He could not, however, forget that he was unable to cope single-handed
with the well-armed and disciplined troops of his foes; he remembered
too well his signal failure at Kedaref, and therefore sought to
gain his long-desired object by diplomacy. He had heard from Bell,
Plowden, and others, that England and France were proud of the
protection they afforded to Christians in all parts of the world;
he therefore wrote to the sovereigns of those two countries, inviting
them to join him in his crusade against the Mussulman race. A few
passages selected from his letter to our Queen will prove the
correctness of this assertion. "By his power (of God) I drove away
the Gallas. But for the Turks, I have told them to leave the land
of my ancestors. They refuse!" He mentions the death of Plowden
and Bell, and then adds:--"I have exterminated those enemies (those
who killed Bell and Plowden), that I may get, by the power of God,
_your friendship_." He concludes by saying, "_See how the Islam
oppress the Christian!_"

Theodore's army at this time consisted of some 100,000 or 150,000
fighting men; and if we take as the average four followers for every
soldier, his camp must have numbered between 500,000 and 600,000
souls. Admitting, also, the population of Abyssinia to be nearly
3,000,000, about one fourth of the number had to be paid, fed, and
clothed by the contributions of the remainder.

During a few years, such was Theodore's prestige that this terrible
oppression was quietly accepted; at last, however, the peasants,
half-starved and almost naked, finding that with all their sacrifices
and privations they were still far from satisfying the daily
increasing demands of their terrible master, abandoned the fertile