xii THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA 
Next day the force moved six miles to an open plain where 
there was water, and in spite of a three days’ halt was not again 
molested, The Mullah had been badly beaten, and save for the 
unfortunate loss of the Maxim the whole honours of the fight 
indisputably rested with my brother. 
I wish to lay stress on the fact that the fight of Erigo 
happened over six months ago, and though the many times 
larger and more costly force which started from Obbia and 
Berbera this year has with great energy been chasing him to 
Mudug, Galadi, and towards Gerlogubi, he has never once come 
on with his regular force since that fight, nor has he appeared in 
person. 
After the fight at Erigo, my brother, finding that his force, 
while successfully repulsing the enemy, had been badly mauled 
and confidence in some measure shaken, and finding himself not 
strong enough to follow up the enemy to Mudug, the heart of 
his country, without reinforcements, very properly decided to 
retire. 
A retirement under such circumstances is the most difficult 
operation in war. The Mullah must, with his horsemen, naturally 
have kept a watch on the movements of the force during the 
days subsequent to the action, and a precipitate retirement 
might have encouraged the enemy to attack the column on the 
march and brought on a possible disaster. My brother there- 
fore halted three days as before mentioned, thereby, no doubt, 
leading the Mullah to suppose he meant to pursue; and then 
the retirement was made in an orderly manner, no article of 
camp equipage being left behind, or anything thrown away likely 
to point to haste. In due course the force reached Bohotleh in 
safety.} 
I maintain that it was because of the extremely severe 
handling at Erigo that the Mullah neither molested my brother 
in the retirement nor seriously opposed the expedition of this 
year. 
At the date of writing, the first stand that can be called 
serious was reported under date 11th April 1903, to the south- 
west of Galadi, where several of the enemy were killed and some 
two thousand camels captured ; but the stand can scarcely have 
been a determined one by the Mullah’s best troops, for our 
casualties reported are one, and I believe I am right in saying— 
1 Colonel Swayne, after seeing the force into safety, was struck down by 
fever, and returned to England dangerously ill. 
