tack." Hadjee Alli, however, had been to much alarmed to rely on this security, and therefore had' absolutely refused to attempt the journey a second time. It appeared from further inquiries that a quarrel had existed between him and Yunus's sons; each accusing the other of the failure Of the business on which they had been dispatched. As the blame appeared to me to rest with Hadjce, I immediately discharged him, and he returned by the first conveyance to Mocha.
On the 13th I dispatched a letter in Arabic to Alli Govéta, who was then at Aréna, one of the chief residences of his tribe, lying at the bottom of the Bay of Howakil, three days journey by land distant from Madir. In this letter I expressed my desire to see him immediately, that we might confer on the subject of my journey into Abyssinia, and I inclosed two letters for him to forward to the Ras and Mr. Pearce, written in English, for the purpose of preventing any unpleasant consequences should they by chance fall into the hands of the Nayib.
This dispatch to Alli Govéta was rendered in some degree unnecessary by the arrival on the 14th of a young chieftain, named Alli Manda,[1] who proved to be a nephew of Alli Govéta, holding the command of a district on the mountains, over which the road lies to Abyssinia. He was a young man who possessed a strong and lively expression in his countenance, and was dressed in a striped silk garment, made after the fashion of the upper country. His manners were completely Abyssinian. He displayed the same affectation in holding his garment over the mouth, customary among the higher orders in that country, the same kind of stately reserve which on a first interview they assume, and, on being satisfied with his reception, discovered the same open and unrestrained love of conviviality which characterises that singular people.
In the course of conversation I learned that Alli Manda was the person who had accompanied Hadjee Alli on his way into the country. They had proceeded only one
- ↑ I found on subsequent inquiry, that the name of 'Alli' was a title given to most of the chiefs on this coast; expressing the same thing as 'Ayto' in the Abyssinian, 'Sydee' in Arabic, and 'Sir' or 'Mr.' in the English language.
