154 Egypt and Abyssinia.

the Turks had seized the port of Zula on the Red Sea, and in later times Suakin and Massawa ; but, though based on these ports, they could make no headway into the Abyssinian hills, nor even occupy the coast provinces from Massawa to Suakin. During the aggressions of Ismail, son of Mehemet Ali, the Egyptians and Abyssinians came into collision from Kassala to Gallabat, and the Abyssinians were gradually pushed back to the mountains as their boundary, being hemmed in on all sides by Turks, Egyptians, and the tribes of the Galla country.

In 1866 Turkey transferred her interest in Massawa to Egypt in consideration of an increased tribute, and in 1867 the Khedive claimed authority as far as Zula, which is situated in Annesley Bay. Early in 1868 the English expedition to Abyssinia took place, and the Khedive, wishing for the countenance of England in his present and possible future encroachments on the Red Sea coast, did all in his power to assist the undertaking. Egyptian troops were offered to the British Government, though not accepted, and Kassala and Gallabat were spoken of as possible bases of operations. All this did not tend towards creating a good feeling between Egypt and Abyssinia. When the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, was arranging his Sudan railway scheme, he proposed to make a branch line to Massawa, which would necessarily pass through the province of Bogos.

The Khedive claimed that Bogos had been conquered by Mehemet Ali, though as a matter of fact the borderland only had been held by the Egyptians, whilst the Abyssinians denied that they had ever relinquished their rights to the territory. Border war had been maintained till Said Pasha, the former Khedive, had withdrawn his troops, and Bogos for many years had remained neutral ground.

In the summer of 1874 there was a certain Swiss resident at Massawa named Munzinger, who acted as Consul for both England and France. Seizing the opportunity of the King of Abyssinia being at war with the Gall as, the Egyptian Government employed Munzinger to occupy Keren, the capital of Bogos, with 1,500 men. About the same time, Egypt also acquired the territory of Ailet, a province lying between Hamasin and Massawa,