During thirty years, not an Englishman of the
many that had visited it had been molested at Berberah, and apparently
there was as little to fear in it as within the fortifications of Aden.
[3]
Under these favourable circumstances we might have set out at once towards
the interior. Our camels, fifty-six in number, had been purchased [4], and
the Ogadayn Caravan was desirous of our escort. But we wished to witness
the close of the Berberah fair, and we expected instruments and other
necessaries by the mid-April mail from Europe. [5]
About 8 P.M., on the 9th April, a shower, accompanied by thunder and
lightning, came up from the southern hills, where rain had been falling
for some days, and gave notice that the Gugi or Somali monsoon had begun.
This was the signal for the Bedouins to migrate to the Plateau above the
hills. [6] Throughout the town the mats were stripped from their
frameworks of stick and pole [7], the camels were laden, and thousands of
travellers lined the roads. The next day Berberah was almost deserted
except by the pilgrims who intended to take ship, and by merchants, who,
fearful of plundering parties, awaited the first favourable hour for
setting sail. Our protectors, Jami and Burhale, receiving permission to
accompany their families and flocks, left us in charge of their sons and
relations. On the 15th April the last vessel sailed out of the creek, and
our little party remained in undisputed possession of the place.
Three days afterwards, about noon, an Aynterad craft _en route_ from Aden
entered the solitary harbour freighted with about a dozen Somal desirous
of accompanying us towards Ogadayn, the southern region. She would have
sailed that evening; fortunately, however, I had ordered our people to
feast her commander and crew with rice and the irresistible dates.
At sunset on the same day we were startled by a discharge of musketry
behind the tents: the cause proved to be three horsemen, over whose heads
our guard had fired in case they might be a foraging party. I reprimanded
our people sharply for this act of folly, ordering them in future to
reserve their fire, and when necessary to shoot into, not above, a crowd.
After this we proceeded to catechise the strangers, suspecting them to be
scouts, the usual forerunners of a Somali raid: the reply was so plausible
that even the Balyuz, with all his acuteness, was deceived. The Bedouins
had forged a report that their ancient enemy the Hajj Sharmarkay was
awaiting with four ships at the neighbouring port, Siyaro, the opportunity
of seizing Berberah whilst deserted, and of re-erecting his forts there
for the third time. Our visitors swore by the divorce-oath,--the most
solemn which the religious know,--that a vessel entering the creek at such
unusual season, they had been sent to ascertain whether it had been
freighted with materials for building, and concluded by laughingly asking
if we feared danger from the tribe of our own protectors.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 206 of 249
Words from 106026 to 106539
of 128411
