aries, and is an admirer of European productions, especially mechanical inventions. In September the new King was crowned at Adua, the sacred city of Abyssinia, by Bishop Matheos.

Italian Annexations. Although the auspicious moment had arrived for carrying out the carefully arranged plans of the military authorities to occupy the cool and healthful plains near Massowah, which would afford a summeringplace where the troops could escape the fatal climatic conditions of the coast, and also a gateway for spreading Italian influence into Abyssinia, yet the Italian Cabinet was at first unwilling to assent to Crispi's proposal to occupy the coveted positions in the highlands, because the Premier had not long before promised that no more money should be sunk in African undertakings. The Minister of War reckoned the cost of occupying Keren and Asmara with two regiments at 6,000,000 lire, while for an extended occupation of Bogos 20,000,000 lire would be required. The Italians have had to support an expense of 20,000,000 lire per annum and the dislocation of 7,000 or 8,000 of the best of their troops to retain possession of Massowah and a triangle of coast territory which is of no practical benefit, since the blockade has stopped all trade with Abyssinia. Therefore, they were driven to make a choice between going forward or retiring from Africa. Moreover, consideration of the health of the troops was a pressing question. The forces in and near Massowah in the spring of 1889 consisted of 7,800 Italian soldiers and 4,160 Bashi-Bazouks, or native irregulars, without counting the bands of Abyssinians in Italian pay. The Italians made an unsuccessful attempt in 1888 to seize Keren, which is on the edge of the salubrious table-land. Subsequently they purchased the allegiance of Barambaras Kafel, an Abyssinian chief, who collected 2,000 men, and by means of 600 breach-loading rifles tyrannized over the entire plateau of Bogos. When ordered to restrain his men from plundering, Kafel invited Ras Aloula to join him in expelling the Italians. The latter knew of the treacherous scheme, and while Aloula was on the march with 8,000 men, laid their plans to frustrate it before he arrived. Gen. Baldissera, governor of Massowah, sent a detachment of scouts and Bashi-Bazouks with a mountain battery under Major Dimajo, who, with the cooperation of Debeb's army of 1,500 men, surrounded and surprised the faithless ally, arrested him and five of his principal chiefs, disarmed his freebooting band, and on June 2, 1889, took formal possession of Keren, hoisting the Italian flag over the fort. Senahit, another important place on the Abyssinian frontier, was occupied subsequently. On Aug. 4 Gen. Baldissera took possession of Asmara, which he fortified. Ras Aloula attempted to oppose the Italian advance, but was put to flight by Major Dimajo at the head of a detachment of chasseurs and irregulars. Debeb had held the district since early spring, having again entered the Italian service after deserting to the enemy with arms and baggage the year before, giving his infant brother and uncle into their hands as hostages, and proving his fidelity by defeating the Abyssinian governor of Asmara. Debeb's brother, Ligg Abraham, was taken to Italy to

be educated in the International College at Turin.

Asmara is the place that Ras Aloula chose for his residence when he advanced from Zazega to oppose the Italian occupation of Keren. It was formerly a wretched village, but is well situated in an undulating plateau, 2,327 metres above the sea, 90 kilometres from Massowah, on the road that passes through Mukulu, Dogali, Sahati, Ailet, Sabarguma, Baresa, and Ginda, and is near the sources of the Mareb and other streams. In conjunction with Keren it commands the northern border of Tigreh, and with Zazegra controls all the routes between northern Abyssinia and the sea. The neighboring valley of Anseba, through which passes the road to Keren from Abyssinia, is adapted to agricultural colonization, and the table-land is nowhere unfruitful. The fort at Asmara was rendered impregnable without the aid of artillery, barracks and magazines were erected, and other places in the Hamassen district were fortified during the summer.

The Shoan Mission.-Anticipating the ultimate accession of the ambitious Menelek to the supreme power, the Italians had cultivated friendly relations with him and favored his pretensions. Count Antonelli, the Italian envoy to Shoa, accompanied Menelek as far as Egyn, leaving him when he had obtained his signature to a treaty embodying the more important demands that the Negus Johannis had rejected when presented, in 1887, by the English embassy in a letter from Queen Victoria, and later in the peace negotiations with Gen. San Marzano when the Abyssinians confronted the Italian encampments in March, 1888. The treaty was conveyed to Italy by an embassy of twenty Shoan chiefs, who arrived at Rome in August. King Menelek agreed to recognize the sovereign rights of Italy over the places actually occupied by Italian troops, and for that reason the military authorities made haste to raise the Italian flag over Keren and Asmara. The Italians agreed to open the port of Massowah to the unrestricted commerce of the Abyssinians, in return for special facilities in comparison with other nations. Menelek accepted an Italian protectorate over the whole of Ethiopia. The treaty was made by Count Antonelli on May 5, and was ratified by King Umberto on Sept. 25. On Oct. 3 a supplementary conɣention was signed at Naples by Signor Crispi and Makonen, chief of the Shoan Mission, providing for the termination of the blockade, and for the establishment of commercial relations between Italy and Abyssinia. It also makes provision for the appointment of an Italian consul-general in King Menelek's dominions and for mutual defense against a common enemy. On Oct. 13 the Italian Government declared a protectorate over all Abyssinia.

The Sagallo Incident.-Nicholas Atchinoff, calling himself Hetman of Free Cossacks, is a Russian adventurer who has visited Abyssinia and aided the Negus Johannis in his warfare against the Italians, and who, according to his own story, fought with the Mahdi against Gordon at Khartoum, and with Osman Digma against the English at Suakin. By taking some Abyssinian priests to Russia, he interested the Slavonic committees in a scheme for assimilating Abyssinian Christianity to the doctrines and worship

of the Orthodox Church and privately aiding the Negus in his conflict with the Italians, in the expectation of gaining for Russia the ascendancy in Abyssinia and the commercial and political foothold in Africa that Italy with heavy sacrifices had failed to attain. With pecuniary contributions of the Panslavists, Atchinoff fitted out an expedition, consisting of 146 persons, the publicly announced purpose of which was to make propaganda for the Greek religion in Abyssinia by establishing schools and churches. The party consisted of Capt. Atchinoff, Archimandrite Paissy, 9 popes, 20 military officers, a band of 40 South Cossacks-artisans and cultivators, who were likewise acquainted with military duties and the wives and children of many of the emigrants. The disguised purpose of the expedition, that of assisting the Abyssinian belligerents with arms and military instructors, was as widely bruited as its ostensible religious mission. The only ports giving access to Abyssinia are MasSowah and Obock. Atchinoff and his backers reckoned on opening an avenue into Abyssinia from French territory, expecting public opinion in France to commend a breach of the neutrality laws in favor of a Russian enterprise aimed against the ally of Germany. The expedition passed through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea in an Austrian packet to Jeddah, followed by an Italian aviso, the "Barberigo." Slipping past the Italian vessel and a French cruiser that was watching, under cover of the night, the Austrian ship took the party down the blockaded coast and landed it, with its chests of arms, on the shore of the Bay of Tadjurah, which is under the protectorate of France.

The doings of Atchinoff have repeatedly been the subject of diplomatic correspondence between the French and Russian governments since 1886. In the spring of 1888 the Cossack adventurer had negotiated with the Sultans of Tadjurah for a grant of land on which he had left seven companions, forming what he called a Russian colony of the name of Moskva. As he failed to return before the promised term of three months with more settlers, arms, and provisions, the deserted colonists escaped to European stations, and were assisted on their way back to Russia. Russian diplomatic agents in Paris and Cairo, in reply to French interrogatories, gave official contradictions to Atchinoff's assertions at Port Said and Jeddah that his enterprise was under the patronage of the Czar. When the expedition landed at Tadjurah, on Jan. 18, the governor of Obock sent an official to inquire his intentions of Atchinoff, who said he had come to found a colony, and would remove in a few days to Sagallo, a district outside French jurisdiction over which he had acquired sovereign rights by treaty with the native chiefs. He was told that by virtue of prior treaties and formal acts of occupation, the territory was subject to France, but that he was at liberty to establish a Russian settlement if he would acknowledge French sovereignty and conform with the regulations by delivering up superfluous arms, as the importation of firearms as an article of commerce was interdicted on protected territory.

Atchinoff departed with his companions for Sagallo, and there took up his quarters in an old fort, on which he hoisted the Russian commer

cial flag. He said that he expected other cargoes of arms from Odessa. In answer to further demands of the French governor he refused to recognize any authority except that of the Emperor of Russia. M. Goblet apprised the Russian Foreign Office of this state of affairs, and received the assurance that, as soon as the imperfect com-. munications would permit, a Russian war-vessel would be sent to bring Atchinoff to reason. Sagallo is the starting-place of a caravan route into the interior; but Atchinoff was not able to open communications with Abyssinia and send on the missionaries and the munitions, for the reason that passage through Aoussah was denied at the behest of the Italian authorities, the Sultan detaining as hostages two Tadjurah chiefs who were sent to treat with him in behalf of Atchinoff.

According to French accounts, Atchinoff not only incited hostile and rebellious feelings against the protecting power among the natives, but through his brutal tyranny came into conflict with them and with his own followers, producing a situation that compelled the naval authorities to take measures to avert disturbances without waiting for the promised interference of the Russian Government. On Feb. 17 Admiral Olry sent the Cossack leader an ultimatum to the effect that if he did not lower the Russian ensign and give up his mitrailleuse and boxes of rifles, except such as were necessary for personal protection, the fort would be bombarded in twentyfour hours, whereas if he complied with French laws the religious mission would be granted facilities to penetrate into Abyssinia, and the others might colonize Sagallo or go forward unmolested. On the 18th the French commander, wishing to avoid a hand-to-hand combat with the Russians, having an insufficient landingforce, fired shells into the fort, killing five persons and wounding as many more. Some one inside then displayed a white flag, and the Russian colors were hauled down. The Frenchmen landed and took the whole Russian party. The ecclesiastics, as well as the others, preferred being sent back to Russia instead of going to Abyssinia. They were forwarded to Suez, and there given into the custody of the Russian authorities, and conveyed on a man-of-war to Odessa.

Unfortunately, among those who were hit in the bombardment were women and children, owing to Atchinoff's cruel order forbidding any person to retire from the fort. The Sagallo incident produced a painful impression in Russian patriotic circles, although the Russian Government, in an official communiqué, threw the blame upon Atchinoff, and declared that it would have no influence on the existing relations between Russia and France. M. Spuller, the new French Minister of Foreign Affairs, defended his predecessor in a semi-official note and in the Chamber, while the responsibility for the affair rested with M. Goblet. The anti-Republican and Boulangist factions embraced the occasion for Chauvinistic attacks on the Government, which led to the suppression of the League of Patriots and remarkable political consequences. (See FRANCE.)

ADVENTISTS, SEVENTH-DAY. The statistical reports of this denomination, made to the General Conference in October, 1888, give for the thirty-two conferences and five mission fields: Number of ministers, 232; of licentiates, 168; of