Leaves suddenly in June, in uncertain circumstances. Later a colleague, Ottorino Rosa, will claim in a memoir that Rimbaud told him he threw a stone that inadvertently struck a worker in the head and killed him.

   
 

August: in Aden, Arabia, hired as a clerk in the trading firm of Mazeran, Viannay, and Bardey. November: sent to work for the firm in Harar, Choa, in Africa.
   

1881

In Harar. Expedition into the interior in search of ivory. Finds the climate in the region unpleasant.
   

1882

Returns to Aden in service of the firm. Ponders a change of employment. Promoted instead.
   

1883

Returns to Harar, now as director of the agency. Various expeditions into the interior.
   

1884

Firm in bankruptcy. Harar and Aden branches closed. Firm reestablished in July by Alfred Bardey. Rimbaud’s services retained. Returns to Aden.
   

1885

Continues to work for Bardey. Sells coffee and various goods. October: ends partnership with Bardey. Allies with another trader, Pierre Labatut, to form a caravan of arms and munitions for sale to the king of Choa, Ménélik. Prepares caravan: delays.
   

1886

Labatut falls ill: cancer. A new partner, Soleillet, dies. September: caravan at last departs.
   

1887

March: finds the king in Entotto, and liquidates caravan at what Rimbaud deems disastrous disadvantage. July: back in Aden. August: Massawa, to cash the king’s checks. On to Cairo for a month, where he deposits money at a branch of a French bank, Crédit Lyonnais. In Aden by the end of the year. First complaints of knee pain.
   

1888

Various arms caravans. Partnership with César Tian, an Aden merchant, to begin a firm in Harar.
   

1891

February: debilitating knee pain. March: seeks local medical attention. April: unable to walk. Borne on a litter to the coast, a twelve-day trip in terrible weather. May: Arrives Marseille, hospitalized. Mother arrives soon thereafter. May 27, right leg amputated above the knee.
   
 

July: released from the hospital, returns to the family home in Roche.