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.
