FROM THE SOMALI COAST THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN

Title

FROM THE SOMALI COAST THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN See all items with this value

Description

In the spring of 1899 Baron Carlo von Erlanger asked me to join an expedition to Somaliland, which he intended to undertake for the sake of sport and ornithological research. I agreed on condition that the journey should not be confined to Somaliland, but should also extend to the countries of Southern Ethiopia. The preparations took nearly half a year. Meanwhile the revolt of the mad Mulla had broken out, and the western route proposed by myself proved to be the only one possible, as the Foreign Office was forced to recall its permission to penetrate the hinterland of Berbera, and we were therefore obliged to set out from Zeila by the old caravan route to Harar. The members of the expedition were Baron Carlo von Erlanger, Dr. Hans Ellenbeck as physician, Mr. Johann Holtermuller as cartographer, Mr. Carl Hilgert as taxidermist, and myself. We started from Zeila on January 12, 1900, but an accident to Mr. Carl Hilgert, who nearly killed himself with a small flaubert gun, stopped us at the wells of Dadab, only three marches from the coast, so that we did not arrive at Harar until the beginning of March. In the desert Baron Erlanger and myself preceded the caravan in order to meet Mr. Alfred Ilg, the foreign minister of the Emperor Menelik, who was on his way to the coast, and to whose valuable help a great part of the success of our expedition is due. But in the first place we have to thank the Emperor Menelik, that intelligent ruler and restorer of an ancient and great empire, for his help and permission to pass through his country.

Identifier

108

139

Uploaded Date (Original EH)

2017-02-13

Uploaded By (Original EH)

adminss

Date

1902 See all items with this value

Author

OSCAR NEUMANN. See all items with this value

Type

Journals

Author Ethnicity

Non-Harari