The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XVI, No. 6 [‎338v] (29/232)

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AX EXPEDITION BETWEEN LAKE RUDOLF AND THE NILE.
at Gohule. From here until we reached the Boran at El Dere I cannot
add to the description I gave to you of the country when I read my paper
before the Society in 1896. The rivers Web and Juba had only half
their usual supply of water. The people were flourishing, and nothing
could have exceeded their meanness in not wishing to sell us food,
which made it most difficult for me to keep my men supplied, there
being also little game on our line of march. The Boran, on the other
hand, were most friendly. I must here refer to the Abyssinian method
of annexation. In 1895 I saw the worst side of their treatment; but
on my recent journey, I found that their treatment of tribes, once
thoroughly brought to submission, was commendable. In their first
attacks they are certainly very cruel, but later, when the natives have
been so harried that they look upon their masters with the greatest
respect, they are given back a good proportion of their belongings
and very nearly their original self-government, but a moderate tax being
imposed. From the Somalis to the Boran I was surprised to find the
natives quite as rich apparently as they were before they had come under
Abyssinian rule.
Since I could fill in many blank spaces on my former map
before reaching Lake Stefanie, I started survey work again at El
Dere, and continued it to the Nile. Marching in as straight a line
as possible from Berbera, El Dere may be considered to be 750 miles
by road and the same distance from the Nile. Three long marches
from El Dere to Le lead us through a very wooded and broken country,
where elephants abound and man is a rare visitor. There are many
mountains scattered about, principally of limestone rock, and the
deep wells at Le I now believe to have been originally formed by the
disintegrating effects of water on chalk, in which the natives have
actively assisted. My Somalis gave me infinite trouble and annoy
ance. They were never satisfied unless they had over ten pounds of
camel meat or mutton a day per man, and when food was scarce I had
to be constantly on the alert to prevent them from poisoning my trans
port animals, so that they could eat the meat, or from stealing sheep,
but they were not, however, as miserable petty thieves as most of my
ndians. All but four of them mutinied at a place called Gof on
November 4, and remained out over night, putting me in a decidedly
disagreeable situation. If I call my Somalis howling hungry humbugs,
escribe some bad points of their character, but it would be unjust
m me D0t t0 men tion their superb physical condition, swift-footedness
and endurance, and their intelligence, which made them compare
favourably with the Indians. Of my nine Gurkhas, five only were
pure-blooded men from the backwoods of Nepal, and these were amono-
the best men in camp. The other four Gurkhas had Rajput or other
b ood m their veins, and it is with regret that I look upon them as
human beings. These latter, and as many more Sikhs, continually