FIR^T MISTAKE. 



379 



goats and sheep, as the Himalaya range does.' 



Lieut. Speke's tenth year of Indian service 

 was completed on Sept. 3, 1854, and the next 

 day saw him in the Peninsular and Oriental 

 steamer bound from Calcutta to Aden. I was 

 then at the Coal-Hole of the East, organizing 

 amongst 'the treasures and sweetnesses of the 

 Happy Arabia,' an expedition to explore, first 

 the Guardafuian Horn, then the far interior. 

 He brought with him 'notions' to the value 

 of £390, all manner of cheap and useless chow- 

 chow, guns and revolvers, swords and cutlery, 

 and beads and cloths, which the ' simple-minded 

 negro of Africa' would have rejected with disdain. 

 He began at the very landing-place with a serious 

 mistake, which might have led to the worst 

 consequences. Meeting the first mop-headed 

 Somalis who spoke broken English, he told them 

 his intentions, and he actually allowed two 

 donkey-boys to become his Abbans — guides and 

 protectors. Strangers visiting the Eastern Horn 

 must ever be careful to choose the most powerful 

 of these licensed plunderers : the barbarians 

 hold strongly to the right of might, and they 

 would delight in stripping a white man appear- 

 ing amongst them with an ignoble or an insuffi- 

 cient escort. On the other hand, the donkey-boys, 



