A History of Protestant missions in the near East

386 History of Protestant Missions in the Near East
ations, the little flame of Protestant faith in Abyssinia continued
to burn. Unfortunately it has never been possible for
European missionaries to make a new and energetic beginning.
Suspicion of the entrance of European influences into their
country, a suspicion unfortunately only too well justified,
makes the Abyssinian kings obstinately resist even mission
work.
3. The Swedish National Mission
While storms were breaking over Negus Theodore and the
Protestant missions, a new mission was begun in the northern
Abyssinian mountains, which, though exposed to the severest
attacks, and experiencing many disappointments, has been
carried ~on to the present day with invincible determination.
The Swedish National Missionary Society was founded in
1861, for evangelistic purposes at home. It soon determined,
however, to extend its operations to Abyssinia. The Swedes
were advised by Dr. Krapf to begin work among the Galla tribe,
which he thought the most promising
field for mission work
in East Africa. But, after the first missionaries had arrived
in Massowa, they took the advice of a Swiss named Munzinger>
who knew the country well and went to the Kunama, an
almost entirely heathen tribe in Northwestern Abyssinia.
Here, in the next few years, they established four stations,
suffering much in the meantime from sickness and want, but
receiving strong reinforcements from Sweden. Tendur was
their chief station. But their position was rendered so unsafe
by the boundary disputes between Egypt and Abyssinia, that
they could not settle here permanently. Consequently, being
also faithlessly forsaken by the Kunama themselves, they retired
in 1870 to the Ked Sea port Massowa. There, in the
tropical and unhealthful plain along the coast, they began,
with indescribable patience, and constantly contending with
disease and death, a work which proved to be both difficult
and unremunerative. In Massowa an unpretending school
was opened, which was attended exclusively by the children
of the poor and of A slaves. hospital was built near the