On first entering the place he advanced to receive me,
and politely said, “ Had you not dropped so suddenly
in upon me this morning, it was my intention to have
welcomed you with a royal salute, for the honour you
have done, as the representative of the English, in
paying me this visit.” This speech, though showing
what his feelings were towards me, was obviously a
matter of simple palaver; for, in the first place, the
guns could not have possibly been fired without
occasioning their total destruction; and it was doubtful
if he possessed any powder. Whilst sitting in his
village, and drinking a bowl of sour curd—the first
thing always offered to a visitor—I observed a group
of old men sitting, in hot discussion on some knotty
point, under the lee of the fort, and desired the Bal-
yuz to ascertain the purport of the arguments under
debate, as by their gesticulations I could plainly see
it had some connection with my coming here.
After joining them and listening some time, he returned
to say they were discussing the possibility of
our expedition ever reaching the Webbe (River) She-
beli; to go as far as Ugahden, they thought, was out
of the question. Hearing this, I went up to them,
and asked what reasons they had for thinking so.
They replied openly that the Somali would stop us
before we got half-way. The Balyuz then interposed,
saying, “ But the British are strong, and can do anything
they like.” Hearing this, they laughingly
replied, “ If the Somali came down to fight, and then
ran away back into the fastnesses of their hills, what
would the English do then, who cannot live a day
without drinking beer and eating meat ? whereas the
Somali can do very well without anything, seldom
requiring even water, and not more than one morsel
of meat, for a whole week together.” I concluded the
argument by saying, “ Without any exertion on our
parts, we could cripple you at once; we have the seaboard
in our hands, and at any moment could stop
your trade, so that neither grain nor clothing would
ever be supplied you; besides, if we wished, we could
take quiet occupation of your hills and watering-
places, and then what would become of you ? ” The
sages mildly shook their heads, and said the English
were indeed Shaitans (devils), and that they had never
looked at their position in that light before. I then
repaired to the camp, and found the cattle, as usual,
gone out to graze, under charge of their drivers and
two soldiers. In the evening, when the animals were
brought home to be picketed, one pony and one camel
were found wanting.
I sent men immediately to track the missing ones
down, when it was discovered by footprints that
some savages had singled them out from the herd,
had driven them gently into a deep ravine, and
when there out of sight had hurried them off to the
hills lyrng beyond the plain. This open plunder on
the coast, where British authority seemed to prevail,
was monstrous. I summoned Abdie, as chief of the
place, told him the whole story, and demanded that
he should produce the missing animals immediately,