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officer in charge of the boat; the remainder by breaking he was denied. watches.

"Then,' exolaimed the tar, as he uttered a deep groan, 'what's the use of money if a man can't get leave to spend it?' and at the same time he dashed the pot of guineas overboard, and hastened away to the forecastle without uttering another word."

The general waste of money by the seamen was appalling. Another instance is related by the Colonel which he witnessed at Mutton Cove, Plymouth. He observed a group of sailors, women, and Jews anxiously watching some proceedings going on within a ring they formed. Being attracted to the spot, he perceived two sailors sitting on the ground, each of them holding a shoe by the toe and with the heels hammering a watch to pieces, whilst there were several other watches lying by their sides, seemingly waiting to undergo the same operation.

"I was quickly informed by some of the lookers-on that the two watch-pounders were 'poor fellows whose hard-hearted captains, not allowing them one hour's liberty on shore to spend the prize money they had that day received, amounting to more than £70 apiece, had obliged them to remain on the waterside in sight of the middy in charge of the boat.'

"But tell me,' said I, 'how and by what rule they are going on??

"Why,' said a large heavylooking woman with short petticoat and bloated face, 'I don't suppose it's of any use to tell you nothing about it. The way on it is, they buys a dozen of them there watches for £5 apiece, from that tall half-starved Jew as you sees t'other side; but they isn't worth £1 apiece, God bless you, and then they goes to work and tries which can beat to crumbs his half first for a glass of grog all round.""

These exploits of the captors and the extortions of the Courts have faded into insignificant history, when viewed to-day after the cataclysm from which the world has only recently emerged.

Yet even to-day there is a savour of unpleasantness about the distribution of prize money. An official balance-sheet of all payments and expenses from the Admiralty would be a document of absorbing interest to the Navy at large. Proorastination and the excuses that have been proffered to insistent questions in the House of Commons have accentuated the feeling in the Senior Service that there might have been a more expeditious division of the money earned during the war.

"To all the women looking on they had behaved with great The consoling feature about liberality, by dividing amongst the present distribution of the them a great portion of the 50s. shares is that the awards money, and I was further in- are not subject to income-tax. formed that they were now That, at least, is some small endeavouring to get rid of solace.

THE MAD MULLAH OF BRITISH SOMALILAND.

EVEN those most interested in the march of events in our outposts of empire had very nearly forgotten Somaliland and her long-standing problem, when it was announced last February that the Mad Mullah's dervishes had been utterly routed and destroyed, and that with the assistance of a few aeroplanes a twentyone years' war had been ended in as many days, at a cost which was as trifling in money as it was in blood (two native soldiers killed). If our imperial enthusiasts could scarcely recall the position in Somaliland, it is hardly a matter for surprise that the general attitude towards an event of no small importance in Africa and the Middle East should be that portrayed by " Mr Punch," when he announced in the same breath that Willesden had won the London Draughts Championship, and that the Mad Mullah of Somaliland had been beaten again. This paper, then, is an attempt to enlighten those who may wish to be enlightened about Somaliland, by tracing the causes and the history of the Mullah's movement, and by giving some very brief description of the recent operations.

Fifty years ago, Ismail I., Khedive of Egypt, acquired from the Porte the Somali coast from Berbera to Zeyla. In 1884, however, difficulties in the Sudan constrained the Egyptian Government to evac

uate their Somali colony; and early in the following year Great Britain concluded separate treaties with six of the eight Somali tribes now living under its protection. Thus some 58,000 square miles were added to our African empire, and an important littoral on the main sea route to India came under British suzerainty,

Responsibility for this newlyacquired possession devolved upon the Government of India until 1898, when, with a view to the development of the resources of the interior, the administration was transferred to the Foreign Office. This projected development would, doubtless, have proceeded along lines similar to those followed in our other Crown Colonies and Protectorates, had it not been for the ambitions of one man, who for twenty-one years successfully defied the power of the British Government.

Mohammed bin Abdullah Hassan, better known as the Mad Mullah, was born in the interior of Somaliland, some say at Kirrit, in the late 'sixties, his father an Ogaden Somali, his mother a Somali of the Dolbahanta tribe. His boyhood was much like that of other Somali boys, spent sometimes with his fellow - tribesmen and their stock in the interior, sometimes in Berbera. Now and again, perhaps, he voyaged in some friendly buggalow carrying Somali produce, hides and ghee and

sheep, to Aden and the Arabian For a living he depended upon

coast. Be this as it may, when he was about seventeen or eighteen, he determined to see the world, and is said to have enrolled at Aden as a fireman in one of the liners plying between East and West. His employment in this capacity must have greatly influenced his future career. For, doubtless, at Egyptian ports in native caravanserais he often listened awestruck to many a strange story of the Mahdi from the mouths of refugees from the Sudan. Following on his his experiences at sea, Mohammed having now fully attained to man's estate, made the pilgrimage to Mecca-a journey which is the common ambition of all Somalis. So impressed was he by what he heard and saw that he made several subsequent journeys to the sacred city, joining the Mohammed Salih, an insignificant but fanatical Mohammedansect, whose tenets are of a harsh and uncompromising nature as compared with those of the Kadariyah, which is the predominant seot in Somaliland. On his return from the last of these pilgrimages in 1895, he gained some notoriety in Berbera by denouncing certain practices of the Kadariyah to somewhat bored and unsympathetic audiences. With all the strident ferveney of a born agitator he would inveigh against the luxury of the age, the immorality of chewing "kat," or the gluttony of gorging the fat of sheep's tail.

the alms of the charitable; and there is an old Arab woman in Berbera who has often wondered whether he would repay the four annas she lent him in the days of his need should the opportunity ever offer. He gained but few adherents among the comparatively sophisticated inhabitants of Berbera, and so in 1899 he repaired to the interior, where he lived in the Nogal valley among his mother's kin. Here he started a movement advocating the expulsion of the British infidel from his Mohammedan country. Many adherents flocked to his banner. Some were fired by his religious and political teaching. Others were attracted by promises of the wealth to be gained by raiding the stock of those tribes which espoused the infidel's cause. Others again were inspired by a dual motive, religious and material: they saw an admirable opportunity to lay up for themselves treasure in the Mohammedan paradise by confiscating other tribes' treasure upon earth. For three years the Mullah disciplined his followers, eradicating the tribal feeling, which is normally one of the chief characteristics of the Somalis, and substituting his own authority for that of the elders of the tribes. Then early in 1899 he perpetrated his first overt act of hostility to the British Government. Suddenly swooping down upon Burao, a consider

1 A herb of very stimulating qualities,

THE MAD MULLAH OF BRITISH SOMALILAND.

EVEN those most interested in the march of events in our outposts of empire had very nearly forgotten Somaliland and her long-standing problem, when it was announced last February that the Mad Mullah's dervishes had been utterly routed and destroyed, and that with the assistance of a few aeroplanes a twentyone years' war had been ended in as many days, at a cost which was as trifling in money as it was in blood (two native soldiers killed). If our imperial enthusiasts could soarcely recall the position in Somaliland, it is hardly a matter for surprise that the general attitude towards an event of no small importance in Africa and the Middle East should be that portrayed by "Mr Punch," when he announced in the same breath that Willesden had won the London Draughts Championship, and that the Mad Mullah of Somaliland had been beaten again. This paper, then, is an attempt to enlighten those who may wish to be enlightened about Somaliland, by tracing the causes and the history of the Mullah's movement, and by giving some very brief description of the recent operations.

Fifty years ago, Ismail I., Khedive of Egypt, acquired from the Porte the Somali coast from Berbera to Zeyla. In 1884, however, difficulties in the Sudan constrained the Egyptian Government to evac

uate their Somali colony; and early in the following year Great Britain concluded separate treaties with six of the eight Somali tribes now living under its protection. Thus some 58,000 square miles were added to our African empire, and an important littoral on the main sea route to India came under British suzerainty.

Responsibility for this newlyacquired possession devolved upon the Government of India until 1898, when, with a view to the development of the resources of the interior, the administration was transferred to the Foreign Office. This projected development would, doubtless, have proceeded along lines similar to those followed in our other Crown Colonies and Protectorates, had it not been for the ambitions of one man, who for twenty-one years successfully defied the power of the British Government.

Mohammed bin Abdullah Hassan, better known as the Mad Mullah, was born in the interior of Somaliland, some say at Kirrit, in the late 'sixties, his father an Ogaden Somali, his mother a Somali of the Dolbahanta tribe. His boyhood was much like that of other Somali boys, spent sometimes with his fellow - tribesmen and their stock in the interior, sometimes in Berbera. Now and again, perhaps, he voyaged in some friendly buggalow carrying Somali produce, hides and ghee and

or

sheep, to Aden and the Arabian coast. Be this as it may, when he was about seventeen eighteen, he determined to see the world, and is said to have enrolled at Aden as a fireman in one of the liners plying between East and West. His employment in this capacity must have greatly influenced his future career. For, doubtless, at Egyptian ports in native caravanserais he often listened awestruck to many a strange story of the Mahdi from the mouths of refugees from the Sudan. Following on his experiences at sea, Mohammed having now fully attained to man's estate, made the pilgrimage to Mecca- a journey which is the common ambition of all Somalis. So impressed was he by what he heard and saw that he made several subsequent journeys to the sacred city, joining the Mohammed Salih, an insignificant but fanatical Mohammedan seot, whose tenets are of a harsh and uncompromising nature as compared with those of the Kadariyah, which is the predominant seot in Somaliland. On his return from the last of these pilgrimages in 1895, he gained some notoriety in Berbera by denouncing certain practices of the Kadariyah to somewhat bored and unsympathetic audiences. With all the strident ferveney of a born agitator he would inveigh against the luxury of the age, the immorality of chewing "kat," or the gluttony of gorging the fat of sheep's tail.

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For a living he depended upon the alms of the charitable; and there is an old Arab woman in Berbera who has often wondered whether he would repay the four annas she lent him in the days of his need should the opportunity ever offer. He gained but few adherents among the comparatively sophisticated inhabitants of Berbera, and so in 1899 he repaired to the interior, where he lived in the Nogal valley among his mother's kin. Here he started a movement advooating the expulsion of the British infidel from his Mohammedan country. Many adherents flocked to his banner. Some were fired by his religious and political teaching. Others were attracted by promises of the wealth to be gained by raiding the stock of those tribes which espoused the infidel's cause. Others again were inspired by a dual motive, religious and material: they saw an admirable opportunity to lay up for themselves treasure in the Mohammedan paradise by confiscating other tribes' treasure upon earth. For three years the Mullah disciplined his followers, eradicating the tribal feeling, which is normally one of the chief characteristics of the Somalis, and substituting his own authority for that of the

elders of the tribes. Then early in 1899 he perpetrated his first overt aot of hostility to the British Government. Suddenly swooping down upon Burao, a consider

1 A herb of very stimulating qualities.

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