On his third deployment to Africa in 1901, a 30-year old British officer Major H.C. Hanbury-Tracy was handed the unexpected assignment of serving with an Abyssinian Army.  Becoming the first British officer in such a position, Tracy commanded the forces provided to him by Abyssinian Emperor Menelik on a route from Abyssinia to Somaliland over the course of nearly seven months. During this time, Tracy and his army investigated the revolt of Somali tribes in the Ogaden region of what is modern day Ethiopia.

Like many British officers of his time, Tracy's wartime tone is revealed as strikingly sporting. However, his almost religious dedication to recording his observations paints a rarely unaltered portrait of his expedition and the events it describes. Despite being an experienced player in the military game of being a British officer in Africa during the early 1900s, the deployment was eerily Tracy's last in his military life.

In this book, Tracy's uncanny attention to an uninterrupted narrative of his day-to-day journey in East Africa takes shape in light of diplomatic records and the added historical complexities of the time. The story delves into the culture and tendencies of Victorian and Edwardian British army officers as much as it does the military underpinnings and mysteries of the region.

Frederic A. Sharf is a collector, scholar and author. His interests lie in acquiring previously unpublished manuscript accounts written by men and women who observed events of historic significance in the period from 1865 to 1940 and making these accounts available to a worldwide audience.

Richard Pankhurst is a scholar and educator who has lived in Ethiopia for more than 30 years. He is a professor at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa, Professor Pankhurst is the prolific and respected author of numerous publications dealing with the history of Ethiopia.