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النشر الإلكتروني

Minot Sund.

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EXACTLY a year has elapsed this month since I confided to the readers of this Magazine, and therefore to the more prominent members of her Majesty's Government, the secrets of a great political mystery in Africa, which at that critical juncture was perplexing the wisest heads in Europe. My conviction of the enormous value of those revelations is my justification for now continuing them; for I may venture to assert, without fear of contradiction, that the triumphant success which has since attended Albinian arms and Albinian diplomacy in Ethiopia, was due to the timely information then imparted, and to the totally erroneous inferences which were drawn from it. If this be not the case, then I would boldly ask, To what are we to attribute the total change which the policy of her Majesty's Government underwent last year in the month of July with regard to the affairs of Ethiopia? And if there never was any mystery about the compli

VOL. CXXXIV.-NO. DCCCXIII.

cations in that country at all, then how are we to account for the fact that they have, so far, resulted in a manner totally unexpected by everybody? And I would here venture to call attention to this remarkable circumstance in connection with the events which have transpired within the past year-that none of the actors concerned in this singular drama would have done what they did if they could have foreseen what would happen if they did it. Who, for instance, can suppose that Ethiop would have defied all Europe, if he could have anticipated that as the final consequence of his audacity he would have been sent to pass the remaining years of his life in exile in the lovely isle of Taprobane? Again, had not the Mogul of Seljukia been more mystified than most people by the Great African Mystery, it is certain that instead of refusing to send an army to co-operate with that of Albinia when he was invited to do so, he

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would have eagerly jumped at an opportunity of asserting his sovereign rights and jointly occupying Ethiopia with Albinia.

As for the Gallician Chamber of Deputies and the late Government of Monsieur D'Effraycinay, they have never ceased reproaching each other on the short-sighted bungling which has had the effect of virtually expelling them from Ethiopia, and of handing over the administration of that country to Albinia. The same may be said of Latinia and her Government, who now perceive, when it is too late, what a splendid chance they lost for acquir ing a position in Africa which would fully compensate for Gallinian aggression in Carthagia, if they had only joined Albinia when they were invited to do so. Even the wily Muscovian and the astute Prince Quizmarck failed to fathom the mystery, and were out in their calculations, or the former would never have taken part in a conference which resulted only in advantage to Albinia; and the latter was firmly persuaded that the Ethiopian question could never be settled without Gallinia and Albinia coming to loggerheads. But it is eviBut it is evident, by their own admissions and their vain attempts to reconcile past profession with present practice, that nobody was more completely bewildered, deceived, and ensnared in the toils of this great mystery than Mr Sadstone and his colleagues. How little did they imagine when they assured Europe that the effect of their policy would be to restore the status quo in Ethiopia, that it would lead to the abolition of the Albinio-Gallinian Board of Control, and to a military occupation which must last indefinitely, if they are not to withdraw their forces until the Ethiopians have completed their political educa

tion, and have learnt to govern the country with purity and intelligence by means of the Liberal institutions with which it has been endowed!

From all which it must be apparent, that the "great African mystery" has been nothing more or less than a huge trap, in which everybody which everybody who has had anything to do with it has been caught. And it must be a great consolation to Mr Sadstone and his colleagues to reflect, that if they have tumbled headlong into an utterly false position, and have pursued a policy which has landed them where they least expected, they are in the same boat with everybody else who was in any way mixed up with the affair. It would be better, therefore, to acknowledge this openly and frankly, and not to attempt to persuade the Cabinets of Europe, who are all more or less disgusted with their own failures, that the Albinian Government has kept its promises in regard to Ethiopia, and that the status quo ante remains unchanged. For this is a feat which even the unrivalled rhetorical and casuistical powers of Mr Sadstone will fail to accomplish, and it is of the utmost consequence that no appearance of disingenuousness should attach to the policy of so eminent a moralist as the cause of political virtue and good faith might thereby sustain a serious injury at the hands of those who on their accession to office specially constituted themselves their guardians. Nobody can blame people for their stupidity, though when it turns to their own advantage it must be always suspect; but perfidy is a vice from which Albina has always been specially exempt-indeed there is a Gallinian saying to that effect.

It is only to be expected that

all the different individuals, whether they be crowned heads, Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, or military adventurers, who have been caught in the Ethiopian trap, should be scheming how to escape from it, and as their projects to this end must necessarily partake of a more or less confidential character, I felt that the case was one eminently adapted to the application of the "Journalists' Telephone," or "patent American eavesdropper," the more especially as most of those who are in the scrape are endeavouring to get out of it, at the expense of somebody else: a general revelation therefore of secret motives and designs cannot but be highly opportune, if it tends to produce bad blood between the various parties thus engaged in plotting against each other to their own advantage. I shall have the additional satisfaction of feeling that I am only thereby fulfilling my legitimate vocation as a journalist. It is but natural that in that capacity I should have my sympathies and my antipathies, and that I should deal tenderly with those who enlist the first, and severely with those for whom I entertain the last. For instance, there are several conversations which I have overheard between Ethiop and his friends in regard to the exact scope and meaning of the word "parole," and of the consequences which might ensue from breaking it, which, out of consideration for the exiled group, I refrain from repeating; but there was one which it seemed to me was of sufficient interest to report. Ethiop was sitting one day with his friend Sammy Sammy, -whom rumour holds responsible for a good deal of bloody work in the chief commercial city of Ethiopia,-under a cocoa-nut tree, on the border of the lake which once laved the walls of the old Dutch fort

ress in the chief town of Taprobane. And as he looked across the water, his eyes rested sadly on the flag of Albinia, which fluttered above the residence of the representative of the power Albinia.

"Oh, Ethiop," remarked Sammy Sammy, with a sigh, "what a mistake we made when, putting our trust in European jealousy and the beard of the Prophet, we thought we could defy that flag!"

"God is great," replied Ethiop. "Why indulge in vain regrets? It is better to bow to kismet, and await the next opportunity, when we may profit by our recent experience.

"What a pity," resumed Sammy Sammy, "that your dear friend the former Governor of Taprobane no longer fills that high office! How useful he might be to us now!"

"Oh, Sammy," rejoined his companion, who seemed to possess a stronger moral fibre than his less celebrated friend, "why not take the gifts that Allah provides you, and be thankful for them? How happy our lot is in comparison to what we expected it would have been! Here we dwell in peace and security, our nostrils regaled by the odoriferous breezes which blow through these spicy groves, our eyes delighted by a luxuriance of vegetation unknown in our own country, and our ears soothed by the banging of the distant washerman as he beats to pieces the clothes of the accursed Ghiaour upon the hard flat stones. Such sights and sounds lull the senses and conduce to keif. Moreover, are we not free to come and go, within the limits of this isle, as fancy leads us? May we not plot and intrigue as we list, without fear of interruption? No watch is kept over our visitors, no spy dogs our footsteps, no suspicion attaches

to our proceedings; we enjoy the respect and esteem of society, such as it is, and our emissaries travel openly to and fro without fear of let or hindrance. Ha! whom have we here?"

As he spoke there approached a small wiry man, whose turban and flowing garb indicated that he was not a native of the isle.

"By Allah! our faithful Ali," exclaimed Ethiop, in an excited tone. "How rapidly he has done his work! I did not expect him for another month. Peace be with you, O faithful servant of the true cause! your presence delights my eyes. Whence come you last?"

"From Ormuzd," answered the new-comer, with many oriental expressions of respect, and profuse salutations, seating himself by the side of the two Ethiopians. "I entered the deserts of El Yemen from the Albinian stronghold which they occupy, near the mouth of the sea they call red, and was present at many engagements between the tribes and the forces of the Mogulfor, as you know, the province has long been in a state of insurrection, and the results of the attempts to suppress it have been kept secret; but praise be to Allah, owing to the difficult nature of the country, the Seljukian troops suffer terribly, and I succeeded in inspiring many powerful sheikhs with courage by the magic of your name-for they do not believe that you are the prisoner of Albinia but her ally, and have left Ethiopia in order to render them more effectual assistance in the way of supplying them with arms and munitions of war. And thence I went to the Holy City of the Prophet, where I found our secret organisation growing more powerful every day, and men's minds full of hope and eager for the hour when the proclamation is to be made, and

the banner to be raised round which all true believers are prepared to rally. And from thence I went into the interior, to the mountain of Shammal, and saw the great sheikh, the son of Reschid, and he has healed the tribal feuds, and has completed his preparations for war, and only awaits the signal. And so I passed through to the Eastern Gulf, and everywhere your Excellency's name was celebrated, and everywhere men's minds are prepared, and it needs but to be known that the Champion of the Faith, the Restorer of Islam, has landed in Hedjazia, for the whole country to rise like one man, and then Inshallah! the flag of the Prophet will once more be borne aloft by hands worthy to hold it."

I shrink from reporting any further details of this conversation, partly because they would not be understood by the majority of my readers, and partly because I do not think it would be fair to Ethiop and Sammy and Ali. I have merely revealed thus much in order that the Mogul of Seljukia should not be left in total ignorance as to the nature of the events which are likely to transpire before long in certain parts of his dominions; and indeed it is one of the peculiarities of the great Ethiopian trap, that almost everybody who has been caught in it, except the Mogul himself, seems to think that the only chance of escape lies in an attack upon the Seljukian empire, in one form or other.

Take as an illustration the next conversation which I overheard between M. de Pollydoff, who represents his imperial master in the City of the Golden Crescent, and General Friskywitch, as they were gliding over the smooth waters in a caïque. The General had just come from his post in Vaninia to talk

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