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THE SOMALILAND FIELD FORCE.
LANDING DIFFICULTIES AT
OBBIA.
A correspondent wrote from 'Obbia to
tho "'Bomoay Gazette," on January 9, as
follows :"
We arrived here on Thursday morning
rather later than we expected, owing to
the breaking adrift of one of our troop
barges at midnight on Sunday the 4th.
and, as she was not visible in the dark
ness we had to heave to and wait, for
daylight. Fortunately 'tafter steaming
backcon our course, we picked her up at
8 the following morning.
Ohbia. at'firrt sivht, appears to be an
absolutely untenanted spot of black, locw
racks on the forcshore of a low-lrinr.
yellow stretch of sand, and sparsely
scattered hush scrub, save for the fact
that on one of the only three houses in
the place the Italian flag flutters, in
company with another on one solitary
dhow, which composes the whole of the
shipping of this hitherto almost unknown
port.. Behind a low, ten-foot high pro
montory of rock. stretching N.E. for
about three hundred yards. the whole
swell of the Indian Ocean finishes its last
heave in a frin'e of heavy rollers. In
this hight was the only possible spot for
landing the troops,. annuals, baggage
and stores! It is an old saw that the
best laid scherres of mice and men, etc.
and this debarcation has, no to the pre
sent, proved the whole truth of that
ancient maxim The barges brought
from Bombay at considerable trouble,
the raft built by H.M.S. Naiad, who. by'
the ,way. has arrived here from the Me
diterranean. wrre all quite useless in the
heavy surf and the work of disembark
ing had consequentiy to be carried out in
the ship's boats of the combined fleet at
anchor in the roads-to wit. the Naiad;
Pomone, and Canniing. and oh! what a
tmoe we had of it though the unforthu
nate mules suffered perhaps more, for
their little "pipeon" .consisted of being
dumped overheard, living their heads
trussed up to the gunwales ofthe boats,
nd ,hing made to swim three-quarters of
a mile, before heine rolled over and over
in the surf, and finally being hauled up
on the shore. Howdver. all's well that
ends well and out of 150 landed in this
primitive fashion. we have only had one
casualty, and that was' due more to
senile decay than to any roughness in
handling.
Order is Being Evolved..
The King's African Rifled, the Bom
bay Sappers who. by the way. have done
yeoman service, with their officers, bath
on beoard and on shore, and 'the Sikhs
are now more or ,less comfortably quar
tere$l on shbre, and something like order
is rising. Phloenix-like from the raffle of
stuff that fringes t~he beach at high-water
mark in the h!ght behind Diza Point,
Obbia's esplanade. The men look very
fit and keen, anld although some of them,
the Sikhs notably, have never seen the
sea or a ship before, they qre none the
worse for their ,most trying ordeal of
landing through a heavy surf. Outside
the breakers one catches now and again
the dark loom of a skulking shark in
the clear, emerald green waters.
So far. with mules and horses only. the
landing has heen had enough, bhut when'
the camrls turn up!-the problem of
cetting these ":~ips of the desert" afloat'
on their own el ment from the trnnsnarts
has not even been tackled ry tip most
sanguine of transport officer:.
Imagine surf running in a deeply laden
cutter under oars'wit': a couple of snort
ing. k-icking and cursed mules, lashed
by the headstalls on either quarter, and
you have a sligh t idea of the uphill work
there is' in landing the main column of
the expedition in this forsaken spot.
i More Trouble Ashore.
On shore matters appear to be equally
uncomfortable. The Sultan of Obbia is
proving himslif a veritable son of Hams
Yussuf Ali by name.. His. features, which
are of strongly Jewish type,, do not belie
his bargainings. Firewood costs Rs. 3
per bundle, milk is absolutely unobtain
able, mutton and beef. though there are
hundreds of head grazing on what they
can find close to the camp, can only be
had at the Sultan's prices, which, need
less to say, are exorbitant. He is the
local Pierpont Morgan, and has sole con
trol of the market. , He is wily enough
to understand that we should probably
get at the true tariffs if we followed the
usual plan of inquiry first and purchase
aftorwards--ad histi00 per cent. profits
stooped. • So he has appointed himselt
sol" inrniry agent to the force, and will
not allow any of his people to communm
onte with us escept through him. Al
though not a friend of the Mullah's, he
is greatly against our advance into the
country, and in consequence not a single
camel or horse can be had for love or
money. though strings of them are visible
everywhere on the broad plain behind
the camp.' It is a thousand pities that
he cannot he induced to take a cruise in
the Italian man-of-war Caprera, which is
lying here with us, until the first advance
of the column is made.
Every Little Helping.
On board the transports the.crews and
officers of the Naiad, Canning, and Po
mone dig out from dawn until it is too
dark for the boats to take the combers
leading their boats, and keeping every
san of the fatigue parties on the beach
busy with the stream of baggage, stores,
and rations which comes in on the crest
na ,nhl, rnoller. almost so regular is the
arrival of each boat. "Little and often"
is the motto, and each man works with a
will. Down the hatches and in the
holds "Joe the marine proves himseff a
smart" and handy a man at slinging
cargo as we know he is in other things.
The Mullah.
Ev.rything is done with a will, and
though at first sight to the uninitiated
the transports' holds and decks present a
scene of "confusion worse confounded,"
yet in irality it is all cut and dried, and
each unit is doing his little bit.
The Mullah is only 120 miles from here
at Mudug, as the crow flies, but there is
not a drop of water en route.
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