XX INTRODUCTION 



be described as directly under India, with occasional 

 interventions from Home. 



In 1899 the activities of Abyssinia, awakened 

 since the taking of Harar and further made easy by the 

 free importation of arms from those parts of the coasts 

 outside our influence, together with the prohibition 

 on our own coast, roused the opposition of Ogaden, 

 and the whole interior was thrown into a turmoil 

 by the preaching of a Jeliad against Abyssinia and 

 against England by the " Mad Mullah." From this 

 time the hitherto peaceful, economical development 

 of the country was handicapped bj^ heavy war-bills. 

 About this time the affairs of Somaliland passed' 

 wholly into the hands of the Home Authorities. 



Somaliland, which began to be known as a hole in 

 John Bull's pocket, w^as, as can be seen bj^ perusal of 

 the newspapers of the day, drawn into the vortex of 

 party politics at Home, and began to be used appa- 

 rently as a stick by each political party to beat the 

 other with. ' / 



We have now retired to the coast and have, it 

 seems, allowed the interior tribes to acquire rifles, 

 with which to find their own salvation. The happy 

 hunting-grounds of the interior are now practically 

 closed, and we shall hear little further in the newspapers 

 of the Somali until the interests of white farmers from 

 Nairobi, settled in the future round Mount Kenia 

 and the sources of the Tana River to the south, or the 

 politics of the Abyssinian neighbour to the west, 

 re-awaken the attention of people in England. 



Captain Mosse is a true sportsman. Like most 

 Anglo-Indian and African Shikaris of the keenest 



