other in the conquest of a remote and independent province. The industry of the empress was again victorious, and the pious Theodora has established in that sequestered church the faith and discipline of the Jacobites.† Encompassed on

* The abuna is improperly dignified by the Latins with the title of patriarch. The Abyssinians acknowledge only the four patriarchs, and their chief is no more than a metropolitan, or national primate. (Ludolph. Hist. Æthiopic. et Comment. 1. 3, c. 7.) The seven bishops of Renaudot (p. 511), who existed A.D. 1131, are unknown to the historian. [Abuna, from the Arabian abu (father), was used by the Abyssinians to designate their chief priest. Their form of church government was very simple; and having no rich bishoprics, they had no sects, heresies, councils, factions, or massacres. This tranquillity remained undisturbed more than a thousand years. They had a convent, or rather a lodging-house for pilgrims and travellers, at Jerusalem. This connection with the church was the cause of their king, Zara Jacob, who reigned from 1434 to 1468, sending his representatives to the council of Florence. On their return, they were accompanied by some Frangi or Franks, who introduced the first religious disputes in Abyssinia. (Bruce's Travels, ii. p. 68.)-ED.]

+ I know not why Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 384) should call in question these probable missions of Theodora into Nubia and

all sides by the enemies of their religion, the Ethiopians slept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world, by whom they were forgotten. They were awakened by the Portu guese, who, turning the southern promontory of Africa, appeared in India and the Red Sea, as if they had descended through the air from a distant planet.* In the first moments of their interview, the subjects of Rome and Alexandria observed the resemblance, rather than the difference of their faith; and each nation expected the most important bene fits from an alliance with their Christian brethren. In their lonely situation, the Ethiopians had almost relapsed into the savage life. Their vessels, which had traded to Ceylon,

Ethiopia. The slight notices of Abyssinia till the year 1500 are supplied by Renaudot (p. 336-341, 381, 382, 405, 443, &c. 452, 456, 463, 475, 480, 511, 525, 559-564) from the Coptic writers. The mind of Ludolphus was a perfect blank. * [The Abyssinian annals record their first intercourse with the Portuguese as having taken place in the time of their king Bæda Mariam, who reigned from 1468 to 1478. Before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, Prince Henry of Viseu, the originator of Portuguese enterprise, dispatched two emissaries to obtain information respecting the practicability of a sea-route to India. They made their way to India, where one of them died. The other, Peter Covilham, while travelling homewards, penetrated into Abyssinia. According to the custom of the country, he was forcibly detained, but honourably treated, married, and appointed to eminent offices. In 1508, during the minority of David of Abyssinia, his mother Helena, being regent, was alarmed by the growing power of the Maho. metans around her. She consulted Covilham, and by his advice sent Matthew, an Armenian merchant, to ask assistance of the Portuguese in India, who, in the meantime, had accomplished their long desired passage, and established their empire at Goa. Albuquerque (the Por tuguese viceroy at Goa) received the ambassador coldly, and after many delays, referred him to his sovereign at Lisbon. There, Matthew was regarded with suspicion; but his secret instructions to offer a cession of territory, in return for afforded assistance, at last gained him a favourable hearing. After long negotiations, he returned, accompanied by an aged ambassador, who died during the passage. At Goa, Roderigo de Lima was appointed in his place, who, on arriving in Abyssinia, was, in his turn, very cavalierly treated, David had taken the government into his own hands, and completely defeated his Mahometan enemies in July 1518. No longer in want of an ally, he indignantly refused to ratify his mother's proposed abandonment of a portion of their lands. Roderigo was kept there five years, and only obtained permission to depart, by leaving some of his train. His chaplain, Alvarez, published a very false account of all these transactions, especially of the reception given to Roman Catholicism. (Bruce's Travels, vol. ii. p. 87-107.)-ED.]