termination of the expedition with pure feelings of
affection.
. Lieutenant Burton now conceived the idea of suppressing
the system of Abbanship, thinking that, as the
Somali had access to Aden without any impost, Englishmen
ought to enjoy a corresponding freedom to
travel in Somali Land. This perhaps was scarcely
the right time to dictate a policy which would be
distasteful as well as injurious (in a monetary sense)
to the people among whom we were about to travel,
and with whom it was highly essential to our interest
to be on the most friendly terms.*
I now applied to the Government for some Somali
policemen, but unfortunately there were then too few
hands present to carry on the duties of the office, and
I could not have them. I therefore engaged, by the
orders of Lieutenant Burton, a dozen men of various
races (Egyptians, Nubians, Arabs, and Seedis), to form
an escort, and armed them with my sabres and muskets.
They were all raw recruits, and unaccustomed to war*
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 termvna causa of all the
mishaps which befell the expedition. The institution 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 institutions he finds in existence ; he can hardly hope, by his
simple fiat) to revolutionise the time-honoured and most profitable institutions
of a people, amongst whom precedent is a law as unchangeable
as that of the Medes and Persians.”
fare. Still we could get no others. With a little
practice they learned to shoot at a mark with tolerable
accuracy.
Seven of these men, together with the eight camels
I brought across from Bunder Gori, were despatched
direct to Berbera, whilst the remaining five, and some
ponies I purchased in Aden, remained with me. I
then took a bag of dollars for purchasing camels ; some
dates and rice for the consumption of the p a rty ; and
with the Balyuz and the old servants, Imam the butler
and Farhan the gamekeeper, all was ready for my
second adventure on the 20th March 1855.
H