Arthur RIMBAUD organizes, in secret, his departure to Harar.

Arthur RIMBAUD (1854.1891)

Autograph letter signed to the Italian explorer, Ugo Ferrandi.

A page in-4°. Browned paper. Aden. April 2, 1888.

Rimbaud correspondence. Fayard. Page 601.

The man with the soles of wind prepares his trip to Harar and his delivery of weapons to King Menelik.

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“My dear Sir, I have prepared everything to leave by the “Tuna”, which will arrive on Saturday. You can do the same, avoiding unnecessary packages. I agree with pleasure to travel together and I hope that we will arrive quickly and easily. Yours truly. Rimbaud. Aden on April 2, 1888. PS. No need to tell anyone about my departure. R(im)b(au)d. »

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At the end of 1887, more or less idle in Aden, believing in a possible lifting of the Franco-English embargo on the arms trade on the Somali coast, Rimbaud once again plunged into his dreams of fortune by selling arms to the king. Ménélik, and decides to join forces with Armand Savouré to form a caravan of two hundred camels bound for Harar. Everything must be conducted in the greatest secrecy. In mid-February 1888, Rimbaud made a round trip from Aden to Harar to prepare for the expedition, and rediscovered a pacified Harar. He plans to set up there again as an independent trader, on traditional products, as correspondent for several houses in Aden such as those of César Tian and Bardey.

On Friday April 13, 1888, the English steamship Tuna set sail from Aden for the crossing of the Gulf. Rimbaud embarks there with the explorer Ugo Ferrandi who is to carry out a geographical mission to Harar. After a ten-day stopover in Zeilah, Rimbaud arrived at his destination on May 3.

However, after several about-faces, the Ministry of the Navy and Colonies finally informed Rimbaud, on May 15, that arms trafficking to the Somali coast was definitively prohibited. Furious with the situation, Rimbaud forever renounced the overly complex large-scale arms trade, and turned to traditional trading (coffee, gums, perfumes, fabrics, ivory, etc.), opening a commercial agency in Harar on his own account. . Monotonous and desperate activity which would occupy him for the next two years.

On April 7, 1891, suffering from pain in his right leg, no longer able to move or work, he organized his departure and was transported by stretcher to Aden, a stopover prior to his embarkation for Marseille, where he arrived on May 20. Immediately amputated, the poet lives out his last months. He died on November 10, 1891 at the Hospice de la Conception in Marseille.

Rimbaud seems to have met the Italian Ugo Ferrandi (1852.1928) in Aden in 1885. A sea captain, Ferrandi became an agent for the Bienenfeld House in Aden in 1884 and then an explorer for the Geographical Society.