V 
RECONNAISSANCE OF ABYSSINIAN BORDER 143 
road between our camp and Gildessa, reported our prepara- 
tions for departure to their commander, and a crowd of Arab 
merchants and Esa elders came in haste to our camp to prevent 
a quarrel ; for they said that if we went without permission 
we should certainly be attacked by the Abyssinians. They 
put our staying so much in the light of a personal kindness to 
themselves, that we agreed, not to stay, but to march a mile or 
two to a more defensible position, and camp for the night, 
going on in the morning towards Zeila. If a large force should 
by any chance come from Harar, our present camp was very 
unfavourably situated. 
The Esa elders said they were sorry, as if they were ordered 
to seize our camels, and we used force, a fight would ensue ; 
and a fight with the English was the last thing they wanted. 
We answered that we should also deplore this, but would not 
allow our free right to go to Zeila to be questioned. So we 
marched off, with most of the men formed into a rear-guard 
thrown across the camel-track and extended at about two paces. 
We followed the path which goes to the north between the 
low hills and the forest fringing the right bank of the Gildessa 
stream. My brother afterwards crowned the hills with part of 
the rear-guard, while I kept with the remainder in the fringe of 
the woods covering the retreat till the caravan should be clear 
of Gildessa. A number of the Abyssinian and Soudanese soldiers 
ran out with their rifles to stop us, but when they had come a 
quarter of a mile they were recalled by a bugle from the barrack. 
We camped after two miles, as we had promised our friends 
the Esa and Arab merchants. It rained as we halted, but we 
spent the first two hours of the night in fortifying our camp 
with piled boxes of stores and rough timber from the thorn- 
trees, so as to make them bullet-proof. We sent back word 
notifying to the Abyssinians that we had camped, but that we 
should make a very early morning march for Zeila, and asked 
that the Harar letter might be sent after us. 
The messenger, on his return, reported that there had been 
high talk among the Abyssinians of punishing our Esa guides 
Boh and Hadji Adan, who had shown us the way to Gildessa, 
but the other Esa in the town had said that if a hair of their 
heads were touched, the Abyssinians would have to deal with 
them also. The Esa had then been driven out of the town by 
the soldiers, who had formed line and charged them. 
The Esa are accounted the bravest of any of the SomMi 
