424 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



and exposed on inhospitable shores. Should no other vessel be 

 available, one of the smallest of the new Pilot Schooners now 

 unemployed at Bombay might be directed to wait upon the 

 c Tigris' Lt. H. G. Fraser, I.N., has volunteered for duty 

 upon the African Coast, and I have the honour to transmit his 

 letter. Nothing more would be required were some junior 

 officer of the Indian Navy stationed at Zanzibar for the purpose 

 of registering tidal, barometric, and thermometric observations, 

 in order that something of the meteorology of this unknown 

 region may be accurately investigated. 



" When passing through Aden I was informed that the 

 blockade of the Somali Coast had been raised without compen- 

 sation for the losses sustained on my last journey. This step 

 appears, politically speaking, a mistake. In the case of the 

 ( Mary Ann' brig, plundered near Berberah in a.d. 1825, due 

 compensation was demanded and obtained. Even in India, an 

 officer travelling through the states not under British rule, can, 

 if he be plundered, require an equivalent for his property. This 

 is indeed our chief protection, — semi-barbarians and savages 

 part with money, less willingly than with life. If it be de- 

 termined for social reasons at Aden that the blockade should 

 cease and mutton become cheap, a certain per-centage could be 

 laid upon the exports of Berberah till such time as our losses, 

 which, including those of government, amount to 1380/., are 

 made good. 



i( From Harar news has reached Aden that the Amir Abu- 

 bakr, dying during the last year of chronic consumption, has 

 been succeeded by a cousin, one Abd el Kahman, a bigoted 

 Moslem, and a violent hater of the Gallas. His success in 

 feud and foray, however, have not prevented the wild tribes 

 from hemming him in, and unless fortune interfere, the city 

 must fall into their hands. The rumour prevalent at Cairo, 

 namely, that Harar had been besieged and taken by Mr. Bell, 

 now serving under e Theodoras, Emperor of Ethiopia' (the 

 chief Cassai), appears premature. At Aden I met in exile 

 Sharmarkay bin Ali Salih, formerly governor of Zayla. He 

 has been ejected in favour of a Dankali chief by the Ottoman 

 authorities of Yemen, a circumstance the more to be regretted 

 as he has ever been a firm friend to our interests. 



" The present defenceless state of Berberah still invites our 

 presence. The eastern coast of the Bed Sea is almost entirely 

 under the Porte. On the western shore, Cosseir is Egyptian, 

 Masawwah, Sawakin, and Zayla, Turkish, and Berberah, the 

 best port of all, unoccupied. I have frequently advocated the 

 establishment of a British agency at this place, and venture to 



