¹ Aregay, Merid Welde, ‘Southern Ethiopia and the Christian Kingdom 1508–1708, with special reference to the Galla migrations and their consequences’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London University, 1971, 193, 264–5, 289, 315, 317, 502–508.Google Scholar My first two paragraphs also owe a great deal to his paper, ‘A Reappraisal of the Impact of Firearms in the Military History of Ethiopia (c. 1500–1800)’, African History Seminar, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London University, 13 Mar. 1968.Google Scholar

² Roughly the lands west of the upper Tekkezē and Beshilo rivers to the Abbay and the northern shores of Lake Tana.

³ Abir, M., Ethiopia: The Era of the Princes. The Challenge of Islam and the Re-unification of the Christian Empire, 1769–1855 (London, 1968), 30 ff.Google ScholarBruce, James, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773, 5 vols. (London, 1st ed.; 1790), III, 233–4.Google Scholar

⁴ Abir, op. cit. 34. But cavalry seem to have been neutralized only on broken ground and in dry weather; see, Rossini, C. Conti (trans.), ‘La Cronaca Reale Abissini dall'anno 1800 all'anno 1840’, Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei (1916), 909–10.Google Scholar

⁵ Abir, op. cit. 142.Google Scholar Priests at Deresgē Maryam Church near the site of the battle claim that the northerners lost because many of the levies had not yet arrived, including the intrepid men of Simēn, when Kasa, advancing with unexpected speed, made a sudden attack. Interview at Deresgē in January 1971 by And Alem Mulaw (graduate HSIU, 1971).

⁶ I am indebted to my colleague, Dr D. Crummey, for this explanation of the obsession with heavy ordnance. With good reason, an ironical poem about the invasion of Gojam by Yohannis IV has his rebellious vassal praise the steep sides of two mountain fortresses as the best peacemakers; trans. quoted, Cerulli, E., Storia della Letteratura Etiopica (Milan, 1956), 247.Google Scholar

⁷ Rubenson, S., King of Kings Tewodros of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa and Nairobi, 1966), 54, 73–4.Google Scholar

⁸ Heuglin, T., ‘Reise zu Kaiser Theodros und nach der Festung Magdala, Februar bis Mai 1862’, Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen (1867), 428–31.Google Scholar I am indebted for this to H. G. Marcus, who permitted me to consult notes for his forthcoming bibliography for Ethiopia of all the geographical journals in the Library of Congress, Washington.

⁹ See, Crummey, D., ‘The Violence of Tēwodros’, J. Ethiopian Studies (07, 1971), 120;Google ScholarCrummey, D.. ‘Tēwodros as Reformer and Modernizer’, J. Afr. Hist. (1969), 468.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Abir, op. cit. 160 ff. and 170.Google Scholar

¹¹ Sillasē, Gebre, Chronique du Règne de Ménélik II Roi des Rois d'Ethiopie (Paris, 1930–1931), 116.Google Scholar

¹² Blanc, H., A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia (London, 1868), 298–306.Google Scholar

¹³ Rubenson, op. cit. 81–2.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Reports of Rassam in British Parliamentary Papers, Correspondence Respecting Abyssinia 1846–1868 (London, 1868), nos. 435, 442, 491, 503, 564, 700.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Dimothéos, , Deux Ans de Séjour en Abyssinie, ou la Vie Morale, Politique, et Religieuse des Abyssiniens (Jerusalem, 1871), 84–7.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Mondon-Vidailhet, C. (trans.), Chronique de Théodros, Roi des Rois d'Ethiopie dans un manuscrit abyssinien (Paris, n.d.), 8.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Chandler, D. G., ‘The Expedition to Abyssinia 1867–8’, Bond, B. (ed.), Victorian Military Campaigns (London, 1967), 137–49;Google ScholarMyatt, F., The March to Magdala. The Abyssinian War of 1868 (London, 1970), 64, 133 ff. The latter is the sort of imperial military history to make Africanists cringe.Google Scholar

¹⁸ As in Yohannis to Victoria, 19 Senē 1877/25 June 1884, F.O. 95/743.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Pankhurst, R., Economic History of Ethiopia 1800–1935 (Addis Ababa, 1968), 581 ff.Google Scholar

²⁰ Ibid. 561, 583–6; Abir, , op. cit. 129;Google ScholarRubenson, , op. cit. 39–40.Google Scholar

²¹ Dimothéos, op. cit. 136, 155–6.Google Scholar This personal following is described in Girard, Alex., Souvenirs d'un Voyage en Abyssinie: 1868–1869 (Cairo, 1873), 104–5.Google Scholar

²² Douin, G., Histoire du Règne du Khédive Ismail, Tome III, L'Empire Africain, in 3 parts (Cairo, 1936–1941), part II, 316–17 (all subsequent page references are to part II unless indicated).Google Scholar

²³ According to a Geez chronicle of the early years of Yohannis's reign at Debre Birhan Sillasē Church, Adwa. Also, Kirkham to the Editor of The Times, Adwa, 27 July 1871Google Scholar, The Times (London), 27 Sept. 1871.Google ScholarCf. Fusella, L. (trans.), ‘Le Lettere del Dabtarā Assāggakhañ’, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici (1954), 27Google Scholar, that Kasa had suffered a reverse; similarly the traditions published by Perini, R., Di qua dal Marèb (Marèb=mellàsc') (Florence, 1905), 178;Google Scholar and, Kolmodin, J., ‘Traditions de Tsazzega et Hazzega’, Archives d'Etudes Orientales, v(2) (Uppsala, 1915–1916), 164.Google Scholar

²⁴ In addition to his account in the letter cited above, Kirkham was probably the source for De Cosson, E. A., The Cradle of the Blue Nile. A Visit to the Court of King John of Ethiopia, 2 vols. (London, 1877), I, 147–9;Google Scholar and for Raffray, A., Afrique Orientale: Abyssinie (Paris, 1876), 22–3.Google Scholar A later though similar version appears in Simon, G., Voyage en Abyssinie et chez les Galla-Raias. L'Ethiopie, ses moeurs, ses traditions, le Négous lohannes, les églises monolithes de Lalibéla (Paris, 1885), 234, 278–9.Google Scholar Also for this crisis, Douin, op. cit. 325–7, 335;Google Scholarde Coursac, J., Une page de l'Histoire d'Ethiopie: Le Règne de Yohannes depuis son avenèment jusqu'è ses victoires de 1875 sur l'armée Egyptienne (Romans, 1926), 161, reprinting much of the French consular correspondence used by Douin.Google Scholar

²⁵ Fusella, loc. cit.;Google ScholarDouin, op. cit. 327;Google ScholarDe Coursac, op. cit. 163.Google Scholar

²⁶ References cited note 24 above.Google Scholar

²⁷ Fusella, L. (trans.), ‘Il Dāgmāwi Měnilěk di Afawarq Gabra Iyasus’, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici (1961), 26.Google Scholar

²⁸ Kolmodin, op. cit. 164;Google ScholarPerini, op. cit. 179.Google Scholar

²⁹ Assefa Kasa, a grandson of Ras Bītweded Gebre Kidane, interviewed by Gētahun Abebe (4th year History student, HSIU, 1969/1970).Google Scholar

³⁰ Geez chronicle, Debre Birhan Sillasē, Adwa. Cf. Douin, op. cit. 344, that he suffered severe losses.Google Scholar

³¹ For the expedition against Werenya: Douin, op. cit. 370–1, 403–4;Google ScholarDe Coursac, op. cit. 194–5.Google Scholar

³² For the campaign to Gojam: De Coursac, op. cit. 259–60, 264, 266, 269–70, 285–6;Google ScholarRaffray, op. cit. 251, 266–7, 270–2;Google ScholarFusella, ‘Le Lettere’ (1954), 29–30;Google ScholarMatteucci, P., In Abissinia, Viaggio di Pellegrino Matteucci (Milan, 1880) 182.Google Scholar Also the chronicle of Gojam by Aleqa Tekle Iyesus, a protègé of Tekle Haymanot (born c. 1870). A photocopy of one copy is in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies.Google Scholar

³³ Tekle Iyesus's description of a former apprentice at Gafat killing many of Desta's men with a cannon was not part of the story as recounted to Matteucci when he visited Desta's grave in 1879 (‘Gojam chronicle’, fol. 82).Google Scholar

³⁴ For his negotiations with Minīlik from 1873 and their supposed accommodation in May 1875, see: De Coursac, op. cit. 266–7;Google ScholarDouin, op. cit. part III, 718–19.Google Scholar Letters written at Keren by the missionary Touvier, Feb.–May 1875, begin by noting their mutual hostility, then report an apparent peace and that their equality of strength had imposed an unwilling truce, and finally, record a denial by Minīlik's envoy of any such peace (Archivio del Vicariato Apostolico dell'Eritrea, Asmara, casetto 4: cartella I, fols. 25, 54, 65, 73).

³⁵ Douin, op. cit. part III, 775 ff. and 921 ff.;Google ScholarHesseltine, W. B. and Wolf, H. C., The Blue and the Gray on the Nile (Chicago, 1961), 175 ff.Google Scholar

³⁶ Kirkham on this disdain in Dye, W., Moslem Egypt and Christian Abyssinia (New York, 1880), 181–3.Google Scholar

³⁷ Cecchi, A., Da Zeila alle frontiere del Caffa, 3 vols. (Rome, 1886), 1, 414–19, 430–46;Google ScholarSilasē, Gebre, op. cit. 147–61.Google ScholarMayer, J. writing from Shewa in Anti-Slavery Reporter (June 1879), 191.Google Scholar

³⁸ Minīlik to Umberto, Were Ilu, 11 July 1881, Documenti Diplomatici presentati al Parlamento Italiano dal Presidente ad interim degli Affari Esteri (Crispi) Etiopia, Atti Parlamentari, XVI Legislatura, quarta sessione, Camera dei Deputati, n. xv (Rome, 1890; called Libro Verde and hereafter, LV Etiopia), no. 43.Google Scholar

³⁹ As during the Wollamo campaign of 1894; Vanderheym, J. G., Une Expédition avec le Négous Ménélik: vingt mois en Abyssinie (Paris, 1896), 164–8.Google Scholar Traditions of the western Galla, however, recall that as late as the mid-1880s, at least, their mounted spearmen were more evenly balanced with Minīlik's forces; see Cerulli, E., ‘Folk-Literature of the Galla of Southern Abyssinia’, Harvard African Series, III, Varia Africana III (Cambridge, Mass.; 1922), 78–9.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Minīlik to President of France, 20 July 1882, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris (hereafter: MAEF), Mémoires et Documents, Afrique/62, French trans. fols. 567–9.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Sillasē, Gebre, op. cit. 179–80;Google ScholarTekle Iyesus, ‘Gojam chronicle’, fols. 88–90;Google Scholar Asmē Gīyorgīs, ‘Ye-Galla Tarīk’, photocopy of an unpublished manuscript in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa. I have also used an unpublished biography of Gobena by a certain Nadew and based on traditions (copy in the hands of Sehay Birhane Sillasē of the Institute). Cf. Antonelli, ‘Zemeccia, ossia spedizione dell'esercito scioano’, Addis Ababa, Nov. 1887, LV Etiopia, no. 131 annesso, p. 307;Google Scholar and, Fusella, ‘Il Dāgmāw’ i Měnilěk’, 31–3.Google Scholar

⁴² Abba Hayle Maryam MS, being a history of Yohannis by an important cleric in his court. I am indebted to Gebre Medhin Kidane (4th year student, HSIU;, History/ Education, 1971–2) for having obtained a copy of this work in Aksum.Google Scholar

⁴³ As in his letter cited above note 40.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Antonelli, ‘Zemeccià’, LV Etiopia, 282, 295; and his report no. 95.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Sillasē, Gebre, op. cit. 182 ff.;Google ScholarGīyorgīs, Asmē, op. cit. fol. 93;Google ScholarIyesus, Tekle, ‘Gojam chronicle’, fol. 90.Google ScholarAlula to Raffray, Were Ilu, 14 Hamlē 1874/20 June 1882, MAEF, Correspondence Politique des Consuls, Massaouah 4, fol. 287.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Pankhurst, op. cit. 589–94.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Each had over 100,000 men and several tens of thousands of firearms including breechloading rifles: Antonelli's reports, LV Etiopia, nos. 119, 133, 136, 141, 173 and 224; ‘Extract from a Report on Abyssinia by Veterinary-Surgeon J. R. D. Beech, A. V. D. (Egyptian Army), who accompanied Mr. Portal's Mission to King Johannis in the Winter of 1887’, archives of the War Office, Public Record Office (London), W.O. 33/48.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Simon, op. cit. 90–1.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Antonelli to Minister, Entotto, 19 Sept. 1887, Archivio Storico dell'ex Ministero dell'Africa Italiana, Rome (hereafter: ASMAI), 36/4–41; he estimated their number rather generously at 10,000 to 12,000.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Antonelli to Crispi, 8 Aug. 1888, LV Etiopia, no. 152.Google Scholar

⁵¹ SirWingate, Ronald, ‘Two African Battles’, part II, ‘The Battle of Galabat 8th–11th March, 1889’, J. Royal United Service Institution (1964), 152.Google Scholar

⁵² Tekle Iyesus, ‘Gojam chronicle’, the previously cited manuscript has a lacuna at this point in chapter 37. This quotation is from another copy graciously shown by the late Mela'ke Birhan Admassu to Nega Ayele who made the translation (graduate assistant, Political Science Dept., HSIU, 1970–71).Google Scholar

⁵³ Sillasē, Gebre, op. cit. 256–7; LV Etiopia, nos. 203, 204.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Traversi to Antonelli, 23 Oct. 1888, in the private papers of Leopoldo Traversi now with Prof. Carlo Zaghi, Istituto per l'Oriente, Naples, who kindly showed them to me (hereafter: Traversi MS), this, no. 22.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Iyesus, Tekle, ‘Gojam chronicle’, Admassu's variant MS; Fusella, ‘Il Dāgmāwi Měnilěk’, 40 ff.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ LV Etiopia, nos. 182, 193 annesso 1, and 203.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Traversi to his family, 20 Oct. 1888, Traversi MS no. 21.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Gīyorgīs, Asmē, op. cit. fol. 98.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Cecchi to Crispi, 13 Mar. 1889, citing an undated report from Antonelli in Shewa, ASMAI 36/5–53.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Sillasē, Gebre, op. cit. 256–7, 259;Google ScholarFusella, ‘Il Dāgmāwi Měiilěk’, 42–3;Google Scholar LV Etiopia, nos. 207, 215, 216.

⁶¹ Fusella, L. (trans.), ‘Abissinia e Metemma in uno scritto di Belatta Heruy’, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici (1943), 210.Google Scholar Two Ethiopian eyewitness accounts are appended to Rossini, C. Conti, L'Italia ed Etiopia dal Trattato d'Uccialli alla Battaglia di Adua (Rome, 1935), 461–2.Google Scholar

⁶² Rossini, Conti, op. cit. 17–20, 26.Google Scholar

⁶³ Reports from Massawa in Documenti Diplomatici presentati al Parlamento Italiano, Atti Parlamentari, XVI Legislatura, quarta sessione, Camera dei Deputati, n. xiv, L'Occupazione di Keren e dell'Asmara (Rome, 1890), nos. 46, 48, 50, 55, 56, 72, 74, 78, 85.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Beech, loc. cit.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Sillasē, Gebre, op. cit. 261;Google ScholarAntonelli to Crispi, 9 Sept. 1889, LV Etiopia, no. 236.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Pankhurst, op. cit. 217.Google Scholar The ensuing period of pestilence and famine also hastened the eclipse of cavalry in Ethiopian warfare (561).

⁶⁷ Sillasē, Gebre, op. cit. 261;Google ScholarTekle Iyesus, ‘Gojam chronicle’, chapter 38.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Sillasē, Gebre, op. cit. 263.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Ibid. 280–92; Gīyorgīs, Asmē, op. cit. fol. 101;Google ScholarOrero to Crispi, Massawa, 14 Mar. 1890, forwarding a despatch from Antonelli in Tigrē, ASMAI 36/11–90;Google ScholarAntonelli to Crispi, Massawa, 13 Apr. 1890, Ministero degli Affari Esteri (Rome), Documenti Diplomatici edizione riservatgsima: Etiopia I, no. 248.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Zaghi, C. (ed.), Crispi e Menelich nel Diario inedito del conte Augusto Salimbeni (Turin, 1956), 164, 217.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Sillasē, Gebre, op. cit. 350, 369.Google Scholar

⁷² Ibid. 368–9, 373–4. Also, Zaghi, C. (ed.), ‘L'Italia e l'Etiopia alla vigilia di Adua nei dispacci segreti di Luigi Capucci: contributo alla biografia di un grande pioniere’, Gli Annali del'Africa Italiana, IV(2) (1941), 536 ff.Google Scholar

⁷³ Rubenson, S., ‘Adwa 1896: The Resounding Protest’ (hereafter: ‘Adwa’), in Rotberg, R. I. and Mazrui, Ali A. (eds) Protest and Power in Black Africa (New York, 1970);Google ScholarBattaglia, R., La Prima Guerra d'Africa (Milan, 1958).Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Rossini, Conti, op. cit. 122–6, 134, 163–70, 212–19, 235, 263 note, 265, 284–6, 451.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Traditions in Agamē claim that the arrogance of the Italian Commander, Baratieri, made Ras Sibhat realize he was co-operating in his own enslavement; I am indebted to Taddesse Gebre Igzīabihēr (graduate, HSIU, 1971) for recording a family biography for me. Cf. the ‘king and country’ message Sibhat sent before defecting to the emperor's camp in the night of 12/13 Feb.;Google ScholarSillasē, Gebre, op. cit. 430–1.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Minīlik's interpreter, writing on 21 Feb., concluded Sibhat had come in order to repair his reputation with the Emperor; Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), Manuscrits Ethiopiens, no. 262/Collection Mondon-Vidailhet, no. 82, fol. 21. And a few days after Adwa, Sibhat's son told one of the survivors that Italian withdrawals had made their allies fear being left in the lurch; Nicoletti-Altimari, A., Fra Gli Abissini: ricordi di un prigioniero nel Tigre (Rome, 1897), 147–8.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Mekwennin to Abba Yacob, Harar, 14, Yekatīt 1887/20 Feb. 1895; archives of the Capuchins, Toulouse, 2R/209.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Zaghi, Crispi e Menelick, III, 292. Only a cartridge factory was opened and a new powder mill built.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Capucci to Gov. Eritrea, Massawa, 18 Mar. 1897, ASMAI 3/7:49. On very incomplete records, the Italians estimated that they had facilitated the acquisition of over 14,000 muzzle-loaders, an equal number of Remington rifles, and 5,800 Wetterly rifles or carbines, as well as some millions of rounds of ammunition and the occasional machine-gun and field piece; ‘Armi date (sic.) dall'Italia a Menelich’, 8 Feb. 1896, ASMAI 36/18–184. The extent of French imports remains obscure, but the trade was considerable.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Beech, loc. cit.;Google ScholarFusella, ‘Il Dāgmāwi Měnilěk’, 32–3.Google ScholarCf. Crowder, M. (ed.), West African Resistance: The military response to colonial occupation (London, 1971)Google Scholar, editor's preface 8–9, and examples by contributors of rearmament that was too little and too late (122–3, 134–5) and of a conservatism in tactics far greater than the Ethiopians' (154, 181, 192–3, 286–90).

⁸¹ Berkeley, G. F. H., The Campaign of Adowa and the Rise of Menelik (London, 1902), 293.Google Scholar

⁸² Ibid. 200–7. For Yohannis's similar difficulties in the campaign against the Italians of 1888, Battaglia, op. cit.

⁸³ Rubenson, ‘Adwa’, 115 ff.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Ibid. 118–19.

⁸⁵ Baldissera to Min. della Guerra, Massawa, 30 June 1896, Guerra d'Africa. Relazione sulle Operazioni militari nel secondo periodo della campagna d'Africa 1895–96 (Rome, 1896), 8–9, 15.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Ibid. 17 ff.

⁸⁷ Mulazzani to Gov. Eritrea, Asmara, 26 July 1896, MAEI, Documenti Diplomatici, serie confidenziale, XCIV: Etiopia, no. 1727, reporting his visit to Mengesha's camp a fortnight earlier.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Ibid. Conti Rossini, op. cit. 454.

⁸⁹ Mulazzani, loc. cit.;Google ScholarNicoletti-Altimari, op. cit. 82, 214–15, 226;Google ScholarWylde, A. B., Modern Abyssinia (London, 1901), 6.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ On the rebellion of Mengesha and his son from 1898: Sillasē, Gebre, op. cit. 460, 474 ff.;Google ScholarAnnaratone, C., In Abissinia (Rome, 1914).Google ScholarCf. the account of a two year rebellion led by a son of the last king of Guma (and a Muslim reformer) also at the turn of the century: Ceruili, ‘Folk-Literature’, 45–52.Google Scholar

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⁹² Capucci, loc. cit.Google Scholar

⁹³ Collat, Lt., L'Abyssinie Actuelle (Paris, 1906), 40–2Google Scholar, claiming that while the sale of firearms to the Tigreans and Galla was forbidden, even the latter had got them by participating in Minilik's campaigns for booty. Cf. Pankhurst, op. cit. 603–4.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ De Cosson, op. cit. II, 63–4.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ After the rains of 1909, the governor of southern Tigrē (Yohannis's cousin, Abriha Araya) raised more than 9,000 men armed with rifles and machine-guns to block the arrival of the Shewan general and palace favourite, Abatē. The intervention of reinforcements, once the rebels had fallen to looting and had expended most of their ammunition, saved the day for the government troops, apparently not their artillery. See Annaratone, op. cit. 105–7;Google ScholarBrice to Minister, Addis Ababa, 22 Oct. 1909, with enclosures, Ethiopie 2, fols. 168 ff.Google Scholar

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⁹⁸ Zaghi, ‘L'Italia e l'Etiopia alla vigilia di Adua’, 530.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Brice to Minister, 1 July 1910, Ethiopie 3, fol. 73.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Brice to Minister. Addis Ababa, 21 Feb. 1914, Ethiopie 3, fol. 279;Google Scholar on his import of German arms through Jibuti in 1911/12, fols. 215, 258. Already Minīlik had permitted him to replace his cavalry with perhaps as many as 20,000 infantry armed with rifles or other firearms (Saletta to Affari Esteri, Rome, 3 May 1907, ASMAI 38/4–36).Google Scholar

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¹⁰² The Wello were defeated on the approaches to Addis Ababa only when government reinforcements arrived in the midst of the fighting to attack them from the rear; then their fieldguns were taken along with Mika'ēl assuring a debacle. For this information I am indebted to And Alem Mulaw who interviewed at Gonder Balambaras Asfaw Welde Sadiq, who had served Dejaz Ayalew from 1909 and fought under him in the campaign of 1916.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Zoli, C., Cronache Etiopiche (Rome, 1930), 313 ffGoogle Scholar. Again I am indebted to And Alem Mulaw's interviews of survivors for confirmation of the striking effect the regent's one air-worthy plane had; this is much the same account given by the chronicle of the kings kept at Debre Birhan Sillasē, Gonder.