CHAPTER II.
Arrival at Berberah.—Description of the Town and Fair.—Departure for Zeila.—The Town of Zeila.—Second Visit to Tajourah.—Time, from the 1st to the 6th of March.
Berberahis situated on the same coast of the sea of Babel Mandeb, but about 130 miles to the eastward of Tajourah. It is remarkable for having been a mart for the exchange of African and Asiatic products between the merchants of either continent, from the earliest antiquity.
For the greater part of every year, during the S. W. Monsoon, from September to March, this place is the busy scene of an extensive commerce, and a deserted wilderness for the remaining months; after which interval, again the ships of foreign and the caravans of native products begin to arrive. Another temporary town rises as if by the wand of some magician, and thousands of huts and mat houses are erected upon the beach, where but a few weeks before nothing was to be seen but bare sands; nothing to be heard save the howling of numerous wild beasts, as they prowled in search of food, amongst the heaps of filth and animal remains collected during the preceding fair.
We came in sight of Berberah on the afternoon of the 4th of March. As the brig rounded a low sandy point, and entered the narrow harbour, several of the natives, who had been long watching our slow advance, the wind being very light, leaped into the sea, and swam on board. I could not avoid noticing immediately the apparent difference in disposition between them and the people of Tajourah; for a most sullen and distrustful bearing seemed to characterize the latter, while the Soumaulee on the contrary, at least those of Berberah, seemed confident that no violence or injury would be offered to them, they seized the ropes thrown over the sides of the vessel to assist them as they climbed up, and in high glee they passed along the deck and on to the poop, laughing, arranging their wet waist-cloths, and shaking hands, as if they were among old friends.
We anchored within a short distance of the town, and several of the leading people came immediately on board. The business connected with my journey to Berberah was transacted at once in the cabin, the principal native authority, Allee Shurmalkee, being requested by Mr. Cruttenden to provide a boat and other necessaries, which he readily consented to do. As it was late, we none of us went on shore; although I do not believe any danger would have been incurred by so doing, a very friendly feeling evidently existing on the part of the natives towards the English, without thatabundant protestation of friendship pressed upon you, as it is by the people of Tajourah, which you cannot help feeling is altogether feigned.
During the earlier part of the next day, I amused myself upon deck, making observations on the temporary town, and speculating on the different national characters of the mixed multitude which inhabit it.
The mere appearance of Berberah is most uninteresting, except, certainly, the harbour, which, if not a very prominent feature, is still a most singular one for its peculiar construction and admirable convenience. A long low spit or raised bank of sand and coral extends nearly a mile into the sea towards the west, parallel with, and at the distance of about half a mile from, the real line of coast. Within the enclosed space of water good anchorage in four or six fathoms is found nearly up to the town, which is situated around the bite of this little narrow inlet. The rise and fall of the tide is sufficient to admit of very large bogalows, as the native boats are called, to be beached for repair, or other purposes; and, in fact, during the fair, a great number of these vessels do lie upon the shore, or in the shallow water close up to the town, giving to the whole a regular, dock-like, appearance.
So apparently accordant with the rules of art is the direction of the outer sea-wall, and its position so admirably convenient, that even a reflecting observer cannot altogether divest himself of theidea, that it is not a pre-concerted work of art rather than the casual production of nature. This was certainly my first impression; and for some time I considered it to have been constructed in a remote period of antiquity, when the whole of this coast was the busy scene of an extensive and lucrative commerce, but that in the revolution of time and the everchanging pursuits of man, the origin of this sea-protecting mole had been forgotten, and the only remembrance of the people who raised it was to be found in its name, which certainly recalls to the mind that of a long-lost nation, the Berbers of Africa. This was theory, of course, and my opinion soon changed, when I found that no other evidence of man’s residence existed in this neighbourhood; no traces whatever of that industry and wealth which must have characterized the people who could have projected and completed such an extensive marine defence for their navy and commerce. Subsequently also, geological examinations, and comparison with other older reefs of sand and coral, now forming part of, and which extend some distance inland, enabled me to establish its identity with them in structure and mineral composition. Finally, therefore, I became convinced that this was another of those beautiful and benevolent works that Nature—“our kindest mother still”—has provided for the security of her favourite, man; for with an anticipating care she has here constructed for him, by acurious yet simple economy, a safe retreat whenever in his frail bark he might be exposed to the violence of the winds and waves, on this otherwise inhospitable and dangerous coast.
In the afternoon a party, consisting of A. Nesbitt, Esq., First Lieut. of the Euphrates, the Purser, Mr. Powell, and myself, was formed for the purpose of more closely examining Berberah and its curiosities. One of the brig’s boats was ordered alongside, and we soon found ourselves carefully threading a winding course, amidst the numerous fleet of bogalows moored along-shore, greeted as we passed beneath their huge misshapen sterns, by the joking salutations and laughing faces of numerous almè, or slave-girls, who crowded the cabin windows, and the most striking features of whose dark countenances were rows of pearly teeth. The boat grounded about thirty yards from dry land, and we were obliged to be carried upon the shoulders of the crew over a black muddy beach, being set down amidst heaps of dirt; the rotting debris of the sea and of the land, drift wood, loose spars, the bones of animals, and excrements of man, formed a barrier of filth, over which it was impossible to choose a path, so we at once struck boldly across to the narrow entrance of what we imagined must be a street, and entered the town of Berberah.
I should suppose there were at least from four to five thousand huts placed closely together, uniform in size and elevation, being generally of an oblongform, about six feet broad, by nine feet in length, and five feet in height. They consisted of a roof of mats, made of the doom palm leaf, or of a long dried grass, or else merely half-dried skins badly preserved, stretched over the usual stick skeleton of a wigwam. There was not much architectural display, for being all roof, they did not well admit of it. Nor does convenience appear to be consulted in laying out streets, or even regular passages, only in so much, that a small spot on one side of the entrance of each hut is left vacant for purposes that may be imagined, and a succession of these sweet and pleasant places make a narrow lane, into which all doors open, and thus a convenient but dirty street is formed by which alone the visitor is enabled to perambulate this justly celebrated aromatic yielding fair.
The residences of the few foreign merchants, principally Banians and Arabs, are exceptions to this general style in the construction of the houses, and have some pretensions both to appearance and convenience, usually having mat walls to the height of four or five feet, with a long slanting roof of grass securely fastened down by sticks of bamboo laid transversely. The entrance is a kind of hall, opening into the centre of a room at right angles, and which extends to the right and left, perhaps ten or twelve feet on each side; its breadth is about ten feet. Behind this room is another apartment of equal dimensions,which serves as a store or warehouse, and one end partitioned off by mats, contains the secluded inmates of the harem.
One of the objects we had in view in visiting the fair was, to procure some few additional articles I required for my journey into the interior, namely, a bed carpet, two Arab frocks of yellow nankeen, and a black camaline or cloak. We accordingly bent our steps towards the quarter where lived our native friend, Shurmalkee, who was to assist us in making our purchases, but whose residence we should never have found but for the crowd of armed idlers who soon surrounded us, and led us with a kind of barbarous state into the presence of their respected chief.
The well-known Shurmalkee, or Allee Allee, his real name, is now upwards of fifty years old, tall, thin, with slightly stooping shoulders; his face long, with small quickly moving eyes, and thin white beard. The only deviation from the usual dress of his countrymen is a white cotton cloth turban, a distinction, with the title of sheik, generally assumed by those who can read the Koran, or have performed the pilgrimage to Mecca. Some fifteen or twenty years since, Shurmalkee was chiefly instrumental in saving part of the crew of the English brig, Mary Anne, then lying at anchor in the harbour of Berberah, which was attacked and burned during the night by the natives. He was himself wounded on the occasion, and the mateand three or four of the brig’s people murdered. The Indian Government rewarded him munificently at the time for his generous interference; and since then, finding him honest, intelligent, and grateful, they have always patronised him, allowing him in our eastern parts the privilege of a British subject, with liberty to hoist our flag in his bogalows. He is now our native agent in all transactions with the Soumaulee inhabitants of Berberah and Zeila. By his industry and enterprise he has become the richest man along this coast; nor is there scarcely a prince or petty chief in the adjoining countries who is not indebted to this African Rothschild.
We rested ourselves upon the only piece of furniture in the mat-walled room, a rude couch of wood with a bottom of interlaced palm-leaf rope, covered with a coarse Arab carpet of as many colours as Joseph’s jacket. We refused to take any refreshment, and sent immediately for the articles we wanted. As usual, the Islam spirit of despoiling the Christian exhibited itself in the exorbitant demands of the Arab merchants, but which in this case was defeated by the prompt interference of Shurmalkee, who dismissed them very summarily as much to ours as to their surprise. As soon as they were gone, however, he explained the cause, and promised to obtain the things himself, before we went on board, at half the price that had been demanded, desiring us not to take any farther trouble about them, but to proceed at once to view the town, at the sametime supplying us, as is the custom of these people, with two natives for guides, and also as sureties for our safety and freedom from molestation during our walk.
The appointment of these sureties, or Abbahn, as each calls himself, to every stranger who enters the town, is a singular but very necessary characteristic of the social condition of the inhabitants of Berberah, and is deserving of particular notice. Convenience on the one hand and enterprise on the other, have here brought together the Hindoo Banyan, the Mahomedan Arab, and the Pagan Soumaulee; for even now scarcely one half of this latter people profess the Islam faith. With no generally acknowledged superior, no established law, each inhabitant depends upon his own keen knife, or that of his Abbahn, for personal safety and the security of his property. All are equally ready to resort to a bloody appeal upon the least cause of dispute, so that every day is marked by some fatal quarrel, and every night by some robbery and violent death. Even the murdering Danakil shakes his head when he speaks of the Fair of Berberah, denouncing it as being “shatan, shatan;” whilst the wisest and the best men of every nation or tribe, who are here assembled, speak openly their desire, that some powerful Islam, or even Feringee Government, should take actual possession, both of this port and of Zeila also. Under such circumstances, the foreign merchant, accustomed in his own countryto the protection of law, or of some regularly established authority, consents but reluctantly, and then only from the prospect of immense gains, to risk his person among a people so violently barbarous as are the Adal tribes occupying this portion of Africa, who have lost none of their ancient character significantly recorded in the Periplus, as being “uncivilized, and under no restraint.” To protect himself in some measure the trader has recourse to the system of procuring the constant attendance of one or more of the natives, whose duty it is to guard their employer from molestation. Two-thirds of the Soumaulee population of the town are engaged in this manner. No sooner does a stranger arrive than he is surrounded by natives, each soliciting to be employed as his Abbahn, and are almost as importunate and as troublesome as the hotel-barkers who infest the piers of our watering-places. The important privilege of supplying strangers with Abbahns is monopolized by one tribe living in the neighbourhood of Berberah, called Raree-good-Hadé, but not without considerable opposition from another tribe called Raree-Abdullah, with whom serious conflicts sometimes take place within the town, when all business is suspended for three or four days in consequence.
Every ship, or bogalow, arriving at the port is boarded, at least a mile from the shore, by a crowd of Soumaulee Abbahns, and on the occasion of the Euphrates approaching Berberah, a number of thesenaked visitors, as I have before mentioned, swam from shore a very long distance and were taken on board.
Following Shurmalkee’s advice, we started, but certainly not to see the town, though we passed through it; for with eyes bent upon the ground, we carefully picked our way along the narrow street, not four feet wide, the tops of the stinking skin wigwams and mat-huts presenting one uniform dark level, just the height of our noses. The outskirts of the town were equally offensive, but more particularly marked by the vast quantity of bones of all eatable animals strewed about, and the vestiges of numerous cooking fires, everywhere telling of the sites of former houses, and that a few weeks before the fair must have been even more extensive. About half a mile to the left of the town, on a slightly elevated mound of sand and coral, was a ruined mosque, the only appearance of a stone building in the neighbourhood. To this we proceeded, our conversation turning upon the dirtiness of the town, its low flat appearance from every point of view, the singular character of its inhabitants, and the great importance Berberah might assume in the possession of some highly civilized country, (we meant Britain, of course,) as one point from whence to spread through Africa the benefits arising from science, and the happiness attendant upon a knowledge of the Christian faith.
Around the mosque were numerous graves, eachconsisting of a low heap of stones in a line six feet long, enclosed in a large circle of single stones, the diameter of which sometimes exceeded twenty feet. The direction of the graves were due east and west, and a small space or opening in the circle invariably to the south, formed a kind of entrance into its area. They differed from the strictly Islam tomb in not having the two little flat stones at the head and foot, in their less conical form, and in the circular enclosure. Their vicinity to the ruined mosque told, however, of the profession of the Islam faith during the life of the deceased, whilst in the manner of the burial it appeared that surviving friends had still adhered to the customs of their forefathers. I might, too, have been mistaken in the real character of the building, and that which I hastily concluded to be a mosque, may have been some remains of a temple of the ancient faith professed by the Affah nation, and which I believe was Sabianism.
From the burial-place looking towards the south-east, we had a view of the town and shipping of Berberah, situated at one extremity of a spacious triangular plain, which we were told extended one hundred miles one way in the direction of Zeila, and inland towards Hurrah nearly the same distance. On our return to Shurmalkee’s house, we walked along the beach in front of the town, where were numerous women drying sheep-skins, by stretching them in the sun, pinning them down upon the hotsands by broken pieces of bones in the absence of sticks. Tobes, or the large cotton cloths worn by the natives over the shoulders and around the body, were also bleaching upon the beach after a careless wash in the sea. As we came nearer to the town we disturbed, as we passed, several large bodies of men squatting upon the ground in deep conversation, each armed with a large heavy knife and a spear. We were also continually being jostled by busy native porters, who were conveying loads of gum and coffee on board the bogalows, or else laden with their return burdens of cotton and cotton goods for the stores of their employers.
We had taken our guns with us, having started with the intention of proceeding some short distance inland, but the sun was so very powerful, and the prospect so apparently hopeless, of either instruction or amusement being derived from the walk, that it was resolved, as I started on the morrow for Tajourah, that we should proceed immediately on board the brig, from the deck of which we had a more extensive view of the town and surrounding country, than any point afforded on shore, and from our numerous visitors, Arab and native, had excellent opportunities of deriving information respecting the manners and customs of the Soumaulee population.
The appearance of the surrounding country seems to indicate that at a period not very remote, the whole of it has either been upheavedfrom beneath the sea, or that the retreat of the latter has left the plain, extending to the westward and southward of Berberah, the dry land we now find it. At one time the coast about here must have been of a somewhat similar character to that which is now presented by the harbour of Zeila, deep narrow channels existing between extensive coral reefs, which, at the distance of three miles from the town, have not one fathom in depth of water over them. At the time of such submersion of the plain of Berberah, the sea must then have come up to the nearly regular line of low volcanic hills, which, commencing a few miles distant from the town, stretch in a south-western direction for many miles inland. This portion of the then sea of Aden included a considerable part of the country between Zeila and Hurrah, for the present coast-line, from the former town to Berberah, assumed as a base, whilst Hurrah may represent the apex, will give some idea of the triangular form of this now habitable tract, which, I conclude, has been raised above the level of the sea by the operation of some vast upheaving force. Whatever testimony is required for this opinion is presented by the geological character of the numerous small hills to the south of Berberah: old coral reefs studding the place with eminences about twenty-five feet high as far as the eye can reach. If these formations are considered as insufficient authority for my founding an opinion upon the submarine origin of this country and its recent elevation, Ican only excuse myself upon the plea of endeavouring to give a better idea of its appearance by this allusion to its geological character, and which will at least, I hope, assist the reader in forming a more complete picture of Berberah and its environs.
The next day was occupied in placing the boxes and packages of the Mission into the native boat, hired from Shurmalkee. This was effected by noon, and after a parting dinner with our kind friends on board the brig, Mr. Cruttenden and myself proceeded to take possession of our fresh berths in the bogalow.
The little cabin of our new craft was about three feet high, and six or seven feet long, with a roof and floor of bamboo canes, over which were placed a few mats. Two servants of Mr. Cruttenden’s being on board, they were told to prepare the evening meal; and anticipating by the direction and force of the wind that we should be off the town of Zeila by the next morning, we spread our carpets on the cabin-floor, and composed ourselves to reflection or repose, no sufficient inducement offering, to tempt us to expose ourselves in the sun upon the frail unsheltered deck above us. After supper a conversation, in which I could not join, was entered into with the ras, or captain of the boat, by Mr. Cruttenden, whose knowledge of Arabic admitted of this amusement; but as he generally interpreted to me the most useful and interesting portions, and added some most valuable information which he had collected in his long intercourse with thesepeople, I had reason to feel happy that circumstances had thus thrown me, upon the eve of the commencement of my own travels, into the society of an experienced and clevervoyageur.
March 6th.—We found ourselves this morning, on awakening, anchored at some distance from Zeila, at least six miles. The shallowness of the sea over the outstanding coral reef prevented even our small vessel from approaching nearer to the town, and I could see from the deck several natives wading from our own and other vessels towards the shore. In about one hour, the keeper of the principal gate seaward came on board in a small boat, bringing three sheep as a present from the governor. He was accompanied by two or three of the Arab soldiers, of whom sixty or seventy are employed to defend the town, in case of its being attacked by the Soumaulee of the surrounding countries.
From what I could learn, Zeila was held by Arab and native merchants; the Dowlar, or governor, being appointed by the Sheriff of Mocha, who formerly received some small tribute from the town. Allee Shurmalkee has since my visit either seized or purchased this town, and hoisted independent colours upon its walls; but as I know little or nothing save the mere fact of its possession by that Soumaulee chief, and as this change occurred whilst I was in Abyssinia, I shall not say anything more upon the subject.
The officer who visited us in our boat, carriedrather ostentatiously at his belt, two large and very rudely made wooden keys, with projecting bits of iron wire, which formed a kind of apology for wards. From their appearance, I should suppose that the locks they fitted were not either of a very intricate or very substantial character, and not such as were calculated, without other aids, to effect the exclusion of unwelcome visitors. I had not an opportunity of examining the defences of Zeila, beyond a sight of its wall, twenty or thirty feet high, over which could be seen certain whitewashed and grey stone houses, with flat roofs. Besides two old guns, which we could see from the boat, lying dismounted upon the sands, I was told there were a very few others placed on that part of the wall looking inland.
Mr. Cruttenden forwarded to the governor some few pounds of gunpowder in return for the sheep, but declined on this occasion his polite invitation to visit him, promising to see him on his return to Berberah, which he hoped would be in a few days, after settling affairs for me in Tajourah. During the night, we took advantage of the land breeze, and made Tajourah by the middle of the next day. The difficulty of fixing upon our anchorage was not so nice an affair as with the brig. The narrow and confined opening on the sunken coral reef forms a kind of submarine haven, directly in front of Tajourah, in which is the only secure anchorage. It was easily found by our vessel, whose light draught ofwater admitted of its going over the reef in search of it; and when found, allowed of our bringing up within a very few yards from the shore. This was no little convenience, for our bogalow only carried for communication with the land a small canoe made out of a single tree, and barely able to carry two persons. Mr. Cruttenden’s sword was trusted to the hands of one of the crew, an excellent swimmer, who took rather a novel mode of conveying his bright burden to the shore, swimming the whole way completely immersed, save the hand and arm bearing the sword, which was thus carried perpendicularly to the body, with an intuitive knowledge of the mechanical relief to the muscles of the arm afforded by a weight being carried in that manner.
Mr. Cruttenden trusted himself into the frail and ticklish canoe, which bobbled upon the surface of the water as if its ill-adjusted centre of gravity would upset itself. He, however, was placed, not without a certain degree of wetting, safely upon the land; and the dexterous paddler of this tiny craft returned for me. I really do not know how I managed to convey myself into it, nor can I account reasonably for its doing so much for me to the shore; but I recollect very well that I considered it a regular escape, for had I been upset in my then weak state from my previous illness, I should certainly have finished my African travels in the Bay of Tajourah.