With each of the sporting rifles there should be a good strong magazine bag, which can be slung over any of the laden camels. Half the spare ammunition would be carried in this way, while the rest of the spare ammunition for all the sporting battery would be packed in one box, weighing about 50 lbs. Several leather or canvas haversacks should be made to carry food and small articles.
For the Snider carbines I recommend that for a six weeks’ trip thirty rounds per man be carried in the belts, with a few rounds of buckshot for the use of sentries; besides this belt ammunition, about fifty rounds per man would be in a box, and some blank ammunition for skirmishing drill and complimentary displays. If it is proposed to give the men much ball practice while in the interior, more ball ammunition should of course be taken. I strongly recommend an hour of target practice once a week, in some deep river-bed with precipitous banks, if the men are to be of any use as an escort. A pair of compasses, a bundle of thin lathes, a dozen screws and a screwdriver, half a quire of cartridge paper, packet of drawing pins, and some ink pellets, are all that is required to be taken to make very good targets. When the men have been well grounded in ball practice it will be interesting to pile up stones to the height of a man and bring them down with a crashing volley at a hundred yards. The men take a lively interest in the shooting and drill, and a list should be kept of good, bad, or indifferent shots, so that the fact may be endorsed on their written characters when they are dismissed at the coast.
Some form of hand camera is invaluable, I suggest that no large camera be used, nor chemicals, but that small photographs be taken with the hand camera and developed and enlarged on return to England.
When ordering clothes it should be remembered that Somáliland can be extremely hot and also very cold. I recommend that thin “kháki” drill be the usual costume, and that a good thick ulster be taken for cold night-marches or for sitting up over a “kill.” A few pairs of red rubber or cotton-soled shoes are useful for stalking koodoo and other game inhabiting stony ground. Above all, a really good sun hat is a necessity.
Information regarding the cost of passages to and from Aden can be obtained at any shipping offices, so I will merely remark that it takes about three weeks to get to Aden from London by sea, or about thirteen days if advantage be taken of the overland train to Brindisi. But in the latter case only a small hand-bag could be taken, baggage having previously been sent round by sea. There is generally great trouble about the shipping of loaded cartridges, and they should be sent on ahead.
When staying at an hotel in Aden I usually went to the Hotel de L’Europe, in the Crescent, Steamer Point. The accommodation at all the hotels in Aden is very primitive. So far as I can remember, board and lodging in Aden would come to between 7 and 14 rupees per diem.
At Aden the following articles, if considered necessary, may be purchased or made to order:—
Coats for the men, of “kháki” or drab-coloured drill (3 rupees), cartridge belts to contain thirty rounds (1 rupee), also pouches (½ rupee), brown blankets for followers (3 rupees). Six wooden boxes to contain stores or liquors, as before described, can be made in the bazaar for between 1 and 2 rupees each, or they may be obtained in London with a fortnight’s supplies in each box. If a camel-pad is required it can be got in Aden for 10 rupees.[59]
The two Parsi firms with which I have had most dealings are Messrs. Pallonjee Dinshaw and Messrs. Cowasjee Dinshaw Bros., both of the Crescent, Aden. The latter is probably the larger firm, and does a great deal of business with the shipping passing through Aden. But when I have not had time to get what I wanted from one I have tried the other. Cowasjee is in correspondence with Mr. Mahomed Hindi, a Hindustáni merchant permanently living in Berbera; and Pallonjee is also accustomed to do business with the Somáli coast.