The progressive geography of this country cannot. easily be traced. Its boundaries have varied at differ ent periods, according to the power and conquests of its sovereigns. In the days of Amda Sion, who began to reign in the year 1312, it extended from the 16th to the 7th degree of north latitude, and from 44° to 33° of east longitude from Greenwich. The most numerous, and the ruling inhabitants of this extensive country, were the descendants of a colony from Yemen, or Arabia Felix. The aboriginal tribes were reduced to dependence, or exiled to the mountains; the Shankala wandered around the frontiers, which, as in all barbarous kingdoms, were ill defined, and changed almost every year with the vary ing fortune of war. Wandering Arabs, and Shankala, enclose Abyssinia on the north. The former migrated from the opposite coast of the Red Sea, at a period sub sequent to the time of Mahomet. The latter are the na tive inhabitants of ancient Ethiopia, and occupy a more extensive territory than all Abyssinia and Nubia toge ther. They encircle the whole length of Abyssinia on the west ; join the Galla on the south, and coast down the White river to Sennaar, where they rule under the name of Fungi. To the north, where they are mingled Ifith the Beja and Bclowe Arabs, they are called Dubena. It seems to be the same race, which, in the ridge of moun tains to the east of Tigre, is known by the appellation of Doha. The Beja are a wandering tribe in the range of mountains north of Souakem ; the Taka Ealanga appear to be ofthe same nation ; and it is conjectured, with much probability, that the Belowe are the same with the Alba nim, a race of degenerate Christians.
Abyssinia is divided into several provinces, each of which contains many small districts, called in Geez, Midr, or The Land. Beginning from the north, the natural or der of the provinces is as follows.
1. Passing from Mazaga, the low country, inhabited by the Dubena Shankala, we enter Tigre, an extensive and mountainous province, bounded on the east by the river Mareb, and by the Tacazze on the west; on its north-cast corner, along the shore, it has the territory of the Bahar nagash ; on the south and south-west it borders on Angot and Lasta. 2. From Tigre we proceed to Samen, a very mountainous region between the rivers Tacazze and Co ror,bounded by Tigre on the north, Amhara on the south, Angot on the east, and Begemder and Dembea on the west. 3. Begember, a rich and valuable province, is hounded on the north by Balessan, a district adjoining to Samcn ; on the cast by Lasta and Angot, on the south by Ainhara,fl'OMNV111C1111. is separated by the river Bashilo, anti on the M:s1. by Dembea. 4. On leaving Begeinder, Me enter Amhara, which is bounded by Begemner on the north, Walaka and Marrabet on the south, Angot on the east, and west by the Al y, or Ahvssinian Nile. 5. Wa laka, a low, unwholesome, hut fertile province, lies be tween the two rivers Geshen and Samba; and south ward of that 13 the Uppo_r Shoa. G. Dainot forms the eastern division ol the country, which is incircicd by the river Abay, or Bahar-el-Azrek, which, issuing from the lake Tzana, divides this province from Begemder, Am hara, and Shoa; it is surrounded by the same river on the south, and is separated Gojam by the moun tainous ridge of Litchambara. 7. Gojam, called more
properly Agow-Mid•e, is divided from Damot by the range of Alormasha and Litchambara; it reaches on the north-west to Kuara and the country of the Shankala; and on the south-west and south is bounded by the Abys sinian Nile. 8. Dembea comprehends all the country that lies around the lake of that name ; including on the cast Foggora, Dara, and Alata; on the north-cast, Gon dar, the metropolis, and the rich district beneath it; on the south-west, the district of Bed, or the plain barren country ; and on the west, the lands around Dingleber and Waindagar. 9. Kuara is a wild district, lying north of the lake Dembea, and bordering on Fazuclo and the country of the Shankala. 10. \Valkait, Tzegade, and \Voggora, arc low provinces north of the lake of Dem bea. The first of these is an unwholesome district, of ten used as a state prison. Tzegade and Woggora are excellent corn countries. \Voggora, in particular, which lies east of Gondar, is one of the granaries of the king dom. Ras-el-Feel, of which Mr Bruce was appointed governor, is a wild Mahometan district, the most norther ly territory belonging to the Abyssinians.
In this list of the provinces of Abyssinia, the reader will observe that two are omitted, which Mr Bruce has included in his enumeration. These are Masuah and Sire ; the former of which, situated at the entrance of Abyssinia from the Arabian Gulf, is in reality a distinct and independent territory, whose sovereign, or Naybe, originally a vassal of the Ottoman Porte, taking advan tage of his remote situation, renounced the authority of his former lord, and chose rather to purchase the friend ship of the Abyssinian monarch, by yielding to him one half of the annual customs of Masuah. As for Sire, it has long been absorbed in the province and government of Tigre, and seemed, therefore, to have no claim to be class ed as a separate province.
In Abyssinia, more, perhaps, than in any other coun t•y, the rude magnificence of nature is strikingly display ed. It is pervaded by vast ranges of mountains, whose amazing height, and wild irregular forms, excite at once the most sublime ideas of creative power, and the most humbling conviction of the weakness of man. Of these, some tower in the shape of pyramids, obelisks, or prisms ; some, flat, thin, and square, seem scarce firm enough to resist the violence of the wind ; while others, still more onderful, appear like inverted pyramids, wh ich, by some dreadful concussion, have been pitched upon their points, and present an apparent exception to the general law of gravitation. To travel through these mountainous re gions, is toilsome and hazardous. Sometimes the road is intersected by deep gullies, full of loose stones, or ob structed by huge fragments of rock. Sometimes it lies in'the bed of a torrent, which has been exhausted by the heat of summer, but which is often so suddenly swelled by the rain in the mountains, as to thunder down in an instant with the violence of a mighty river. Now it winds up the side of a steep and craggy hill; and now htret( hes along the brink of a hanging precipice, front which the traveller looks, with mingled delight and fear, on the deep and beautiful valley beneath.