[APPENDIX F.]
LETTERS ON THE JEDDAH MASSACRE, AND CHOLERA—HIS WARNING TO THE GOVERNMENT, WHICH CALLED DOWN A REPRIMAND ON HIM.
"To the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, London.
"Sir,—I have the honour to inform you that on the 1st of December, 1856, I addressed to you a letter which I hope has been duly received. On the 2nd instant, in company with Lieutenant Speke, I left Bombay Harbour, on board the H.E.I. Company's ship of war Elphinstone (Captain Frushard, I.N., commanding), en route to East Africa. I have little to report that may be interesting to geographers; but perhaps some account of political affairs in the Red Sea may be deemed worthy to be transmitted by you to the Court of Directors or to the Foreign Office.
"As regards the Expedition, copies of directions and a memorandum on instruments and observations for our guidance have come to hand. For observations, Lieutenant Speke and I must depend upon our own exertions, neither serjeants nor native students being procurable at the Bombay Observatory. The case of instruments and the mountain barometer have not been forwarded, but may still find us at Zanzibar. Meanwhile I have obtained from the Commanding Engineer, Bombay, one six-inch sextant, one five and a half ditto, two prismatic compasses, five thermometers (of which two are B.P.), a patent log, taper, protractors, stands, etc.; also two pocket chronometers from the Observatory, duly rated; and Dr. Buist, secretary Bombay Geographical Society, has obliged me with a mountain barometer and various instructions about points of interest. Lieutenant Speke has been recommended by the local Government to the Government of India for duty in East Africa, and the services of Dr. Steinhaüser, who is most desirous to join us, have been applied for from the Medical Board, Bombay. I have strong hopes that both these officers will be allowed to accompany me, and that the Royal Geographical Society will use their efforts to that effect.
"By the subjoined detailed account of preliminary expenses at Bombay, it will be seen that I have expended £70 out of £250 for which I was permitted to draw.
"Although, as before mentioned, the survey of Eastern Intertropical Africa has for the moment been deferred, the necessity still exists. Even in the latest editions of Horsburgh, the mass of matter relative to Zanzibar is borrowed from the observations of Captain Bissel, who navigated the coast in H.M.'s ships Leopard and Orestes, about A.D. 1799. Little is known of the great current which, setting periodically from and to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, sweeps round the Eastern Horn of Africa. The reefs are still formidable to navigators; and before these seas can be safely traversed by steamers from the Cape, as is now proposed, considerable additions must be made to Captain Owen's survey in A.D. 1823-24. Finally, operations on the coast will form the best introduction to the geographical treasures of the interior.
"The H.E.I. Company's surveying brig Tigris will shortly be out of dock, where she has been undergoing a thorough repair, and if fitted up with a round-house on the quarter-deck would answer the purpose well. She might be equipped in a couple of months, and despatched to her ground before the south-west monsoon sets in, or be usefully employed in observing at Zanzibar instead of lying idle in Bombay Harbour. On former surveys of the Arabian and African Coasts, a small tender of from thirty to forty tons has always been granted, as otherwise operations are much crippled in boisterous weather and exposed on inhospitable shores. Should no other vessel be available, one of the smallest of the new pilot schooners now unemployed at Bombay might be directed to wait upon the Tigris. Lieutenant H. G. Fraser, I.N., has volunteered for duty upon the African coast, and I have the honour to transmit his letter. Nothing more would be required were some junior officer of the Indian navy stationed at Zanzibar for the purpose of registering tidal, barometric, and thermometric observations, in order that something of the meteorology of this unknown region may be accurately investigated.
"When passing through Aden I was informed that the blockade of the Somali Coast had been raised without compensation for the losses sustained on my last journey. This step appears, politically speaking, a mistake. In the case of the Mary Ann brig, plundered near Berberah in A.D. 1825, due compensation was demanded and obtained. Even in India, an officer travelling through the states not under British rule can, if he be plundered, require an equivalent for his property. This is, indeed, our chief protection—semi-barbarians and savages part with money less willingly than with life. If it be determined for social reasons at Aden that the blockade should cease and mutton become cheap, a certain percentage could be paid upon the exports of Berberah till such time as our losses, which, including those of Government, amount to £1380, are made good.
"From Harar news has reached Aden that the Amir Abubakr, dying during the last year of chronic consumption, has been succeeded by a cousin, one Abd el Rahman, a bigoted Moslem, and a violent hater of the Gallas. His success in feud and foray, however, has not prevented the wild tribes from hemming him in, and unless fortune interferes, the city must fall into their hands. The rumour prevalent at Cairo, namely, that Harar had been besieged and taken by Mr. Bell, now serving under 'Theodorus, Emperor of Ethiopia' (the chief Cássái), appears premature. At Aden I met in exile Sharmarkay bin Ali Salih, formerly Governor of Zayla. He has been ejected in favour of a Dankali chief by the Ottoman authorities of Yemen—a circumstance the more to be regretted as he has ever been a firm friend to our interests.