172 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA CHAP. 
and he asked me whether he could get experts from India to try 
their hands at taming the African elephant. 
I showed him Burton’s First Footsteps in East Africa, which 
contains such a graphic description of Harar and a sketch of the 
city. Gobau Desta read Burton’s historical account of Harar to 
the Ras, translating as he went along; and said it was true in 
every detail. I also showed the Ras my photo of two rhinoceros 
heads. He is said to have been a keen hunter, and he sent for 
my Express rifle, by Holland, and took down the number, saying 
he should like to order one like it to shoot lions with, as ‘he 
preferred English rifles for big game.” 
I took a ride with the Italians to Jebel Hakim and round 
Harar; and in the evening dined with M. Guigniony. On the 
19th I called on Count Salimbeni, and in the afternoon had 
another interview with the Ras. Having come to the city only 
as a private visitor, I was careful to steer clear of politics in our 
conversations. But the Ras insisted on looking on my visit as 
partly political, and seized the opportunity of stating his ideas, 
through Gobau Desta, to an English traveller. After the inter- 
view I took down notes, from Gobau Desta’s dictation, concerning 
Abyssinian ideas, which were read to the lias and approved of. 
He particularly wished me to get them published in England. 
It appears that during the last few years Abyssinia has 
imported immense quantities of breech-loading firearms, and has 
become, so far as the Abyssinian feudal organisation goes, a 
military Power; and Abyssinians are beginning to remember 
that once their country included parts of Yemen and the Soudan. 
Since Theodore’s time they have been trying to gain possession 
of a seaport, and now they dream of absorbing the Somali tribes 
till they reach the coast, either of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, 
or the Indian Ocean. They declare that they will not be content 
till they have full control of one of the seaports to which their 
merchandise goes, preferably Massdwa, Jibuti, or Zeila. They 
hint that, now the African coast-line is being divided among the 
Europeans, the Africans are entitled to their share. The Abys- 
sinians say that the expeditions which annually advance farther 
into Ogddén are undertaken for the purpose of exacting tribute, 
thus establishing the Abyssinian claim to suzerainty over the 
Somali tribes; and that, if possessed of one of the northern 
ports, their Ogddén expeditions would cease, 
However impracticable these ideas may sound, they seem 
interesting as showing what are Abyssinian ambitions, and what 
