This harsh description was no doubt shared by Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, a French explorer, born in Dublin, who travelled extensively in Abyssinia about the same time as Beke. Together with his younger brother Arnoud, Antoine contributed much to the knowledge of the geography, archaeology and linguistics of the country but he also became involved in political intrigues and in furthering the interests of France and the Roman Catholic missionaries. He was strongly criticised by Beke especially for his assertion that the Blue Nile, and not the White Nile, was the main river, an assertion which prompted the Englishman to return the gold medal which he had been awarded by the Geographical Society of France.

The d'Abbadie brothers spent eleven years in Abyssinia and returned to France in 1848 to prepare their vast accumulation of material for publication. In 1849 Antoine was in London and on 16 November an interview with him appeared in the Jewish Chronicle. D' Abbadie reported that the Falashas held 'celibacy in high honour', which was no doubt a reference to their acceptance of a form of monasticism, and also that 'they consider suicide from religious motives as highly meritorious'. He had met a young Falasha who expressed a strong desire to visit Europe 'in order to acquire the correct notions on Judaism' which, on his return, he would convey to his brethren. He made d' Abbadie promise that he would try to interest European Jews in his request. He also reported that there was a Jewish kingdom existing in the south of the country.

Four years earlier, d' Abbadie had published his 'Notice sur les Falashas' in the Journal des Debats, which had been reprinted in the Bulletin of the French Geographical Society, and had come to the attention of a brilliant young Jewish scholar. Filosseno Luzzatto (1829-54) of Padua, the eldest son of the Hebrew scholar

(1)ibid., 31 March 1848.
(2) Bates, The Abyssinian Difficulty, p. 70; Hansard, 26 November 1867 (245).