As regards the naumes of stations, it must be observed that the Somali, like the Bedouins of Arabia, the Todas of the Neilgherry hills, and other wild races, are profuse in nomenclature of every feature of ground.
Between 2 and 3 in the morning of the 19th inst. I was aroused by the cry that the enemy was upon us.
By the power of my star, I escaped a large plundering-party of Habr Awal horsemen, who were sweeping the plain with malicious intentions.
Harar contains a population of about 10,000 souls, including about 2500 Somal, and not including a considerable number of Gallas and other Bedouins Women abound, a circumstance arising from the prevalence of slavery.
I offer no description of my return route to Berbera, as it was a mere adventure of uncommon hardship.
I was surrounded at the time by about a dozen of the enemy, whose clubs rattled upon me without mercy, and the strokes of my sabre were rendered uncertain by the energetic pushes of an attendant who thus hoped to save me.
In March, 1854, after my return from Arabia to Bombay, I applied myself to the task of resuscitating the expedition.
In six days we traversed the maritime plain of Zayla; its breadth is from 45 to 48 miles.
In the Harawwah valley I met with a notable disappointment as regards elephants. At Zayla they were represented to be plentiful as sheep; after beating the country nothing appeared but the last year's earths.
Lieutenant Speke was detached to Guray Bunder, with directions to explore, if possible, the celebrated Wadi Nogal, and to visit the Dulbahantas, most warlike of the Somal.
On the 23rd of December I crossed the Ban Marar (Marar Prairie), a grassy tract not unlike our English downs, which separates the first from the second zone of hills.
On the 27th of December we exchanged the rocks, thorn-trees, and dried grass of the desert for alpine scenery rendered by contrast truly delicious.
On the 29th October, 1854, I started from Aden in a Somali boat bound to Zayla, a small port on the African coast of the Red Sea, nearly opposite and about 140 miles from our Arabian settlement.
One death to a man is a serious thing: a dozen neutralize one another.
Our little caravan, consisting of about twenty well-armed men and two women cooks, was led by one Raghe, a petty chief of the Eesa tribe.
Shermarkay objected to my travelling by the direct route on account of the Eesa and the Gallas. These tribes inherit from their ancestors the horrible practice of mutilation.
Starting at 6 A.M., we arrived at 8 in the evening under the hills of Harar, with no other adventure than being dogged by a lion, who fled at the ring of a rifle.
Support a compatriot against a native, however the former may blunder or plunder.
The march is resumed in the afternoon, and at nightfall the beasts and baggage are deposited in a thorn fence, which serves as a protection against lions and plunderers.
The savages, who take a delight in sight showing, insisted upon my visiting the Halimalah tree and the ruins of Aububah and Darbinyah Kolah.
Travellers, like poets, are mostly an angry race: by falling into a daily fit of passion, I proved to the governor and his son, who were profuse in their attentions, that I was in earnest.
We could not take from Aden the number of well-trained Somali policemen upon which I had originally calculated, and we had to depend upon raw recruits, who fled at the first charge.
We passed on over the hills of Harar by roads so rugged that loads are shifted from camel to donkey back.
We remained six days under the roof of the Gerad Adan, one of the most treacherous and dangerous chiefs in this land of treachery and danger.
Wherever we halted we were surrounded by wandering troops of Bedouins.
Yet my opinion of the Somal is unchanged; nor would I assume the act of a band of brigands - for such was the cause of our disaster - to be the expression of a people's animus.
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