ABSTRACT
During a week spent in Aden before our first journey to the interior, we stayed, by his kind invitation, at the house of the Frontier Officer, Captain Seaget. This is one of a group of new houses at Khormaksar, on the narrow sandy neck joining the volcanic crater of Aden to the mainland. On the verandah, in the welcome coolness of our first evening, our host explained the impossibility of re-opening with the Imam at that moment the question of permission for us to enter the Yemen-which (as explained) the Imam had previously given, but withdrawn about a month before our departure from England. To have broached the subject again immediately after our arrival would probably have ended our hopes of ever reaching our promised land. On Captain Seager's advice, therefore, we quickly decided to spend the time, till a propitious juncture should occur, in visiting the high and fertile Amiri country, in the Western Division of the British Protectorate, where we could reach altitudes of nearly 8,000 feet.
