JAMES BRUCE.

New York, Harper & Brothers.

THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
BRUCE,
THE
AFRICAN TRAVELLER.
BY MAJOR SIR FRANCIS B. HEAD.

Magna est veritas, ot prævalebit:

FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION.

NEW-YORK:
PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS,
NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET.
——
1840

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by
Harper & Brothers,
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The following work is one of no ordinary interest. It presents such an example of heroic fortitude, constancy, and perseverance under trials and difficulties, as cannot fail to excite in us the highest admiration. Few individuals have been placed in circumstances of greater peril and suffering than Bruce the traveller; and none, perhaps, ever more strikingly displayed that rare combination of tact and courage, which enables their possessor to triumph over every obstacle. Much practical wisdom, therefore, may be gathered from reading this volume. The country, too, visited by Bruce, and his account of its people, their history, government, laws, customs, traditions, &c., have peculiar claims on our attention. Abyssinia, remote and barbarous as it is, has, from the earliest period, steadily retained a form of Christianity. This is certainly a very remarkable phenomenon, cut off almost entirely, as that country has been, from communication with other Christian states, and surrounded on every side by Pagan and Mohammedan nations. Hence the most lively curiosity has been manifested to know more of a people who have thus marvellously preserved their ancient faith in the midst of barbarism, idolatry, and the fierce fanaticism of the followers of the Prophet. Of the few travellers who have succeeded in penetrating this secluded and dangerous country, none have had anything like the ample opportunities possessed by Bruce to obtain minute and accurate information, and no one could more faithfully improve the advantages thus fortunately offered him. The groundless and ungenerous distrust with which his statements were received for years after his return (and which is very properly noticed and rebuked by his biographer) has passed away, and his travels may now be read as containing not only the fullest, but the most authentic and credible account of Abyssinia, and the singular people by which it is inhabited.

This volume will be found written in a familiar, lively, and agreeable style, and to contain whatever is most interesting in the larger work of Bruce. It is published from the last English edition, carefully revised and corrected by the American editor, with the omission of a few passages of minor interest, not essential to the completeness of the narrative.

H. & B.

New-York, August, 1840.

CONTENTS.

LIFE OF BRUCE,

THE AFRICAN TRAVELLER.

CHAPTER I.

Bruce's Birth—Education—Marriage.—Travels in Europe.

James Bruce was born at the family residence of Kinnaird, in the county of Stirling, in Scotland, on the 14th day of December, 1730. His father was the eldest son of Helen Bruce of Kinnaird,[1] and David Hay of Woodcockdale, descended from an old and respectable branch of the Hays of Enroll, distinguished in ancient Scottish history by their bravery, and who received from Robert I. the hereditary office of high-constable of Scotland. Bruce's mother was the daughter of James Graham, Esq., of Airth, dean of the faculty of advocates, and judge of the high court of admiralty in Scotland: a man distinguished by his abilities, and respected for his public and private virtues.

On the 23d of November, 1733, Bruce lost his mother. She died of a lingering disorder, which had long undermined her constitution; and, scarcely, three years old, he thus unconsciously suffered the greatest misfortune that can befall a child, and which nothing in this world can compensate. A few years afterward, his father married the daughter of James Glen, of Longcroft, in the shire of Linlithgow, by whom he had two daughters and six sons, one of whom, while fighting as a volunteer in the forlorn hope, was mortally wounded in the breach of a fortress at the Havannah; another, in the service of the East India Company, proposed the attack, and led on the party which, on the 3d of August, 1780, took from the Mahrattas the fortress of Gualior.

Though well formed, Bruce did not, as a child, appear to possess the athletic constitution and unusual stature which he attained in manhood. The relentless disorder which had hurried his mother to an early grave, seemed to have recoiled upon him: he was subject to frequent pains in the breast; and his temper, contrary to the impetuous and daring character which it afterward assumed, was mild, quiet, and gentle. At eight years of age, his father, resolving to give to his apparent heir the advantages of a liberal education, sent him to London to the friendly care of his uncle, Counsellor Hamilton, under whose superintendence he remained until the year 1742, when, being twelve years old, he was removed to Harrow school, then conducted by Dr. Cox. Young Bruce prosecuted his studies with unusual steadiness and assiduity; and, on the 14th of July, 1744, Dr. Glen wrote to Bruce's father, his brother-in-law, as follows:

"What I wrote to you about James is all true, with this difference only, that you may say, as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon, the one half has not been told you, for I never saw so fine a lad of his years in my life; but, lest I should have been deceived in my own opinion of him, I waited purposely on Dr. Cox to get information how he was profiting, whose answer to me on that occasion was this: 'When you write to Mr. Bruce's father about his son, you cannot say too much; for he is as promising a young man as ever I had under my care, and, for his years, I never saw his fellow.'"

Bruce remained at Harrow till the 8th of May, 1746; and, in the four years he was at school, he not only acquired a competent share of classical knowledge, but won the esteem of many individuals, whose valuable friendship he retained through life. He was now nearly sixteen years of age; but his health, which had always been delicate, was by no means confirmed. He was much too tall for his age; his breast was weak: his general appearance indicated that he had grown faster than his strength; and his relations were alarmed lest he should become consumptive: however, it was now necessary to consider what profession he was to follow, and Mr. Hamilton was accordingly requested by the elder Bruce to speak to him upon this important subject. Mr. Hamilton was much pleased with young Bruce's replies; and on the 28th of July, 1746, he addressed his father as follows: "He is a mighty good youth, a very good scholar, and extremely good tempered; has good solid sense, and a good understanding. I have talked to him about what profession he would most incline to: he very modestly says he will apply himself to whatever profession you shall direct, but he, in his own inclination, would study divinity and be a parson. The study of the law, and also that of divinity, are, indeed, both of them attended with uncertainty of success; but as he inclines to the profession of a clergyman, for which he has a well-fitted gravity, I must leave it to you to give your own directions; though I think, in general, it is most advisable to comply with a young man's inclination, especially as the profession which he proposes is in every respect fit for a gentleman."

This curious picture of young Bruce's early character may appear extraordinary when compared with the performances of his after life; yet a few moments' reflection will reconcile the seeming contradiction. Many men possess talents—many possess application—the very few who possess both become what we justly term great men: there is, however, one other ingredient, namely, health, which, in proportion to its amount, induces men to seek occupations more or less active and sedentary; and it may be observed, that this ingredient, like the down which conveys many vegetable seeds to a distant soil, transports men to the remotest regions; thus scattering over the surface of the earth talents and application which, without a superabundance of health, would have been all confined at home, and directed to nearly the same pursuits: and hence it was that Bruce, when a sickly lad, as much surprised his friends by his grave, sedentary disposition, as he afterward astonished them by his wild, wandering propensities and daring researches.

After leaving Harrow, Bruce went, for about a year, to an academy, where, besides the classics, he studied French, arithmetic, and geometry. In compliance with his father's wishes, he cheerfully abandoned his inclination to enter the church, and agreed to prosecute his future studies with the view of becoming an advocate at the Scottish bar. He accordingly took leave of his English friends—one of whom, Mr. Hamilton, wrote to Mr. D. Bruce in the following terms: "As to my giving him advice with respect to his conduct and behaviour on his journey, I apprehend that to be entirely unnecessary, because it is with pleasure I think that God Almighty has given him an understanding superior to what is common at his age, and sufficient, I hope, to conduct him through all the various stages of life."

With this well-earned character, young Bruce returned to his native country in the month of May, 1747. He arrived in better health than his father had been led to expect, and spent the whole of the autumn in the enjoyment of the sports of the field, for which he suddenly acquired a partiality that he retained to the last hour of his life. Considerably strengthened by this manly and healthy recreation, at the end of the year he commenced his studies at the University of Edinburgh, by attending the lectures of the professors of civil law, Scotch law, and universal history; but he now found how much easier it is for a young man to promise than to perform, and how painfully the mind proceeds on the journey which it has not willingly undertaken. The intricate and tedious details of the Roman and Scottish codes were subjects for which Bruce's eager mind had no affinity: they were grave companions with whom he soon felt that he could never associate. In vain he studied distinctions which he did not remember, and puzzled himself with points of which he could not comprehend the importance. An ardent admirer of truth and simplicity, he very rashly conceived that in the studies which his father had proposed for him he could worship neither; but while, in filial obedience, he hung his bewildered head over his law-books, his youthful heart was apparently devoted to lovelier and more congenial objects; for on the leaves of "Elementa Juris Civilis Heineccii," on which stands the name of "James Bruce, 1749," we find written, in the midst of some very grave maxims, "Bella ingrata, io morirò!" with other equally loving sentiments from Metastasio and Ariosto. However, Bruce's bodily sickness soon closed the serious volume of the law: his health became impaired, and his physicians, wisely prescribing for his mind rather than for his body, ordered him to return to the country to enjoy fresh air and exercise. This simple medicine soon restored him to health; but it was now acknowledged that his prospect of succeeding at the bar was very limited, and to his great joy it was at last determined that he should abandon that learned profession for ever. He was, in fact, incompetent to perform its labours; and yet it is not unworthy of remark, that the boy who was thus lost in the labyrinths of Scottish law lived to be the man who afterward reached the long-hidden fountains of the Nile!

Bruce remained for several years without a profession. He at last fixed on India as a field, the distance, vastness, and novelty of which were best suited to the ardent disposition of his mind; but, being now considerably above the age for receiving a writership from the East India Company, he resolved to petition the Court of Directors for permission to settle under its patronage as a free trader. In July, 1753, in the twenty-second year of his age, he left Scotland with the view of prosecuting this design. On arriving in London, his English friends and former acquaintances received him with the greatest kindness; and, during the time he spent in soliciting permission from the directors, he lived among them in the interesting character of one who was soon to leave them for a very considerable period of his life.

By one of those friends whose kindness he was thus enjoying, he was introduced to Adriana Allan, whose mind accorded with the beauty of her person. She was the daughter of Mrs. Allan, the widow of an eminent wine-merchant, who had raised himself to opulence by diligence and integrity. This young person was elegant in her manners and appearance, and as remarkable for a gentle, unassuming temper, as for a warm, affectionate disposition. Bruce fell in love with this interesting young lady, and accordingly addressed himself to Mrs. Allan, who listened with approbation to the proposal of marriage which he had already made to her daughter; and she herself suggested that, having no profession, he should take a share in the wine-trade; and, although Bruce knew nothing of that business, as it was to be the link which was to connect him with the object of his affections, he eagerly assented to the proposal. The marriage took place on the 3d of February, 1754, and Bruce took an active part in the management of the concern. The dealings of the company were extensive, and he appeared now to be on a road which was to lead him to wealth and happiness; but this flattering prospect became suddenly overcast. His young wife had inherited from her family the seeds of a fatal disease, which, in a few months after her marriage, made it necessary for her to leave the foggy atmosphere of London. She resided at Bristol for a few months, for the benefit of the waters, though with little advantage: her complaint was alleviated, but not removed. Her last journey was to try the mild climate of the south of France. Exhausted, however, by travelling, she was obliged to stop at Paris, where she apparently rallied for a few days; but consumption was only insidiously gaining strength to overpower her, and a week after her arrival she again relapsed, the hectic flush vanished, and she expired!

While Bruce was attending her during her last moments, he was driven almost to distraction by the disgraceful bigotry of the French priests, who, in the garb of Christian ministers, crowded around his door to persecute the last moments of one whom they termed a dying heretic; and, even when the pale object of their unmanly persecution had ceased to exist, their intolerant fury sought to deny her Christian burial. At the hour of midnight, when the savage passions of his enemies were lulled in sleep, Bruce attended the corpse of his young wife to her untimely grave; and a month afterward, on the 12th of November, 1754, he thus addressed his father:

"My mind is so shocked, and the impression of that dreadful scene at Paris so strongly fixed, that I have it every minute before my eyes as distinctly as it was then happening. Myself a stranger in the country; my servants unacquainted with the language and country, my presence so necessary among them, and indispensably so with my dear wife; my poor girl dying before my eyes, full of that affection and tenderness which marriage produces when people feel the happiness, but not the cares of it; many of the Roman Catholic clergy hovering about the doors, myself unable to find any expedient to keep them from disturbing her in her last moments.... But I will write no more. I cannot, however, omit telling you an instance of Lord Albemarle's very great humanity. The morning before my wife died he sent his chaplain down to offer his services in our distress. After hearing the service for the sick read, and receiving the sacrament together, he told me, in case I received any trouble from the priests, my lord desired I would tell them I belonged to the English ambassador. When my wife died, the chaplain came again to me, desired me to go home with him, and assured me that my lord had given him orders to see my wife buried in the ambassador's burying-ground, which was accordingly done; and, had it not been for this piece of humanity, she must have been buried in the common yard where the wood is piled that serves the town for firing. Having ordered the mournful solemnity, with as much decency as is allowed in that country to heretics, at midnight, between the 10th and 11th ult., accompanied only by the chaplain, a brother of my Lord Foley's, and our own servants, we carried her body to the burying-ground at the Porte St. Martin, where I saw all my comfort and happiness laid with her in the grave. From thence, almost frantic, against the advice of everybody, I got on horseback, having ordered the servant to have post-horses ready, and set out, in the most tempestuous night I ever saw, for Boulogne, where I arrived next day without stopping. There the riding in the night-time, in the rain, want of food, which for a long time I had not tasted, want of rest, fatigue, and excessive concern, threw me into a fever; but, after repeated bleedings, and the great care taken of me by Mr. Hay, I recovered well enough to set out for London on the Wednesday. I arrived at home on the Thursday, when my fever again returned, and a violent pain in my breast. Thus ended my unfortunate journey, and with it my present prospects of happiness in this life."

After this melancholy event Bruce returned to his business in London; but he soon found that the tie which had connected him with the wine-trade was completely broken. He therefore at once gave up the chief burden of its management to his brother; and, resolving to embrace the first opportunity to resign his share altogether, he applied himself to studies calculated to divert his mind from painful thoughts and recollections. For about two years he occupied himself with the Spanish and Portuguese languages, which he learned to pronounce with great accuracy. He also laboured hard in practising several different styles of drawing. Fortunately for his views, the trade in which he was engaged required a regular and constant intercourse with France, Portugal, and Spain. The plan which he had secretly formed of visiting the Continent happily coincided, therefore, with his business; and he looked forward to the time when he should travel over the south of Europe with the taste and judgment of a scholar.

After having made a short visit to the islands of Guernsey and Alderney, he sailed in the month of July for the Continent, and spent the remainder of the year in Portugal and Spain. His professed object was to be present at the vintage of that season, while his real intention was to view the state of society and of science in those kingdoms. He landed at Corunna, in Gallicia, on the 5th of July, and proceeded to Ferrol, where he remained a few days. From Ferrol he travelled to Oporto, and thence to Lisbon. In Portugal he was much diverted with the novelty of manners and customs so different from those of his own country; and his journals during this period are filled with satirical observations on the apparent pride and stiffness of the nobility, and the ignorance of the clergy. The following may be given as a specimen of one of his first impressions as a young traveller:

"There are many particular customs in Portugal, all of which may be known by this rule—that, whatever is done in the rest of the world in one way, is in Portugal done by the contrary, even to the rocking of the cradle, which, I believe, in all the rest of the world is from side to side, but in Portugal is from head to foot; I fancy it is from this early contrariety that their brains work in so different a manner all their lives after. A Portuguese boatman always rows standing, not with his face, but his back to the stern of the boat, and pushes his oar from him. When he lands you, he turns the stern of the boat to the shore, and not the head; if a man and woman ride on the same mule, the woman sits before the man, with her face the contrary way to what they do in England; when you take leave of any person to whom you have been paying a visit, the master of the house always goes out of the room, down stairs, and out of the house before you," &c.

After travelling about Portugal for nearly four months, Bruce entered Spain; but, instead of going at once to Madrid, he turned to the right, passed through Toledo, and made an excursion over the mountains into the province of New Castile. Having advanced beyond the Sierra Morena, he traversed the districts of Cordova and Seville, on the river Guadalquivir, and about the middle of November reached Madrid. In this rapid journey he seems to have considerably improved his knowledge of the Spanish language, and to have made several attentive and judicious observations. His character, which had hitherto been concealed by various untoward circumstances, now began to appear in its real colours. The traces of Oriental manners visible in the south of Spain, the ruined palaces of the Caliphs, and the tales of romantic chivalry interwoven with the Moorish wars, suggested to him the idea that an inquiry into the history of Spain during the eight centuries in which it was possessed by the Arabs would elucidate many of the obscure causes which had obstructed the prosperity of that country.[2] Two large and unexplored collections of Arabic manuscripts belonging to the Spanish crown were lying buried in the monastery of St. Lawrence and in the Library of the Escurial; and, though Bruce was as yet but little acquainted with the Arabic language, he felt a strong ambition to trace, through this tedious labyrinth, the Moorish history of the country. On reaching Madrid, he procured an introduction to Don Ricardo Wall, minister to his Catholic majesty, a gentleman of British extraction, and of superior abilities; and from him he earnestly solicited assistance in the researches which he desired to make in Arabic literature. Mr. Wall frankly told Bruce, that the jealousy with which the Spaniards concealed their historical records from every intelligent foreigner obstructed all access to the Library of the Escurial; but the minister, pleased with the adventurous spirit and the intelligence which he evinced, used every endeavour to persuade him to enter his master's service. Bruce, however, had already many roaming projects in his head: he was therefore unwilling to settle; and, like the swallow, about to take its departure it knows not where, he kept constantly on the wing, flying apparently everywhere rather than be at rest. After having made many observations on the several places which he visited in Spain, on Christmas day, 1757, he arrived at Pampeluna, the capital of Navarre, on his way to France.

Crossing the Pyrenees, he went to Bordeaux, where, delighted with the cheerful vivacity of French society, he remained several months among friends and some relations who were residing there. From Bordeaux he travelled through France to Strasburg; then, following the course of the Rhine to its confluence with the Maine, he visited Frankfort. Returning to the romantic valley of the Rhine, he visited Cologne, from whence he proceeded to Brussels, the capital of the Austrian Netherlands, which country he had long been extremely desirous to examine. On the second day after his arrival, he happened to be in the company of a young man, a perfect stranger to him, who was rudely insulted. Bruce foolishly remonstrated with the aggressor, who sent him a challenge, which he accepted. They met; and Bruce, having wounded his antagonist, left Brussels immediately for Holland; whence, proceeding towards Hanover, he arrived in time to see the battle of Crevelt. This was the first military operation which he had ever witnessed. He had often boasted, and still more often dreamed, of what he was always delighted to call the exploits of his ancestors, but hitherto he had only read or heard of war. The moment he became acquainted with its reality, it appeared to his excited mind to be a brilliant game, teeming with prizes and blanks; a legal gambling of life, which, by comparison, made every other employment appear trifling and insipid; and, impressed with these feelings, he resolved to forsake the peaceful life he had hitherto led, and seek adventures more congenial, as he conceived, to the spirit of his ancestors.

On his way to England he received a letter at Rotterdam informing him of the death of his father. The inestimable affection of a mother Bruce had never known; and, by the demise of his father, a man of excellent character and sound abilities, he was now deprived of all that he had ever known of parental love. He immediately proceeded to England, where he arrived in the end of July, 1758. In consequence of his father's death, Bruce succeeded to the family estate of Kinnaird, a respectable inheritance, but inadequate to the wants of his growing ambition. He did not immediately visit Scotland, being partly occupied with his concern in the wine-trade: but he gradually retired from this occupation, and in 1761, three years after his return, the partnership was legally dissolved. During this period he had been diligently employed in acquiring the Eastern languages; and, in the course of studying the Arabic (a branch of learning at that time little connected with European knowledge), he was induced to examine, in the works of Ludolf, the Ethiopic or Geez tongue, which first directed his attention to the mountains of Abyssinia. While he was thus employed, the establishment of the Carron Company in Scotland made a very considerable addition to his fortune: his property partly consisting of coal-mines, which were required by that company for the smelting of their iron.

A circumstance now happened which forms the leading feature in the singular history of Bruce's life. During the few days which he had spent at Ferrol, in Gallicia, a report was circulated that the court of Spain was about to engage in war with Great Britain. On considering the means of defence which the place possessed, it appeared to Bruce that an attack on it by a British squadron could not fail of being successful, and that, in case of a war with Spain, it was the point at which that country ought to be invaded.

On his return to England, although perfectly unknown to the public, our travelling partner in the wine-trade boldly resolved to submit his project to Mr. Pitt. He accordingly fully explained to his friend Mr. Wood, then under secretary of state, the facts on which he had formed his opinion; and, unwilling to appear as one of those who valorously invent expeditions of danger which they most prudently call upon others to carry into execution, he concluded by saying, that, in case a war with Spain should be resolved on by the ministry, if the king would intrust him in a single boat with a pair of colours, he would plant them with his own hand on the beach at Ferrol.

Bruce was now sent for by Mr. Pitt, with whom he had the honour of conversing on the subject; and, at the minister's suggestion, he drew up a memorandum of his project. He was shortly after informed by Mr. Wood that Mr. Pitt intended to employ him on a particular service; that he might, however, go down for a few weeks to his own country to settle his affairs, but that he must not fail to be ready upon a call. "Nothing could be more flattering," says Bruce, "than such an offer; to be thought worthy, when so young, of any employment by Mr. Pitt, was doubly a preferment." No time was lost; but, just after Bruce had received orders to return to London, Mr. Pitt went to Bath and resigned his office.

This disappointment was the more sensibly felt, as it was the first Bruce had met with in public life. However, shortly after Mr. Pitt's resignation, he was informed by Mr. Wood that the memorandum he had addressed to Mr. Pitt had been laid before the king, and had been strongly recommended by Lord Halifax. The Earl of Egremont and Mr. Grenville had now several meetings with Bruce, to concert an expedition against Ferrol, the execution of which was to be intrusted to Lord Howe; but, at the earnest request of the Portuguese ambassador, the project was abandoned, and, on the death of Lord Egremont, Bruce's expectations again vanished.

Disappointed in his offer of public service, he retired to his estate in Scotland; but he was shortly again called to London by Lord Halifax, who, appreciating Bruce's character, nobly observed to him, that, being in the vigour of life, at the height of his reading, health, and activity, it would be ignoble were he to turn peasant, and bury himself in obscurity and idleness, while the coast of Barbary, which might be said to be just at our door, had been but partially explored by Dr. Shaw, who had not pretended to give to the public any details of the magnificent remains of ruined architecture which he, as well as Sanson, had vouched to have seen in great abundance over the whole of that country. Lord Halifax therefore expressed a wish that Bruce should be the first, in the reign just now commencing, to set an example of making large additions to the royal collection; he pledged himself to be his supporter and patron, and to make good to him the promises which he had received from former ministers. The discovery of the source of the Nile was also a subject of their conversation; and although it was mentioned as a thing to be accomplished only by a more experienced traveller, yet Bruce always declared it was at that instant of his life that his heart suggested to him "that this great discovery should either," as he says, "be achieved by me, or remain, as it had done for the last two thousand years, a defiance to all travellers, and an opprobrium to geography."

Fortune seemed to favour his scheme. Mr. Aspinall, having been very cruelly and ignominiously treated by the Dey of Algiers, had resigned his consulship, and Mr. Ford, a merchant, the dey's acquaintance, had been appointed in his stead: but, he dying a few days afterward, the consulship again became vacant, and Lord Halifax pressed Bruce to accept it, as being convenient for aiding him in the proposed expedition. "This favourable event," says Bruce, "finally determined me. I had all my life applied unweariedly, perhaps with more love than talent, to drawing, the practice of mathematics, and especially that part necessary to astronomy. The transit of Venus was at hand. It was certainly known that it would be visible once at Algiers, and there was great reason to expect that it might be twice. I had furnished myself with a large apparatus of instruments, the completest of their kind, for the observation. In the choice of these I had been assisted by my friend Admiral Campbell, and Mr. Russell, secretary to the Turkish Company. Every other necessary had been provided in proportion. It was a pleasure now to know that it was not from a rock or a wood, but from my own house at Algiers, I could deliberately take measures to place myself in the list of men of science of all nations who were then preparing for the same scientific attempt."

On his appointment to be consul at Algiers, Bruce had the honour of being presented to his majesty George III., who graciously requested him to make accurate drawings of the ruins of ancient architecture which he should discover in the course of his travels; and to give Bruce a liberal opportunity of improving his taste, and to qualify him for collecting with greater ability the remains of antiquity in Africa (the southern region of the Roman empire), it was arranged that he should travel through France into Italy, and remain there for some months, under the pretext of waiting for despatches which were to be there forwarded to him.

Delighted with prospects so congenial to his disposition, being now thirty-two years of age, he sailed from England in June, 1762; and, though some objections had been made as to particular passports solicited by the British government from the French secretary of state, M. de Choiseul waived such exceptions with regard to Bruce, and politely assured him, in a letter accompanying his passport, that those difficulties did not in any shape regard him, but that he was perfectly at liberty to pass through, or to remain in France, with those who might accompany him, without limiting their number, as short or as long a time as should be agreeable to him.

Having arrived at Rome (August, 1762), Bruce proceeded to Naples, and there, for some months, awaited his majesty's farther commands. He afterward went to Florence, where he remained most studiously occupied for a considerable time.

It would be tedious to enter into a detail of the antiquities, paintings, and other curiosities which Bruce observed in the course of his journey, as they have been visited by thousands of Englishmen, and have been minutely described by travellers of every possible description. It is only necessary to state that Bruce made very minute memoranda respecting every remarkable place or object which he visited;[3] that his catalogue of paintings is very extensive; and that his notes indicate the variety of his knowledge, the correctness of his judgment, and the exalted feelings with which he visited those faded scenes of Roman glory, which, like Byron's "Greece," may be justly compared to a corpse from which a noble spirit has departed.

While at Naples, he received from slaves, redeemed from the province of Constantia, descriptions of magnificent ruins which they had seen while traversing that country in the camp of their master, the bey; and as it was Bruce's intention not only to take accurate drawings of these, but also to endeavour to make a map of the country, with observations on its natural history, and on the manners and language of its inhabitants, he justly concluded that the packing and repacking, mounting and rectifying the instruments alone would wholly occupy one man; and he therefore wrote to several of his correspondents, requesting them to procure him an assistant. For a long time no one appeared willing to share the fatigues of such journeys; but at last a young man was engaged who was then studying architecture at Rome. He was a native of Bologna, named Luigi Balugani. Besides the assistance of this person, Bruce provided himself in England with two camera obscuras, the largest of which was made of separate pieces, folding compactly on hinges: its body was a hexagon of six feet diameter, with a conical top; in this instrument, as in a summer-house, the draughtsman sat unseen, and in executing views of ruined architecture, could do more work in an hour than the readiest artist, without such assistance, in seven.

After having passed eight months at Naples, Rome, Bologna, and Florence,[4] during which time he most attentively visited the antiquities, paintings, cabinets, &c., availing himself of every opportunity to improve his skill in drawing, he at last received his despatches from England. Proceeding immediately to Leghorn, Bruce embarked on board the Montreal man-of-war, and arrived at Algiers on the 15th of March, 1763.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Bruces of Kinnaird trace their pedigree to that Norman house which once occupied the throne of Scotland.

[2] See M. Florian's History of the Moors of Spain, published by Harper & Brothers, 1840.

[3] It appears, from sketches found among his papers, that he intended to write a dissertation on the ancient and modern state of Rome.

[4] The papers which are preserved relating to this journey are: "A Narrative of the Route from Turin to Bologna—Inscriptions—Account of Trajan's Tables—of Bologna—of the Paintings there—Route from Bologna to Rome—Description of the Paintings in St. Peter's—the Vatican—the Capitol—Belvidere—Albano—Barbarini Palace—in the Palaces Spado—Little Farnese—Corsini—Borghese, &c.—Route from Rome to Naples—Dissertation on Ancient and Modern Rome, Florence, &c., &c."

CHAPTER II.

Bruce's Residence at Algiers as British Consul.

We have already stated that Bruce had been appointed to the consulship of Algiers, to succeed Mr. Aspinall, who had been recalled. This gentleman had, with great firmness and integrity, opposed many unjust demands made on him by the dey, who, in consequence, sent a letter to England requesting that he might be dismissed, and Mr. Ford, a British merchant, appointed in his stead. This official document, addressed "to the English vizier, Mr. Pitt," is a curious specimen of barbarous diplomacy: "My high friend: For some time past, John Ford was a merchant at Algiers, whom we desire you to appoint consul, and send him a day the sooner to us, because your consul in Algiers is an obstinate person, and like an animal!"

This Mr. Ford died in England; and Bruce, on his arrival at Algiers, presented to the old dey credentials from his Britannic majesty, graciously appointing as consul "our trusty and well-beloved James Bruce, Esq., whom, by his birth and education, as well as by his knowledge and experience, we have judged to be every way qualified for this trust."

Ali Pasha, the dey of Algiers, was one of those savage characters who, on the coast of Barbary, are very appropriately distinguished by the appellation of great men. In the history of mankind, it is curious to observe how, in the various conditions of society, different descriptions of men rise to the surface, where they remain until a moral revolution, altering their specific gravity, obliges them to sink into oblivion. In a highly-civilized community, a man rises to distinction by the estimable qualities of his nature: in an uncivilized country he climbs above his comrades by violence and cruelty. The Dey of Algiers was, therefore, well-suited to the manners of the country in which he lived. Although a very old man, Bruce found him preparing most vigorously for the siege of Oran: his tent and camp equipage were ready; and he declared it to be his intention to command in person, that, by dying at the siege of Oran, he might merit Paradise.[5] On the 1st of May, 1763, Bruce wrote to Lord Egremont to announce his arrival; and the concluding sentence of even this, his first official communication, to use a vulgar expression, "smells strongly of the shop," or, rather, of the shambles, which he was doomed to inhabit: "I have nothing farther to trouble your lordship with," says the new consul, "at present, only that the late aga was strangled a very few days ago by order of the dey, and that Amor Rais, late ambassador in England, has been deprived of his employment here as captain of the port, and is gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca."

Shortly afterward the prime minister, who had been expected to succeed the dey, was arrested in his presence, and instantly strangled; and all his relations, and even his friends, were privately put to death, in order to stifle any inclination they might feel, to complain of the murder of this personage. Not long after, the French Consul hesitating to comply with some orders received from the dey, he immediately loaded him with chains, and threatened to have him harnessed to the stone-carts!

On the appointment of every new consul at Algiers, it had always been customary that he should bring with him a present, which is generally supposed in England to be delivered to the dey himself: but this is not the case. It is distributed among all the public officers, who consider it as their due rather than as a gift which they are fortunate enough to receive. Bruce's present consisted principally of blue cloth, his distribution of which furnished an odd picture of rank at Algiers, which seems to be what we should term "High Life below Stairs"—for the dey's "chief cook" shared equally with the "dey's brother," his "chamberlain," his "ambassador to the Ottoman Porte," and his "two principal secretaries"—each of whom received eleven yards of cloth: the dey's "second cook," the "admiral," the "first commander of the navy," the "captain of the port," and the "master carpenter," each received eight yards; while the "captain of marine," the "secretary for prizes," the "comptroller of the dey's house," and his highness's "barber," claimed four yards. In consequence of a late increase in the number of officers, Bruce's present was not sufficient to satisfy them all: he therefore himself purchased articles to a considerable amount, respecting which he thus wrote to his friend Mr. Wood, the under-secretary of state: "For my own part, though I hope his majesty and the secretary of state will consider the circumstances of this expense of mine, so that I may not lose this £213; yet, if they should not do it, I shall myself never repent having advanced the money, and lost it, rather than, in my time, his majesty should lose the affection of this people."

About the year 1757, a vessel bound to Algiers was seized by the Spaniards in Oran, and the dey had ever since importuned the British government for indemnification for the cargo. Bruce had firmly resisted this claim (which the government at home also refused to admit), but it placed him in a very difficult situation, and on the 8th of March, 1764, he thus wrote to Lord Halifax: "I am much importuned for your lordship's answer to the demand of compensation for the cargo belonging to the Algerines, seized on board a British bilander[6] in the port of Oran. They imagine it is owing to my not having wrote, or to my having received the money and not inclining to pay it, that as yet they have obtained no satisfaction. Twenty or thirty of them are concerned in this cargo, and it is all that many of them have in the world. Upon this account I have already been exposed to very great personal danger from the license of the soldiers, which I should in no way regret were the occasion honourable, or did it conduce to his majesty's service."

On the 3d of June Bruce again addressed Lord Halifax, to inform him of the situation of affairs, and frankly to explain to him the fatal error that had been committed by the British government in recalling the late consul, Mr. Aspinall. "The demand of the Moors still continues. I cannot conceal from your lordship that I have been very lately, with little decency, forced to appear before a Turkish judge, to answer whether I would or would not oblige myself personally for the payment of this debt; and it is with very much concern that I acquaint your lordship that the recall of Mr. Aspinall has had the very worst effect upon British in particular, and Christian affairs in general: the king has declared that he will change consuls every two years; for which he assigns no reason, though it is in order to receive presents more frequently; and he is now assuming the nomination of consuls himself, having, as he says, begun with the English. He has lately appointed a slave consul for Venice, and has refused the consul the republic sent. He has made a Jew consul of Ragusa; and, I am told, is soon to change the Dutch likewise. The king is now turned old, and his memory nearly gone: he is altogether guided by one Maltese and one Spanish renegado, who lead him into these measures."

Bruce proceeds to unfold the horrid private character of the dey, which we must beg to leave in total darkness. He then proceeds to remind his lordship, that his object in accepting the consulship of Algiers was to have an opportunity of making drawings of the principal antiquities in that part of Africa; and he accordingly requests three months' leave of absence in order to visit the interior, with his majesty's permission, on his return, to resign his situation: he concludes his letter by nobly recommending that Mr. Aspinall should be restored to the consulship of Algiers. During the whole period of Bruce's residence, every leisure moment had been employed in improving his knowledge of the Arabic and Moorish languages. Secluded in his study, he occupied himself in translating some Arabic manuscripts, which, with great trouble, he had collected, and his only recreation when abroad was in conversing with the natives. "My immediate prospect," he says, "of setting out on my journey to the inland parts of Africa had made me double my diligence; night and day there was no relaxation from these studies."

In about a month after his last letter, Bruce informed Lord Halifax that he had been to the dey to remonstrate with him about an English sailor who was then treated as a slave. "The only answer I could get," says Bruce, "was, 'that when the king paid for his redemption, his majesty should have him; till when he should continue a slave, though it was till his death.' This is the tone with which the king now speaks, ever since his successful endeavour in procuring Mr. Aspinall's return, and his putting the French consul in the stone-carts and chains without consequences; and we have now neither personal nor national privileges, but are treated at discretion. Denmark has agreed to pay constantly, in stores, near £10,000 per annum; Sweden and Holland do the same; and to give me the preference over the others, not less than £2000 yearly is distributed by the other consuls in jewels and watches, as private presents to the regency; Venice has spent about £20,000 to make peace, and pays £4000 yearly; France, to rescue its trade, which amounts to a monopoly of every valuable production of the coast, is always giving and always ill-treated; England, only once in the eight or nine years, upon the change of consuls, gives a scanty present: so that our whole weight must consist in the countenance showed us from home, which they now believe they can prevent by any application from hence; and with this I am constantly threatened if I but speak of grievances ever so gently."

Bruce then repeats his request for permission to quit this troubled scene, and to commence his long-wished-for inquiries. But, determined that it should not be thought his object was to shrink from danger, he concludes by saying, "Though, if there is any remonstrance his majesty directs to be made to this regency that may interfere with this journey, I willingly waive it for the sake of his majesty's service."

This letter was scarcely despatched, when he again addressed Lord Halifax as follows: "Since I had the honour of writing last to your lordship, that I had been called before a Turkish judge about the demand of Oran, things have come to what I hope is the extremity, though it is difficult to say what is the utmost length these people may go, after their recent behaviour to the French consul. Two days ago, an English ship was sent out of this port by order of the dey, without any passport endorsed, or without any bill of health or other paper of expedition from the British consulate; a slave of the king's acting as his majesty's consul in clearing her out of the port. As his majesty's commission is thus superseded, it remains with your lordship to consider what remedy is to be applied. I have avoided any explanation farther with the king, that no opportunity might be given to say, as in the case of the French consul, that I did not behave with proper respect; and though my first intention, upon receiving this affront, was to leave Algiers and to return to Mahon, to avoid either ignominy or danger, yet, not having his majesty's leave, and uncertain what turn these people may take concerning our trading-vessels, I have resolved to await your lordship's answer in Algiers rather than desert his majesty's service. Your lordship is so much better a judge of what is necessary in this case, that it is presumption in me to mention it; only, if it be allowed for me to guess by what I have lately seen, all negotiation is but lost time unless force be before their eyes."

A few days afterward, the English sailor who had been imprisoned by the dey appeared before Bruce, hacked, mangled, and covered with bruises. He was sent to Bruce by the express order of the dey, to show, as he said, "that he cared neither for the King of England nor his consul!" Nor were other subjects of complaint wanting, as will appear from the following letter which Bruce addressed to Lord Halifax:

"On the 18th war was declared against the emperor; and some Tuscan sailors and passengers arriving unfortunately on board a French vessel, they were dragged from under the French colours, against the law and practice of all nations, and made slaves; the French consul being too much intimidated, by being put lately in irons, to venture to remonstrate against this affront to their flag. My lord, in this country of murder, chains, and torture, your lordship will not expect me to be more explicit than I am as to measures. I am not certain but that the doctor[7] will be stopped, and my letters seized to-morrow.... I was just finishing my letter to your lordship, when word is brought to me that, this morning early, the master and supercargo of the above-mentioned vessel were carried before the dey, and were bastinadoed over the feet and loins in such a manner that the blood gushed out, and then loaded with heavy chains, the lightest of which weighs a hundred weight. The captain, it is thought, will not live. They are not allowed meat, drink, or clothing, or room to lie in, and subsist wholly on an allowance from me.... The same day it was proposed to give my vice-consul, Mr. Forbes, a thousand bastinadoes, to extort from him a confession of the contents of my papers. He has fled to my house for protection, where he continues in great fear; for, being much affected with the gout, a very small proportion of the thousand bastinadoes would kill him; nor could he satisfy them in a single syllable, as I have never, in writing or copying letters to your lordship, used any hand but my own; and it being now, I fear, the time in which some restraint may be put on my liberty, I can no longer venture to preserve even copies, so beg your lordship will pardon the variations of such letters as are intended as duplicates, as the difference will never be very material."

It is surely impossible for any one to read the above letter without being filled with feelings of astonishment that this country, which, like all others, has so often waged war for trifles, or to repel imaginary insults, should ever have submitted to such repeated insults from so petty and barbarous a government as that of Algiers.[8]

Soon after Bruce's last letter, full of indignation, he again wrote to Lord Halifax, recommending, in the strongest terms, force, as the only way of maintaining the national dignity at Algiers; and fearing lest his advice on so important a measure should be questioned, he refers Lord Halifax to several individuals in England who knew him, "and who," he says, "will, I hope, fully satisfy your lordship that I am incapable of representing anything in a false or aggravated light." After thus boldly recommending forcible measures, which would have been so highly dangerous to his own personal security, he adds: "I myself have received from a friend some private intimations to consult my own safety and escape. The advice is impracticable, nor would I take it were it not so. Your lordship may depend upon it, that, till I have the king's orders, or find that I can be of no farther service here, nothing will make me leave Algiers but force. One brother has already, this war, had the honour to lose his life in the service of his country. Two others, besides myself, are still in it; and if any accident should happen to me, as is most probable, from these lawless butchers, all I beg of his majesty is, that he will graciously please to extend his favour to the survivers, if deserving, and that he will make this city an example to others how they violate public faith and the law of nations."

In order fairly to appreciate the disinterested firmness of the above letter, it should be remembered that Bruce was remaining at Algiers against his will, and that he had long ago repeatedly applied for his majesty's permission to resign the consulship.

A violent dispute now took place between Bruce and the dey about passports. On the taking of Minorca by the French, a number of English passports fell into the hands of the enemy; and the French governor, naturally wishing to embroil England in disputes with the Barbary States, filled up the blanks of these passports, and then sold them to Spaniards, Neapolitans, and other enemies of the Barbary regencies. As soon as this fraud was detected, the British governors of Gibraltar and Mahon furnished the ships of their nation with written certificates, which they imprudently termed Passavans: but these pirates not being able to read them, and observing that they differed in shape and form from the old printed passports, inveighed against the supposed duplicity of the English, and importuned their master the dey to order every ship to be seized which carried a passavant. Bruce opposed this counsel with steady resolution; but the old dey, holding several passavans in his hand, answered him, with great emotion, in these very memorable terms: "The British government knows that we can neither read nor write; no, not even our own language. We are ignorant soldiers and sailors—robbers, if you will—though we do not wish to rob you. War is our trade, and we live by that only. Tell me how my cruisers are to know all these different writings and seals?"

Bruce, neither intimidated nor convinced by the savage eloquence of the dey, again remonstrated; upon which he was disowned as consul, his dragoman was taken from him, and he was ordered to quit the country in three days. "In reply," says Bruce, "I begged the dey to excuse me if I considered myself still as British consul, and if I denied it to be in the power of any foreign prince to annul my commission." An English ship happening to arrive about this time with a passavant, was broken in pieces, and the crew hurried into slavery. Bruce now prepared to embark, but the storm suddenly subsided. The unruly passions of the dey, though deaf to reason, had listened to the subtle admonitions of his officers, who explained to him the ruinous consequences of a war with England. Regular printed passports arrived, and "thus ended," says Bruce, "an affair the least pleasing, the least profitable, and one of the most dangerous in which I was ever engaged."

In communicating intelligence of his own dismissal, and of the above proceedings of the dey to Lord Halifax, Bruce again recommended that the remedy of force, that actual cautery, should be applied; and always ready to share in every service of danger which he conceived it his duty to propose, he offered to return with any expedition against the place. "I shall always esteem it," he says, "an honour to venture my life in his majesty's service, without rank or reward, in the station he shall be pleased to employ me."

Considerable time elapsed before Bruce received from England any reply to his communications from Algiers; and but little notice was taken of the request which he had so repeatedly made for leave of absence to visit Tunis and the interior. In the months of November and December, 1764, he thus addressed Lord Halifax:

November 3.—"I take the liberty, my lord, to offer your lordship my most humble thanks for having laid my request of leave to resign this consulship before the king. Very disagreeable and dangerous as my situation is, if his majesty or your lordship think that it is more for the advantage of the service that I should remain till these disputes are settled, rather than that they should be taken up by my successor, I am entirely at his majesty's disposal, only I hope that some resolution may be speedily taken for the safety of commerce and of the king's servants. I beg leave to remind your lordship of my request, that before my resignation I might have permission to visit Tunis and some other places in the inland country. My absence will not exceed three months, and his majesty's affairs here will be perfectly safe, and well conducted during that time by Mr. Forbes, my vice-consul."

Again, on the 14th of December, he thus acknowledges the receipt of an order to await the arrival of a consul who had been at last appointed to succeed him. "I should have been much obliged to your lordship if it had been thought proper to have procured me permission to have made the proposed journey to Tunis, as I requested in several letters; but, as I have not had any return, and as it would be impossible, without the protection of the king's commission, to make it with any effect, I submit. My lord, in disputes with these regencies, it has almost uniformly been the practice to join his majesty's consul in the commission for adjusting these differences. Excuse me, my lord, if I, with all possible humility, observe, that the contrary now, and the immediate arrival of a successor, has in my case every appearance of disgrace, which I cannot but feel sensibly, after having in so disagreeable and dangerous a conjuncture done everything possible to protect his majesty's commerce, and maintain the character of my commission."

In justice to the memory of Lord Halifax, it is proper to give his sensible reply to the latter part of Bruce's letter. "With regard to the appearance of disgrace which you are apprehensive the arrival of a successor at such a juncture may carry, you have the satisfaction to know that your conduct has been honoured with his majesty's approbation, and that it was in consequence of your repeated desires to resign and return home that another consul has been appointed in your stead."

Previous to the arrival of Bruce's successor, the dey caused a letter to be written to his Britannic majesty, to complain that a party of Algerine soldiers had been captured off Gibraltar by the Spaniards, in consequence of secret intelligence of their approach having been given to the Spanish commander by the British garrison. The above statement is necessary in order to explain the following translation of this most curious letter.

"Mustapha Han.

"The help of the helpers and guard of kings, mighty king, the most merciful, with the help of God at Mecca—commander of the whole Mohammedans under God! God preserve the king!

"King of land and sea—king, son of king, the king of mercy, Mustapha Han, may God maintain his glory and his kingdom for ever—Sovereign lord of my country, also of the west! Ally Bacha, God fulfil his desires, to his most sacred majesty King George the third—God grant him long life and our love.

"King, defender of Christian faith, king of England, France, and Ireland, our beloved, great, and noble friend whom God prosper, may God direct you to do good to me, and may you enjoy your crown for ever, and our friendship for ever, amen.

"The love and friendship, I continue: now what I beg from your majesty in the name of God the most mighty, always in mutual friendship, and pray God to continue our friendship till death, which that's certain.

"Now, I beg your majesty will listen to what I am going to say without fail. My great beloved friend, the foundation of this letter is Athebeck, from my dominions with a parcel of soldiers when they came below Gibraltar the people in the garrison gave notice to the Spaniards, and they took 'em, and this treachery cannot subsist between us. Now, I beg your majesty will do us justice, and pray God preserve your majesty, and may our friendship continue for ever. Amen.

"Allgier,
Ally Basha,
the 22d of month
Ramazan, in the year
1178, Dettusura."
(Which corresponds with the
16th of March, 1765.)

As soon as it was known that a consul was coming from England to succeed Bruce, the effect was produced which he had apprehended; for every one pretended to consider that it was in consequence of the King of England's disapprobation of his conduct. Bruce was therefore treated with great indignity. The cruelties, indeed, of the dey seemed to increase with his age. In a single morning, seventeen Turks were seized and strangled in his presence; he even condemned to death his own brother; and for every trifling complaint brought before him, he prescribed King Richard's remedy of "Off with his head!"

At last the new British consul arrived, accompanied by Captain Cleveland of the navy. This consul was, however, shortly afterward recalled; and, in less than two years, two others succeeded to the same dangerous post. One of these gentlemen, on sailing from England, was recommended by the government to do everything in his power to accommodate the troublesome affairs of Algiers. His obsequious, courtier-like conduct forms a striking contrast with Bruce's firm, manly behaviour; and he was very shortly recalled for overacting his part of conciliation, by allowing the dey to impose a tax on English vessels which he had no right whatever to demand.

In the following letter this gentleman thus informs Lord Halifax of the death of the dey: "I have now the mortification to acquaint you of the death of his excellency the good old dey, Alli Bashaw, who was seized with a violent cold and pleuritic complaint the 24th past. He continued in a declining way till Sunday the 2d inst., when he expired between one and two o'clock in the morning, aged seventy, after having reigned eleven years and forty days. The divan was immediately assembled, and about seven the hamagee or treasurer was chosen to succeed him. The colours were then hoisted at the palace, the garrison, and harbour, as also at the several forts, with a discharge of cannon. At eight I paid my respects to the new dey, Mohammed Bashaw, and was well received. About nine the old dey was carried out to be interred, and all was quiet."

In this whining requiem, which one of Bruce's successors, a British consul, sings over the carcass of that old sanguinary tyrant Alli Bashaw, the dey of Algiers, the reader will probably start at the appellation of the "good old dey:" yet the consul's letter is unfortunately but a specimen of those diplomatic reports which, from distant countries, are too often made to coincide with the supposed views and fancies of the minister at home.

The long intervals which elapsed between the letters that Bruce had addressed to Lord Halifax, he regularly devoted to study, in making himself familiar with everything that could be necessary for his intended journey. A Greek priest, a native of Cyprus, had attached himself to Bruce on his first arrival in Algiers. From this venerable man he acquired a knowledge of the modern Greek, which was of the greatest assistance to him in Abyssinia; and the reader will soon learn what essential service this priest rendered to Bruce when he afterward met with him in Egypt. From Mr. Ball, the king's surgeon at Algiers, he also acquired professional information of the most valuable description, and which afterward became his passport in all the countries which he visited.

In this manner did Bruce pass his time at Algiers, deliberately preparing himself for the great discovery which was the ultimate object of his ambition. His paltry disputes with the dey, and the neglect which attended his repeated applications to England for permission to commence his journey, would have engrossed the whole attention of most people, and distracted with petty distress the minds of many: but neither these, nor the enervating effects of the African climate, could shake his unalterable determination; and after having been detained at Algiers for two years and a quarter, he was no sooner relieved by Captain Cleveland than he immediately prepared for his departure. Accordingly, on the 25th of August, 1765, he sailed from Algiers, his mind filled with the most agreeable ideas, and rejoicing to run his arduous course.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Bruce's official letters from Algiers (preserved in the Colonial Office) give so correct and extraordinary a picture of that barbarous government, and of the singular situation in which he was placed there, that we have great pleasure in being permitted to lay some of them, in an authentic shape, before the public.

[6] A small flat-bottomed vessel of seventy or eighty tons burden, of the description used for the transportation of goods on the canals in Holland.—Am. Ed.

[7] Dr. Ball, the bearer of despatches from Bruce for England.

[8] About the time of writing the above (in the year 1830), Algiers was attacked and captured by the French. Whether they will retain the acquisition then made, or, in renouncing it, take measures, in concert with other nations, to prevent its again becoming a resort for pirates, remains to be seen.—Ed.[9]

[9] There can be no doubt that it is the intention of the French government to keep permanent possession of that country, as they are now (in 1840) operating with an army of not less than 50,000 men to complete its subjugation.—Am. Ed.

CHAPTER III.

Bruce Travels through the Kingdoms of Tunis and Tripoli—Is Wrecked—Beaten by the Arabs—Sails to Crete, Rhodes, Asia Minor, and Syria—Visits Palmyra and Baalbec—Is Detained at Cyprus—Sails for Egypt.

The dey, secretly admiring the firmness and integrity of Bruce's character, had furnished him with recommendatory letters to the beys of Tunis and Tripoli—states independent of the Dey of Algiers, but over which the circumstances of the times had given him considerable influence. Sailing along the African coast, Bruce landed at Bona, the ancient Aphrodisium, and, anchoring at Biserta, he paid a visit to Utica, as he says, "out of respect to the memory of Cato." He then landed at Tunis, and, delivering his letters to the bey, he obtained permission to visit the country in whatever direction he pleased. From the French and English consuls he received great attention and assistance; and about the middle of September, while the weather was still dreadfully hot, he set out for the interior of the kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, accompanied by his draughtsman Luigi Balugani, a French renegado named Osman, and ten spahis or foot-soldiers, "who," says Bruce, "were well armed with firelocks and pistols, excellent horsemen, and, as far as I could ever discern, as eminent for cowardice, at least, as they were for horsemanship." On reaching Tucca, he found a Corinthian pillar of Parian marble and the ruins of a temple, among which he remained fifteen days, making various most valuable drawings, which, we are sorry to say, still remain unpublished.

After visiting several other places, he came to Hydra, the Thunodrunum of the ancients, on the frontier of the two kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, and inhabited by a tribe of Arabs called Welled Sidi Boogannim. These Arabs were immensely rich, paying no tribute to Algiers or Tunis—the pretence for this exemption being a very singular one. By the institution of their founder, they are obliged to live upon lion's flesh; and, in consequence of thus eating up the enemies of the state, they are not taxed like the other Arabs. Seated among these wild people, Bruce openly partook of their fare, and, having done so, he acknowledged it in words which are highly characteristic of himself:

"Before Dr. Shaw's travels first acquired the celebrity they have maintained ever since, there was a circumstance that very nearly ruined their credit. He had ventured to say in conversation that these Welled Sidi Boogannim were eaters of lions; and this was considered at Oxford, the university where he had studied, as a traveller's license on the part of the doctor. They thought it a subversion of the natural order of things that a man should eat a lion, when it had long passed as almost the peculiar province of the lion to eat man. The doctor flinched under the sagacity and severity of this criticism: he could not deny that the Welled Sidi Boogannim did eat lions, as he had repeatedly said; but he had not yet published his travels, and therefore left it out of his narrative, and only hinted at it in his appendix.

"With all submission to that learned university, I will not dispute the lion's title to eating men; but since it is not founded upon patent, no consideration will make me stifle the merit of the Welled Sidi Boogannim, who have turned the chase upon the enemy. It is an historical fact, and I will not suffer the public to be misled by a misrepresentation of it: on the contrary, I do aver, in the face of these fantastic prejudices, that I have eat the flesh of lions—that is, part of three lions, in the tents of the Welled Sidi Boogannim." If the spirit of these noble animals had entered Bruce's heart, as their flesh did his stomach, he could not have expressed himself in bolder terms!

From Hydra he went to the ancient Tipasa, where he found a most extensive scene of ruins; and then entering the eastern province of Algiers, he reached Medrashem, a superb pile of architecture. Passing Gibel Aurex and Cassareen, the ancient Colonia Scillitana, he at last reached Spaitla, in the kingdom of Tunis. The Welled Omran, a lawless, plundering tribe, disturbed Bruce very much during the eight days which he occupied in minutely measuring and drawing the extensive and magnificent ruins of Spaitla. "It was a fair match," he says, "between coward and coward. With my company I was enclosed in a square, in which the three temples stood, where there yet remained a precinct of high walls. These plunderers would have come in to me, but were afraid of my firearms; and I would have run away from them had I not been afraid of meeting their horse in the plain. I was almost starved to death, when I was relieved by the arrival of Welled Hassan and a friendly tribe of Dreeda that came to my assistance, and brought me at once both safety and provision."

From Spaitla he proceeded to Muchtar and Musti, and then returning to Tugga, he went down the Bagrada to Tunis. From Tunis he again went to Spaitla, where he remained five days more, correcting and revising the drawings and memoranda which he had already made there. Passing Feriani, he came to a large lake, the Palus Tritonidis, now called the Lake of Marks, because there is in it a row of large trunks of palm-trees set up to guide travellers across it. "This was," says Bruce, "the most barren and unpleasant part of my journey in Africa: barren, not only from the nature of the soil, but by its having no remains of antiquity in the whole course of it." This desert scene was at last most agreeably and suddenly changed by the small river Triton, the water of which caused the adjacent country to be covered with all kinds of flowers and verdure. Bruce had now reached the Lesser Syrtis. He here turned to visit El Gemme, where there had been a large and perfect amphitheatre, until Mohammed Bey blew up a part of it to prevent its being occupied as a fortress by the Arabs. Continuing along the coast to Susa, Bruce once more arrived at Tunis, possessing drawings of what he considered "to be all the antiquities worth notice in the territories of Tunis and Algiers."

Notwithstanding the great heat to which he had been subjected, his health was good, and he had hitherto met with no accident whatever: but he had now a very serious undertaking to perform, which was to cross the desert to Tripoli; and the Bey of Tunis being at enmity with the Basha of Tripoli, could give him no letters of introduction. He accordingly took leave of the bey and proceeded to Gerba, the island of the Lotophagi, where the Bey of Tunis, with his usual munificence, had prepared for him a house, with every sort of refreshment.

On this coast there is no sort of fruit whatever: neither bush, nor tree, nor verdure of any kind, excepting the short grass that separates this country from the moving sands of the desert. About four days' journey from Tripoli, Bruce met the Emir Hadji, conducting a caravan of pilgrims from Fez in Morocco, across the whole of Africa, to Mecca—that is, from the Atlantic Ocean to the western banks of the Red Sea. The caravan consisted of about three thousand men, with an immense number of camels laden with merchandise, water, flour, and food, for the hadjis or pilgrims; and such a crowd of uncivilized beings, wildly traversing such a vast inhospitable desert, yet urged forward and supported by a principle of religion, formed a very extraordinary spectacle. They had scarcely passed when Bruce and his little party were assailed by a number of Arab horsemen, whom they repulsed with considerable difficulty, and with a loss of four men.

On arriving at Tripoli, Bruce was received by his countryman, the British consul (the Hon. Mr. Fraser of Lovat), with that kindness and attention which he much needed after so rude a journey, made with such diligence that two of his horses had died from fatigue; but as the basha was unfortunately at variance with Mr. Fraser, Bruce was much disappointed at learning that it would be absolutely necessary for him to return by the coast of the Lesser Syrtis to Tunis, to reside there until Mr. Harrison, who was appointed by government to settle the differences with the Barbary States, should solicit permission for him to travel through the dominions of Tripoli.

To Tunis, therefore, Bruce returned, and remained there till August, 1766, when this permission reaching him, he again crossed the desert, by Sfax and Gerba, to Tripoli, where he was hospitably received by the French, Venetian, and British consuls. From Tripoli he despatched an English servant to Smyrna with his books, drawings, and supernumerary instruments, having torn from his books those pages which he conceived might be of service in the Pentapolis or other parts of the Cyrenaicum, and by these precautions most fortunately saved the greater part of his labours in Africa. He then crossed the Gulf of Sidra, formerly known by the name of Syrtis Major, and arrived at Bengazi, the ancient Berenice, built by Ptolemy Philadelphus.

The brother of the Bey of Tripoli commanded here, a young man, weak in understanding and in health. For more than a year Bengazi had been suffering from severe famine; many people died from starvation every day, and some of the living were actually hovering round the corpses of the dead for food which human nature shudders to think of. Bruce at once fled from this dreadful scene. Travelling over a great part of the Pentapolis, he visited the ruins of Arsinoë and Ras Sem, and then approaching the seacoast, came to Ptolemeta, the ancient Ptolemais, the walls and gates of which he found still entire.

Here he was informed that the Welled Ali-Arabs had plundered the Morocco caravan, which he had met in the desert; that the pilgrims had been left to perish for want of water; that there was a famine at Derna, the neighbouring town to which he had intended to proceed; that the plague had also appeared, and that the town was engaged in a civil war. This torrent of bad news was irresistible; and Bruce at once resolved to fly from this inhospitable coast, and save for the public that knowledge and information which he had already so resolutely and painfully acquired. Accordingly, with his little party, he embarked on board a small Greek vessel bound for Lampedoza, but the destination of which the master had agreed to change to Crete. The vessel was badly appointed; and, when it was too late, Bruce found that, although she had plenty of sail, she carried not an ounce of ballast. A number of half-famished men, women, and children, anxious to fly from the dreadful fate which awaited them, crowded on board; but the passage was short, the vessel light, and the master, as Bruce supposed, well-accustomed to these seas. At daybreak the next day they sailed; and it was then discovered that the captain was entirely ignorant of his duty, and wholly unable to manage his ship.[10] A violent storm overtook them, and the vessel, falling to leeward, struck on a rock near the entrance of the harbour of Bengazi: fortunately, however, the wind suddenly lulled, and Roger M'Cormack, Bruce's Irish servant (who had been once a sailor in the British service), lowered the largest boat, into which he, Bruce, and a multitude of people instantly jumped. Fearing they would be swamped, they pushed off from the ship, and with two oars endeavoured to row the boat ashore. Bruce had thrown off all his clothes except a short under-waistcoat and his linen drawers; a silk sash or girdle was wrapped round him; a pencil, pocket-book, and watch were in the breast-pocket of his waistcoat; two Moorish and two of his English servants accompanied him; and the rest of his party remained on board. They had scarcely got a boat's length from the ship, when a wave nearly swamped them, and a shriek of despair announced their helpless situation. The next wave was approaching evidently to overwhelm them; and Bruce, fearing that some woman, child, or helpless man would cling hold upon him, entangle him, and thus ignominiously drag him down, resolved at least to make an effort to save himself, and, exclaiming to his servants, both in Arabic and English, "We are lost! If you can swim, follow me!" he jumped overboard.

In moments of real danger, there is nothing which more distinguishes a man than the simple fact of doing something; for the general effect of fear is to paralyze the mind as well as the body, and men under this base feeling do nothing. Bruce at first allowed himself to go to leeward, in order to get clear of the boat. A strong, practised swimmer, in the vigour of life, full of health, and accustomed to exertion and fatigue of every description, he got on very well as long as he was in deep water; but, as soon as he came to the surf, he received a blow on his breast from the eddy wave which threw him upon his back, made him swallow a quantity of water, and nearly suffocated him. The next wave left him almost breathless and exhausted. At last, finding his hands and knees on the sand, he fixed his nails into it, and desperately maintaining his hold until the sea for a moment retired, he managed to crawl forward a few feet: perfectly exhausted, he then fainted away, and remained for a considerable time insensible to the waves which, one after another, were eagerly rolling towards the shore, as if greedy to regain their prey.

At this critical moment, the Arabs, who were but two short miles from the shore, came down in crowds to plunder the vessel, all the people from which were now taken on shore, those only being lost who had perished in the boat. Bruce was first awakened from his trance by a blow with the butt end of a lance on the back of his neck; but it was merely accident that it had not been the point, for his short waistcoat, which had been purchased at Algiers, and his sash and drawers cut in the Turkish fashion, made the Arabs believe he was a Turk; and, after many hard blows, kicks, and curses, they stripped their defenceless and exhausted victim, leaving him as naked as their barren shore. After treating the rest of the passengers and crew in the same manner, they sought to plunder the bodies of those who had been drowned. In the mean while, Bruce walked, or rather crawled, to some white sandy hillocks, where he sat down and concealed himself as well as he could, for he knew that if he approached the tents where the women were while he was naked, he would receive bastinadoes considerably heavier than the last. Smarting from the discipline he had already undergone, it suddenly occurred to him that, by the gibberish in imitation of Turkish which the Arabs had uttered to him while they were beating and stripping him, they had taken him for a Turk, and had treated him accordingly. At this moment an old Arab, attended by several young men, came up to him. He offered them the salute of "Salum Alicum," with which at first they were offended, asking him what, as a Turk, he had to do there? Bruce very readily replied that he was no Turk, but a poor Christian physician, a dervish, that went about the world seeking to do good for God's sake; that when he was wrecked he was flying from famine, and was going to Greece to get bread. A ragged, dirty baracan was immediately thrown over him, and he was conducted to a tent, through the end of which appeared a long spear, which is the mark of sovereignty. The sheikh of the tribe being at peace with the Bey of Bengazi, asked Bruce many questions, and at last ordered him a plentiful supper, at which he had the happiness of meeting his attendants. Camels were then brought, and the whole party proceeded to Bengazi, from whence Bruce wrote to the sheikh, entreating him to endeavour to fish up his cases, for which he offered a handsome reward: this, however, was not effected, and he lost a sextant, telescope, timepiece, a small camera obscura, some guns, pistols, several drawings, and many of his notes and observations.

At Bengazi he fortunately met with a small French sloop, the master of which so gratefully remembered that Bruce had rendered him a trifling service at Algiers, that he generously offered even to lend him money.

After having been detained at Bengazi about two months, during which time he and his party had little to subsist on but fish, which they themselves caught, they sailed in the French sloop from the bay; and, bidding farewell to the coast of Africa, they landed at Canea, a small fortress at the west end of the island of Crete.

The beating which Bruce had received at Bengazi left marks, which, after a considerable time, totally disappeared; but the relentless ague, which, in consequence of his exertions in the Sea of Ptolemeta, fixed itself on his constitution, persecuted him through all his travels, suddenly appearing and oppressing him in moments of his severest difficulties. He was first seized with this disorder at Crete, where he remained for some days dangerously ill.

From Canea he sailed to Rhodes, where, with very great pleasure, he found his books. He then proceeded to Castelrosso, on the coast of Caramania, in Asia Minor, where he had been credibly informed there were very magnificent ruins; but his fever increasing, he found it impossible to prosecute this undertaking: he was therefore reluctantly obliged to abandon it, and, proceeding again to sea, he landed on the continent of Asia, at Beiroot, near Sidon, on the coast of Phœnicia, in June, 1767.

Bruce was now in a very weak state of health; he possessed drawings and notes which would have offered to most men alluring and tranquil occupation; he had undergone fatigues which faithfully and frankly warned him to give rest to his constitution; a new quarter of the world was now before him—new in its dangers, its history, and its inhabitants; but the enterprising spirit of Bruce remained unaltered; and, careless of his shattered frame, he now resolved that, previously to entering on his daring attempt to reach the source of the Nile, he would endeavour, as he said, "to add the ruins of Palmyra to those of Africa!"

There are two tribes, almost equally powerful, who inhabit the deserts around Palmyra: the one the Anneci, remarkable for the breed of their horses; the other the Mowulli, who are excellent soldiers. These two tribes were not actually at war, nor were they at peace; they were merely upon what is termed ill terms with each other—a very dangerous time for strangers to have any dealings with either. Bruce would have gone at once from Sidon to Baalbec, but it was then besieged by the Druses of Mount Libanus. He therefore went to Tripoli in Syria, and from thence set out for Aleppo; but, suddenly sinking under his Bengazi ague, he was just able to reach the house of M. Belville, a French merchant, to whom he was addressed for credit; and Bruce always declared, "that, had it not been for his friendly attention, and the skill and anxiety of Dr. Russel, physician to the British factory, it is probable his travels would have ended at Aleppo."

As soon as he was restored to health, his first object was his journey to Palmyra. Stopping at two miserable huts inhabited by a base set called Turcomans, he asked the master of one of them to show him a ford, which the man, apparently very kindly, undertook to do, although the river, the Orontes, was so violent that he felt more than once an inclination to turn back. However, suspecting nothing, he proceeded according to the directions of his guide, when, all of a sudden, he and his horse fell into such deep water, that each swam separately ashore; and when Bruce went to dry himself at a caphar or turnpike, the man who was there told him that the place at which he had attempted to cross was an old bridge, one arch of which had long ago been carried away; that he had consequently fallen into the deepest part of the river; and that the people who had misguided him were an infamous banditti. From Hassia Bruce and his party went to Cariateen, where, to their great surprise, they found about two thousand of the Anneci encamped: they were treated with civility, and passed the desert between Cariateen and Palmyra in a day and two nights, proceeding all the while without sleeping.

Weary and exhausted, they ascended a hill of white gritty stone, hemmed in by a narrow winding road; but when they reached the summit, "there opened before us," says Bruce, "the most astonishing, stupendous sight that perhaps ever appeared to mortal eyes. The whole plain below, which was very extensive, was covered so thick with magnificent buildings, that one seemed to touch the other—all of fine proportions, all of agreeable forms, all composed of white stones, which at that distance appeared like marble. At the end of it stood the palace of the sun, a building worthy to close so magnificent a scene."

Between the human mind and the body there is that sympathetic union, that the one readily shares its prosperity with the other; and Bruce, both enraptured and refreshed with the scene before him, only thought how he could copy it to the greatest advantage. He therefore, assisted by Balugani, divided Palmyra into six angular views, bringing into the foreground of each some edifice or group of columns particularly worthy of delineation. These views were drawn on very wide paper, and on so large a scale, that the columns in some of them were a foot long, and several of the figures in the foreground of the temple of the sun nearly four inches in height. Having finished thirteen of these drawings, he and his party quitted Palmyra, and travelled about one hundred and thirty miles to Baalbec, the interior of the great temple of which surpassed, in Bruce's opinion, anything he had seen even at Palmyra. Having taken a number of views, he proceeded by Tyre; and, as he says, "much fatigued, and satisfied beyond measure with what I had seen, I arrived in perfect health, and in the gayest humour possible, at the hospitable mansion of M. Clerambaut, at Sidon."

He there found letters from Europe in reply to those which he had written, announcing the loss of his instruments at Bengazi. From his friend Dr. Russel, at London, he learned that a reflecting telescope, as also an achromatic one by Dollond, had been forwarded to him; from Paris he received a timepiece and a stopwatch; and from Louis XV., who had heard from the Count de Buffon of Bruce's misfortune at Bengazi, he had the honour of receiving a quadrant which had belonged to the Military Academy at Marseilles. Flattered at the support thus extended to him, and delighted with the acquisition of these instruments, he resolved no longer to delay his voyage to Egypt, particularly as three years had already elapsed since he quitted Algiers: accordingly, on the 15th of June, 1768, he sailed from Sidon for Alexandria. The vessel touched at Cyprus; but, occupied with his great undertaking, Bruce naturally says of this island, "I had no curiosity to see it. My mind was intent upon more uncommon, more distant, and more painful voyages. But the master of the vessel had business of his own which led him thither: with this I the more readily complied, as we had not yet got certain advice that the plague had ceased in Egypt; and it still wanted some days to the festival of St. John, which is supposed to put an end to that cruel distemper."[11]

While thus detained at Cyprus, Bruce's thoughts and dreams were enthusiastically filled with the distant object of his ambition; and, as Mohammed is said to have once walked to the mountain because it declined to visit him, so did Bruce indulge himself with the opposite idea, that he saw the waters of the Nile flying towards him in the heavens of Cyprus. "We observed," says he, "a number of thin, white clouds moving with great rapidity from south to north, in direct opposition to the course of the Etesian winds; these were immensely high. It was evident they came from the mountains of Abyssinia, where, having discharged their weight of rain, and being pressed by the lower current of heavier air from the northward, they had mounted to possess the vacuum, and returned to restore the equilibrium to the northward, whence they were to come back, loaded with vapour from Mount Taurus, to occasion the overflowing of the Nile, by breaking against the high and rugged mountains of the south. Nothing could be more agreeable to me than that sight, and the reasoning upon it. I already, with pleasure, anticipated the time in which I should be a spectator first, afterward an historian of this phenomenon, hitherto a mystery through all ages: I exulted in the measures I had taken!"

But Bruce has already sailed from Cyprus; and, previous to his first introduction to the waters of the Nile, it may not be improper for one moment calmly and dispassionately to consider how far he was qualified for the attempt which he was about to undertake. Being thirty-eight years of age, he was at that period of life in which both the mind and body of man are capable of their utmost possible exertions. During his travels and residence in Europe, Africa, and Asia, he had become practically acquainted with the religion, manners, and prejudices of many countries differing from his own; and he had learned to speak the French, Italian, Spanish, modern Greek, Moorish, and Arabic languages. Full of enterprise, enthusiastically devoted to the object he had in view, accustomed to hardship, inured to climate as well as to fatigue, he was a man of undoubted courage. In stature he was six feet four inches, and with this imposing appearance possessed great personal strength; and, lastly, in every proper sense of the word, he was a gentleman; and no man about to travel can give to his country a better pledge for veracity than when, like Bruce, his mind is ever retrospectively viewing the noble conduct of his ancestors; thus showing that he considers he has a stake in society which, by the meanness of falsehood or exaggeration, he would be unable to transmit unsullied to his posterity.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] Some years ago, the writer of this volume, having been sent to make a trigonometrical survey of the uninhabited island of Lampedoza, embarked for Tripoli on board a small Greek vessel exactly similar to the one described by Bruce. The master, as is usual in the Mediterranean, had no instrument for determining his situation but a board, a piece of string, and three small pins, which were to be placed in particular situations, that no one on board understood but himself; however, his hand and head shook so violently from the effects of liquor, that for more than a day the vessel was beating about completely lost. In the middle of the second night, a horse, which was standing on deck, smelling the island of Malta, began to neigh most violently; and accordingly, the land, thus announced by this animal to his fellow-passengers, appeared in sight at daybreak.

[11] During the plague at Malta, the writer of this volume often heard the Maltese predict, many months before the festival of St. John, that the disorder would cease by that day, and so, in fact, it did. The Maltese priests, of course, declared that St. John had killed it: but the English doctors, with greater reason, attributed its departure to excessive heat, which, no less than excess of cold, has been observed generally to arrest the contagion.

CHAPTER IV.

Bruce arrives at Cairo—Has very singular Interviews with the Bey—Sails up the Nile—Gains a promise of Protection from the Arabs Ababdé—Visits the Sepulchres of Thebes—Reaches the Cataract of Syene—Descends the Nile to Keffe.

It was in the beginning of July, in the year 1768, that Bruce arrived at Cairo, recommended to the very hospitable house of Julian and Bertram, to whom he imparted his resolution of pursuing his journey into Abyssinia. The wildness of the intention seemed to strike them greatly, and they did all in their power to dissuade him from it; but, seeing that he was resolved, they kindly offered him every possible assistance.

As the government of Cairo had always been jealous of the enterprise which Bruce had undertaken, and a formal prohibition of it had often been made by the Porte, Bruce pretended that his destination was India. He appeared in public as seldom as possible, unless disguised, and was soon considered as a fakir or dervish moderately skilled in magic, and who cared for nothing but books and study; a reputation which enabled him privately to purchase many Arabic manuscripts, which his knowledge of the language assisted him to select. Of the French residents Bruce speaks in very high terms; but as to the government, he says, "a more brutal, unjust, tyrannical, oppressive, avaricious set of miscreants there is not on earth than are the members of the government of Cairo!"

This government had consisted of twenty-four beys; but there were only seven when Bruce was at Cairo, one of whom commanded the whole. This bey, the celebrated Ali, with all his good sense and understanding, was still a Mameluke, and had the principles of a slave. Three men, of different religions, possessed his confidence and governed his councils all at one time. The first was a Greek, the second a Jew, and the third an Egyptian Copt, his secretary. "It would have required," says Bruce, "a great deal of discernment and penetration to have determined which of these was the most worthless or most likely to betray him.

"The secretary, whose name was Risk, had the address to supplant the other two at the time they thought themselves at the pinnacle of their glory, overawing every Turk, and robbing every Christian. The Greek was banished from Egypt, and the Jew bastinadoed to death. Such is the tenure of Egyptian ministers! Risk professed astrology, and the bey, like all other Turks, believed in it implicitly. To this folly he sacrificed his own good understanding; and Risk, probably in pay to Constantinople, led him from one wild scheme to another, till he undid him—by the stars!"

When Bruce's cases of instruments were opened at the custom-house of Alexandria, they naturally prepossessed Risk in favour of their owner's superior knowledge in astrology. The Jew, who was master of the custom-house, was ordered not to take them out of their places, nor even touch them, and they were forwarded to Bruce without duty or fees. The next day Risk waited upon him; and when the British traveller offered him a small present for himself, and a very handsome one for his master, he was most agreeably surprised to find it returned with a message "that he was under the immediate protection of the bey." This mysterious politeness was more than Bruce could comprehend. He had not even seen the bey, and it could not have arisen from any prepossession in his favour. He was an entire stranger in the land, and therefore resolved to ask the advice of one of his friends, who instantly cautioned him against either offending or trusting Risk, as he was a merciless man, capable of the blackest designs.

In a short time this Copt came to Bruce's landlord to inquire about his knowledge of the stars. The landlord, seeing the drift of the inquiry, spoke highly of the stranger's superior science, which he described as being sufficient to foretel the destinies of the bey. Accordingly, in a few days, Bruce received a letter from Risk, desiring him to go to the convent of St. George (about three miles from Cairo), where the Greek patriarch would receive him, and where he would be furnished with the bey's farther orders. On reaching the convent, he was accosted by the venerable patriarch, Father Christopher, the identical person who had lived under his roof at Algiers, and by whom he had been taught to speak the modern Greek. From this worthy man he learned that there were many Greeks then in Abyssinia, all of them in high power, and some holding the first places in the empire; that they corresponded with the patriarch whenever an opportunity offered; that at all times they held him in great respect; that his will, when signified to them, was of the greatest authority, and that obedience was paid to it as to holy writ. Father Christopher offered, with the greatest kindness, to address letters in favour of Bruce, and three copies were accordingly sent by different ways, accompanied by an admonitory epistle-general to the whole of the Greeks in Abyssinia, which, in form of a bull, was drawn up by Bruce himself, assisted by his excellent and venerable friend. By this the patriarch desired that, instead of pretending to put themselves on a footing with the traveller, who was about to arrive at the court of Abyssinia, they should unite in doing everything in their power to serve him; that he was the free citizen of a powerful nation; while they were slaves, who were only fit to be his servants; and that, in fact, one of their countrymen was actually living in that capacity with Bruce. These sour observations were artfully mixed up with a very savoury pardon for all their past sins, to be granted to them for the attentions they were to pay the stranger.

One night, about nine o'clock, Risk sent to Bruce desiring him to come to the bey; and he accordingly entered his presence. He was presented to a young man, sitting upon a large sofa covered with crimson and cloth of gold; his turban, his girdle, and the head of his dagger sparkling with diamonds, one of which was of extraordinary size. He entered abruptly into discourse about the war between Russia and the Turks, and asked Bruce if he had calculated what would be the consequences of that war. With becoming gravity, our astrologer replied, "That the Turks would be beaten by sea and land wherever they presented themselves." Again the bey asked, "Whether Constantinople would be burned or taken?" "Neither," replied Bruce, with great dignity; "but, after much bloodshed, peace will be made with little advantage to either party."

The bey struck his hands together, swore an oath in Turkish, and, turning aside to Risk, he said, with much emphasis, "That will be sad indeed! ... but truth is truth, and God is merciful!" He then offered Bruce coffee, sweetmeats, and protection; and, after desiring him to inform Risk if any one should dare wrong him, dismissed him from his presence.

A few nights afterward the bey again sent for Bruce. At the door he met the janisary aga, who had absolute power of life and death, without appeal, all over Cairo and its neighbourhood. Having learned that Bruce was the "Hakim Englese" (the English physician), he politely asked him to prescribe for him, as he was not very well. Bruce replied to him in Arabic that he could not then stay, as the bey was waiting. "No! no! go! for God's sake, go!" exclaimed the aga; "any time will do for me!"

The bey was sitting completely by himself, leaning forward with a wax taper in one hand, and holding in the other a small slip of paper close to his eyes, which were apparently weak. He did not perceive Bruce until he was close to him, and started when he heard the word "Salam!" At first he seemed hardly to know why he had sent for Bruce; but at length, in a melancholy tone, complained that he had been sick immediately after dinner, and was afraid something had been given to do him mischief. Bruce felt his pulse, and, having inquired whether his meat had been dressed in copper properly tinned, he ordered the bey to drink warm tea and water until it should cause him to vomit. The great man looked astonished, and asked Bruce if he knew that he was a Mussulman. "Sir," replied Bruce, "I am none; I tell you what is good for your body, and I have nothing to do with your religion or your soul;" and with these words he took his leave, the bey muttering to himself, "He speaks like a man!"

Next morning Risk came from the convent to say that the bey was far from well, upon which Bruce interrupted him by inquiring how the warm tea and water had operated. Risk replied that the bey had not yet taken it, and then confessed that, by desire of his master, he was come to see how it was to be made. Bruce soon showed him this, by infusing a very little green tea in a large quantity of warm water, on which Risk insinuated that it would be farther necessary for Bruce to drink it, in order to show what effect it would produce upon the bey. Bruce, with considerable dignity, declined being patient and physician at the same time, but very politely offered to make Risk sick, which, he said, would answer the purpose of instruction equally well; this suggestion, however, was not very readily assented to, and yet Risk was evidently at a loss how to proceed. The poor old Greek priest, Father Christopher, happening unluckily to intrude at this very moment, it was instantly agreed to vomit the patriarch, who, finding himself in danger, and that the odds were two to one against him, instantly sent for a caloyer, or young monk, who was obliged to submit to the experiment before them.

Bruce now became anxious to quit his solitary mansion at the convent: from Risk he procured peremptory letters of recommendation to Sheikh Haman, to the Governor of Syene, Ibrim, and Upper Egypt; also letters from Ali Bey to the Bey of Suez, to the Sherriffe of Mecca, to the Naybe or Governor of Masuah (the port of Abyssinia), and to the King of Sennaar. Anxious to reduce his baggage as much as possible, he tore from his books those pages only which were likely to be of service to him, and, having taken leave of the bey, and bidding adieu to his friends, he embarked with his little party on the 12th of December, to proceed up the Nile, which, partly flowing from the distant mountains of Abyssinia, meanders through the lifeless desert of Nubia, and down the narrow valley or ravine of Egypt, separated from sandy or rocky deserts by two chains of mountains, which enclose this inconsiderable strip of irrigated land.

Bruce's boat or canja, which was to carry him to Furshoot, the residence of Haman, sheikh of Upper Egypt, was about one hundred feet in length, with two masts, each bearing an enormous lateen sail, the mainsail yard being one hundred and twenty feet in length. The cabin or dining-room was about twenty feet square, with close latticed windows made to admit the freshness of the air, and yet so as to be a defence against a set of robbers on the Nile, who are in the habit of swimming under water, or in the dark on goatskins, to pilfer from vessels everything they can lay their hands on.

Previous to sailing, Bruce had taken the precaution of applying to his useful friend, Mr. Secretary Risk, concerning the captain of the canja, Haji Hassan Abou Cuffi, who was obliged to deliver up his son Mohammed as security for his own good behaviour. The wind being contrary, the canja was towed against the stream by a rope, and in this way it advanced but a few miles to two convents of Copts, called Deireteen. Here Bruce passed the night, having had a fine view of the pyramids of Geeza and Saccara, and being still in sight of a prodigious number of other pyramids, which, like beings of another world, seemed everywhere to be haunting the desert. On the opposite bank of the Nile, an animated and picturesque scene was displayed in the encampment of a large party of the Howadat Arabs.

On the morning of the 13th the canja unfurled her enormous sails, and slowly passed a considerable village called Turra, on the east side of the river; and Sheikh Atman, a small village of about thirty houses, on the west. The Nile is here about a quarter of a mile broad, the distance between the foot of the mountain and the Libyan shore being about half a mile; and Bruce agrees with Herodotus in thinking this the narrowest part of the valley termed Egypt.

In order to search for the ancient city of Memphis, Bruce left his boat at Sheikh Atman, and, entering an extensive and thick wood of palm-trees, continued this course until he came to several large villages called Metrahenni, all built among date-trees, so as scarcely to be seen from the shore. The people in these villages were of a yellow, sickly colour, with dejected, inanimate countenances. Towards the south, in the desert, as far as the eye can reach, there are vast numbers of pyramids, some appearing, like vessels at sea, just above the horizon. "A man's heart," says Bruce, "fails him in looking to the south and southwest of Metrahenni; he is lost in the immense expanse of desert which he sees full of pyramids before him. Struck with terror from the unusual scene of vastness opened all at once upon leaving the palm-trees, he becomes dispirited from the effect of the sultry climate. From habits of idleness contracted at Cairo; from the stories he has heard of the bad government and ferocity of the people; from want of language and want of plan, he shrinks from attempting any discovery in the moving sands of Saccara, and embraces in safety and in quiet the reports of others, who, he thinks, have been more inquisitive and more adventurous than himself."

Various and conflicting are the opinions quoted by Bruce as to the situation of Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt. Dr. Pococke looked for Memphis at Metrahenni and Mohannen, because Pliny[12] says the pyramids were between Memphis and the Delta; and Mr. Niebuhr, the Danish traveller, agreed with Dr. Pococke. Dr. Shaw quoted a contrary sentiment from Pliny;[13] he cited also Diodorus Siculus,[14] who describes Memphis as being at the point of the Delta; Pliny,[15] again, who says it was fifteen miles from the Delta; and Herodotus,[16] who declares that Memphis lay under the sandy mountains of Libya. Dr. Shaw, therefore, warmly contended that Memphis was at Geeza.

In this literary controversy, Bruce, with his usual warmth of character, vehemently opposes Dr. Shaw, and insists on placing Memphis at Metrahenni. He denies that the point of the Delta itself is a fixed and unalterable boundary; quotes Diodorus, who says that Memphis was placed in the straits, or narrowest part of Egypt; and to prove that the ruins of this city were not altogether destroyed in the time of the Ptolemies, he cites Strabo, who says, that when he was in Egypt Memphis was still called the capital[17] of that country; that there was entire a temple of Osiris; that the apis or sacred ox was worshipped and kept there; and that there was likewise "an apartment for the mother of that ox!"

After the particulars mentioned in the above argument, it is scarcely necessary to remind the general reader that no vestige of Memphis exists! Among the super-scientific, its ancient situation still remains a subject of dispute; but considering how many real objects, points, and situations there are in the world of which we are totally ignorant, it might surely be said of Memphis, that "de non existantibus et de non apparentibus eadem est ratio."[18]

It was about four o'clock, the sun was on the horizon, and the whole country was waiting for that moment of placid enjoyment which, in a hot climate, suddenly succeeds the painful heat of the day, when Bruce returned from Metrahenni to the canja; and on the following morning with a fair wind, and in high spirits, he continued for some days to stem the strong current of the Nile. He passed Regnagie, Zaragara, and a series of picturesque villages, which studded the highly cultivated and verdant country that, both on the right and left, lay between the river and the mountains. At Woodan the Nile was about a quarter of a mile wide; the cultivated ground being about four miles in breadth on the east side of the river, and about twice that distance to the foot of the opposite or west side. The villages which gave life and animation to this "happy valley" were mostly surrounded by palm-trees; and as Bruce, from the deck of the canja, gazed on them with feelings of curiosity and delight, he constantly inquired their names of his rais or captain; but the man at last honestly told him that he did not know what they were called; adding, that the boatmen on the Nile being in the habit of passing these villages very rapidly, and being only anxious to get to the end of their voyage, seldom troubled themselves to learn their names; and that, when tiresome questions were put to them by inquisitive European travellers, instead of confessing their ignorance, they were in the habit of answering with any word that came uppermost; which, though sometimes of a ridiculous meaning, and very often highly indecent, have nevertheless gravely made their appearance in some of our books of travels.

After passing with great velocity Nizelet, Embarcak, Cubabac, Nizelet Omar, Racca Kibeer, and Racco Sequier, they came in sight of Alfia, a large village at some distance from the Nile, in the vicinity of which they passed the night. "All the valley here," says Bruce, "is green, the palm grows beautiful, and the Nile is deep: still it is not a prospect that pleases, for the whole ground that is sown to the sandy ascent of the mountains is but a narrow strip of three quarters of a mile broad; and the mountains themselves, which here begin to have a moderate degree of elevation, and which bound this narrow valley, are white, gritty, sandy, and uneven, and perfectly destitute of all manner of verdure."

After having been detained a short time by foggy weather, the canja sailed by a convent of Copts. The strip of green wheat which had hitherto bounded both shores of the Nile, ceased for about half a mile each side of this convent; for the poor wretches who inhabited it, accustomed to the merciless violence of the Arabs, declined to sow, knowing that they would not be permitted to reap. At the village of Nizelet begin large plantations of sugarcanes, the first they had seen, and the people were then loading boats with them for Cairo.

Proceeding onward, they came to large plantations of dates, and beyond them the people were seen occupied in cutting the sugarcanes. The houses here had on their roofs receptacles for pigeons, from which was derived a considerable profit. The wind had now become so strong that the canja could scarcely carry her sails; the current was rapid, and the velocity with which she dashed against the water was terrifying. "We came," says Bruce, "to a village called Rhoda, where we saw the magnificent ruins of the ancient city of Antinous, built by Adrian. Unluckily, I knew nothing of these ruins when I left Cairo, and had taken no pains to provide myself with letters of recommendation, as I could easily have done. I asked the rais what sort of people they were. He said that the town was composed of very bad Turks, very bad Moors, and very bad Christians; that several devils had been seen among them lately, who had been discovered by being better and quieter than any of the rest. After the character we had of the inhabitants, all our firearms were brought to the door of the cabin. In the mean time, partly with my naked eye and partly with my glass, I observed the ruins so attentively as to be perfectly in love with them."

While Bruce was thus gazing at these ruins, the people or "devils" on shore attacked some of the canja's boatmen: three shots were even fired at the vessel, which Bruce returned by firing his blunderbuss. The crew were very desirous to go on shore to attack the people; but Bruce, an old traveller, with a very proper esprit de corps, says, "Besides that I had no inclination of that kind, I was very loth to frustrate the attempts of some future traveller, who may add this to the great remains of architecture we have preserved already." He therefore continued his course; and while his mind was secretly exulting in the reflection that every hour was bringing him towards the ultimate object of his ambition, his attention was most agreeably diverted by the various objects which passed in succession before him. Village after village came in sight; at times the shore was covered with date-trees, and occasionally with the acacia, that solitary inhabitant of all deserts, from the most northern part of Arabia to the extremity of Ethiopia. A considerable part of the west shore was cultivated and sown from the very foot of the mountains to the water's edge, the grain having been merely thrown upon the mud as soon as the water had left it: the wheat was at this time about four inches high, and the acacia-trees on the opposite side in full flower. Every object, whether trifling or serious, seemed to claim Bruce's attention, and to afford him some moral. "I was very well pleased," he says, "to see here, for the first time, two shepherd-dogs lapping up the water from the stream, then lying down in it with great seeming leisure and satisfaction. It refuted the old fable that the dogs living on the banks of the Nile run as they drink, for fear of the crocodile."

At Achnim there is a hospice or convent of Franciscans. "They received us," says Bruce, "civilly, and that was just all. I think I never knew a number of priests met together who differed so little in capacity and knowledge, having barely a routine of scholastic disputation; on every other subject inconceivably ignorant." These priests lived in ease and safety, being protected by the Arab chieftain Haman; and their acting as physicians reconciled them to the people.

Sailing from Achnim, Bruce passed Girge, the largest town he had seen since he left Cairo. The Nile makes a turn or bend here. The next morning Bruce and Balugani, impatient to visit the most extensive and magnificent scene of ruins that are in Upper Egypt, set out for Beliani; and at about ten o'clock in the morning they arrived at Dendera, with letters from the Bey of Cairo to the two principal men there, commanding them most peremptorily to take care of Bruce; and also a letter of very strong recommendation to Sheikh Haman at Furshoot, in whose territory they were. Bruce pitched his tent by the river side; and from the persons to whom he was thus addressed he soon received a horse and three asses to convey him to the ruins.

"Dendera," says Bruce, "is a considerable town at this day, all covered with thick groves of palm-trees, the same that Juvenal describes it to have been in his time.... This place is governed by a cashief, appointed by Sheikh Haman. A mile south of the town are the ruins of two temples, one of which is so much buried under ground that little of it is to be seen; but the other, which is by far the most magnificent, is entire, and accessible on every side. It is also covered with hieroglyphics, both within and without, all in relief, and of every figure, simple and compound, that ever has been published or called a hieroglyphic. Great part of the colouring yet remains upon the stones; red in all its shades, especially that dark, dusky colour called Tyrian purple; yellow very fresh; sky-blue (that is, near the blue of an Eastern sky, several shades lighter than ours); green of different shades: these are all the colours preserved. It was no part of my plan or inclination to enter into the detail of this extraordinary architecture; quantity and solidity are two principal requisites, that are seen here with a vengeance! It strikes and imposes on you at first sight; but the impressions are like those made by the size of mountains, which the mind does not retain for any considerable time after seeing them. I think a very ready hand might spend six months, from morning to night, before he could copy the hieroglyphics in the inside of the temple."

The next day the canja reached the convent of Italian friars at Furshoot, who received Bruce much more kindly than the monks of Achnim. Furshoot is situated in a large cultivated plain, and the population of the town is very considerable. Bruce had only hired the canja to proceed to this place; but, being on good terms with the rais or captain, he prevailed upon him to take him on to Syene and bring him back to Furshoot for four pounds, with a trifling premium if he behaved well. "And if you behave ill," said Bruce, "what do you think you will deserve?" "To be hanged!" replied the rais.

On the 7th of January, 1769, Bruce left Furshoot; and, sailing by How, he came to El Gourni, which he thinks might have been part of ancient Thebes. "About half a mile north of El Gourni," says Bruce, "are the magnificent, stupendous sepulchres of Thebes: a hundred of these, it is said, are excavated into sepulchral and a variety of other apartments. I went through seven of them with a great deal of fatigue. It is a solitary place; and my guides, either from a natural impatience and distaste that these people have at such employments, or their fears of the banditti that live in the caverns of the mountains were real, importuned me to return to the boat even before I had begun my search, or got into the mountain where are the many large apartments of which I was in quest."

In one of these sepulchres Bruce and Balugani found three harps painted in fresco upon the panels. "As the first harp," says Bruce, "seemed to be the most perfect and least spoiled, I immediately attached myself to this, and desired my clerk to take upon him the charge of the second. My first drawing was that of a man playing upon a harp."

We must here observe, that when Bruce, on his return to England, published his drawings of these sketches, his enemies declared very positively that he had come by them unfairly. By much sophistry they endeavoured to prove that Bruce had never been in the sepulchres at all; and even Brown, who visited Thebes, has insinuated that Bruce must have drawn them in England from memory. Now, in contradiction to this illiberal accusation, it must be stated, that pencilled sketches of the two harps are still preserved among Bruce's papers, and that one of them, at least, is evidently the work of Luigi Balugani, who did not live to return to Europe. Still Bruce was disbelieved; and it was positively maintained that he had never been at the sepulchre at all; but, sooner or later, truth always prevails. The following is an extract (page 148) from "Travels in Egypt and Nubia, &c., by the Hon. Charles Leonard Irby and James Mangles, Commanders in the Royal Navy; printed for private distribution. London, 1823."

"We (captains Irby and Mangles, attended by Belzoni) now explored the other tombs (at Thebes), but found nothing new to add to our former observations. In the small chamber where Bruce copied the harp he gave to Mr. Burney for his history of music, we saw that traveller's name scratched over the very harp, which we think strong presumptive evidence that he drew it himself, though he has been accused of drawing it afterward from memory. He is erroneous in the number of strings which he has given to it: the instrument itself is not unlike the original, though the musician is very indifferently copied."

After roughly copying these ancient harps, which Bruce little thought would ever be made to vibrate to the dishonour of his character, he made preparations for proceeding farther in his researches; but his conductors now lost all subordination. They were afraid that his intention was to sit in this cave all night (and it really was), and to visit the rest the next morning. With great clamour and marks of discontent they dashed their torches against the largest harp, and, scrambling out of the cave, left Bruce and Balugani in the dark. With some difficulty they groped their way out of these ancient, gloomy receptacles of the dead; and, as soon as they came to the sunshine and freshness of the living world, they abandoned all farther researches and rode to the boat. At midnight, a gentle breeze springing up, the canja was wafted up to Luxor, where Bruce was well received by the governor, who gave him a quantity of provisions: among these were some lemons and sugar, with which he made for himself and his party a regular bowl of punch, which they drank in "remembrance of Old England."

"Luxor," says Bruce, "and Carnac, a mile and a quarter below it, are by far the largest and most magnificent scenes of ruins in Egypt, much more extensive and stupendous than those of Thebes and Dendera put together."

Two days after the canja had sailed from Luxor, it reached Sheikh Amner, the encampment of the Arabs Ababdé; and as this tribe extends from Cosseir on the Red Sea far into the desert which Bruce was to cross, he thought it politic and highly important to cultivate their friendship.

Sheikh Amner is a collection of villages, composed of miserable huts, which contained, in Bruce's estimation, about a thousand effective men, who possessed few horses, being principally mounted on camels. They form the barrier or bulwark against the prodigious number of Arabs, principally the Bishareen, who are nominally the subjects of the kingdom of Sennaar. Ibrahim, the son of the sheikh, who had known Bruce at Furshoot, and had received from him medicines for his father, recognised him the moment he arrived; and, after acquainting his father, he came, with about a dozen naked attendants, armed with lances, to escort Bruce, who had no sooner arrived at the tent of the sheikh than a bountiful dinner was placed before him.

Bruce and his party were then introduced to the old sheikh, who was very ill, and lying in the corner of the tent on a carpet, his head resting on a cushion. This veteran chief of the Ababdé, named Nimmer, which means "the Tiger," was a man of about sixty years of age, suffering dreadfully from a most painful disorder, which, though very common among those who drink water from the draw-wells of the desert, is seldom met with on the banks of the Nile. Bruce had sent to this man from Badjoura a number of soap pills, which had afforded him very great relief; and he now gave him lime-water, promising that on his return he would teach his people how to make it. After a long conversation with this "Royal Tiger," whose savage disposition seemed to have been softened by feelings of pain and gratitude, Bruce asked him to tell him truly, on the faith of an Arab (which he knew these wild people nobly prided themselves in maintaining inviolate), whether his tribe, if they met him in the desert, would forget that he had on that day eaten and drank with their chieftain.

"The old man Nimmer," says Bruce, "on this rose from his carpet and sat upright—a more ghastly and more horrid figure I never saw. 'No!' said he, 'sheikh, cursed be those men of my people, or others, that ever shall lift up their hand against you, either in the desert or the tell.[19] As long as you are in this country, or between this and Cosseir, my son shall serve you with heart and hand; ... one night of pain that your medicines freed me from, would not be repaid if I were to follow you on foot to Messir.'"[20]

Bruce now thought it a proper moment to declare, for the first time, that his real object was to get into Abyssinia. The sheikh kindly and calmly discussed the subject, and concluded by advising him to retrace his steps to Kenné, or Cuft, on the Nile, from thence to cross the desert to Cosseir, a port on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea; thence to go over to Jidda, which is on the opposite side of the gulf, near Mecca, and from that port to sail for Abyssinia; and he added that he himself was sending a cargo of wheat to Cosseir, to be again shipped for Jidda. "But," said Bruce (who thought it prudent once more to touch a string, the very sound of which was most important to his safety), "all that is right, sheikh; yet suppose your people meet me in the desert, in going to Cosseir or otherwise, how should we fare in that case? Should we fight?" "I have told you, sheikh, already," replied the Tiger, "cursed be the man who lifts his hand against you!"

Encouraged by the repetition of this uncouth benediction, Bruce frankly told the Nimmer that he would proceed to Cosseir—that he was Yagoube—seeking to do good, and bound by a vow to wander through deserts.

The old man, after some thought, muttered something to his sons in a dialect which Bruce did not understand; and while, pretending to take no notice, he was occupied in mixing some lime-water, the whole hut was suddenly filled with priests, monks, and the heads of families. After joining hands, and solemnly mumbling, for about two minutes, a kind of wild prayer, in various attitudes, they declared themselves and their children accursed if ever they lifted their hands against Yagoube in the tell, in the desert, or on the river; and then, muttering curses between their teeth on the name of Turk, the unearthly-looking crew vanished. "Medicines and advice," says Bruce, "being given on my part, faith and protection pledged on theirs, two bushels of wheat and seven sheep were carried down to the boat; nor could we decline their kindness, as refusing a present in that country, however it is understood in ours, is just as great an affront as coming into the presence of a superior without any present at all."

The tact with which Bruce makes his way through the various difficulties that oppose him—softening the most rigid prejudices, and often managing to convert a barbarous enmity into disinterested friendship, will appear through the whole of his travels; and we cannot now refrain from remarking how ill-advised poor Denham surely was, to attempt to penetrate Africa by taking an opposite course, dressing himself in the mean, detested garments of a European. Denham says, "We were the first English travellers in Africa who had resisted the persuasion that a disguise was necessary, and who had determined to travel in our real character as Britons and Christians, and to wear on all occasions our English dresses;" and what was the result? "'What do you do here?' said some women who accosted him; 'you are a Kaffir, khaleel! It is you Christians, with the blue eyes like the hyæna, that eat the blacks whenever you can get them far enough away from their own country!' 'God deliver me from his evil eye!' said a young girl. 'He is,' cried another, 'an uncircumcised Kaffir; neither washes nor prays! eats pork! and will go to hell.' 'Turn him out!' said the kadi; 'God forbid that any one who has eaten with Christians should give evidence in the laws of Mohammed!' 'Oh! oh! the Lord preserve us from the infernal devil!' they all exclaimed; and screaming 'Y-hy-yo, y-hy-yo!' they all ran off in the greatest alarm." (Denham, vol. ii., p. 40.)

Some years ago, the Bey of Tripoli, who gave permission to Captain Smyth, R.N., and Mr. Warrington, to excavate, explore, and carry away the ruins of ancient Leptis, made the following replies to Captain Smyth and the British consul, who officially waited on him to ask his advice as to the best mode of getting into the interior of Africa.

Q. Does your highness imagine it difficult for a party to reach the Nile (Niger) through the dominions of your friend the King of Bornou?

A. Not in the least: the road to Bornou is as beaten as that to Bengazi.

Q. Will your highness grant protection to a party wishing to proceed that way?

A. Any person wishing to go in that direction (it was the very same route which Denham took), I will send an embassy to Bornou to escort him thither, and from thence the king will protect him to the Nile. But I must first clothe him as a Turk.

Q. Will he not be subject to much troublesome inquiry on that head?

A. No; but he must not say he is a Christian: people in the interior are very ignorant.

It is with painful reluctance that we have paused for a moment in Bruce's history to make the above observations; but the advice which was given to poor Denham and his gallant companions may be again given to others; and as the proper mode of penetrating Africa is a most important problem, in which the lives of future travellers are involved, we only beg the reader henceforward to observe the effect which Bruce's plan of getting along produces, and then to judge for himself whether the traveller who wishes to penetrate Africa should publicly proclaim himself "a Briton and a Christian," or not. That he should inwardly be both, no one, we hope, will deny; yet religion, like loyalty, need not be vauntingly displayed; and as we know that the African abhors and despises both our religion and our dress, why should we irritate his prejudices by wilfully unfurling these flags of defiance? Most particularly as regards the useless fashion of our dress, which is so very badly adapted to the climate, it may at least be maintained that English breeches, stockings, and "coats cut to the quick," are far better relished by the phlebotomizing moschetoes of Africa than by its human inhabitants. Within the tropics, even the sheep wears hair instead of wool. Why, then, should "a Briton" insist on carrying his fleecy hosiery to the Line?

Bruce being within a day of the cataracts of Syene, called by the Arabs Assuan, sailed on the 20th for that town, and had scarcely arrived when an unarmed janisary, dressed in long Turkish clothes, and holding in his hand a white wand, came to tell him that Syene was a garrison town, and that the aga was at the castle ready to give him an audience, having received a most particular letter from the Bey of Cairo. "I found the aga," says Bruce, "sitting in a small kiosk or closet, upon a stone bench with carpets. As I was in no fear of him, I was resolved to walk according to my privileges. I sat down upon a cushion below him, after laying my hand on my breast, and saying, in an audible voice, 'Salam alicum!' (Peace be between us); to which he answered, without any of the usual difficulty, 'Alicum salum!' (There is peace between us). After sitting down about two minutes, I again got up, and stood in the middle of the room before him, saying, 'I am bearer of a hatésheriffe, or royal mandate to you, Mohammed Aga!' and took the firman out of my bosom and presented it to him. Upon this he stood upright, and all the rest of the people, before sitting with him, likewise; he bowed his head upon the carpet, then put the firman to his forehead, opened it, and pretended to read it: but he knew well the contents, and, I believe, besides, he could neither read nor write any language. I then gave him the other letters from Cairo, which he ordered his secretary to read in his ear.

"All this ceremony being finished, he called for a pipe and coffee. I refused the first, as never using it, but I drank a dish of coffee, and told him that I was bearer of a confidential message from Ali Bey of Cairo, and wished to deliver it to him without witnesses, whenever he pleased. The room was accordingly cleared without delay, excepting his secretary, who was also going away, when I pulled him back by the clothes, saying, 'Stay, if you please, we shall need you to write the answer.' We were no sooner left alone, than I told the aga that, being a stranger, and not knowing the disposition of his people, or what footing they were on together, and being desired to address myself only to him by the bey and our mutual friends at Cairo, I wished to put it in his power (as he pleased or not) to have witnesses of delivering the small present I had brought him from Cairo. The aga seemed very sensible of this delicacy; and particularly desired me to take no notice to my landlord, the schourbatchie, of anything I had brought him.

"All this being over, and a confidence established with government, I sent his present by his own servant that night, under the pretence of desiring horses to go to the cataract next day. The message was returned, that the horses were to be ready by six o'clock next morning. On the 21st, the aga sent me his own horse, with mules and asses for my servants, to go to the cataract."

Having thus judiciously cleared the way before him, Bruce proceeded to the small villages of the cataract, which are about six miles from Assuan; and on arriving at what is called the cataract, he was much surprised to find that vessels could sail up it, the river being there not half a mile broad, but divided into a number of small channels. During the whole of the 22d, 23d, and 24th of January, he was occupied with his instruments, besides which he made many other observations and memoranda; and on the 25th of January, 1769, he prepared to descend the river.

Fain would he have continued to stem the torrent, and it was with secret pain and silent reluctance that Bruce turned his back upon the sources of the Nile. Yet the advice he had received, and the course which had been recommended to him, he had firmly resolved to pursue; and accordingly, on the 26th of January, he embarked at Syene, from the very spot where he again took boat more than three years afterward.

To his bold, enterprising mind, there was now a melancholy change in the picture. The canja was no longer to be seen proudly striding over the opposing element; but, with her prodigious mainsail lowered, and even her masts unshipped, she was carried broadside down the stream in helpless captivity. From her deck no longer resounded those exclamations of eager delight and sudden surprise which had ushered each new object into view: the scene had lost its freshness and its bloom—the magic charm of novelty!

In passing Sheikh Amner, Bruce called upon his patient Nimmer (the Tiger), Sheikh of the Ababdé, who was better, and as thankful as ever. Bruce renewed his prescriptions, and he his offers of service.

On the 2d of February he again took up his quarters at Badjoura, in the house which had formerly been assigned to him. "As I was now," says Bruce, "about to enter on that part of my expedition in which I was to have no farther intercourse with Europe, I set myself to work to examine all my observations, and put my journal in such forwardness by explanations where needful, that the labour and pains I had hitherto been at might not be totally lost to the public if I should perish in the journey I had undertaken, which, from all information I could procure, every day appeared to be more and more desperate. Having finished these, at least so far as to make them intelligible to others, I conveyed them to my friends Messrs. Julian and Rosa, at Cairo, to remain in their custody till I should return, or news came that I was otherwise disposed of."

FOOTNOTES:

[12] Plin., lib. v., cap. 9.

[13] Plin., lib. xxxvi., cap. 12.

[14] Diod. Sic., p. 45, § 50.

[15] Shaw's Travels, chap. 4, p. 298.

[16] Lib. ii., p. 141, 168, 105, 103.

[17] Strabo, lib. vii., p. 944.

[18] Things not existing and those not appearing to exist we may account the same.

[19] The part of Egypt which is cultivated.

[20] Cairo.

CHAPTER V.

Bruce crosses the Desert to the Red Sea.—Meets with the Arabs Ababdé at Cosseir.—His Adventures in the Red Sea.—Arrives at Massuah, the ancient Harbour of Abyssinia.

It was on Thursday, the 16th of February,[21] 1769, that Bruce joined the caravan which was setting out from Kenné, the Cœne Emporium of antiquity. They passed through a few dirty villages of the Azaizy, a poor, inconsiderable tribe of Arabs, who live by furnishing cattle for the caravans, and by attending on them. The huts of these poor people, which are made of clay in one piece, in the shape of a beehive, are seldom above ten feet high and six feet in diameter. After travelling nearly the whole day, Bruce pitched his tent at Gabba, about a mile from the borders of the desert, and here he passed the night.

On the 17th, at eight o'clock in the morning, he ordered his servants to mount their horses, in order to take charge of their camels, for there was an indescribable confusion in the caravan, which was to be guarded by two hundred lawless, cowardly fellows, armed with firelocks, and on horseback. When all was ready, the whole party, at a funereal pace, slowly advanced into the gloomy region of the desert. There was nothing in the prospect to excite the mind or arouse the feelings. Men, camels, and horses, drooping as they went, seemed to be alike aware that the courage they had now to exert was wholly of a passive character; that all that was required of them was—to suffer! Anger, hatred, and the other vengeful passions, which, like intoxicating draughts, often make men thoughtless and insensible to danger, afforded no excitement here. They had not the savage pleasure even of contending with human enemies; and the burning sand and burning sun it was out of their power to injure.

"Our road," says Bruce, "was all the way in an open plain, bounded by hillocks of sand and fine gravel, perfectly hard, and not perceptibly above the level of the plain country of Egypt. About twelve miles distant there is a ridge of mountains, of no considerable height, perhaps the most barren in the world. Between these our road lay through plains never three miles broad, but without trees, shrubs, or herbs. There are not even the traces of any living creature; neither serpent nor lizard, antelope nor ostrich, the usual inhabitants of the most dreary deserts. There is no sort of water on the surface, brackish or sweet. Even the birds seem to avoid the place as pestilential, not having seen one of any kind so much as flying over. The sun was burning hot, and, upon rubbing two sticks together, in half a minute they both took fire and flamed; a mark how near the country was reduced to a general conflagration."

In the evening the caravan was joined by twenty Turks from Caramania, in Asia Minor. They were mounted on camels, and armed with swords, a short gun, and a brace of pistols in their girdles. Having been informed that the large tent belonged to an Englishman, they came to it without ceremony. They told Bruce that they were pilgrims going to Mecca; that they had been very badly treated in travelling from Alexandria; that one of the swimming thieves of the Nile had boarded their vessel, and carried off a portmanteau containing about two hundred sequins in gold; that the Bey of Girge had given them no redress; and, therefore, hearing that an Englishman was in the caravan, they had come to him to propose they should join in defending each other against all common enemies. "I cannot conceal," says Bruce, "the secret pleasure I had in finding the character of my country so firmly established among nations so distant, enemies to our religion, and strangers to our government. Turks from Mount Taurus, and Arabs from the desert of Libya, thought themselves unsafe among their own countrymen, but trusted their lives and their little fortunes implicitly to the direction and word of an Englishman whom they had never before seen!"

The caravan was detained at Legeta the whole of the 18th by the arrival of these Turks; but early in the morning of the 19th they proceeded along a narrow plain, hemmed in by barren hills, of a brown, calcined colour, like the cinders on the sides of Vesuvius. Passing some mountains of green and red marble, they came into a plain called Hamra, where they first observed the red sand; and on the morning of the 20th, after having mounted some hills of porphyry, they began to descend. At noon they came to a few single acacia-trees, which, after rain, form a station for the Atouni Arabs, and at night they encamped on a small barren plain. On the 21st, in passing some defiles, they were alarmed by a false report that the Arabs were approaching. At noon they encamped at Mesag el Terfowey, where they obtained the first fresh water which they had tasted since they left the Nile. Next morning, before daybreak, the caravan was again in motion, having learned that, only two days before, three hundred of the Atouni had watered at Terfowey.

"It has been a wonder," says Bruce, "among all travellers, and with myself among the rest, where the ancients procured that prodigious quantity of fine marble with which all their buildings abound. That wonder, however, among many others, now ceases, after having passed, in four days, more granite, porphyry, marble, and jasper than would build Rome, Athens, Corinth, Syracuse, Memphis, Alexandria, and half a dozen more such cities. About ten o'clock, descending very rapidly, with green marble and jasper on each side of us, but no other green thing whatever, we had the first prospect of the Red Sea."

To the eye which has for a length of time viewed nothing but fertile land, the sight of the sea is always delightful: it roams with pleasure over the wide expanse of moving waters, revelling in the freedom and freshness of a new element. But to the parched, thirsting, and weary traveller, who has journeyed over the scorched, arid, lifeless desert of Africa, in whose imagination water is wealth, the sudden view of the great ocean creates ecstatic feelings which it is utterly impossible to describe.

Cosseir is a small mud-walled village, built on the shore of the Red Sea. It is defended by a square fort, containing a few pieces of cannon, just sufficient to terrify the Arabs from plundering the town, which is often filled with corn going to Mecca. Bruce had an order from Sheikh Haman to lodge in the castle; but, a few hours before he arrived, Hussein Bey, landing from Mecca and Jidda, had taken possession of the apartments. This bey, however, hearing that the English traveller had the firman of the grand seignior, with letters from the Bey of Cairo, and that he had, moreover, furnished the stranger Turks with water in the desert, of his own accord made himself acquainted with Bruce, treating him with attention and respect; and no sooner was this observed by his fellow-travellers, the Turks, than they complained to Hussein Bey that one of the Arabs had attempted to rob them in the desert.

"What is the reason," said this great man, very gravely, to Bruce, "that, when you English people know so well what good government is, you did not order his head to be struck off when you had him in your hands, before the door of the tent?" "Sir," replied Bruce, with the real feelings of a "Briton and a Christian," "I know well what good government is, but, being a stranger and a Christian, I have no sort of title to exercise the power of life and death in this country: only in this one case, when a man attempts my life, then I think I am warranted to defend myself, whatever may be the consequence to him. My men took him in the fact, and they had my orders, in such cases, to beat the offenders, so that they should not steal these two months again. They did so: that was punishment enough in cold blood." "But my blood," interrupted the bey, "never cools with regard to such rascals as these. Go! (he called one of his attendants) tell Hassan, the head of the caravan, from me, that, unless he hangs that Arab before sunrise to-morrow, I will carry him in irons to Furshoot."

While Bruce was at Cosseir, the caravan from Syene arrived, escorted by four hundred Ababdé, armed with javelins, and mounted on camels, two on each, sitting back to back: they conducted a thousand camels laden with wheat. The whole town was in terror at the influx of so many barbarians; and even Bruce sent all his instruments, money, books, and baggage to a chamber in the castle. The following morning, as he was loitering in dishabille on the shore, looking for seashells, one of his servants came to him in great alarm, to say that the Ababdé had been told that Bruce's Arab, Abd-el-gin, was an Atouni, their enemy, and that they had therefore dragged him away to cut his throat. Bruce, dressed as he was, with a common red turban on his head, vaulted on his servant's horse, and galloping through the townspeople, who fancied, with alarm, that the Ababdé were pursuing him, reached the sands, and proceeding as hard as he could go for nearly two miles, he saw a crowd of Arabs before him. Desirous to save the life of the poor wretch his servant, he had totally forgotten his own safety.

"Upon my coming near them," says Bruce, "six or eight of them surrounded me on horseback, and began to gabble in their own language. I was not very fond of my situation. It would have cost them nothing to thrust a lance through my back and taken the horse away; and, after stripping me, to have buried me in a hillock of sand, if they were so kind as to give themselves that last trouble. However, I pricked up courage, and, putting on the best appearance I could, said to them steadily, without trepidation, 'What men are these before?' The answer, after some pause, was, 'They are men;' and they looked very queerly, as if they meant to ask each other 'What sort of spark is this?' 'Are those before us Ababdé?' said I; 'are they from Sheikh Amner?' One of them nodded, and grunted sullenly rather than said, 'Ay, Ababdé, from Sheikh Amner.' 'Then, salum alicum!' said I, 'we are brethren. How does the Nimmer? Who commands you here? Where is Ibrahim?' At the mention of the Nimmer (the Tiger) and Ibrahim, their countenance changed, not to anything sweeter or gentler than before, but to a look of great surprise. They had not returned my salutation, 'Peace be between us;' but one of them asked me who I was. 'Tell me first,' said I, 'who is that you have before?' 'It is an Arab, our enemy,' says he, 'guilty of our blood.' 'It is not so,' replied I; 'he is my servant, a Howadat Arab; his tribe lives in peace at the gates of Cairo, in the same manner yours of Sheikh Amner does at those of Assouan. I ask you, where is Ibrahim, your sheikh's son?' 'Ibrahim,' says he, 'is at our head; he commands us here. But who are you?' 'Come with me, and show me Ibrahim,' said I, 'and I will show you who I am.'

"I passed by these and by another party of them. They had thrown a hair rope about the neck of Abd-el-gin, who was almost strangled already, and cried out most miserably to me not to leave him. I went directly to the black tent, which I saw had a long spear thrust up in the end of it, and met at the door Ibrahim and his brother, and seven or eight Ababdé. He did not recollect me, but I dismounted close to the tent door, and had scarcely taken hold of the pillar of the tent, and said 'Fiarduc!' when Ibrahim and his brother both knew me. 'What!' said they, 'are you Yagoube, our physician and our friend? 'Let me ask you,' replied I, 'if you are the Ababdé of Sheikh Amner, that cursed yourselves and your children if you ever lifted a hand against me or mine, in the desert or in the ploughed field? If you have repented of that oath, or sworn falsely on purpose to deceive me, here I am come to you in the desert.' 'What is the matter?' said Ibrahim; 'we are the Ababdé of Sheikh Amner—there are no other; and we still say, Cursed be he, whether our father or child, that lifts his hand against you in the desert or in the ploughed field.' 'Then,' said I, 'you are all accursed in the desert and in the field, for a number of your people are going to murder my servant. They took him, indeed, from my house in the town; perhaps that is not included in your curse, as it is neither in the desert nor the ploughed field.' I was very angry. 'Whew!' said Ibrahim, with a kind of whistle, 'that is downright nonsense. Who are those of my people that have authority to murder and take prisoners while I am here? Here, one of you, get upon Yagoube's horse and bring that man to me.' Then turning to me, he desired I would go into the tent and sit down. 'For God renounce me and mine,' says he, 'if it is as you say, and one of them hath touched the hair of his head, if ever he drinks of the Nile again!' A number of people, who had seen me at Sheikh Amner, now came all around me; some with complaints of sickness, some with compliments, more with impertinent questions that had no relation to either. At last came in the culprit Abd-el-gin, with forty or fifty of the Ababdé who had gathered round him, but no rope about his neck."

Upon inquiring why the Ababdé wished to murder Abd-el-gin, Bruce was informed that the captain of his caravan, Hassan, had insidiously persuaded them to kill this man, against whom he had long entertained a great enmity. "I cannot help here," continues Bruce, "accusing myself of what, doubtless, may be well reputed a very great sin, the more so that I cannot say I have yet heartily repented of it. I was so enraged at the traitorous part which Hassan had acted, that, at parting, I could not help saying to Ibrahim, 'Now, sheikh, I have done everything you have desired, without ever expecting fee or reward; the only thing I now ask you, and it is probably the last, is, that you revenge me upon this Hassan, who is every day in your power.' Upon this he gave me his hand, saying, 'He shall not die in his bed, or I shall never see old age.'"

The above anecdote clearly proves (what, indeed, requires no demonstration) that Bruce was by no means a faultless man; and for this act he has been very severely and justly condemned.

While Bruce was thus engaged on the sands with the Ababdé Arabs, a vessel was seen in distress, and all the boats went to tow her in. Nothing can be more dangerous than the corn-trade as it is carried on in the Red Sea: the vessels have no decks, are filled full of wheat, and are continually lost; but scarcely have they sunk out of sight when their fate is equally out of mind. The people are deaf alike to experience, reason, and advice, and crying Ullah Kerim! (God is great and merciful!) they launch and despatch other vessels, trusting that by some miracle they shall be saved.

Bruce having determined to attempt making a survey of the Red Sea down to the Straits of Babelmandel (which means the gate of affliction), took passages for himself and his party in a vessel that was shortly to be ready to receive him. The rais or captain was thought to be a saint; and he gravely assured Bruce, that any rock which stood in the way of his vessel would either jump aside, or else turn quite soft like a sponge. Previous to sailing with this man, Bruce embarked in a small boat, the planks of which, instead of being nailed, were sewn together; and, with the assistance of a sort of straw mattress as a sail, he departed on the 14th of March from the harbour of Cosseir, with an Arab guide, to go to Gibel Zurmud, the emerald mines described by Pliny and other writers. On the 16th he landed on a desert point, and at last came to the foot of these mountains. Inquiring of his guide the name of the spot, the fellow told him it was called "Saiel." "They are never," says Bruce, "at a loss for a name; and those who do not understand the language always believe them. He knew not the name of the place, and perhaps it had no name; but he called it Saiel, which signifies a male acacia-tree, merely because he saw one growing there." Near the foot of the mountain Bruce found five small pits or shafts, from which the ancients are supposed to have drawn emeralds; and then, without having seen a living creature of any sort, he returned to his boat, and proceeded to the islands of Gibel Macowar, to one of which he gave his own name. He was anxious to have sailed still farther towards the south; but signs of an approaching storm obliged him to turn and make for Cosseir. A most violent tempest of wind and rain overtook them; and the rais being completely overcome by fear, Bruce, unable to lower the yard, proposed to cut the straw mainsail to pieces. The rais, terrified at the storm, instantly turned towards Bruce with clasped hands and uplifted eyes, and began muttering to him something about the mercy and merits of Sidi Ali el Genowi. "Confound Sidi Ali el Genowi," said Bruce, "you beast, cannot you give me a rational answer?" and, getting the mainsail in his arms, with a large knife he cut it into shreds. On the 19th of March, a little before sunset, they reached the harbour of Cosseir, where they learned that three vessels had perished in the night, with all their hands.

Having determined the latitude and longitude of Cosseir, and also completed a long series of other observations, Bruce embarked on the 5th of April to continue his survey of the Red Sea, concerning the climate of which Captain Tuckey, of the royal navy, who, with most of his officers and men, perished in 1810 in attempting to trace the course of the Niger, thus wrote from Bombay: "It may surprise you to hear me complain of heat after six years broiling between the tropics; but the hottest day I ever felt, either in the East or West Indies, was winter to the coolest one we had in the Red Sea; the whole coast of 'Araby the Blessed,' from Babelmandel to Suez, for forty miles inland, is an arid sand, producing not a single blade of grass, nor affording one drop of fresh water."

Crossing the gulf, Bruce arrived in four days at Tor, a small straggling village at the foot of Mount Sinai. On the 11th of April he again sailed, coasting along the eastern shore, and landing for a short time at Yamboo; and then continuing his course towards the south, he arrived on the 1st of May at the extensive port of Jidda, which is in Arabia Deserta, and about half way between the Isthmus of Suez and the Straits of Babelmandel.

From Yambo to Jidda Bruce slept but little; having been constantly occupied with memoranda which he was desirous to complete. He was, besides, suffering and shaking from his Bengazi ague; and, burned and weatherbeaten, he was in his neglected garb so like a galiongy or Turkish seaman, that the captain of the port was astonished at hearing his servants, as they were conducting his baggage to the custom-house, say that the traveller was an Englishman.

The reader, having proceeded thus far in the history of Bruce's life, will have remarked with what unconquerable resolution he has hitherto proceeded on his journey, fearless of danger, shrinking from no fatigue, exposing himself to the scorching sun, and complaining neither of hunger nor thirst, but his spirit, like the water of a great river, seeming to acquire strength and boldness in its course as he daily approaches his distant goal. But how has it fared with the body, that frail companion of the mind, during this weary journey? On the subject of his health Bruce himself says but little; and it is only casually, in the following remarkable anecdote, that we are presented with a picture of his frame.

After having been insulted as an impostor by one of his countrymen, "I was conducted," says Bruce, "into a large room, where Captain Thornhill was sitting, in a white calico waistcoat, a very high pointed white cotton nightcap, with a large tumbler of water before him, seemingly very deep in thought. The Emir Bahar's servant brought me forward by the hand a little within the door; but I was not desirous of advancing much farther, for fear of the salutation of being thrown down stairs again. He looked very steadily, but not sternly at me, and desired the servant to shut the door. 'Sir,' says he, 'are you an Englishman?' I bowed. 'You surely are sick, you should be in your bed; have you been long sick?' I said, 'Long, sir,' and bowed. 'Are you wanting a passage to India?' I again bowed. 'Well,' says he, 'you look to be a man in distress; if you have a secret, I shall respect it till you please to tell it me; but if you want a passage to India, apply to no one but Thornhill of the Bengal Merchant. Perhaps you are afraid of somebody; if so, ask for Mr. Greig, my lieutenant; he will carry you on board my ship directly, where you will be safe.' 'Sir,' said I, 'I hope you will find me an honest man; I have no enemy that I know, either in Jidda or elsewhere, nor do I owe any man anything.' 'I am sure,' says he, 'I am doing wrong in keeping a poor man standing who ought to be in his bed. Here! Philip! Philip!' (Philip appeared.) 'Boy,' says he, in Portuguese, which, as I imagine, he supposed I did not understand, 'here is a poor Englishman, who should be either in his bed or in his grave; carry him to the cook; tell him to give him as much broth and mutton as he can eat; the fellow seems to have been starved; but I would rather have the feeding of ten to India, than the burying of one at Jidda.' I made as awkward a bow as I could to Captain Thornhill, and said, 'God will return this to your honour some day.' Philip carried me into a courtyard where they used to expose their samples of India goods in large bales. It had a portico along the left-hand side of it, which seemed designed for a stable. To this place I was introduced, and thither the cook brought me my dinner. I fell fast asleep upon the mat while Philip was ordering me another apartment."

Let this sketch of Bruce's jaded appearance be deeply engraven upon the memory of the reader; and, while the impression is fresh, he cannot but acknowledge what steady perseverance and what manly energy Bruce must have possessed, to have determined, in such a state of health, on continuing to explore the Red Sea, in addition to the arduous Abyssinian task which remained still to be performed. But, while he is sleeping on his mat, it is absolutely necessary that we should no longer delay noticing the observations which have been made on his voyage in the Red Sea, etc.

In the year 1805, thirty-four years after Bruce had left Abyssinia, eleven years after his death, and while his travels were still looked upon as romances, Lord Valentia, accompanied by his secretary, Mr. Salt, came from India into the Red Sea, and landed at Masuah, the island which forms the port or harbour of Abyssinia, no traveller having penetrated that country since the days of Bruce. His lordship's object in making this voyage will be best explained in his own words: "During my stay at Calcutta, I had the honour of freely conversing with the Marquis Wellesley on the subject of the Red Sea, and of stating to him my ideas and feelings, in which I had the happiness of finding that he fully concurred. At length I proposed to his excellency that he should order one of the Bombay cruisers to be prepared for a voyage to the Red Sea; and I offered my gratuitous services to endeavour to remove our disgraceful ignorance, by embarking in her, for the purpose of investigating the eastern shore of Africa, and making the necessary inquiries into the present state of Abyssinia and the neighbouring countries."

With these enterprising, enthusiastic, and noble feelings, Lord Valentia, like Bruce, proceeded to the Island of Masuah; but, on his arrival there, not liking to venture into the interior of so dangerous and uncivilized a country, and yet being desirous to publish "Travels to Abyssinia," etc., he desired Mr. Salt to go forward. Salt accordingly entered the country; but, not being able to reach the capital, he returned to Lord Valentia, leaving behind him one Nathaniel Pierce, an English sailor, who had deserted from his majesty's brig the Antelope, having previously, while a boy, ran away from his own friends.

On his return to England, as is well known, Lord Valentia published, in three quarto volumes, his "Travels to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt;" and in 1810, at his lordship's suggestion, Mr. Canning sent Salt again to Abyssinia with presents, which consisted of "arms ornamented with gold and jewels, satins, cut glass, painted glass, jewellery, a picture of the Virgin Mary, fine British muslins, two pieces of curricle artillery, with the harness complete, one hundred and fifty rounds of ball, and a quantity of powder." With these magnificent presents (which amounted in value to upward of £1400), Mr. Salt again attempted to reach the capital; but, not succeeding, instead of bringing them back, he left them at Chelicut, which is about half way between the Red Sea and Gondar, the capital, to be forwarded to the king. However, Mr. Salt assures us "that an appropriate prayer was recited by the high-priest, in which the English name was frequently introduced, and, on leaving the church, an order was given by the ras that a prayer should be offered up weekly for the health of his majesty, the King of Great Britain. It is scarcely possible to convey," continues Salt, "an adequate idea of the admiration which the ras and his principal chiefs expressed on beholding these splendid presents. The former would often sit for minutes absorbed in silent reflection, and then break out with the exclamation 'Etzub! etzub!' (Wonderful! wonderful!) like a man bewildered with the fresh ideas that were rushing upon his mind, from having witnessed circumstances to which he could have given no previous credit."[22]

Salt, having thus got rid of fourteen hundred pounds' worth of presents (concerning which other reflecting people besides Abyssinians might very justly say Etzub! etzub!), returned to Downing-street, leaving behind him Pierce the sailor, and Coffin, a remarkably handsome English boy, who had come to Abyssinia as Lord Valentia's valet.

In October, 1814, Pierce the sailor, then in Abyssinia, wrote a "Small but True Account of the Ways and Manners of the Abyssinians," which was published in 1820, in the second vol. of "Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay." Pierce remained in Abyssinia thirteen years. He never succeeded in reaching the capital or the fountains of the Nile; but, having turned Mohammedan, he quarrelled with the ras, took to drinking, lost his nose and part of his face; and in 1818, having re-embraced Christianity, he came with one of his wives to Cairo, where he died in great distress, a miserable example of a man who had deserted his parents, his religion, and the colours of his country. His life is, we understand, at this moment about to be published.

Coffin, a very intelligent, pleasing, active lad, but of course illiterate, remained in Abyssinia until the year 1827, when he surprised his brother, who is now valet to Lord ——, and who had long supposed him to be dead, by suddenly calling upon him in London. From a conversation which we have just had with Coffin, we understand that he is about to return to Abyssinia; the present government having refused to give him anything for the king of that country beyond a trifling complimentary present.

As, excepting Lord Valentia, Salt, Pierce, and Coffin, no European travellers have visited Abyssinia since the days of Bruce, we have conceived it to be absolutely necessary, in order that the reader may be enabled to form a correct judgment, to explain the connexion which exists between Lord Valentia, his secretary, his valet, and Nathaniel Pierce the English sailor, who, after deserting from his majesty's brig the Antelope, was patronised by Lord Valentia: for, as the two former, men of education and distinction, have already most violently attacked Bruce, and as the two latter are, we believe, about to follow (naturally enough) the opinions of their masters (we even understand that Pierce's life has been actually prepared for publication by one or more of Mr. Salt's friends), we feel it to be a duty which we owe to science, to truth, and to Bruce's memory, to show that these four individuals, without any improper intention, support rather than corroborate each other; and, having made this explanation, we no less unwillingly proceed to notice a few of the observations which have been made against Bruce by Lord Valentia and Mr. Salt.

"On the 5th," says Lord Valentia, the commander-in-chief of Bruce's enemies, "I had a most severe attack of fever, which went off at night. I took James's powder, which I thought relieved it. On the 7th I was unwell in the morning, but the James's powder prevented a regular fit. I took two grains of calomel night and morning, which gradually recovered me."—Vol. ii., p. 218. His lordship, alluding to Bruce, farther says: "When a person attempts to give geographical information to the public, it is necessary that his information should be accurate, and that he should not give as certain a single circumstance of which he has not positively informed himself." Yet Lord Valentia not only published "Travels to Abyssinia" (having only landed at Masuah, a harbour which did not at that time even belong to the King of Abyssinia), but also thus ventures, merely from hearsay, to contradict Bruce, who had been an eyewitness of facts which he related. "Although," says his lordship, "I was not so fortunate as to reach Macowar, yet I was sufficiently near it to convince myself that the accounts I had received at Massowah and Suakim of its actual position were perfectly true; and that Mr. Bruce's adventures at and near it were complete romances. I confess that I always had some doubts in my mind respecting this voyage from Cosseir, from the absurdity of the account he gives of his taking a prodigious mat-sail, distended by the wind, then blowing a gale, in his arms, and yet having one hand at liberty to cut it in pieces with a knife. Nor could I more easily credit his finding at Gibel Zumrud or Sibergeit, the pits still remaining, five in number, none of them four feet in diameter, from which the ancients were said to have drawn the emeralds," &c., &c.

Now Belzoni, who in 1816 visited this identical spot, says (p. 325), "The plain which extends from the mountain to the sea was covered in many places with woods of sycamore and ciell (the male acacia) tree, which confirms the account of Bruce. I do not see any reason why Mr. Bruce's assertion of having visited these mountains should be doubted."

Lord Valentia proceeds to say, "I think it clear, from the above observations, that Mr. Bruce represented himself in the first place as visiting an island called Gibel Zumrud, in lat. 25° 3' N., though, in fact, that island lies in 23° 48'; and afterward as reaching another island, Macowar, in 24° 2' N., which, in fact, lies in 20° 38'. I think it appears equally clear that it was impossible for him to have made a voyage from Cosseir to the real Macowar, a distance of nearly four hundred miles, in the period he allows himself, from the 14th of March to the 17th;[23] and, consequently, that he never did see that place, although his description of it, and also his assertion that the Arabs there quit the coast of Africa to strike off for Jidda, are both correct. I think it impossible to account for these errors in any other way than by considering the whole voyage as an episodical fiction." Yet Captain Keys, who commanded his majesty's ship which Lord Valentia was actually on board, says, "Mr. Bruce is a very accurate observer, and I shall take his latitude and longitude."

We have thought it but fair to give to the reader Lord Valentia's testimony, that Bruce's adventures and voyage in the Red Sea are "complete romances" and "episodical fictions." Neither our limits nor our inclination will permit us to offend Lord Valentia by making any very long reply; but we cannot refrain from observing, that if his lordship had but weighed his words with the scrupulous accuracy with which he appears to have weighed his medicine, he would have paused before he spoke thus disrespectfully of the character of an honest man, whose undertaking was altogether on too vast a scale to be described with the same minute accuracy with which his lordship thus describes the interesting occupations of his own family group: "With the bait of a cockroach," says Lord Valentia, "my servant caught a small fish of the genus Diodon; Mr. Salt drew it, and I stuffed its skin!"

But we must now for a moment return to poor Bruce, who, the reader will recollect, was left asleep on the mat. While he was thus at rest, his baggage was taken to the custom-house; and the keys being in his own pocket, the vizier, who was exceedingly curious to witness the contents of so many large boxes, ordered them to be opened at the hinges.

The first thing which chanced to present itself to the vizier's eyes was the firman of the Grand Seignior, wrapped up in green taffeta, magnificently written and titled, and the inscription powdered with gold-dust. Next appeared a white satin bag, addressed to the Khan of Tartary! Then a green and gold silk bag, with letters directed to the Sherriffe of Mecca! Then a crimson satin bag, containing letters for Metical Aga, his chief minister, sword-bearer, and favourite! At last appeared a letter from Ali Bey, of Cairo, to the vizier himself, written with all the superiority of a prince to a slave, and concluding by saying, that if any accident happened to Bruce through his neglect, he would punish the affront at the very gates of Mecca!! At the sight of these letters the vizier's curiosity was very suddenly converted into the most painful alarm; he ordered the mighty stranger's boxes to be nailed up immediately, and, upbraiding the servants for not telling him to whom they belonged, he mounted his horse, and instantly rode down to the English factory. Great inquiry was everywhere made for the English nobleman, whom nobody had seen; and Bruce was still sitting yawning on his mat, when the vizier entered the courtyard, which was instantly filled with a crowd of people.

"In heaven!" replied Bruce, calmly and fearlessly, to a dapper custom-house clerk, who asked him if he could tell him where his master was. But the question being repeated, Bruce said that the baggage belonged to him; and he immediately rose up and introduced himself to the vizier and to several of his countrymen that were present; who, when they became better acquainted, united in making arrangements for getting him the strongest recommendations possible to the Naybe or governor of Masuah (the island in front of the port of Abyssinia), to the King of Abyssinia, and to the King of Sennaar.

The English gentlemen at Jidda, and more particularly that excellent and honourable man, Captain Thomas Price, of the Lion, of Bombay, used all their influence with Metical Aga to procure Bruce a good reception in Abyssinia; and it was moreover agreed among them that an Abyssinian, named Mohammed Gibberti, should be appointed to go with him, to be an eyewitness of the treatment which he should receive. But, as Gibberti required a few weeks to prepare himself for the expedition, Bruce, having already been some time at Jidda, determined to continue his survey of the Red Sea. Accordingly, on the 8th of July, 1769, attended by all his countrymen to the water's edge, he sailed, under a salute from the harbour of Jidda; and, having landed at the harbour of Gonfodah, on the 31st he reached Gibel Raban, an island in the Straits of Babelmandel. After having determined the latitude and longitude of the straits, and of various other places on both coasts, he sailed to the northward; and on the 8th of August, (nearly a month from the time he had left Jidda) he reached Loheia, which is on the coast of Arabia Felix, immediately opposite to the island of Masuah and the port of Abyssinia. Here he remained until the 1st of September, when Mohammed Gibberti arrived, bringing with him the firman for the Naybe or governor of Masuah, and letters for Ras Michael, governor of the great province of Tigré in Abyssinia; a most singular personage, with whose character the reader will very shortly be made better acquainted.

On the 3d of September they all sailed from Masuah, and on the 10th they passed the island of Gibel Teir, which is about half way between the two shores. It is a volcano, was then smoking, and was covered with sulphur and pumice-stones. Bruce was suffering very severely from fever and from the heat of the sun, which had almost brought on a coup de soleil, when, on the 11th, at noon, the vessel struck upon a reef of coral rocks, and for some hours they were totally unable to move her. They at last succeeded, however, and Bruce remarks: "We saw the advantage of a vessel being sewed rather than nailed together, as she was not only unhurt, but made very little water." During the confusion, and while the greater part of the Mohammedan crew were flying to prayers instead of trying to save the vessel, the courage and exertions of Yasine, a Moor, were much observed and admired by Bruce, who says: "From that day he grew into consideration with me, which continued ever after till my departure from Abyssinia."

On the 14th they reached Dahalac, the largest island in the Red Sea, being thirty-seven miles in length and eighteen in breadth, but low, and so barren that several women and girls swam off to the vessel before it came to an anchor, begging for handfuls of rice, dora, or wheat. These miserable people are sometimes a whole year without tasting bread. Yet they are so strongly attached to their parched, barren, desolate home, that it is impossible to prevail on them to leave it. "This preference," says Bruce, "we must not call strange, for it is universal; from Lapland to the line you find it written precisely in the same character."

On the 19th of September, 1769, a very important day in Bruce's life, his vessel came to anchor in the harbour of Masuah, the ancient port of Abyssinia. He was seventeen days in crossing the gulf, which is often done in three days; but much time had been spent in surveying the islands.

Bruce's notes and observations during his voyages in the Red Sea, which we have passed over as being dry and uninteresting to the general reader, contain, nevertheless, facts and information of a very valuable description. Besides endeavouring to determine the currents, the bearings of the different islands, and the latitude and longitude of the principal points, Bruce surveyed a number of the harbours, and has given minute directions for ships to enter them; as also to navigate the gulf or channel. His collections of marine productions, and his observations on the natural history of the Red Sea, were also very extensive. "I suppose," he says, "I have drawings and subjects of this kind equal in bulk to the journal of the whole voyage itself." Not confining himself to useful, practical subjects, he directed his attention to questions of a more speculative nature: as to whether, for instance, the Red Sea is not higher, by some feet and inches, than the Mediterranean; where it was that the children of Israel passed the Red Sea; what is the origin of polygamy among Eastern nations; what causes the currents in the different parts of the gulf, &c., &c.

He landed but at a few places, for the Abyssinian shore was quite desert, and the Arabian side extremely dangerous, being inhabited by a most barbarous people. On the one shore he could get nothing, while on the other he knew that he would be robbed of what little he had. His observations were therefore mostly nautical; and if his description of the charts and pilots he met with be correct, his labours were at least well intended. The pilots of the Red Sea, he says, "are creatures without any sort of science, who decide upon a manœuvre in a moment;" and of the charts he thus speaks: "God forgive those who have taken upon them very lately to ingraft a number of new soundings upon that miserable bundle of errors, that chart of the upper part of the gulf from Jidda to Mocha, which has been tossed about the Red Sea these twenty years and upward! I would beg leave to be understood, that there is not in the world a man more averse than I am to give offence, even to a child. It is not in the spirit of criticism I speak this; but where the lives and properties of so many men are at stake yearly, it is a species of treason to conceal one's sentiments, if the publishing them can any way contribute to safety, whatever offence it may give to unreasonable individuals."

Lord Valentia has thought proper to declare that Bruce "never was below Loheia;" "that his voyage from Loheia to Babelmandel is evidently a fiction;" "that his book partakes more of romance than reality;" "that he has so mixed truth with falsehood," &c., &.c, &c. In a polite and civilized country, this style of language (most particularly from one fellow-traveller to another) deserves no reply; it is a poison which must carry with it its own antidote. Lord Valentia himself admits that several of Bruce's latitudes and longitudes are correct; but he also asserts that others are incorrect, and that some are even copied from Niebuhr. All men are prone to error; and it may or may not be true that Bruce sometimes, without acknowledgment, availed himself of the experience of those who had preceded him; nevertheless, the observations which Lord Valentia has thought it proper to make upon our traveller are certainly not supported by the following extract from the journal even of his lordship's own secretary, Mr. Salt. "During Captain Court's absence, I endeavoured to get as much information as possible concerning the place; and for this purpose, one of the elder inhabitants, who had spent his life in piloting vessels to and fro, was brought to me by the nayib's man. He confirmed to me the names of all the islands we had seen in the morning, which agreed most perfectly with what Bruce has called them. He recognised every island, excepting two, mentioned by Bruce, as I named them from the book." It is likewise due to Bruce to repeat here the remark of Captain Keys of the royal navy, in whose vessel Lord Valentia and Mr. Salt first visited the Red Sea. "Mr. Bruce," says Captain Keys, "is a very accurate observer, and I shall take his latitude and longitude."

Dr. Clark, in his travels to Egypt, &c., says, "The officers of General Baird's army spoke highly of the accuracy of Bruce's observations; and the general himself assured us, that he considered Great Britain as indebted to Bruce's valuable chart of the Red Sea for the safety of the transports employed in carrying the British forces."

Many people still agree with Lord Valentia in maintaining very positively that Bruce never was below Loheia, and consequently that he never went to the Straits of Babelmandel: because, say they, this part of his voyage is not mentioned in the private journal either of Bruce or his draughtsman Balugani. But how often has an eager traveller like Bruce, baffling all sober calculation, suddenly neglected everything else to visit a barren spot, for the empty satisfaction of being able to say, or only to feel, that he has been there; and surely no man was more likely to do this than Bruce, whose life was so much of it spent in attempting to gain such trophies. Bruce declares that he left Cosseir with a determination to make a survey of the Red Sea; and, steering direct north to Tor, his track shows the plan upon which he had embarked. On his arrival at Loheia he had sailed over nearly three quarters of the gulf; and, this being the case, is it not consistent with Bruce's general character to suppose that he should have felt a very strong inclination to conclude his survey, and especially to reach a point of so much geographical importance as the Straits of Babelmandel, which were, comparatively speaking, close to him? And if it is likely that he should have entertained this feeling, there was nothing to prevent him from gratifying it. He had time, wind, water, a vessel, and provisions, and what could he have asked for more?

FOOTNOTES:

[21] By a letter which Bruce addressed from London to his friend Mr. Wood, it appears that it was on the 16th of March he left Kenné for Cosseir, but the 16th of February is the day stated in his "Travels."

[22] Salt's Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 267.

[23] Four hundred miles in four days is not five miles an hour.

CHAPTER VI.

Previous to Bruce's landing at Masuah, the ancient port of Abyssinia, it would seem proper to lay before the reader some account of this country, and of the continent to which it belongs.

Of Africa in general it may be justly said, that ninety-nine parts of it are unknown; and that, at several points, a man might travel from the Mediterranean very nearly to the Cape of Good Hope, and from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, over ground which has never been trodden or seen by any European traveller.

We have surveyed its coasts; we are acquainted with part of the Nile; and, in a very few directions, we have attempted to penetrate into the interior of the country; but it must be confessed that Africa is an immense blank in geography which remains yet to be filled up. Instead, therefore, of presuming to offer a map of this continent, we propose to attempt nothing more than a short verbal description of its general features, with a few observations thereon; and as Bruce's memoranda on the topography and history of Abyssinia are, with little attention to arrangement, scattered over the seven volumes of his travels, and would alone fill three or four times as many pages as the whole of this little book contains, we shall merely add to our sketch of Africa a slight descriptive outline of the kingdom of Abyssinia, and an abstract of its history up to the time when Bruce landed in that country.

We are but indifferently prepared to do justice to these subjects; but we feel that it is impossible for the general reader, going merely step by step, like a man walking in the dark with a lantern, to judge of Bruce's life in Abyssinia, unless he previously takes into consideration the general character and history of that country, and the character of the continent of which it forms a part.

SKETCH OF THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA.

That vast portion of the globe which we call Africa is in length about five thousand miles, which is about the distance from the line to Iceland, or from Calcutta to the North Pole: in short, it is about one thousand miles more than the distance from the earth's centre to its circumference. The greatest breadth of Africa is very nearly equal to its length. This immense expanse of country is situated in exactly the hottest region of the globe; for, from the equator, it is two thousand five hundred miles to its northern boundary, the Mediterranean Sea, and about the same distance to its southern extremity, the Cape of Good Hope. The burning heat of both the torrid zones forms, therefore, the scorching climate of the middle portion of this continent; and the northern and southern extremities, its coldest regions, are, as we all know, nearer to the line than the most southern or hottest parts of Europe. To describe the climate, it may therefore, in general terms, not unjustly be observed, that what is marked by Nature upon our European scale of climate as excess of heat, is all that the African knows of the luxury of cold, excepting that which is produced by elevation or evaporation.

Although Africa is thus perpetually exposed to a scorching sun, yet, if it were well watered, it would be highly productive, and not unlike a luxuriant garden. But, although heat and water give this exuberant fertility to any soil, we also know that, without water (the blood of the vegetable world), the richest land remains a caput mortuum—rudis indigestaque moles—an inert, lifeless mass. Water being, therefore, an element of such vital importance in the production of vegetation, it becomes necessary to take a very short practical view of the tropical rains which deluge the centre of Africa.

During the half-yearly visits which the sun pays in succession to the torrid regions on the north and south of the line, the air, heated by his presence, becomes rarefied, and flies upward: its place is immediately filled; and thus a constant rush of air, or, as we call it, a trade-wind, is produced, which, being also influenced by the diurnal motion of the sun, is constantly flowing towards the equator. The air, thus rushing towards the sun, is by heat made capable of absorbing a greater quantity of water than it could contain in a colder state; and therefore, as soon as this air and vapour united rise into high and consequently colder regions, a divorce between the two elements suddenly takes place; the air now loses its power of retaining the vapour, which, being immediately condensed, becomes water; and its companion, the dry air, thus deserted by it, falls to the earth in what we term tropical rains, which, accompanying the sun from one torrid zone to another, are, by a most wonderful provision of Nature, perpetually assuaging the thirst which this immense heating mass tends to create. The rains are always most violent where the sun is in the zenith; and, as a remarkable instance of the effect which they produce, it may be stated, that Bruce observed, when the sun was immediately over Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, that the thermometer was invariably about twelve degrees lower than when he was in the southern tropic, thirty-six degrees from the zenith of Gondar: so happily does the approach of rain compensate for the heat of a burning sun! But, while the centre of Africa, or, to speak more correctly, a belt of about eleven hundred miles on each side of the line, is thus periodically deluged with water, yet, in the vast remainder of the continent, it may be said, with very few exceptions, that it never rains at all. The burning heat and the unequal distribution of water in Africa being understood, the following picture of the country is the natural consequence.

Within the limits of the tropical rains, the soil, rank from excessive heat and moisture, in some places is found covered with trees of most enormous size, encircled by kossom and other twining shrubs, which form bowers of a most beautiful description, enlivened by the notes of thousands of gaudy birds, and perfumed with fragrant aromatic breezes. These trees are often the acacia vera, or Egyptian thorn. They seldom grow above fifteen or sixteen feet high, then flatten; and, spreading wide at the top, touch each other, while the trunks are far asunder: and thus, under a vertical sun, for many miles together, there is a free space, in which both men and beasts may walk in a cool, delicious shade. Other parts of this region produce coarse grass, high enough to cover a man on horseback, or a jungle, composed of tall underwood and briers, which would be almost impervious to human beings were it not for the elephant and other large animals, which, crushing everything in their progress, form paths in various directions. In many places the land is highly cultivated, divided into plantations, fenced in as in England, possessing towns of more than thirty thousand inhabitants, and swarming with an immense population.

Strangely contrasted with this picture of the wet portion of Africa are its dry, lifeless deserts, composed either of mountains and plains of hot stones, or of vast masses of loose, burning sand, which, sometimes formed into moving pillars by the whirlwind, and sometimes driven forward, like a mist, by the gale, threaten the traveller with death and burial, or, rather, with burial and then death; a fate which befell the army of Cambyses. In some places, however, the sand is found, like a layer of mortar, firmly cemented on the surface by an incrustation of salt; and it is in these scorching regions of salt and sand that the traveller experiences what he has emphatically termed "the thirst of the desert;" and yet, with all its horrors, the desert parts of Africa are more healthy, and afford a residence which is often more desirable than the rank, luxuriant regions; for the excessive rains bring into existence vast numbers of flies, moschetoes, and ants, which not only torment the body, but even devour the garments. Denham says (vol. ii., p. 91), "After a night of intolerable misery to us all, from flies and moschetoes, so bad as to knock up two of our blacks, we mounted, &c.... Another night was passed in a state of suffering and distress which defies description: the buzz from the insects was like the singing of birds; the men and horses groaned with anguish. I do not think our animals could have borne another such night." Besides producing these flies, the rains cover the country with extensive lakes, and, as far as the eye can reach, with immense miry swamps, which at first drive the wild beasts among the human race, and then putrify and corrupt the air; converting a verdant, smiling country into what may be termed a painted sepulchre. In the desert, on the other hand, there are no flies; the air is comparatively healthy; and, as the heat penetrates only a few inches into the ground, a cool bed can always be obtained after sunset by clearing away the hot sand from the surface.

The moral outline of Africa is far more gloomy than the physical face of the country. The whole of the interior (as far as Europeans have been able to judge, or, rather, to conjecture, from their slight acquaintance with it) may be said to be one scene of incessant civil war. Of all the various tribes, nations, colours, and races of men who inhabit this immense country, there is not one which has not its enemy; and the universal creed of Africa seems to be, that the freedom and happiness of one tribe rest upon the slavery and misery of another. The Sultan of Mandara, on the marriage of his daughter, lately made an incursion into the Kerdy country: three thousand unfortunate wretches were thus dragged from their homes, and doomed to perpetual bondage.

Across scorching deserts, in which not a living animal, or even an insect, exists, in various directions are seen one tribe of human beings driving another to slavery. The unfortunate captives, starting from their native seats in health, and, strange to say, even in spirits, gradually decline in both: their bodies become emaciated, their legs swell, and, as Denham says, "on approaching the wells, they run forward several miles like things distracted, their mouths open, and eyes starting from their heads." The water they seek is sometimes brackish, or the well itself is found to be dry; and around its exhausted source stand grouped this crowd of disappointed beings, surrounded by the countless skeletons of those whose captivity and troubles have alike ended on the same spot; who have perished from thirst and fatigue; and whose bones the hungry camels of the Cafila are oftentimes seen to chew.

From the northern coast of Africa, where the Christian captive has so often ended his days in silent misery and anguish, down to the country of the Hottentots and Caffres, a space of about five thousand miles, and from the eastern mountains of Abyssinia to the waters of the great Western Ocean, a distance of nearly four thousand miles, we have every reason to believe that, throughout the whole of this immense region, the system of slavery more or less prevails.

CHAPTER VII.

A Short Description of Abyssinia.

The kingdom of Habbesh, Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, the oldest monarchy in Africa, is a small, highly-elevated, mountainous district, lying in the middle of the north torrid zone, within the limits of the tropical rains, enclosed by forests of enormous extent, a small part of the Red Sea, and unknown, trackless regions. This secluded spot, cut off from communication with the civilized world by poisonous winds, burning deserts of moving sand, and by the character of its people, far more dangerous to the traveller than either their climate or country, is nevertheless connected with Europe by two circumstances that distinguish it from the rest of Africa. The two ties which thus connect the Christian world with Abyssinia are its river and its church; and it is surely pleasing to reflect, that Egypt—the granary of the East, a field annually enriched by a triple harvest, a smiling, luxuriant garden, in a remote corner of the blank, lifeless desert of Africa—owes its fertility to a river which, rising in a Christian country, may not unjustly be considered as a type of that religion which, calmly proceeding on its course, is ever offering to the vast moral deserts through which it flows, the blessings of peace, civilization, and abundance here, and everlasting happiness hereafter.

Abyssinia, surrounded by enemies, expands or contracts its boundaries with every victory or defeat; but, in general terms, it may be said that it is about equal in extent to Great Britain. It is bounded on the north by Sennaar and the great woods of the Shangalla; on the south it is hemmed in by various tribes of the Galla nations, which also approach its borders on the west and partly on the east, while the rest of its eastern frontier is formed by the Red Sea. Abyssinia has therefore been compared to a bow, of which the Shangalla tribes on the north form the string, and the various nations of the Galla the arch. It is, generally speaking, mountainous; or, to describe it more minutely, it is composed of groups and ranges of very high mountains, overlooking the plains and deep valleys which surround them.

Before it is possible to give a clear idea of the climate of this country, there are certain phenomena which it is necessary to describe. It is well known that, from Suez to Masuah, the ancient harbour of Abyssinia, and from thence to the Straits of Babelmandel, a chain of mountains runs nearly parallel to the western coast of the Red Sea. These mountains, to the north of Abyssinia, pass through the country of the Shepherds, and there separate vast districts, which, though exactly in the same latitude, have nevertheless a most remarkable difference in the period of their rains. Both countries are deluged with rain for six months in the year; but the wet seasons on the two sides of these mountains are diametrically opposite to each other. On the east side, or in the country which lies between the mountains and the Red Sea, it rains during the six months which constitute our winter in Europe; while on the opposite side it rains during the whole of our summer months. From the violence of these rains, and on account of the fly that accompanies them, either region becomes, for six months of the year, almost unfit for the habitation of man; while the country on the opposite side of the mountains is teeming with luxuriance, and basking under the rays of a prolific sun. The shepherds, or inhabitants of these adjoining territories, availing themselves of this singular dispensation of Providence, annually migrate from one side of the mountains to the other; so that, although one or the other country is always suffering from the rain and fly, the natives of both manage to enjoy a perpetual summer; and while their cattle are feeding, in the cool of the morning, on the most luxuriant pasture, and, during the burning sunshine of the day, are browsing on exuberant foliage, a mere geographical line divides them from a land deluged with a pouring rain, deserted by almost every living creature, and condemned to gloomy and cheerless solitude. It may easily be conceived that this wandering life of the shepherd creates predatory, pilfering habits; and the old Abyssinian proverb, "beware of the man who drinks two waters," agrees with our own experience, how badly men of roaming, unsettled dispositions are suited to the enjoyment of stationary, civilized life.

These periodical rains, which in themselves constitute one of the wonders of nature, produce another which is almost equally extraordinary; for, as soon as the fat, black earth of the mountains of Abyssinia becomes saturated with water, immense swarms of flies burst into existence; and, with the rains, assist in driving almost every living creature from them. This insect, called by the Abyssinians tsaltsalya, although it is scarcely larger than a common bee, becomes formidable from its immense numbers; and the buzzing sound announcing its arrival is no sooner heard, than the cattle forsake their food and run wildly about the plain, till they actually die from fear, pain, and fatigue. The camel, whose patience under every other affliction is proverbially unalterable, becomes ungovernable from the violent punctures of these flies; his body is soon covered with lumps, which break and putrify, and the wretched creature sinks and dies. Even the rhinoceros and elephant, whose hides are considered almost impenetrable to a musket-ball, are severely persecuted by these insects; but they instinctively fortify themselves against their attack by wallowing in the mud, which, when dried by the sun, forms a coating that is impenetrable to their stings. All the inhabitants of Melinda, down to Cape Gardfui, Saba, and the south coast of the Red Sea; and all those of the countries from the mountains of Abyssinia to the confluence of the Nile and the Astaboras, are obliged annually to quit the region of black earth, and, driving their cattle before them, to seek refuge in the cheerless sands of the desert; and so many human beings and huge animals thus flying before an army of little flies, certainly forms a very remarkable and surprising feature in the great picture of Nature.

Of all the writers on these countries, Isaiah is, we believe, the only one, before Bruce, who has given an account of this insect. "And it shall come to pass," says the prophet, "in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys."

For one moment we must stop to observe, that Bruce's account of the number and the effect produced by these flies is a part of his narrative which was long pointed at and ridiculed as being particularly unworthy of belief; yet the description already quoted from Denham (page 100) strongly corroborates Bruce's statement, which has also been confirmed by the testimony of the Abyssinian, Dean, who was publicly examined at Cairo by Dr. Clarke. No author has ever yet been able to impart to his reader an adequate idea of the clouds of locusts which, in some parts of the world, suddenly convert, for a hundred miles together, a green country into a brown one, by the total destruction of vegetable life. Bruce's account, therefore, of the havoc which the tsaltsalya, zimb, or fly of Abyssinia produces among living creatures, however strange it may sound in this country, does not, in the natural history of the world, stand unsupported.

Why a portion of the animal and vegetable creation should be annoyed by such scourges as the zimb and the locust; why parts of the world should be disordered by hurricanes and earthquakes; and why the whole of mankind should occasionally suffer from pestilential disorders, &c., are problems which Bruce need not be called on to solve. He has merely added one to a number of facts, concerning which all we know is, that they form parts of a wise and beneficent system which it is entirely beyond our power to comprehend.

Abyssinia being mountainous, lying in the middle of the torrid zone, and being subject also to the heavy periodical rains just described, the effect naturally produced by these three causes is, that the climates of the high and low country are totally different. The mountainous or high land of Abyssinia, which, it may be observed, is covered with long grass and destitute of wood, is at all times dry, cool, temperate, and healthy, and often even extremely cold; while the low, woody country, hazy, close, and insufferably hot, suffers severely from the sickness invariably produced by the excessive rains. Part of this low country, however, is not covered with wood; and, though equally hot, from being better ventilated, it is, generally speaking, healthy, while it is as productive as Egypt, and covered with the finest cattle of all descriptions. But where the waters of the rainy season, for want of descent, stagnate on the plains, these hot, swampy marshes produce no pasture, and are exceedingly unhealthy.

The little kingdom of Abyssinia, thus possessing within itself districts of such various climates, is inhabited by people of races and complexions as different as the soil and altitudes which they respectively occupy. In Abyssinia, royalty sits perched on the tops of the highest mountains; the great bulk of the community enjoy themselves on the sides of the hills, or in the wide, healthy plains; and in the hot, feverish, putrid atmosphere of the low woods, we meet that wretched, unfortunate being, the black, woolly-headed negro, who there, as in other regions of the world, finds his fellow-creature, pagan as well as Christian, a more cruel, cunning, relentless enemy than the savage beasts of the field.

THE SHANGALLA.

The Shangalla of Abyssinia, the ancient Cushites or Ethiopians, occupy a low, flat, sultry country, with a dark, rich soil, on an average about forty miles broad. They are pagans, black, naked, and inveterate enemies of the Abyssinian government. During the first half of the year, the Shangalla live under the friendly shade of their own trees, the lower branches of which they bend downward and fix into the ground, thus forming a verdant tent, which they cover on the outside with the skins of animals. For food and amusement they hunt the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and those other large animals which either inhabit their woody territory, or are found wallowing in the sultry pools which it encloses; and hence it follows, that where the forest is the broadest, the jungle the thickest, and the stagnant ponds the largest, there the tribes of the Shangalla are the most numerous and formidable. In those parts of the country where the large animals do not abound, the Shangalla subsists on buffaloes, deer, boars, lions, and even serpents: in places where there is little wood, whole tribes of them eat the crocodile, fish, locusts, lizards, and ostriches; and thus they are still the rhizophagi, elephantophagi, acridophagi, struthiophagi, agriophagi, &c., which Ptolemy, in his account of the Ethiopians, has so accurately described.

During the summer, the Shangalla tribes subsist on the animals which they catch; but, in order to provide for the rainy season, they prepare their food in a very singular manner. Venison and other flesh is cut into strips or thongs about as broad as a man's thumb. These are dried in the sun until they resemble tough leather; even locusts are dried and packed in baskets for the winter's consumption. Before the rainy season commences, they strike, or, rather, uncover their tents, leaving the boughs still pinioned to the earth; and thus bidding adieu to the skeleton of their deserted village, they seek refuge in caves which are rudely excavated in gritty, sandy rocks, so soft that they are often made to contain several apartments. Soon after the rains subside, the high grass becomes dry, brown, and parched; and, being inconvenient to the Shangalla, they set fire to it. The flames rapidly extend over the country, and run down the ravines and gullies, in which, but a few weeks before, another element was seen rushing on its course!

The Shangalla have but one language, which has a highly guttural sound. They worship trees, serpents, the moon, planets, and stars in certain positions. They have, of course, many superstitions: for instance, a star passing near the horns of the moon denotes, they conceive, the approach of an enemy. They have priests, but only to defend them from evil spirits: to their good, benevolent spirits they fancy they may appeal without human assistance.

They are all archers from their infancy. Their bows, which are made of wild fennel, are usually long and thick, and so elastic that the same weapon is used in childish sports which afterward defends them when they grow up—the only difference being that whereas, when boys, they are obliged, from its length, to hold the bow horizontally, the being able to bend it vertically is, among the Shangalla, the admitted sign of manhood. As a sort of religious, or, rather, superstitious, offering, they place on their bow a ring or strip of every animal they kill; and when the bow, covered with these rude trophies, becomes too heavy to be used, they carefully preserve it.

The old Shangalla has always, therefore, a number of these weapons in his possession. From them he selects a favourite one to be buried with him, in order that, when he rises again, he may not be at a loss to defend himself from his enemies; for these poor people, as we shall soon learn, are so accustomed to enemies in this world, that they cannot conceive that even a future existence can be without them; and yet, rude and mistaken as their notions are, we must all admit that there is no one idea more deserving of respect—which more directly tends to civilize the human mind, making all men act towards each other as brothers, than a belief, however vague, in a state of future existence.