First footsteps in East Africa | Page 5

was directed to land at Bunder Guray, a small harbour in
the "Arz el Aman," or "Land of Safety," as the windward Somal style
their country. His aim was to trace the celebrated Wady Nogal, noting
its watershed and other peculiarities, to purchase horses and camels for

the future use of the Expedition, and to collect specimens of the reddish
earth which, according to the older African travellers, denotes the
presence of gold dust. [7] Lieut. Speke started on the 23rd October
1854, and returned, after about three months, to Aden. He had failed,
through the rapacity and treachery of his guide, to reach the Wady
Nogal. But he had penetrated beyond the maritime chain of hills, and
his journal (condensed in the Appendix) proves that he had collected
some novel and important information.
Meanwhile the author, assuming the disguise of an Arab merchant,
prepared to visit the forbidden city of Harar. He left Aden on the 29th
of October 1854, arrived at the capital of the ancient Hadiyah Empire
on the 3rd January 1855, and on the 9th of the ensuing February
returned in safety to Arabia, with the view of purchasing stores and
provisions for a second and a longer journey. [8] What unforeseen
circumstance cut short the career of the proposed Expedition, the
Postscript of the present volume will show.
The following pages contain the writer's diary, kept daring his march to
and from Harar. It must be borne in mind that the region traversed on
this occasion was previously known only by the vague reports of native
travellers. All the Abyssinian discoverers had traversed the Dankali and
other northern tribes: the land of the Somal was still a terra incognita.
Harar, moreover, had never been visited, and few are the cities of the
world which in the present age, when men hurry about the earth, have
not opened their gates to European adventure. The ancient metropolis
of a once mighty race, the only permanent settlement in Eastern Africa,
the reported seat of Moslem learning, a walled city of stone houses,
possessing its independent chief, its peculiar population, its unknown
language, and its own coinage, the emporium of the coffee trade, the
head-quarters of slavery, the birth-place of the Kat plant, [9] and the
great manufactory of cotton-cloths, amply, it appeared, deserved the
trouble of exploration. That the writer was successful in his attempt, the
following pages will prove. Unfortunately it was found impossible to
use any instruments except a pocket compass, a watch, and a portable
thermometer more remarkable for convenience than correctness. But
the way was thus paved for scientific observation: shortly after the
author's departure from Harar, the Amir or chief wrote to the Acting
Political Resident at Aden, earnestly begging to be supplied with a

"Frank physician," and offering protection to any European who might
be persuaded to visit his dominions.
The Appendix contains the following papers connected with the
movements of the expedition in the winter of 1854.
1. The diary and observations made by Lieut. Speke, when attempting
to reach the Wady Nogal.
2. A sketch of the grammar, and a vocabulary of the Harari tongue.
This dialect is little known to European linguists: the only notices of it
hitherto published are in Salt's Abyssinia, Appendix I. p. 6-10.; by
Balbi Atlas Ethnogr. Tab. xxxix. No. 297.; Kielmaier, Ausland, 1840,
No. 76.; and Dr. Beke (Philological Journal, April 25. 1845.)
3. Meteorological observations in the cold season of 1854-55 by Lieuts.
Herne, Stroyan, and the Author.
4. A brief description of certain peculiar customs, noticed in Nubia, by
Brown and Werne under the name of fibulation.
5. The conclusion is a condensed account of an attempt to reach Harar
from Ankobar. [10] On the 14th October 1841, Major Sir William
Cornwallis Harris (then Captain in the Bombay Engineers), Chief of
the Mission sent from India to the King of Shoa, advised Lieut. W.
Barker, I. N., whose services were imperatively required by Sir Robert
Oliver, to return from Abyssinia via Harar, "over a road hitherto
untrodden by Europeans." As His Majesty Sahalah Selassie had offered
friendly letters to the Moslem Amir, Capt. Harris had "no doubt of the
success of the enterprise." Although the adventurous explorer was
prevented by the idle fears of the Bedouin Somal and the rapacity of his
guides from visiting the city, his pages, as a narrative of travel, will
amply reward perusal. They have been introduced into this volume
mainly with the view of putting the reader in possession of all that has
hitherto been written and not published, upon the subject of Harar. [11]
For the same reason the author has not hesitated to enrich his pages
with observations drawn from Lieutenants Cruttenden and Rigby. The
former printed in the Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society
two