PREFACE.

Averse to writing, as well as to reading, diffuse Prolegomena, the author finds

himself compelled to relate, at some length, the circumstances which led to the

subject of these pages.

In May 1849, the late Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm, formerly Superintendent

of the Indian Navy, in conjunction with Mr. William John Hamilton, then

President of the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain, solicited the

permission of the Court of Directors of the Honorable East India Company to

ascertain the productive resources of the unknown Somali Country in East

Africa.1 The answer returned, was to the following effect:

 If a fit and proper person volunteer to travel in the Somali Country, he goes

as a private traveller, the Government giving no more protection to him than

they would to an individual totally unconnected with the service. They will

allow the officer who obtains permission to go, during his absence on the

expedition to retain all the pay and allowances he may be enjoying when leave

was granted: they will supply him with all the instruments required, afford him

a passage going and returning, and pay the actual expenses of the journey.

The project lay dormant until March 1850, when Sir Charles Malcolm and Captain

Smyth, President of the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain, waited upon

the chairman of the Court of Directors of the Honorable East India Company. He

informed them that if they would draw up a statement of what was required, and

specify how it could be carried into effect, the document should be forwarded to

the Governor-General of India, with a recommendation that, should no objection

arise, either from expense or other causes, a fit person should be permitted to

explore the Somali Country.

Sir Charles Malcolm then offered the charge of the expedition to Dr. Carter of

Bombay, an officer favourably known to the Indian world by his services on board

the  Palinurus brig whilst employed upon the maritime survey of Eastern Arabia.

Dr. Carter at once acceded to the terms proposed by those from whom the project

emanated; but his principal object being to compare the geology and botany of

the Somali Country with the results of his Arabian travels, he volunteered to

traverse only that part of Eastern Africa which lies north of a line drawn from

Berberah to Ras Hafun, in fact, the maritime mountains of the Somal. His health

not permitting him to be left on shore, he required a cruizer to convey him from

place to place, and to preserve his store of presents and provisions. By this

means he hoped to land at the most interesting points and to penetrate here and

there from sixty to eighty miles inland, across the region which he undertook to

explore.

On the 17th of August, 1850, Sir Charles Malcolm wrote to Dr. Carter in these

terms:  I have communicated with the President of the Royal Geographical Society

and others: the feeling is, that though much valuable information could no doubt

be gained by skirting the coast (as you propose) both in geology and botany, yet

that it does not fulfil the primary and great object of the London Geographical

Society, which was, and still is, to have the interior explored. The

Vice-Admiral, however, proceeded to say that, under the circumstances of the

case, Dr. Carter s plans were approved of, and asked him to confer immediately

with Commodore Lushington; then Commander in Chief of the Indian Navy.

In May, 1851, Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm died: geographers and travellers

lost in him an influential and an energetic friend. During the ten years of his

superintendence over the Indian Navy that service rose, despite the incubus of

profound peace, to the highest distinction. He freely permitted the officers

under his command to undertake the task of geographical discovery, retaining

their rank, pay, and batta, whilst the actual expenses of their journeys were

defrayed by contingent bills. All papers and reports submitted to the local

government were favourably received, and the successful traveller looked forward

to distinction and advancement.

During the decade which elapsed between 1828 and 1838,  officers of the Indian

Navy journeyed, as the phrase is, with their lives in their hands, through the

wildest districts of the East. Of these we name the late Commander J. A. Young,

Lieutenants Wellsted, Wyburd, Wood, and Christopher, retired Commander Ormsby,

the present Capt. H. B. Lynch C.B., Commanders Felix Jones and W. C. Barker,

Lieutenants Cruttenden and Whitelock. Their researches extended from the banks

of the Bosphorus to the shores of India. Of the vast, the immeasurable value of

such services, to quote the words of the Quarterly Review (No. cxxix. Dec.

1839),  which able officers thus employed, are in the mean time rendering to

science, to commerce, to their country, and to the whole civilized world, we

need say nothing: nothing we could say would be too much.

 In five years, the admirable maps of that coral-bound gulf the Red Sea were

complete: the terrors of the navigation had given place to the confidence

inspired by excellent surveys. In 1829 the Thetis of ten guns, under Commander

Robert Moresby, convoyed the first coal ship up the Red Sea, of the coasts of

which this skilful and enterprising seaman made a cursory survey, from which

emanated the subsequent trigonometrical operations which form our present maps.

Two ships were employed, the  Benares and  Palinurus, the former under

Commander Elwon, the latter under Commander Moresby. It remained, however, for

the latter officer to complete the work. Some idea may be formed of the perils

these officers and men went through, when we state the  Benares was forty-two

times aground.

 Robert Moresby, the genius of the Red Sea, conducted also the survey of the

Maldive Islands and groups known as the Chagos Archipelago. He narrowly escaped

being a victim to the deleterious climate of his station, and only left it when

no longer capable of working. A host of young and ardent officers, Christopher,

Young, Powell, Campbell, Jones, Barker, and others, ably seconded him: death was

busy amongst them for months and so paralyzed by disease were the living, that

the anchors could scarcely be raised for a retreat to the coast of India.

Renovated by a three months stay, occasionally in port, where they were

strengthened by additional numbers, the undaunted remnants from time to time

returned to their task; and in 1837, gave to the world a knowledge of those

singular groups which heretofore though within 150 miles of our coasts had been

a mystery hidden within the dangers that environed them. The beautiful maps of

the Red Sea, drafted by the late Commodore Carless2, then a lieutenant, will

ever remain permanent monuments of Indian Naval Science, and the daring of its

officers and men. Those of the Maldive and Chagos groups, executed by Commander

then Acting Lieutenant Felix Jones, were, we hear, of such a high order, that

they were deemed worthy of special inspection by the Queen.

 While these enlightening operations were in progress, there were others of this

profession, no less distinguished, employed on similar discoveries. The coast of

Mekran westward from Scinde, was little known, but it soon found a place in the

hydrographical offices of India, under Captain, then Lieutenant, Stafford

Haines, and his staff, who were engaged on it. The journey to the Oxus, made by

Lieut. Wood, Sir. A. Burnes s companion in his Lahore and Afghan missions, is a

page of history which may not be opened to us again in our own times; while in

Lieut. Carless s drafts of the channels of the Indus, we trace those designs,

that the sword of Sir Charles Napier only was destined to reveal.

 The ten years prior to that of 1839 were those of fitful repose, such as

generally precedes some great outbreak. The repose afforded ample leisure for

research, and the shores of the island of Socotra, with the south coast of

Arabia, were carefully delineated. Besides the excellent maps of these regions,

we are indebted to the survey for that unique work on Oman, by the late Lieut.

Wellsted of this service, and for valuable notices from the pen of Lieut.

Cruttenden.3

 Besides the works we have enumerated, there were others of the same nature, but

on a smaller scale, in operation at the same period around our own coasts. The

Gulf of Cambay, and the dangerous sands known as the Molucca Banks, were

explored and faithfully mapped by Captain Richard Ethersey, assisted by

Lieutenant (now Commander) Fell. Bombay Harbour was delineated again on a grand

scale by Capt. R. Cogan, assisted by Lieut. Peters, now both dead; and the ink

of the Maldive charts had scarcely dried, when the labours of those employed

were demanded of the Indian Government by Her Majesty s authorities at Ceylon,

to undertake trigonometrical surveys of that Island, and the dangerous and

shallow gulfs on either side of the neck of sand connecting it with India. They

were the present Captains F. F. Powell, and Richard Ethersey, in the Schooner

 Royal Tiger and  Shannon, assisted by Lieut. (now Commander) Felix Jones, and

the late Lieut. Wilmot Christopher, who fell in action before Mooltan. The first

of these officers had charge of one of the tenders under Lieut. Powell, and the

latter another under Lieut. Ethersey. The maps of the Pamban Pass and the

Straits of Manaar were by the hand of Lieut. Felix Jones, who was the draftsman

also on this survey: they speak for themselves. 4

In 1838 Sir Charles Malcolm was succeeded by Sir Robert Oliver, an  old officer

of the old school  a strict disciplinarian, a faithful and honest servant of

Government, but a violent, limited, and prejudiced man. He wanted  sailors,

individuals conversant with ropes and rigging, and steeped in knowledge of shot

and shakings, he loved the  rule of thumb, he hated  literary razors, and he

viewed science with the profoundest contempt. About twenty surveys were ordered

to be discontinued as an inauguratory measure, causing the loss of many thousand

pounds, independent of such contingencies as the  Memnon. 5 Batta was withheld

from the few officers who obtained leave, and the life of weary labour on board

ship was systematically made monotonous and uncomfortable: in local phrase it

was described as  many stripes and no stars. Few measures were omitted to

heighten the shock of contrast. No notice was taken of papers forwarded to

Government, and the man who attempted to distinguish himself by higher views

than quarter-deck duties, found himself marked out for the angry Commodore s

red-hot displeasure. No place was allowed for charts and plans: valuable

original surveys, of which no duplicates existed, lay tossed amongst the brick

and mortar with which the Marine Office was being rebuilt. No instruments were

provided for ships, even a barometer was not supplied in one case, although duly

indented for during five years. Whilst Sir Charles Malcolm ruled the Bombay

dockyards, the British name rose high in the Indian, African, and Arabian seas.

Each vessel had its presents guns, pistols, and powder, Abbas, crimson cloth

and shawls, watches, telescopes, and similar articles with a suitable stock of

which every officer visiting the interior on leave was supplied. An order from

Sir Robert Oliver withdrew presents as well as instruments: with them

disappeared the just idea of our faith and greatness as a nation entertained by

the maritime races, who formerly looked forward to the arrival of our cruizers.

Thus the Indian navy was crushed by neglect and routine into a mere transport

service, remarkable for little beyond constant quarrels between sea-lieutenants

and land-lieutenants, sailor-officers and soldier-officers, their  passengers.

And thus resulted that dearth of enterprise alluded to ex cathedra by a late

President of the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain which now

characterises Western India erst so celebrated for ardour in adventure.

To return to the subject of East African discovery. Commodore Lushington and Dr.

Carter met in order to concert some measures for forwarding the plans of a

Somali Expedition. It was resolved to associate three persons, Drs. Carter and

Stocks, and an officer of the Indian navy: a vessel was also warned for service

on the coast of Africa. This took place in the beginning of 1851: presently

Commodore Lushington resigned his command, and the project fell to the ground.

The author of these pages, after his return from El Hajaz to Bombay, conceived

the idea of reviving the Somali Expedition: he proposed to start in the spring

of 1854, and accompanied by two officers, to penetrate via Harar and Gananah to

Zanzibar. His plans were favourably received by the Right Hon. Lord Elphinstone,

the enlightened governor of the colony, and by the local authorities, amongst

whom the name of James Grant Lumsden, then Member of Council, will ever suggest

the liveliest feelings of gratitude and affection. But it being judged necessary

to refer once more for permission to the Court of Directors, an official letter

bearing date the 28th April 1854 was forwarded from Bombay with a warm

recommendation. Lieut. Herne of the 1st Bombay European Regiment of Fusileers,

an officer skilful in surveying, photography, and mechanics, together with the

writer, obtained leave, pending the reference, and a free passage to Aden in

Arabia. On the 23rd August a favourable reply was despatched by the Court of

Directors.

Meanwhile the most painful of events had modified the original plan. The third

member of the Expedition, Assistant Surgeon J. Ellerton Stocks, whose brilliant

attainments as a botanist, whose long and enterprising journeys, and whose

eminently practical bent of mind had twice recommended him for the honors and

trials of African exploration, died suddenly in the prime of life. Deeply did

his friends lament him for many reasons: a universal favourite, he left in the

social circle a void never to be filled up, and they mourned the more that Fate

had not granted him the time, as it had given him the will and the power, to

trace a deeper and more enduring mark upon the iron tablets of Fame.

No longer hoping to carry out his first project, the writer determined to make

the geography and commerce of the Somali country his principal objects. He

therefore applied to the Bombay Government for the assistance of Lieut. William

Stroyan, I. N., an officer distinguished by his surveys on the coast of Western

India, in Sindh, and on the Panjab Rivers. It was not without difficulty that

such valuable services were spared for the deadly purpose of penetrating into

Eastern Africa. All obstacles, however, were removed by their ceaseless and

energetic efforts, who had fostered the author s plans, and early in the autumn

of 1854, Lieut. Stroyan received leave to join the Expedition. At the same time,

Lieut. J. H. Speke, of the 46th Regiment Bengal N. I., who had spent many years

collecting the Fauna of Thibet and the Himalayan mountains, volunteered to share

the hardships of African exploration.

In October 1854, the writer and his companions received at Aden in Arabia the

sanction of the Court of Directors. It was his intention to march in a body,

using Berberah as a base of operations, westwards to Harar, and thence in a

south-easterly direction towards Zanzibar.

But the voice of society at Aden was loud against the expedition. The rough

manners, the fierce looks, and the insolent threats of the Somal the effects of

our too peaceful rule had pre-possessed the timid colony at the  Eye of Yemen

with an idea of extreme danger. The Anglo-Saxon spirit suffers, it has been

observed, from confinement within any but wooden walls, and the European

degenerates rapidly, as do his bull-dogs, his game-cocks, and other pugnacious

animals, in the hot, enervating, and unhealthy climates of the East. The writer

and his comrades were represented to be men deliberately going to their death,

and the Somal at Aden were not slow in imitating the example of their rulers.

The savages had heard of the costly Shoa Mission, its 300 camels and 50 mules,

and they longed for another rehearsal of the drama: according to them a vast

outlay was absolutely necessary, every village must be feasted, every chief

propitiated with magnificent presents, and dollars must be dealt out by

handfuls. The Political Resident refused to countenance the scheme proposed, and

his objection necessitated a further change of plans.

Accordingly, Lieut. Herne was directed to proceed, after the opening of the

annual fair-season, to Berberah, where no danger was apprehended. It was judged

that the residence of this officer upon the coast would produce a friendly

feeling on the part of the Somal, and, as indeed afterwards proved to be the

case, would facilitate the writer s egress from Harar, by terrifying the ruler

for the fate of his caravans.6 Lieut. Herne, who on the 1st of January 1855, was

joined by Lieut. Stroyan, resided on the African coast from November to April;

he inquired into the commerce, the caravan lines, and the state of the slave

trade, visited the maritime mountains, sketched all the places of interest, and

made a variety of meteorological and other observations as a prelude to

extensive research.

Lieut. Speke was directed to land at Bunder Guray, a small harbour in the  Arz

el Aman, or  Land of Safety, as the windward Somal style their country. His

aim was to trace the celebrated Wady Nogal, noting its watershed and other

peculiarities, to purchase horses and camels for the future use of the

Expedition, and to collect specimens of the reddish earth which, according to

the older African travellers, denotes the presence of gold dust.7 Lieut. Speke

started on the 23rd October 1854, and returned, after about three months, to

Aden. He had failed, through the rapacity and treachery of his guide, to reach

the Wady Nogal. But he had penetrated beyond the maritime chain of hills, and

his journal (condensed in the Appendix) proves that he had collected some novel

and important information.

Meanwhile the author, assuming the disguise of an Arab merchant, prepared to

visit the forbidden city of Harar. He left Aden on the 29th of October 1854,

arrived at the capital of the ancient Hadiyah Empire on the 3rd January 1855,

and on the 9th of the ensuing February returned in safety to Arabia, with the

view of purchasing stores and provisions for a second and a longer journey. 8

What unforeseen circumstance cut short the career of the proposed Expedition,

the Postscript of the present volume will show.

The following pages contain the writer s diary, kept daring his march to and

from Harar. It must be borne in mind that the region traversed on this occasion

was previously known only by the vague reports of native travellers. All the

Abyssinian discoverers had traversed the Dankali and other northern tribes: the

land of the Somal was still a terra incognita. Harar, moreover, had never been

visited, and few are the cities of the world which in the present age, when men

hurry about the earth, have not opened their gates to European adventure. The

ancient metropolis of a once mighty race, the only permanent settlement in

Eastern Africa, the reported seat of Moslem learning, a walled city of stone

houses, possessing its independent chief, its peculiar population, its unknown

language, and its own coinage, the emporium of the coffee trade, the

head-quarters of slavery, the birth-place of the Kat plant,9 and the great

manufactory of cotton-cloths, amply, it appeared, deserved the trouble of

exploration. That the writer was successful in his attempt, the following pages

will prove. Unfortunately it was found impossible to use any instruments except

a pocket compass, a watch, and a portable thermometer more remarkable for

convenience than correctness. But the way was thus paved for scientific

observation: shortly after the author s departure from Harar, the Amir or chief

wrote to the Acting Political Resident at Aden, earnestly begging to be supplied

with a  Frank physician, and offering protection to any European who might be

persuaded to visit his dominions.

The Appendix contains the following papers connected with the movements of the

expedition in the winter of 1854.

1. The diary and observations made by Lieut. Speke, when attempting to reach the

Wady Nogal.

2. A sketch of the grammar, and a vocabulary of the Harari tongue. This dialect

is little known to European linguists: the only notices of it hitherto published

are in Salt s Abyssinia, Appendix I. p. 6-10.; by Balbi Atlas Ethnogr. Tab.

xxxix. No. 297.; Kielmaier, Ausland, 1840, No. 76.; and Dr. Beke (Philological

Journal, April 25. 1845.)

3. Meteorological observations in the cold season of 1854-55 by Lieuts. Herne,

Stroyan, and the Author.

4. A brief description of certain peculiar customs, noticed in Nubia, by Brown

and Werne under the name of fibulation.

5. The conclusion is a condensed account of an attempt to reach Harar from

Ankobar.10 On the 14th October 1841, Major Sir William Cornwallis Harris (then

Captain in the Bombay Engineers), Chief of the Mission sent from India to the

King of Shoa, advised Lieut. W. Barker, I. N., whose services were imperatively

required by Sir Robert Oliver, to return from Abyssinia via Harar,  over a road

hitherto untrodden by Europeans. As His Majesty Sahalah Selassie had offered

friendly letters to the Moslem Amir, Capt. Harris had  no doubt of the success

of the enterprise. Although the adventurous explorer was prevented by the idle

fears of the Bedouin Somal and the rapacity of his guides from visiting the

city, his pages, as a narrative of travel, will amply reward perusal. They have

been introduced into this volume mainly with the view of putting the reader in

possession of all that has hitherto been written and not published, upon the

subject of Harar.11 For the same reason the author has not hesitated to enrich

his pages with observations drawn from Lieutenants Cruttenden and Rigby. The

former printed in the Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society two

excellent papers: one headed a  Report on the Mijjertheyn Tribe of Somallies

inhabiting the district forming the North East Point of Africa; secondly, a

 Memoir on the Western or Edoor Tribes, inhabiting the Somali coast of North

East Africa; with the Southern Branches of the family of Darood, resident on the

banks of the Webbe Shebayli, commonly called the River Webbe. Lieut. C. P.

Rigby, 16th Regiment Bombay N. I., published, also in the Transactions of the

Geographical Society of Bombay, an  Outline of the Somali Language, with

Vocabulary, which supplied a great lacuna in the dialects of Eastern Africa.

A perusal of the following pages will convince the reader that the extensive

country of the Somal is by no means destitute of capabilities. Though partially

desert, and thinly populated, it possesses valuable articles of traffic, and its

harbours export the produce of the Gurague, Abyssinian, Galla, and other inland

races. The natives of the country are essentially commercial: they have lapsed

into barbarism by reason of their political condition the rude equality of the

Hottentots, but they appear to contain material for a moral regeneration. As

subjects they offer a favourable contrast to their kindred, the Arabs of El

Yemen, a race untameable as the wolf, and which, subjugated in turn by

Abyssinian, Persian, Egyptian, and Turk, has ever preserved an indomitable

spirit of freedom, and eventually succeeded in skaking off the yoke of foreign

dominion. For half a generation we have been masters of Aden, filling Southern

Arabia with our calicos and rupees what is the present state of affairs there?

We are dared by the Bedouins to come forth from behind our stone walls and fight

like men in the plain, British proteges are slaughtered within the range of our

guns, our allies villages have been burned in sight of Aden, our deserters are

welcomed and our fugitive felons protected, our supplies are cut off, and the

garrison is reduced to extreme distress, at the word of a half-naked bandit, the

miscreant Bhagi who murdered Capt. Mylne in cold blood still roams the hills

unpunished, gross insults are the sole acknowledgments of our peaceful

overtures, the British flag has been fired upon without return, our cruizers

being ordered to act only on the defensive, and our forbearance to attack is

universally asserted and believed to arise from mere cowardice. Such is, and

such will be, the character of the Arab!

The Sublime Porte still preserves her possessions in the Tahamah, and the

regions conterminous to Yemen, by the stringent measures with which Mohammed Ali

of Egypt opened the robber-haunted Suez road. Whenever a Turk or a traveller is

murdered, a few squadrons of Irregular Cavalry are ordered out; they are not too

nice upon the subject of retaliation, and rarely refuse to burn a village or

two, or to lay waste the crops near the scene of outrage.

A civilized people, like ourselves, objects to such measures for many reasons,

of which none is more feeble than the fear of perpetuating a blood feud with the

Arabs. Our present relations with them are a  very pretty quarrel, and moreover

one which time must strengthen, cannot efface. By a just, wholesome, and

unsparing severity we may inspire the Bedouin with fear instead of contempt: the

veriest visionary would deride the attempt to animate him with a higher

sentiment.

 Peace, observes a modern sage,  is the dream of the wise, war is the history

of man. To indulge in such dreams is but questionable wisdom. It was not a

 peace-policy which gave the Portuguese a seaboard extending from Cape Non to

Macao. By no peace policy the Osmanlis of a past age pushed their victorious

arms from the deserts of Tartary to Aden, to Delhi, to Algiers, and to the gates

of Vienna. It was no peace policy which made the Russians seat themselves upon

the shores of the Black, the Baltic, and the Caspian seas: gaining in the space

of 150 years, and, despite war, retaining, a territory greater than England and

France united. No peace policy enabled the French to absorb region after region

in Northern Africa, till the Mediterranean appears doomed to sink into a Gallic

lake. The English of a former generation were celebrated for gaining ground in

both hemispheres: their broad lands were not won by a peace policy, which,

however, in this our day, has on two distinct occasions well nigh lost for them

the  gem of the British Empire  India. The philanthropist and the political

economist may fondly hope, by outcry against  territorial aggrandizement, by

advocating a compact frontier, by abandoning colonies, and by cultivating

 equilibrium, to retain our rank amongst the great nations of the world. Never!

The facts of history prove nothing more conclusively than this: a race either

progresses or retrogrades, either increases or diminishes: the children of Time,

like their sire, cannot stand still.

The occupation of the port of Berberah has been advised for many reasons.

In the first place, Berberah is the true key of the Red Sea, the centre of East

African traffic, and the only safe place for shipping upon the western

Erythroean shore, from Suez to Guardafui. Backed by lands capable of

cultivation, and by hills covered with pine and other valuable trees, enjoying a

comparatively temperate climate, with a regular although thin monsoon, this

harbour has been coveted by many a foreign conqueror. Circumstances have thrown

it as it were into our arms, and, if we refuse the chance, another and a rival

nation will not be so blind.

Secondly, we are bound to protect the lives of British subjects upon this coast.

In A.D. 1825 the crew of the  Mary Ann brig was treacherously murdered by the

Somal. The consequence of a summary and exemplary punishment12 was that in

August 1843, when the H.E.I.C. s war-steamer  Memnon was stranded at Ras Assayr

near Cape Guardafui, no outrage was attempted by the barbarians, upon whose

barren shores our seamen remained for months labouring at the wreck. In A.D.

1855 the Somal, having forgotten the old lesson, renewed their practices of

pillaging and murdering strangers. It is then evident that this people cannot be

trusted without supervision, and equally certain that vessels are ever liable to

be cast ashore in this part of the Red Sea. But a year ago the French steam

corvette,  Le Caiman, was lost within sight of Zayla; the Bedouin Somal,

principally Eesa, assembled a fanatic host, which was, however, dispersed before

blood had been drawn, by the exertion of the governor and his guards. It remains

for us, therefore, to provide against such contingencies. Were one of the

Peninsular and Oriental Company s vessels cast by any accident upon this

inhospitable shore, in the present state of affairs the lives of the passengers,

and the cargo, would be placed in imminent peril.

In advocating the establishment of an armed post at Berberah no stress is laid

upon the subject of slavery. To cut off that traffic the possession of the great

export harbour is by no means necessary. Whenever a British cruizer shall

receive positive and bona fide orders to search native craft, and to sell as

prizes all that have slaves on board, the trade will receive a death-blow.

Certain measures have been taken during the last annual fair to punish the

outrage perpetrated by the Somal at Berberah in A.D. 1855. The writer on his

return to Aden proposed that the several clans implicated in the offence should

at once be expelled from British dominions. This preliminary was carried out by

the Acting Political Resident at Aden. Moreover, it was judged advisable to

blockade the Somali coast, from Siyaro to Zayla, not concluded, until, in the

first place, Lieut. Stroyan s murderer, and the ruffian who attempted to spear

Lieut. Speke in cold blood, should be given up13; and secondly, that due

compensation for all losses should be made by the plunderers. The former

condition was approved by the Right Honorable the Governor-General of India,

who, however, objected, it is said, to the money-demand.14 At present the H.E.

I.C. s cruizers  Mahi, and  Elphinstone, are blockading the harbour of

Berberah, the Somal have offered 15,000 dollars indemnity, and they pretend, as

usual, that the murderer has been slain by his tribe.

To conclude. The writer has had the satisfaction of receiving from his comrades

assurances that they are willing to accompany him once more in task of African

Exploration. The plans of the Frank are now publicly known to the Somali. Should

the loss of life, however valuable, be an obstacle to prosecuting them, he must

fall in the esteem of the races around him. On the contrary, should he, after

duly chastising the offenders, carry out the original plan, he will command the

respect of the people, and wipe out the memory of a temporary reverse. At no

distant period the project will, it is hoped, be revived. Nothing is required

but permission to renew the attempt an indulgence which will not be refused by a

Government raised by energy, enterprise, and perseverance from the ranks of

merchant society to national wealth and imperial grandeur.

14. St. James s Square, 10th February, 1856.

1 It occupies the whole of the Eastern Horn, extending from the north of Bab el

Mandeb to several degrees south of Cape Guardafui. In the former direction it is

bounded by the Dankali and the Ittoo Gallas; in the latter by the Sawahil or

Negrotic regions; the Red Sea is its eastern limit, and westward it stretches to

within a few miles of Harar.

2 In A.D. 1838, Lieut. Carless surveyed the seaboard of the Somali country, from

Ras Hafun to Burnt Island; unfortunately his labours were allowed by Sir Charles

Malcolm s successor to lie five years in the obscurity of MS. Meanwhile the

steam frigate  Memnon, Capt. Powell commanding, was lost at Ras Assayr; a

Norie s chart, an antiquated document, with an error of from fifteen to twenty

miles, being the only map of reference on board. Thus the Indian Government, by

the dilatoriness and prejudices of its Superintendent of Marine, sustained an

unjustifiable loss of at least 50,000_l.

3 In A.D. 1836-38, Lieut. Cruttenden published descriptions of travel, which

will be alluded to in a subsequent part of this preface.

4 This  hasty sketch of the scientific labours of the Indian navy, is extracted

from an able anonymous pamphlet, unpromisingly headed  Grievances and Present

Condition of our Indian Officers.

5 In A.D. 1848, the late Mr. Joseph Hume called in the House of Commons for a

return of all Indian surveys carried on during the ten previous years. The

result proved that no less than a score had been suddenly  broken up, by order

of Sir Robert Oliver.

6 This plan was successfully adopted by Messrs. Antoine and Arnauld d Abbadie,

when travelling in dangerous parts of Abyssinia and the adjacent countries.

7 In A.D. 1660, Vermuyden found gold at Gambia always on naked and barren hills

embedded in a reddish earth.

8 The writer has not unfrequently been blamed by the critics of Indian papers,

for venturing into such dangerous lands with an outfit nearly 1500_l. in value.

In the Somali, as in other countries of Eastern Africa, travellers must carry

not only the means of purchasing passage, but also the very necessaries of life.

Money being unknown, such bulky articles as cotton-cloth, tobacco, and beads are

necessary to provide meat and milk, and he who would eat bread must load his

camels with grain. The Somal of course exaggerate the cost of travelling; every

chief, however, may demand a small present, and every pauper, as will be seen in

the following pages, expects to be fed.

9 It is described at length in Chap. III.

10 The author hoped to insert Lieut. Berne s journal, kept at Berberah, and the

different places of note in its vicinity; as yet, however, the paper has not

been received.

11 Harar has frequently been described by hearsay; the following are the

principal authorities:

Rochet (Second Voyage Dans le Pays des Adels, &c. Paris, 1846.), page 263.

Sir. W. Cornwallis Harris (Highlands of AEthiopia, vol. i. ch. 43. et passim).

Cruttenden (Transactions of the Bombay Geological Society A.D. 1848).

Barker (Report of the probable Position of Harar. Vol. xii. Royal Geographical

Society).

M Queen (Geographical Memoirs of Abyssinia, prefixed to Journals of Rev. Messrs.

Isenberg and Krapf).

Christopher (Journal whilst commanding the H. C. s brig  Tigris, on the East

Coast of Africa).

Of these by far the most correct account is that of Lieut. Cruttenden.

12 In A.D. 1825, the Government of Bombay received intelligence that a brig from

the Mauritius had been seized, plundered, and broken up near Berberah, and that

part of her crew had been barbarously murdered by the Somali. The  Elphinstone

sloop of war (Capt. Greer commanding) was sent to blockade the coast; when her

guns opened fire, the people fled with their wives and children, and the spot

where a horseman was killed by a cannon ball is still shown on the plain near

the town. Through the intervention of El Hajj Sharmarkay, the survivors were

recovered; the Somal bound themselves to abstain from future attacks upon

English vessels, and also to refund by annual instalments the full amount of

plundered property. For the purpose of enforcing the latter stipulation it was

resolved that a vessel of war should remain upon the coast until the whole was

liquidated. When attempts at evasion occurred, the traffic was stopped by

sending all craft outside the guard-ship, and forbidding intercourse with the

shore. The  Coote (Capt. Pepper commanding), the  Palinurus and the  Tigris,

in turn with the  Elphinstone, maintained the blockade through the trading

seasons till 1833. About 6000_l. were recovered, and the people were strongly

impressed with the fact that we had both the will and the means to keep their

plundering propensities within bounds.

13 The writer advised that these men should be hung upon the spot where the

outrage was committed, that the bodies should be burned and the ashes cast into

the sea, lest by any means the murderers might become martyrs. This precaution

should invariably be adopted when Moslems assassinate Infidels.

14 The reason of the objection is not apparent. A savage people is imperfectly

punished by a few deaths: the fine is the only true way to produce a lasting

impression upon their heads and hearts. Moreover, it is the custom of India and

the East generally, and is in reality the only safeguard of a traveller s

property.

[Illustration: Map to illustrate LIEUT. BURTON S Route to HARAR from a Sketch by

the late Lieut. W. Stroyan, Indian Navy.]

[Illustration: BERBERAH]

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