From the invasion by Moses till the queen of Sheba's visit to Jerusalem, we have no particulars of the history of Ethiopia. The Abyssinians, who suppose that prin cess to have been sovereign of Ethiopia Proper, tell us, that, having heard from Tanieran, an Ethiopian mer chant, of the surprising opulence and wisdom of Solo mon, she resolved to ascertain in person the truth of his report. Though she had been a Pagan before un dertaking this journey, she was so struck with the grandeur of the Jewish monarch, and the extensive knowledge which he displayed, that she immediately 'became a convert to the true religion. It is added, that she became pregnant by Solomon, and, on returning to her own country, was delivered of a sun, to Whom she gave the name of Men/Lek, another self. Sonic years after, Menilek was sent to his father's court, where he was carefully instructed in the learning and institutions of the Jews, and crow lied king or Ethiopia, in the temple Jerusalem, receiving from Solomon, at his inaugura tion, the name of Dal id. After remaining for sonic time in Judea, he was accompanied to Ethiopia by many Israelites of distinction, and particularly by twelve doc tors of the law, chosen from the twelve tribes, among whom was Azariall the son of Zadoc, the high priest. 'These introduced into Abyssinia the religion of Moses, and Ira med after Jewish models the civil and sacred in slitutions of the country. Alit Bruce supposes, with great probability, that this princess was queen of the named Saba or Azab ; an opinion which coin elks in exactly than any other, with tbe d-.
which our Saviour has given of her, "as of the south, coining from the uttermost parts of the c arth." She is called by the Arabs Belkis, and Maked-c by the Abyssinians. She enjoyed the sovereignty Ion fw;y years, and, helore her death, she hound her subjects by three remarkable laws: 1st, That the crow n should be hereditary in the family of Solomon; 2dlv, That, alter her, no woman should be allowed to inherit the crown, or to reign as queen, but that it should descend to the heirs-male, however distant, to the exclusion of al: female heirs, however near ; and titat these two articles should he considered as the fundamental and unalterable laws of the kingdom : Lastly, she enacted, that the heirs male of the royal [tinily should be imprisoned on a high mountain, where they were to continue till death, or till the course of succession should call them to the, throne.
Having established these regulations in a manner not to be revoked, \1akeda died in the 9 8 6th year be lore the birth of Christ, leaving her son Menilek to succeed her, whose descendants, if we may believe the Abyssinian annals, have ever since continued to occupy the throne. In the reign of Menilek, the empire was in vaded by Shishak, king of Egypt, who plundered the temple of Jerusalem, under Rehoboam. A rich temple which had been erected at Saba, the capital of the Ethiopian empire, underwent a similar fate ; and it was probably on this occasion that Menilek removed the seat of government to Tigre. Many circumstances concur
to prove, that Shishak was no other than the celebrated Sesostris, and was the first Egyptian monarch who had made conquests in Ethiopia. Scripture indirectly as cribes to Shishak the sovereignty of this country ; and Herodoms explicitly asserts, that Sesostris was master of Ethiopia ; though neither in sacred nor profane history is it elsewhere related, that this empire was ever subject to any other Egyptian.
From the death of Shishak till the days of Cyrus the great, there is a chasm in the history of Abyssinia can only be filled up by theory and conjecture. That conqueror is said to have subdued Ethiopia; but the inhabitants having revolted after his death, Camby ses, his successor, attempted in vain to reduce them to submission. Before he undertook this expedition, he sent ambassadors to the king of the Macrobii, under pretence of soliciting his alliance, though in reality he only wished to ascertain the strength of the country. The Ethiopian monarch, aware of his design, disdained the rich presents which Cambyses had sent him; re proached the ambassadors with the injustice and am bition of their sovereign, and delivered to them a bow, with these remarkable words : " Carry this bow to your master, and till he can find a man able to bend it, let him not talk to us of submission." This resolute an swer so exasperated Cambyses, that he instantly began his march, without taking time even to procure the ne cessary provisions for his army. A famine of conse quence ensued among them, which became at last so dreadful, that the soldiers were compelled to devour one another ; and Cambyses finding himself in immi nent danger, marched back his army with prodigious loss. Even if he could have effected his march into the heart of the empire, he would probably have failed in the object of his expedition ; for Ethiopia had been strengthened, but a short time before, by an accession of 2 4,000 Egyptians. These fugitives had been sta tioned by Psammenitus in different places on the fron tiers, and, having continued there for three years without bring relieved, revolted to the emperor of Ethiopia, who placed them in a country disaffected to him, order ing them to expel the inhabitants, and to occupy their territory.
Curiosity induced Ptolemy Euergetes to invade this country, for the sole purpose of discovering the source of the Nile. Though no historian has recorded the par ticulars of his expedition, it appears from an inscription copied by Cosmos Egyptius, from a white marble chair, which stood at the entrance of Adele, one of the cities of Ethiopia, that he had penetrated into the parts of the empire ; subdued its most powerful nations ; and, af ter all his conquests, assembled his army at Adulc, tt he re he sacrificed to Mars, Neptune, and Jupiter ; and, in gratitude for his success, dedicated to Mars a white marble chair.