CHAPTER, XI 
WITH THE BRITISH MISSION TO KING MENELIK, 1897 
Sent to represent India on the Mission — Meeting with Italian prisoners 
marching down — The Italian Red Cross Mission — A forced march to 
Gildessa to get transport — Aito Merzlia, Governor of Gildessa — Impres- 
sions of the journey up the pass to Harar — Makunan’s escort into Harar 
— Buying mules — Sent on with Speedy — Scenery in the Harar highlands 
— Some peculiarly English country — Crossing the Ha wash — A camel 
accident — Over high veldt country to Addis- Abbaba — The opening 
audience — Menelik’s personality — Dining with Menelik and his thousand 
officers — The Feast of St. Raguel — Ritual in the church : the dance of 
King David before the Ark of the Covenant — A feu de joie — The scene 
marching home — Presents for the King and Queen — The final day — 
Escorted by 20,000 soldiers — A magnificent sight — The march to the 
coast — Daily routine — Astronomy — British and French positions for 
Addis- Abbaba compared — Fast marching — Political reflections — Our 
African frontier compared with our Asiatic one — Importation of arms by 
France — Abyssinian character — Vindication of Somali character — Sport 
on the road — Somaliland as a future hunting-ground. 
It was destined that I should make yet another journey through 
Somaliland, as I was appointed to represent the Government of 
India on Her Majesty’s Mission to King Menelik of Abyssinia, 
under the leadership of Mr Rennell Rodd. Since the journey 
from Zeila to Addis-Abbaba and back, undertaken during April, 
May, and June 1897, during which we marched some 960 miles, 
is well described in Count Gleichen’s book, 1 I will condense 
into one chapter my own impressions of this, my second visit, by 
invitation, into Abyssinian territory. 
We left Zeila on 20th March 1897. There was little to 
interest us in the marches over the hot, parched Zeila-Gildessa 
route, the most desert part of Somaliland, till 22nd March, when, 
soon after leaving Dadab, we entered a dense forest of brown 
mimosas, stretching as far as the eye could see. Suddenly, in 
1 With the Mission to Menelik (Arnold, London). 
