agreeable to Lieutenant Burton, he would back my application to the
Indian Government, obtain a cancel of my furlough, and get me put on
service-duty as a member of the expedition.

Nothing could have suited me better, as it brought me on service
again, and so saved my furlough leave for a future exploration.
Lieutenant Burton consented, and I was at once installed in the
expedition. My travelling, mapping,[3] and collecting propensities, it
was thought would be of service to the ends of the expedition; and by
my being incorporated in it, there would be no chance of my running
counter to it, by travelling on its line of march, and possibly giving
rise to disturbances with the natives.

Before proceeding further in the narrative of events as they occurred,
it may be as well, perhaps, to anticipate a little, and give a general
impression of the geography, ethnology, history, and other
characteristics of the country under investigation--the Somali
land--and the way in which it was intended that those investigations
should be carried out. As will appear by the following pages, my
experiences were mostly confined to the north central parts, in the
highlands of the Warsingali and Dulbahanta tribes. The rest of my
information is derived from conversations with the natives, or what I
have read in some very interesting pages in vol. xix. of the
'Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society,' written by
Lieutenant Cruttenden.

The Somali country is an elbow of land lying between the equator and
the 11th degree of north latitude, which, from its peculiar form,
might well be designated the Eastern Horn of Africa. The land is high
in the north, and has a general declination, as may be seen by the