X 
JOURNEY TO WEB BE S HA B ELEN RIVER 
245 
the south-east, owned by a rich Somali named Yahia; and 
Dubbi Harre had unexpectedly said that his own tribe and all 
the G^llas had had serious difficulties with the Prince’s caravan 
which was in front of me, these being the first Europeans they 
had seen, and they wished no more white men to enter their 
country, adding, if I still wished to see him, I might send 
soldiers to take him, but he would have gone to G4llaland. 
He feared to come to camp lest I should have him flogged, for 
he believed all Europeans were bad, and only invited people 
to visit them in order to make them prisoners. 
Knowing that Prince Euspoli had pushed through to the 
far interior of Gallaland with about one hundred and twenty 
rifles, and that they had lost a great many men, I did not 
hope that my party, consisting of a single white man, with 
only thirty followers and limited time, would be able to force 
its way through the tribes which my predecessors had already 
passed, should they be hostile to us. Fighting, except in self- 
defence, was not part of my programme, as I had promised the 
men at Berbera ; I meant to enter the country by the invita- 
tion of the natives or not at all. 
I gave Nur Ebbleh some calico and a Koran, telling him 
to ride quickly to Dubbi Harre and give him the presents, and 
to assure him that if he would come to my camp he would 
have safe -conduct, and be hospitably entertained, and free to 
go when he liked. After an interval of twenty-four hours, 
during wdiich I hunted unsuccessfully for dol, Nur Eobleh 
returned with better news. He had found Dubbi Harre on the 
point of leaving for the mountains ; but, the presents softening 
him, the Gffila chief had promised to come to me, though he 
protested that it would be of no use ; he had declared he 
would never be able to persuade his countrymen that there 
could be any good in me. 
On the morning of 30th August six horsemen came in. 
There were three Somalis, Yahia and two friends, and three 
Ghllas, Dubbi Harre being one of them. Dubbi Harre was 
a remarkably handsome and pleasant-looking old man, clean 
shaven, with thin, well-cut features. Taking Dubbi Harre by the 
hand I led them into the tent, in which had been arranged on 
the right and left rows of boxes covered with folded blankets ; 
there was also a box for myself against the tent pole, and a mat 
on the ground for Adan Yusuf, the interpreter. As usual, we 
began the conference with coffee. 
