CHAPTER II.
THE VOYAGE— AN AKIL— THE SOMALI SHOEE— SULTAN (GEEAD)
MAHAMED ALI— HIDDEN TEEASUEE— THE WAESINGALI— A
EOYAL EECEPTION— SOMALI APPETITES— DIFFICULTIES AND
IMPEDIMENTS— SULTAN TEIES MY ABBAN OE PEOTEOTOE.
On the 18th October 1854, having got all my preparations
completed, I embarked in an Arab vessel, attired
in my Oriental costume, with my retinue and kit complete,
and set sail that same evening at 6 p.m.
The voyage, owing to light and varying breezes,
was very slow and tedious. Instead of performing
the whole voyage in three days, the ordinary time, it
took us nine. According to the method of Arab navigation,
instead of going from port to port direct, we
first tracked eastward along the Arabian shore three
successive days, setting sail at sunrise, and anchoring
regularly at sundown. By this time we were supposed
to be opposite Bunder Heis, on the Somali coast,
and the Nahkoda (captain) thought it time for crossing
over the Gulf. We therefore put out to sea at sunrise
on the morning of the 21st, and arrived the same
evening, by mistake, assisted with a stiffish easterly
breeze, at a small place called Rakodah, which, by
report, contained a small fort, three mat huts, and
many burnt ones, a little to the westward of Bunder
Hdis. My Abban accounted for the destruction of this
place by saying it had been occupied surreptitiously
for a long period by a people called Rheer Dud, who
sprang from a man called Sambur-bin-Ishak; but about
four years ago, the Musa Abokr—a sub-tribe of the
Habr Teljala, who were the former and rightful owners
of the place—suddenly returned, took the usurpers by
surprise, and drove them off by setting fire to the village.
The next day, by hard work, tacking up the
wind, which still continued easterly, we succeeded in
reaching Bunder Hdis, which, like the last place, was
£ occupied by the Musa Abokr. There were four small
I craft lying here, waiting for cargoes, under lee of a
j spur of low hills which constituted the harbour; in
which, fortunately, there was very good fishing to be
obtained. We were detained here by adverse and
light winds two days, during which time I went on
shore and paid my respects to the Akil (chief) of the
place, who lived in a small box-shaped stone fort, on
the west flank of the village of Hdis, which was very
small, composed, as usual, of square mat huts, all built
together, and occupied only by a few women, who
made mats, collected gums, and stored the produce of
the interior, as sheep, cows, and ghee, which their men
constantly brought down to them, for shipping off to
Arabia* The Akil’s reception was very warm and
* AML, plural Okdl—chief or elder.