68 



THE LAKE EEGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



Aden in 1855, before my departure to explore the 

 Eastern Horn of Africa, when the coldness of some, and 

 the active jealousy of other political authorities, thwarted 

 all my projects, and led to the tragic disaster at Ber- 

 berah.* Lieut. -Colonel Hamerton had received two 

 strangers like sons, rather than like passing visitors. 

 During the intervals between the painful attacks of a 

 deadly disease, he had exerted himself to the utmost in 

 forwarding my views ; in fact, he made my cause his 

 own. Though aware of his danger, he had refused to 



* Capt. R. L. Playfair, Madras Artillery and First Assistant Pol. 

 Resident, Aden, in a selection from the records of the Bombay Government, 

 (No. 49, new series, Bombay, printed for Government, at the Education 

 Society Press, Byculla, 1859,) curiously misnamed "A History of Arabia 

 Felix or Yemen," transports himself, in a "supplementary chapter," to 

 East Africa, and thus records his impressions of what happened in the 

 " Somali Country : " — 



1855. — " During the afternoon of the same day (the 18th of April), three 

 men visited the camp, palpably as spies, and as such, the officers of the 

 Expedition were warned against them by their native attendants. Heedless of 

 this warning, they retired to rest at night in the fullest confidence of 

 security, and without having taken any extra, or even ordinary means, to 

 guard against surprise." 



The italics are my own : they designate mistatements unpardonable in an 

 individual whose official position enabled him to ascertain and to record the 

 truth. The three men were represented to me as spies, who came to ascertain 

 whether I was preparing to take the country for the Chief Shermarkay, 

 then hostile to their tribe, not as spies to spy out the weakness of my party. 

 I received no warning of personal danger. The " ordinary measures," that 

 is to say, the posting of two sentinels in front and rear of the camp during 

 the night were taken, and I cannot blame myself because they ran away. 



I will not stop to inquire what must be the value of Capt. Play fair s 193 

 pages touching the history of Yemen, when in five lines there are three 

 distinct and wilful deviations from fact. 



I am well aware that after my departure from Aden, in 1855, an inquiry 

 was instituted during my absence, and without my knowledge, into the facts 

 of the disaster which occurred at Berberah. The "privileged communica- 

 tion " was, I believe, in due course, privily forwarded to the Bombay Govern- 

 ment, and the only rebuke which this shuffling proceeding received was from 

 a gentleman holding a high and honourable position, who could not reconcile 

 himself to seeing a man's character stabbed in the back. 



