other place in the world, hut in the Somali Land no
one could exist. Finding myself reduced to the last
stages of life, for no one would give me food, I went
to a pool of water in a ravine amongst the hills, and
for the last fortnight have been living there on water
and the gums of trees. Seeing I was about to die, as
a forlorn hope I ventured in this direction, without
knowing whither I was going, or where I should come
to ; but God, you see, has brought me safely out.”
2,0th.—This morning we weighed anchor, and in
two days more arrived in Aden.
Thus then ended my first expedition,—a signal
failure from inexperience, and with a loss of £510
worth of my own private property, which I never
recovered. I had nothing to show but eleven artificial
holes in my body. Had we gone straight from Aden,
without any nervous preliminary fuss, and joined the
Ugahden caravan at Berbera just as it was starting, I
feel convinced we should have succeeded; for that is
the only way, without great force, or giving yourself
up to the protection of a powerful chief, that any one
could travel in Somali Land. Firearms are useful in
the day, but the Somali despise them at night, and
consequently always take advantage of darkness to
attack. Small-shot and smooth-bQre guns, on this
account, would be of far greater advantage as a means
of defence than rifles with balls; and nothing but
shot well poured in would have saved us from this
last attack. We have been often condemned for not
putting on more sentries to watch; but had the whole
camp been in a state of ordinary preparation for war,
with such cowardly hearts as our men all had, we
should have been as signally defeated. We now set
sail from Berbera, all highly disgusted with our defeat ;
and at Lieutenant Burton’s request, we said we would
go with him again if the Government would allow it.
On arriving in Aden, I was a miserable-looking
cripple, dreadfully emaciated from loss of blood, and
with my arms and legs contracted into indescribable
positions, to say nothing of various angry-looking
wounds afl over my body. Dansey now gave me a
room in his house, and bestowed such tender care on
me as I shall never forget. Colonel Cogblan also, M l
of feeling and sympathy for my misfortune, came over
and sat at the feet of my bed, with tears in his eyes,,
and tried to condole with me. Fever, however, had
excited my brain, so I laughed it all off as a joke, and
succeeded in making him laugh too. The doctors
next took compassion on me, formed into committee,
and prescribed, as the only remedy likely to set me
right again, a three years’ leave to England, where,
with the congenial effects of my native home, they
hoped I should recover. Lieutenant Burton now sent
m an estimate of all loss to the Government, and advised,
as the best plan of taking an effectual revenge
^ in Wh0se S t o r i e s we were
attacked (the Habr Owel), that a ship should be sent
to b ockade their coast, with a demand that they
should produce for trial in Aden the living bodies of
the two men who so cruelly killed our lamented