This
Proceeding Irritated The Habr Awal, And Certainly, But For Our Presence,
The Strangers Would Have Been Scurvily Treated By Their "Cousins."
[26] Of all the slave-dealers on this coast, the Arabs are the most
unscrupulous.
In 1855, one Mohammed of Muscat, a shipowner, who, moreover,
constantly visits Aden, bought within sight of our flag a free-born Arab
girl of the Yafai tribe, from the Akarib of Bir Hamid, and sold her at
Berberah to a compatriot. Such a crime merits severe punishment; even the
Abyssinians visit with hanging the Christian convicted of selling a fellow
religionist. The Arab slaver generally marries his properly as a ruse, and
arrived at Muscat or Bushire, divorces and sells them. Free Somali women
have not unfrequently met with this fate.
[27] The Habr Tul Jailah (mother of the tribe of Jailah) descendants of
Ishak el Hazrami by a slave girl, inhabit the land eastward of Berberah.
Their principal settlements after Aynterad are the three small ports of
Karam, Unkor, and Hays. The former, according to Lieut. Cruttenden, is
"the most important from its possessing a tolerable harbour, and from its
being the nearest point from Aden, the course to which place is N. N. W.,
--consequently the wind is fair, and the boats laden with sheep for the
Aden market pass but one night at sea, whilst those from Berberah are
generally three. What greatly enhances the value of Kurrum (Karam),
however, is its proximity to the country of the Dulbahanteh, who approach
within four days of Kurrum, and who therefore naturally have their chief
trade through that port. The Ahl Tusuf, a branch of the Habertel Jahleh,
at present hold possession of Kurrum, and between them and the tribes to
windward there exists a most bitter and irreconcileable feud, the
consequence of sundry murders perpetrated about five years since at
Kurrum, and which hitherto have not been avenged. The small ports of
Enterad, Unkor, Heis, and Rukudah are not worthy of mention, with the
exception of the first-named place, which has a trade with Aden in sheep."
POSTSCRIPT.
On Saturday, the 7th April 1855, the H. E. I. Company's Schooner "Mahi,"
Lieut. King, I. N., commanding, entered the harbour of Berberah, where her
guns roared forth a parting salute to the "Somali Expedition."
The Emporium of East Africa was at the time of my landing, in a state of
confusion. But a day before, the great Harar caravan, numbering 3000
souls, and as many cattle, had entered for the purpose of laying in the
usual eight months' supplies, and purchase, barter, and exchange were
transacted in most hurried and unbusiness-like manner. All day, and during
the greater part of night, the town rang with the voices of buyer and
seller: to specify no other articles of traffic, 500 slaves of both sexes
were in the market. [1] Long lines of laden and unladen camels were to be
seen pacing the glaring yellow shore; rumours of plundering parties at
times brought swarms of spear-men, bounding and yelling like wild beasts,
from the town; already small parties of travellers had broken ground for
their return journey; and the foul heap of mat hovels, to which this
celebrated mart had been reduced, was steadily shrinking in dimensions.
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