In the following pages will be found some account of the adventures and reception of the first mission sent by the American Government to the land we call Abyssinia, but known to the inhabitants thereof as Ethiopia, together with an explanation of some of the social and political conditions there prevailing, and of which little is accurately understood. Abyssinia is merely a fragment of the ancient empire of Ethiopia; but whether the name by which we know it is derived from Habesch, son of the founder of the people, or the old Egyptian word 'abissi,' signifying 'desert-surrounded nation,' or from the Arabic word 'habesca,' meaning 'without ancestors,' no one knows. We do know that the Abyssinians, not ordinarily given to the study of etymology, and resentful of the irony with which that word passes through Moslem lips, have abandoned it in favour of the nobler designation of 'Ethiopian.' To this word they have every historical and racial right.