This remarkable document was dispatched and received in 1891: in Somaliland it claimed 'the Province of Ogaden, the Habar Awal, the Gadabursi, and the 'Ise' (the last three Somali peoples being clans with whom Britain, and in the case of the 'Ise, France also, had treaties of protection). The letter also contained the challenging declaration: 'Ethiopia has been for fourteen centuries a Christian island in a sea of pagans. If Powers at a distance come forward to partition Africa between them, I do not intend to be an indifferent spectator.'

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 173