What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile Part 13

[21] _Ras_ means point or headland.

[22] This interesting little animal has since been compared by Mr Blyth, curator of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, and determined to be a new genus, and was named by him _Pectinator Spekei_.

[23] Then changed to Colonel Coghlan.

[24] These notes were reported in an Appendix in the 'First Footsteps in East Africa,' by Lieutenant Burton, with his other reports of this expedition.

[25] To say the least of it, this was a very dangerous policy to play with a people who consider might right, and revenge to death.

[26] Since this was written I have asked Lieutenant-Colonel Playfair his opinion on this matter, and the subjoined is the reply:--"In this Lieutenant Burton erred; and this was the _termina causa_ of all the mishaps which befell the expedition. The inst.i.tution of Abbanage is of great antiquity, and is the representative amongst a barbarous people of our customs laws, inasmuch as every trader or traveller pays to his Abban a certain percentage on the merchandise he buys or sells, and even on the food he purchases for his own use.

"A traveller who hopes for success in exploring a new country must accept the inst.i.tutions he finds in existence; he can hardly hope, by his simple _fiat_, to revolutionise the time-honoured and _most profitable_ inst.i.tutions of a people, amongst whom precedent is a law as unchangeable as that of the Medes and Persians."

[27] Siyareh, a fort and small village belonging to the Makahil branch of the Habr Awel, is the watering-place of Berbera, and derives a small revenue from the boats which touch there _en route_ to, and returning from, the Berbera fair. During this year it attained an unenviable notoriety as the rendezvous for the slaves intended for export to the Persian Gulf. Many of these were free Somali girls, sold by their relatives or kidnapped by their friends. Colonel Playfair wrote to me that one hundred and forty boys and girls were rescued here in the early part of this year by H.M.S. Lady Canning.

[28] Colonel Playfair thinks 20,000 men nearer the right number.

[29] I must here notice, although I have endeavoured to stick as closely as possible to the narration of my own story in these pages, that I saw Herne, who had been guarding the rear, opposed to the whole brunt of the attack, fighting gallantly with his sable antagonists; and from the resolution with which he fired at them, he must have done some damage.

[30] Articles of peace and friends.h.i.+p concluded between the Habr Owel tribe of Somali on the one part, and Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Political Resident at Aden, on behalf of the Honourable East India Company, on the other.

"Whereas, on the 19th of April 1855 (corresponding with the 1st of Shaban 1271), a treacherous attack and murder were perpetrated at the port of Berbera by a party of Habr Owel tribe, upon a party of British officers, about to travel in that country with the consent and under the protection of the elders of the tribe, in consequence of which outrage certain demands were made by the Government of India, and enforced by a blockade of the Habr Owel coast; and whereas it has become apparent that the said tribe has fulfilled these conditions to the utmost of its ability, and has prayed to be relieved from the blockade; therefore it is agreed,--

"1st, That the elders of the Habr Owel will use their best endeavours to deliver up Ou Ali, the murderer of Lieutenant Stroyan.

"2d, That, until this be accomplished, the sub-tribe Esa Moosa, which now shelters, and any other tribe which may hereafter shelter, harbour, or protect the said Ou Ali, shall be debarred from coming to Aden.

"3d, That all vessels sailing under the British flag shall have free permission to trade at the port of Berbera, or at any other place in the territories of the Habr Owel; and that all British subjects shall enjoy perfect safety in every part of the said territories, and shall be permitted to trade or travel there under the protection of the elders of the tribe. In like manner shall the members of the Habr Owel tribe enjoy similar privileges at Aden, or in any other part of the British possessions.

"4th, The traffic in slaves through the Habr Owel territories, including the port of Berbera, shall cease for ever; and any slave or slaves who, contrary to this engagement, shall be introduced into the said territories, shall be delivered up to the British; and the commander of any vessel of Her Majesty's or the Honourable East India Company's navy shall have the power of demanding the surrender of such slave or slaves, and of supporting the demand by force of arms, if necessary.

"5th, The Political Resident at Aden shall have the power to send an agent to reside at Berbera during the season of the fair, should he deem such a course necessary, to see that the provisions of this agreement are observed; and such agent will be treated with the respect and consideration due to the British Government.

"6th, That on a solemn promise being given by the elders of the Habr Owel, faithfully to abide by the articles of this agreement, and to cause the rest of the tribe to do so likewise, and to deliver up to the Political Resident at Aden any party who may violate it, the blockade of the Habr Owel coast shall be raised, and perpetual peace and friends.h.i.+p shall exist between the British and the Habr Owel.

"Done at Berbera this seventh day of November, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six of the Christian era (corresponding with the eighth day of Rabea-el-Owel, one thousand two hundred and seventy-two of the Hejira).

(Signed) MAHOMED ARRA'LEH, (Signed) AHMED ALI BOOKERI, Ayal Yoonus.

(Signed) NOOR FA'RRAH, /

(Signed) AHMED GHA'LID, (Signed) MAHOMMED WA'IS, Ayal Ahmed (Signed) MUGGAN MAHOMMED, /

(Signed) ROOBLIE Ha.s.sAN, (Signed) ATEYAH HILDER, Makahil.

(Signed) FARRAH BENI'N, /

(Signed) AWADTH SHERMARKIE, Ayal Hamood.

"Signed in my presence at Berbera, on the 7th November 1856.

(Signed) R. L. PLAYFAIR, a.s.sistant Political Resident, Aden.

(Signed) W. M. COGHLAN, Political Resident.

"Aden, 9th November 1856.

"Ratified by the Right Honourable the Governor-General of India in Council, at Fort William, this 23d day of January 1857.

(Signed) CANNING.

And Five Members of Council of India."

[31] I was first blinded by ophthalmia when a child, which had ever since rendered reading a very painful task; and again I suffered from snow-blindness whilst crossing over the Himalayas into Tibet.

[32] The cheque, I found, after my arrival in England, was not credited in my account, so I had, after all, to pay my own pa.s.sage.

[33] I must add here, to show that the generous hospitality of the Indian navy was now as strong in force as ever it was, that the wardroom officers, not being aware of the intended generosity of the Government to supply us with messing gratis, had laid in an extra store of provisions for the purpose of making us their guests.

[34] Banyans are the only cla.s.s of coloured men who have the ability to be accountants. They fill this office properly, and are therefore always selected for it.

[35] On starting to the rescue, my companion complained of the shock his nerves had received since the Somali encounter, and this appeared to affect him during the whole of this journey.

[36] Caravans have also reached the sh.o.r.es of the N'yanza at 1 S.

lat., and entered Usoga, rounding its north-east corner.

[37] See further description of this, page 185.

[38] See Bombay's history, page 210.

[39] In future I shall call this fringe or mountain-chain the East Coast Range, in contradistinction to the same hill-formation on the western coast of Africa; for it must be remembered that there are three great leading features in the geographical formation of Africa--viz., a low exterior belt of land, or margin to the continent, varying in breadth according to circ.u.mstances, which is succeeded by a high belt of mountains or rugged ground, separating the lowlands from a high interior plateau, lying like a basin within the fringe of hills.

[40] The officers of state cannot receive a present without the sanction of the government.

[41] The murderers of Dr Boscher were sent to Zanzibar by the chief of their tribe, and were executed by orders of the Sultan.

[42] To save repet.i.tion, I may as well mention the fact that neither Captain Burton nor myself were able to converse in any African language until we were close to the coast on the return journey.

[43] Another question suggests itself. How did Ptolemy hear of the two lakes which he considered were the sources of the Nile? It is obvious he could not have done so by the channel of the Nile, for the Anthropophagi barred all communication in that direction. Here, however, the route from Zanzibar to the Tanganyika Lake and the Victoria N'yanza, in all probability, was kept open by the trading "Men of the Moon;" and thus two lakes were heard of situated east and west of one another, just in convenient situations to fit on to the two branches of Ptolemy's Nile.

[44] _Khambi_--Encampment.

[45] The Babisa purchase ivory at Luwemba for the Kilua merchants, and are met there by the Kaze merchants.

[46] I have since heard from Colonel Rigby (Colonel Hamerton's successor) that Hamed and all his slaves were murdered on their journey to Uruwa, and their property was seized by the natives.

[47] Here is the confusion again of the Nile and the lake as one water. The Nile was in reality five marches east of Kibuga, and the boundary of the lake one march to its southward. Snay obviously meant it so, for it was the river he thought was the Jub, but I did not understand him.

[48] See Dr Beke's paper on 'The Sources of the Nile,' printed 1849.

[49] _Kirangozi_--leader of a caravan.