My baggage not arriving on the 16th, I rode out five miles, on a mule, along the road, to look for it. When it at last arrived in the evening, I found my servant Ibrahim, a Somáli boy of nineteen, had met with an accident; an angry Abyssinian, armed with a spear, had been chasing his own servant, when the latter ran to Ibrahim for protection; the aggressor turned on Ibrahim and threw his spear, and trying to ward off the blow he received the spear through the palm of his hand. It was a very bad cut, severing an important vein, so that the hand had been bleeding at intervals for nearly two days; and Ibrahim arrived in a very weak state. I complained to the Rás, and the culprit was caught and put into prison, Ibrahim receiving the small compensation of twenty-five piastres, or about three rupees. I told the police officials that all my servants had orders to use their carbines, if necessary, in self-defence, and I expressed astonishment at Ibrahim’s forbearance.
On 17th March I had a long interview with Rás Makunan, when he expressed great friendship for the British; and I conveyed to him the kind regards of General J. Jopp, C.B., Political Resident of Aden, and the Italian Consul-General Cecchi, and of other officers known to him personally or by correspondence. After the audience I met Count Salimbeni at dinner at the house of Signor Felter.
On the following day I called on M. Gabriel Guigniony, a French merchant, and Monseigneur Taurin Cahagne, officially “Vicaire Apostolique des Gálla.” He has been many years in the country, and probably knows more about Gálla history than any man living.
In the afternoon I spent a long time with the Rás, and gave him a photograph album of Indian scenes, and also a tiger skin mounted on red cloth. The Rás was very much struck with some of the photographs, which represented Indian elephants in a “khedda”; and he asked me whether he could get experts from India to try their hands at taming the African elephant.
I showed him Sir Richard Burton’s book, First Footsteps in East Africa, which contains such a graphic and true description of Harar, and in which there is a sketch of the city. Gobau Desta read Burton’s historical account of Harar to the Rás, translating as he went along; and he said it was true in every detail. I also showed the Rás my photo of two rhinoceros heads. He is said to have been a keen hunter, and he sent for my Express rifle, by Holland, and took down the number, saying he would like to order one like it to shoot lions with, as “he preferred English rifles for big game.”
I took a ride with the Italians to Jebel Hákim and round Harar; and in the evening I dined with M. Guigniony, who proved a charming host.
On the 19th I called on Count Salimbeni, and in the afternoon had another interview with the Rás. Having come to the city only as a private visitor, I was careful to steer clear of politics in our conversations. But the Rás insisted on looking on my visit as partly political, and seized the opportunity of stating his ideas, through Gobau Desta, to an English traveller. After the interview I took down notes, from Gobau Desta’s dictation, concerning Abyssinian ideas, which were read to the Rás and approved of. He particularly wished me to get them published in England.
The notes referred chiefly to Abyssinian dealings with foreigners.
It appears that during the last few years Abyssinia has imported immense quantities of breech-loading firearms, and has become, so far as the Abyssinian feudal organisation goes, a military Power; and Abyssinians are beginning to remember that once their country included parts of Yemen and the Soudán. Since Theodore’s time they have been trying to gain possession of a seaport, and now they dream of absorbing the Somáli tribes till they reach the coast, either of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, or the Indian Ocean. They declare that they will not be content till they have full control of one of the seaports to which their merchandise goes, preferably Massáwa, Jibúti, or Zeila. They hint that now the African coast-line is being divided among the Europeans the Africans are entitled to their share. The Abyssinians say that the expeditions which annually advance farther into Ogádén are undertaken for the purpose of exacting tribute, thus establishing the Abyssinian claim to suzerainty over the Somáli tribes; and that, if possessed of one of the northern ports, their Ogádén expeditions would naturally cease.