Leaders of the missionary movement in England had reached the conclusion that the followers of the ancient independent churches in the Middle East, such as the Armenians, Nestorians, Copts and Ethiopians, could serve as an intermediate stage in bringing Protestant Christianity to their Muslim neighbours. The first step, however, was to revivify the churches themselves by bringing them into closer relationship with the Church of England. Similarly, it was thought that converted oriental Jews had the qualities needed to make excellent missionaries and C.M.J. operations were extended in various countries of the Ottoman Empire. In the case of the Falashas, however, converts were to be used as a means to improve the moral and religious standards of the wayward Ethiopian Copts whose beliefs and behaviour deeply shocked the puritanical British missionaries. If the Falashas could also be employed to bring the Gospel to the Muslims, that would be an additional bonus.

Apart from the missionaries two of the early explorers of Abyssinia - one English and one French - also deserve mention since they both made contact with the Falashas and brought news of them to the notice of western Jewry. Charles Tilstone Beke (1800-74) was a geographer and biblical critic, born in Stepney, who travelled widely in Abyssinia during the years 1840-3 and was especially notable for his pioneering work in surveying the course of the Blue Nile. He had been so much impressed by the similarity between the religious tenets of the Samaritans and the Falashas, whom he called 'an Israelitish people of Abessinia', that he wrote to the editor of the Jewish Chronicle reproducing an extract from his contribution to the fourteenth volume of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. He described a visit he paid in March 1842 to an Agau-speaking Falasha village in Agawmeder district, south of Lake Tana. He found that the people were weavers, smiths and potters who strictly observed the laws of personal purification and concluded that 'there seems little doubt that the Falashas of Abessinia belong to the sect of the Samaritans. When and how their religion was introduced into that portion of Africa is a question which we do not at present possess the means of deciding.'(1) This letter possibly represents the earliest report of the existence of an Ethiopian community to appear in a Jewish newspaper. A year later Beke again wrote to the Jewish Chronicle giving a summary of the history of the Falashas, based on Bruce's work, and adding that 'here and there, over almost the

(1) Jewish Chronicle, 5 February 1847.