ABBADIE, ANTOINE D'

ABBADIE, ANTOINE d'. — Explorer, geographer, astronomer, b. in Dublin to a French family that had emigrated there, on 9 Jan. 1810, d. in Paris on 19 March 1897. After returning to Toulouse, he prepared for exploratory journeys in Africa, together with his brother Arnaud, five years his junior, who preceded him to Cairo (1838), while he, on behalf of the state, went to Brazil. Having rejoined his brother, he met the Lazarist missionary G. Sapeto (q.v.) at Massawa and began (1840) the grand geodetic and cartographic survey of Ethiopia. Like his brother—who became a *ras*—he won the affection of the natives as no other traveler did—attested by Massaia (q.v.)—and by reason of his unremitting labors and unblemished morals, he was taken for a monk or priest. Having penetrated as far as Kaffa, he wrote to the Congregation of Propaganda Fide a letter in which, after describing the condition of the Galla, he urged the foundation of a Catholic mission, which Gregory XVI immediately established, creating a vicariate and entrusting it to Mgr. Massaia. The Pope, who had already made him a knight of St. Gregory, sent him a warm expression of thanks. Returning to France (1848), the d’Abbadie brothers continued their scientific studies and travels. Arnaud published the first volume of *Douze ans dans la Haute-Ethiopie ou Abyssinie* (1868), and Antoine the classic work *Géographie d'Ethiopie. Ce que j'ai entendu faisant suite à ce que j'ai vu* (1890).