First Footsteps in East Africa. Sir Richard Francis Burton
of our peaceful overtures—the British flag has been fired upon without return, our cruizers being ordered to act only on the defensive—and our forbearance to attack is universally asserted and believed to arise from mere cowardice. Such is, and such will be, the character of the Arab!
The Sublime Porte still preserves her possessions in the Tahamah, and the regions conterminous to Yemen, by the stringent measures with which Mohammed Ali of Egypt opened the robber-haunted Suez road. Whenever a Turk or a traveller is murdered, a few squadrons of Irregular Cavalry are ordered out; they are not too nice upon the subject of retaliation, and rarely refuse to burn a village or two, or to lay waste the crops near the scene of outrage.
A civilized people, like ourselves, objects to such measures for many reasons, of which none is more feeble than the fear of perpetuating a blood feud with the Arabs. Our present relations with them are a "very pretty quarrel," and moreover one which time must strengthen, cannot efface. By a just, wholesome, and unsparing severity we may inspire the Bedouin with fear instead of contempt: the veriest visionary would deride the attempt to animate him with a higher sentiment.
"Peace," observes a modern sage, "is the dream of the wise, war is the history of man." To indulge in such dreams is but questionable wisdom. It was not a "peace-policy" which gave the Portuguese a seaboard extending from Cape Non to Macao. By no peace policy the Osmanlis of a past age pushed their victorious arms from the deserts of Tartary to Aden, to Delhi, to Algiers, and to the gates of Vienna. It was no peace policy which made the Russians seat themselves upon the shores of the Black, the Baltic, and the Caspian seas: gaining in the space of 150 years, and, despite war, retaining, a territory greater than England and France united. No peace policy enabled the French to absorb region after region in Northern Africa, till the Mediterranean appears doomed to sink into a Gallic lake. The English of a former generation were celebrated for gaining ground in both hemispheres: their broad lands were not won by a peace policy, which, however, in this our day, has on two distinct occasions well nigh lost for them the "gem of the British Empire"—India. The philanthropist and the political economist may fondly hope, by outcry against "territorial aggrandizement," by advocating a compact frontier, by abandoning colonies, and by cultivating "equilibrium," to retain our rank amongst the great nations of the world. Never! The facts of history prove nothing more conclusively than this: a race either progresses or retrogrades, either increases or diminishes: the children of Time, like their sire, cannot stand still.
The occupation of the port of Berberah has been advised for many reasons.
In the first place, Berberah is the true key of the Red Sea, the centre of East African traffic, and the only safe place for shipping upon the western Erythroean shore, from Suez to Guardafui. Backed by lands capable of cultivation, and by hills covered with pine and other valuable trees, enjoying a comparatively temperate climate, with a regular although thin monsoon, this harbour has been coveted by many a foreign conqueror. Circumstances have thrown it as it were into our arms, and, if we refuse the chance, another and a rival nation will not be so blind.
Secondly, we are bound to protect the lives of British subjects upon this coast. In A.D. 1825 the crew of the "Mary Ann" brig was treacherously murdered by the Somal. The consequence of a summary and exemplary punishment [12] was that in August 1843, when the H.E.I.C.'s war-steamer "Memnon" was stranded at Ras Assayr near Cape Guardafui, no outrage was attempted by the barbarians, upon whose barren shores our seamen remained for months labouring at the wreck. In A.D. 1855 the Somal, having forgotten the old lesson, renewed their practices of pillaging and murdering strangers. It is then evident that this people cannot be trusted without supervision, and equally certain that vessels are ever liable to be cast ashore in this part of the Red Sea. But a year ago the French steam corvette, "Le Caiman," was lost within sight of Zayla; the Bedouin Somal, principally Eesa, assembled a fanatic host, which was, however, dispersed before blood had been drawn, by the exertion of the governor and his guards. It remains for us, therefore, to provide against such contingencies. Were one of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's vessels cast by any accident upon this inhospitable shore, in the present state of affairs the lives of the passengers, and the cargo, would be placed in imminent peril.
In advocating the establishment of an armed post at Berberah no stress is laid upon the subject of slavery. To cut off that traffic the possession of the great export harbour is by no means necessary. Whenever a British cruizer shall receive positive and bona fide orders to search native craft, and to sell as prizes all that have slaves on board, the trade will receive a death-blow.
Certain measures have been taken during the last annual fair to punish the outrage perpetrated by the Somal at Berberah in A.D. 1855. The writer on his return to Aden proposed that the several clans implicated in the offence should at once be expelled from British dominions. This preliminary was carried out by the Acting Political Resident at Aden. Moreover, it was judged advisable to blockade the Somali coast, from Siyaro to Zayla, not concluded, until, in the first place, Lieut. Stroyan's murderer, and the ruffian who attempted to spear Lieut. Speke in cold blood, should be given up [13]; and secondly, that due compensation for all losses should be made by the plunderers. The former condition was approved by the Right Honorable the Governor-General of India, who, however, objected, it is said, to the money-demand. [14] At present the H.E. I.C.'s cruizers "Mahi," and "Elphinstone," are blockading the harbour of Berberah, the Somal have offered 15,000 dollars' indemnity, and they pretend, as usual, that the murderer has been slain by his tribe.
To conclude. The writer has had the satisfaction of receiving from his comrades assurances that they are willing to accompany him once more in task of African Exploration. The plans of the Frank are now publicly known to the Somali. Should the loss of life, however valuable, be an obstacle to prosecuting them, he must fall in the esteem of the races around him. On the contrary, should he, after duly chastising the offenders, carry out the original plan, he will command the respect of the people, and wipe out the memory of a temporary reverse. At no distant period the project will, it is hoped, be revived. Nothing is required but permission to renew the attempt—an indulgence which will not be refused by a Government raised by energy, enterprise, and perseverance from the ranks of merchant society to national wealth and imperial grandeur.
14. St. James's Square, 10th February, 1856.
FOOTNOTES
[1] It occupies the whole of the Eastern Horn, extending from the north of Bab el Mandeb to several degrees south of Cape Guardafui. In the former direction it is bounded by the Dankali and the Ittoo Gallas; in the latter by the Sawahil or Negrotic regions; the Red Sea is its eastern limit, and westward it stretches to within a few miles of Harar.
[2] In A.D. 1838, Lieut. Carless surveyed the seaboard of the Somali country, from Ras Hafun to Burnt Island; unfortunately his labours were allowed by Sir Charles Malcolm's successor to lie five years in the obscurity of MS. Meanwhile the steam frigate "Memnon," Capt. Powell commanding, was lost at Ras Assayr; a Norie's chart, an antiquated document, with an error of from fifteen to twenty miles, being the only map of reference on board. Thus the Indian Government, by the dilatoriness and prejudices of its Superintendent of Marine, sustained an unjustifiable loss of at least 50,000_l._
[3] In A.D. 1836–38, Lieut. Cruttenden published descriptions of travel, which will be alluded to in a subsequent part of this preface.
[4] This "hasty sketch of the scientific labours of the Indian navy," is extracted from an able anonymous pamphlet, unpromisingly headed "Grievances and Present Condition of our Indian Officers."
[5] In A.D. 1848, the late Mr. Joseph Hume called in the House of Commons for a return of all Indian surveys carried on during the ten previous years. The result proved that no less than a score had been suddenly "broken up," by order of Sir Robert Oliver.
[6] This plan was successfully adopted by Messrs. Antoine and Arnauld d'Abbadie, when travelling in dangerous parts of Abyssinia and the adjacent countries.
[7] In A.D. 1660, Vermuyden found gold at Gambia always on naked and barren hills embedded in a reddish earth.
[8] The writer has not unfrequently been blamed by the critics of Indian papers, for venturing into such dangerous lands with an outfit nearly