BURTON'S EXPLORATION OF HARAR..
THE country which was the subject of Lieutenant Burton's travels is that tongue of land which projects in an Easterly direc- tion from the continent of Africa, stretching into the Indiao. Ocean immediately opposite the Southern end of Arabia and the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. The journey was undertaken at the suggestion of the Geographical Society ; its chief object being to visit the mysterious city of Rarer, and report upon its commercial capabilities. This was successfully accomplished by Lieutenant Burton on his return from the pilgrimage to Mecca ; and (as on that occasion) in the disguise of a Mahometan trader, though he finally resumed the character of an Englishman, deeming it a better protection against the tyrant of Harar. The results of his success were confined to geographical information ; for the pro- ducts of the country may for British commerce be returned as nil, and the existing trade is very limited, slaves being apparently the most valuable article.
Nor can this well be otherwise. The distance by reckoning which Lieutenant Burton passed over between Zayla near the Red Sea and Harar is 202 miles. The distance in a direct line is much shorter. The country may be broadly divided into two regions. The one nearest the coast is low-lying, desert, sandy, and parched from heat and scarcity of water. In this district, productions for commercial exchange are out of the question. At the so-called port of Zayla, there is neither horse, mule, nor dog, owing to the want of water. Nor is this a very extreme case ; though the con- venience of a petty traffie may have induced men to gather together in a place they would not otherwise have occupied. Something like it is the general character of the lowlands.
"Marching in this order, which was to serve as a model, we travelled due South along the coast, over a hard, stoneless, and alluvial plain, here dry, there muddy, (where the tide reaches,) across boggy creeks, broad water- courses, and warty flats of black mould powdered with nitrous salt, and bristling with the salsolaceous vegetation familiar to the Arab voyager. Such is the general formation of the plain between the mountains and the sea; whose breadth, in a direct line, max measure from forty-five to forty- eight miles. Near the first zone of hills, or sub-ghauts, it produces a thicker vegetation ; thorns and acacias of different kinds appear in clumps ; and ground broken with ridges and ravines announces the junction. After the monsoon this plain is covered with rich grass. At other seasons it af- fords but a scanty supply of an aqueous matter' resembling bilge-water. The land belongs to the Idummasan clan of the Ecsa ; how these ' Kurrah- jog ' or'sun-dwellers,' as the Bedouins are called by the burgher Somal, can exist here in summer, i a mystery. My arms were peeled even in the month of December ; and my companions, panting with the heat, like the Atlantes of Herodotus, poured forth reproaches upon the rising sun. The townspeople, when forced to hurry across it in the hotter season, cover themselves during the day with tobes wetted every half-hour in sea-water ; yet they are sometimes killed by the fatal thirst which the simoom engen- ders. Even the Bedouins are now longing for rain ; a few weeks' drought destroys half their herds."
Harar itself is situated on a sort of table-land ; and as the city is approached the soil exhibits more of that fertility which always prevails in Africa where water is found. In respect of fertility the territory of Harar resembles Abyssinia, to which geographically speaking it belongs. As in all countries naturally fertile, or which can be made so by irrigation, valuable productions might be raised; but the difference between the possible and the actual is in such cases immense, as we blow by the greater part of Africa and South America. A choice kind of coffee and tobacco grows in the dis- trict: its cultivation could doubtless be extended, and other com- modities produced, if we could change the nature of the people and the government, stop the robbery of the various tribes with more or less of Arab blood that roam over the sandy lowlands, and establish a port with some of the conveniences or rather ne- cessaries of life. The coffee has an European reputation. When our author was at Harar, "the price per parcel of twenty-seven pounds was a quarter of a dollar, and the hire of a camel carrying twelve parcels to (the port of) Berberah was five dollars." Such, however, were the risks and labour of the road, that it did not at that price pay to transport it to the sea. The present advantage of Harar is in its situation, forming as it were a focus where the roads from several of the interior countries meet. Like Timbuctoo at the other side of the continent, it is rather the mystery of the invisible that has hitherto overhung the city than anything really wonderful in itself that has excited men's attention. In a region of tents and hovels, an erection like a house is magnificent by contrast, much more a collection of houses with a wall, which Harar really possesses. The traveller was naturally inclined to make the most of things ; yet his picture of this city is not im- pressive in any way, material, moral, or mental. These are some of the characteristics of the population.
"Hares- has not only its own tongue, unintelligible to any save the citi- zens; even its little population of about 8000 souls is a distinct race. The Somal say of the city that it is a paradise inhabited by asses certainly the exterior of the people is highly unprepossessing. Amongst the men, 7 did not see a handsome face : their features are coarse and debauched; many of them squint, others have lost an eye by smallpox, and they are disfigured by scrofula and other diseases ; the bad expression of their countenances justifies the proverb, Hard as the heart of Harar.' Generally the com- plexion is a yellowish brown, the beard short, stubby and untreatable as the hair' and the hands and wrists, feet and ankles, are large and ill-made. The stature is moderate-sized ; some of the elders show the pudding sides ' and the pulpy stomachs of Banvans, whilst others are lank and bony as
Arabs or Jews. Their voices are loud and rude. * • "The female voice is harsh and screaming, especially when heard after the delicate organs of the Somal. The fair sex is occupied at home spin- ning cotton-thread for weaving tobes, sashes, and turbans : carrying their progeny perched upon their backs, they bring water from the wells in large gourds borne on the head ; work in the gardens, and—the men considering, ° First Footsteps in East Africa ; or an Erplorat ion of Harar: fly Richard
Burton, Bombay Army ; Author of " Personal Narratice p Bityrimaye (0. El -11rdinah and Ifeccah," published by Longman and Co,
like the Abyssinians, such work a disgrace--sit and sell in the long street which here represents the Eastern bazaar. Chewing tobacco enables them to pass much of their time • and the rich diligently anoint themselves with hee, whilst the poorer classes use remnants of fat from the lamps. Their reedom of manners renders a public flogging occasionally indispensable. Before the operation begins, a few gourds full of cold water are poured over their heads and shoulders, after which a single-thonged whip is applied with vigour. "Both sexes are celebrated for laxity of morals. High and low indulge freely in intoxicating drinks beer, and mead. The Amir has established strict patrols, who unmercifully bastinado those caught in the streets after a certain hour."
The army, though sufficient in the concrete, is not very remaak- able as an abstract or beau ideal.
"The army of Harar is not imposing. There are between forty and fifty matchlockmen of Arab origin, long settled in the place, and commanded by a veteran Maghrebi. They receive for pay one dollar's worth of holcus per annum, a quantity sufficient to afford five or six loaves a day : the luxuries of life must be provided by the exercise of some peaceful craft. Including slaves, the total of armed men may be two hundred : of these one carries a Somali or Galls spear, another a dagger, and a third a sword, which is gene- rally the old German cavalry blade. Cannon of small calibre is supposed to be concealed in the palace, but none probably knows their use. The city may contain thirty horses, of which a dozen are royal property : they are miserable ponies, but well trained to the rocks and hills. The Galls. Be- douins would oppose an invader with a strong force of spearmen : the ap- proaches to the city are difficult and dangerous ; but it is commanded from the North and West, and the walls would crumble at the touch of a six- pounder. Throe hundred Arabs and two galloper guns would take Harar in an hour."
This is the state of actual commerce.
"Harar is essentially a commercial town : its citizens live, like those of Zayla, by systematically defrauding the Galls Bedouins ; and the Amir has i made t a penal offence to buy by weight and scale. He receives, as octroi, from eight to fifteen cubits of Cutch canvass for every donkey-load passing the gates; consequently the beast is so burdened that it must be supported by the drivers. Cultivators are taxed ten per cent, the general and easy rate of this part of Africa; but they pay in kind, which considerably in- creases the Government share. The greatest merchant may bring to Harar 501. worth of goods, and he who has 201. of capital is considered a wealthy man. The citizens seem to have a more than Asiatic apathy, even in pur- suit of gain. When we entered, a caravan was to set out for Zayla on the morrow ; after ten days, hardly one half of its number had mustered."
The notion that townsmen live by cheating country-people is an old prejudice. However stu.pid. the Gallas or Bedouins may be, they are not likely to part with their goods for nothing, and they are the best judges of the equivalent. The value of articles in Harar or Bernal (the lower country) is not to be estimated by our experience. The success of Lieutenant Burton in 1854-'55 seems to have immediately given rise to a further expedition, consisting alto- gether of forty-two souls' with, to the Somali and Bedouins, un- told wealth. Lieutenant Burton was accompanied by other of- ficers, Lieutenants Herne, Speke, and Stroyan. The followers consisted of domestic servants, and a "dozen recruits of various races Egyptian, Nubian, Arab, and Negro," picked up at Aden ; the trained police of that port, whom Lieutenant Burton applied for not being granted. The party landed safely enough at l3er- be;ah, where they encamped and waited the termination of the fair. When that broke up, the place was seemingly deserted. "Between two and three a. m. of the 19th April, I was suddenly aroused by the Balyuz, who cried aloud that the enemy was upon us. Hearing a rush of men like a stormy wind, I sprang up, called for my sabre, and sent Lieutenant Herne to ascertain the force of the foray. Armed with a Colt,' he went to the rear and left of the camp, the direction of danger, collected some of the guard, others having already disappeared, and fired two shots into the assailants. Then finding himself alone, he turned hastily towards the teat; in so doing he was tripped up by the ropes, and as he rose a So- mali appeared in the act of striking at him with a club. Lieutenant Herne fired, floored the man, and, rejoining me, declared that the enemy was in "Teat force and the guard nowhere. Meanwhile, I had aroused Lieutenants
troyan and Speke, who were sleeping in the extreme right and left tents. The former, it is presumed, arose to defend himself, but, as the sequel shows, we never saw him alive. Lieutenant Speke, awakened by the report of fire-arms, but supposing it the normal false alarm,—a warning to plan- derers,—he remained where he was : presently hearing clubs rattling upon his tent and feet shuffling around, he ran to my rowtie, which we prepared to defend as long as possible."
The upshot of the attack was, that the followers ran away, the goods were all plundered, Lieutenant Stroytui was killed, Lieu- tenant Speke wounded in eleven places but not mortally ; and the party luckily escaped in a vessel lying in the port. Whether there was not too much careless confidence, among races known to be bigoted, treacherous, jealous of foreigners, and robbers by vocation, may be a question. It is clear that when an expedition having a sort of public and ceremonial character adventures into a barbarous country, it should be accompanied by a reliable and suffi- cient force. Even money is lost by shifty arrangements. Since this occurrence, a vesssel has been blockading the coast to procure "sa- tisfaction," at a much greater expense per diem, we may assume, than a score of disciplined men would have cost at the outset. Lieutenant Burton is given to make the most of men, things, and occurrences, by means of smart writing ; which may some- times induce a little doubt of his literal accuracy, just as we all distrust the artistical sketcher. First Footsteps zn East Africa is, however, an informing and attractive book. The journeys through Somal are full of striking hardships, from heat, thirst, and the probabilities of robbery ; the people being genuine sons of Ishmael in point of character, though they may not be quite pure in point of blood. The more fertile highlands offer a contrast as well in scenery as in manners, besides the freshness of the matter compared with common books of travel, and the newness of the information. In an appendix, Lieutenant Burton has collected a good many materials relating to the region, from his own expe- rience, or from the manuscript record of other explorers.
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