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toward the northeast assured me that a matter of vital importance to the

dominion of Menelek XIV in that part of Europe was threatening or had already

broken.

I could not believe that a simple rising of the savage tribes of whites would

necessitate the mobilizing of such a force as we presently met with converging

from the south into our trail. There were large bodies of cavalry and infantry,

endless streams of artillery wagons and guns, and countless horse-drawn covered

vehicles laden with camp equipage, munitions, and provisions.

Here, for the first time, I saw camels, great caravans of them, bearing all sorts of

heavy burdens, and miles upon miles of elephants doing similar service. It was a

scene of wondrous and barbaric splendor, for the men and beasts from the south

were gaily caparisoned in rich colors, in marked contrast to the gray uniformed

forces of the frontier, with which I had been familiar.

The rumor reached us that Menelek himself was coming, and the pitch of

excitement to which this announcement raised the troops was little short of

miraculous--at least, to one of my race and nationality whose rulers for centuries

had been but ordinary men, holding office at the will of the people for a few brief

years.

As I witnessed it, I could not but speculate upon the moral effect upon his troops

of a sovereign's presence in the midst of battle. All else being equal in war

between the troops of a republic and an empire, could not this exhilarated mental

state, amounting almost to hysteria on the part of the imperial troops, weigh

heavily against the soldiers of a president? I wonder.

But if the emperor chanced to be absent? What then? Again I wonder.

On the eleventh day we reached our destination--a walled frontier city of about

twenty thousand. We passed some lakes, and crossed some old canals before

entering the gates. Within, beside the frame buildings, were many built of

ancient brick and well-cut stone. These, I was told, were of material taken from

the ruins of the ancient city which, once, had stood upon the site of the present

town.

The name of the town, translated from the Abyssinian, is New Gondar. It stands, I

am convinced, upon the ruins of ancient Berlin, the one time capital of the old

German empire, but except for the old building material used in the new town

there is no sign of the former city.

The Lost Continent