Born 1730.—Died 1794.
JAMES BRUCE, one of the most illustrious travellers whom any age or
country has produced, was born on the 14th of December, 1730, at
Kinnaird, in the county of Stirling, in Scotland. His mother, who died
of consumption when he was only three years old, seemed to have
bequeathed to him the same fatal disorder; for during childhood his
health was bad, and his constitution, which afterward acquired an iron
firmness, appeared to be particularly feeble. His father, who had
married a second wife, by whom he had a large family, sent James at the
age of eight years to London, where he remained under the care of his
uncle, counsellor Hamilton, until 1742, when he was placed at Harrow
school. Here he remained four years, during which he made considerable
progress in his classical studies; and while he commanded the
enthusiastic approbation of his teachers (one of whom observed, that for
his years he had never seen his fellow), he laid the foundations of many
valuable friendships which endured through life.
On leaving school at the early age of sixteen, Bruce, who at that time
could of course understand nothing of his own character, imagined
himself admirably adapted for the study of divinity and the tranquil
life of a clergyman; but his inclination not receiving the approbation
of his father, he necessarily abandoned it, and prepared, in obedience
to paternal authority, to study for the Scottish bar. He returned to
Scotland in 1747, and, having spent the autumn of that year in
destroying wild fowl and other game, for which noble and rational
species of recreation he always, we are told, retained a peculiar
predilection, he resumed his studies, which, as they now led him through
the dusty mazes of ancient and modern law, seem to have possessed much
fewer charms for our future traveller than shooting grouse upon the
mountains. Two years, however, were uselessly consumed in this study. At
the termination of this period it was discovered that it was not as a
lawyer that Bruce was destined to excel; and therefore, abandoning all
thoughts of a career for which he had himself never entertained the
least partiality, he returned in a considerably impaired state of health
to his favourite field sports in Stirlingshire.
Here he lived about four years, undetermined what course of life he
should pursue; but at length, having resolved to repair as a free trader
to Hindostan, he proceeded to London in 1753 for the purpose of
soliciting permission from the directors. An event now occurred,
however, which promised to determine for ever the current of his hopes
and pursuits. Conceiving an attachment for the daughter of an eminent
wine-merchant, who, on dying, had bequeathed considerable wealth and a
thriving business to his widow and child, Bruce relinquished his scheme
of pushing his fortunes in the East, married, and became himself a
wine-merchant. But Providence had otherwise disposed of his days. In a
few months after his marriage, consumption, that genuine pestilence of
our moist climates, deprived him of his amiable wife at Paris, whither
he had proceeded on his way to the south of France. For some time after
this event he continued in the wine trade, the interests of which
requiring that he should visit Spain and Portugal, he applied himself
during two years to the study of the languages of those countries, of
which he is said to have possessed a very competent knowledge.
This preliminary step having been made, he may be said to have commenced
his travels with a voyage to the Peninsula. Landing on the northern
coast of Spain, he traversed Gallicia, spent four months in Portugal,
and then, re-entering Spain, made the tour of a large portion of
Andalusia and New Castile, and then proceeded to Madrid. His enthusiasm
and romantic character, which had probably a new accession of ardour
from the wild scenes still redolent of ancient chivalry which he had
just visited, recommended him strongly to the Spanish minister, who used
many arguments to induce him to enter the service of his Catholic
majesty. This by no means, however, coincided with Bruce’s views. That
restlessness which the man who has once conceived the idea of travelling
ever after feels, unfitted him in reality for all quiet employment. He
felt himself goaded on by the desire of fame; to be in motion seemed to
be on the way to acquire it. He therefore proceeded across the Pyrenees
into France, and thence, through Germany and Holland, to England, where
he arrived in July, 1758.
He had learned at Rotterdam the death of his father, by which he
succeeded to the family estate at Kinnaird. He likewise continued during
another three years to derive profit from his business as a
wine-merchant; but at the termination of that period the partnership was
dissolved. All this while, however, his leisure had been devoted to the
acquisition of the Arabic and other eastern languages, among the rest
the Ethiopic, which probably first directed his attention to Abyssinia.
In the mean while, an idea which he had conceived while at Ferrol in
Gallicia was the means of bringing him into communication with the
English ministry; this was, that in case of a rupture with Spain, Ferrol
would be the most desirable point on the Spanish coast for a descent.
Should the scheme be adopted, he was ready to volunteer his services in
aiding in its execution. The plans appeared feasible to Lord Chatham,
with whom Bruce had the honour of conversing on the subject. But this
great man going out of office before any thing definitive had been
concluded on, Bruce began to imagine that the plan had been abandoned;
but was for some time longer amused with hopes by the ministers, until
the affair was finally dropped at the earnest solicitation of the
Portuguese ambassador.
He now retired in apparent disgust to his estate in Scotland; but
shortly afterward, Lord Halifax, who seems to have penetrated into
Bruce’s character, recalled him to London, and proposed to him, as an
object of ambition, the examination of the architectural curiosities of
Northern Africa, and the discovery of the sources of the Nile. This
latter achievement, however, was spoken of in an equivocal manner, and
as if, while he mentioned it, his lordship had entertained doubts of
Bruce’s capacity for successfully conducting so difficult and dangerous
an enterprise. Such a mode of proceeding was well calculated, and was
probably meant, to pique the vanity of Bruce, and urge him, without
seeming to do so, into the undertaking of what with great reason
appeared to be an herculean labour. But whatever may have been Lord
Halifax’s intentions, which is now a matter of no importance, the hint
thus casually or designedly thrown out was not lost. Bruce’s imagination
was at once kindled by the prospect of achieving what, as far as he then
knew, no man had up to that moment been able to perform; and secretly
conceiving that he had been marked out by Providence for the fulfilment
of this design, he eagerly seized upon the idea, and treasured it in his
heart.
Fortune, moreover, appeared favourable to his views. The consulship of
Algiers, the possession of which would greatly facilitate his
proceedings in the early part of the scheme proposed, becoming vacant at
an opportune moment, he was induced to accept of it; and, having been
appointed, he immediately furnished himself with astronomical
instruments and all other necessaries, and set out through France and
Italy for the point of destination.
During a short stay in Italy, spent in the assiduous study of
antiquities, he engaged Luigi Balugani, a young Bolognese architect, to
accompany him as an assistant on his travels; and, having received his
final instructions from England, he embarked at Leghorn, and arrived at
Algiers in the spring of 1763.
The leisure which Bruce now enjoyed, interrupted occasionally by
business or altercations with the dey, was devoted to the earnest study
of the Arabic, in which his progress was so rapid, that in the course of
a year he considered himself fully competent to dispense with the aid of
an interpreter. In the Ethiopic want of books alone prevented his making
equal progress; for with him the acquiring of a language was a task of
no great difficulty. He was now, having thus qualified himself for
penetrating into the interior with advantage, peculiarly desirous of
commencing his travels; for to continue longer at Algiers would, he
rightly considered, be uselessly to sacrifice his time; and he
repeatedly requested from Lord Halifax permission to resign his
consulship. For a considerable time, however, his desires were not
complied with. The critical position of the British in that regency
required a firm, intelligent consul; and until a dispute which had just
then arisen with the dey respecting passports should be settled, it was
not judged expedient to recall Bruce, whose intrepidity, which was thus
tacitly acknowledged, admirably adapted him to negotiate with
barbarians. The dispute arose out of the following circumstances:—On the
taking of Minorca by the French, a number of blank Mediterranean
passports fell into their hands. These, in the hope of embroiling the
English and Algiers, they filled up and sold to the Spaniards and other
nations inimical to the Barbary powers. The effect desired was actually
produced. Ships were taken bearing these forged passports; and although,
upon examination, the fraud was immediately detected by the British
consul, Bruce’s predecessor, it was not easy to calm the violent
suspicions which had thus been excited in the mind of the dey, that the
English were selling their protection to his enemies. In fact, the
conduct of the governor of Mahon and Gibraltar, who, as a temporary
expedient, granted what were termed _passavants_ to ships entering the
Mediterranean, strongly corroborated this suspicion; for these
ill-contrived, irregular passports appeared to be purposely framed for
embarrassing or deluding the pirates. Bruce endeavoured, with all
imaginable firmness and coolness, to explain to the dey that the first
inconvenience originated in accident, and that the second was merely a
temporary expedient; but it is probable that had not the regular
admiralty passports arrived at the critical moment, he might have lost
his life in this ignoble quarrel.
This disagreeable affair being terminated, he with double earnestness
renewed his preparations for departure. Aware that a knowledge of
medicine and surgery, independently of all considerations of his own
health, might be of incalculable advantage to him among the barbarous
nations whose countries he designed to traverse, he had, during the
whole of his residence at Algiers, devoted a portion of his time to the
study of this science, under the direction of Mr. Ball, the consular
surgeon; and this knowledge he afterward increased by the aid of Dr.
Russel at Aleppo.
The chaplain of the factory being absent, to avoid the necessity of
taking the duties of burying, marrying, and baptizing upon himself, he
took into his house as his private chaplain an aged Greek priest, whose
name was Father Christopher, who not only performed the necessary
clerical duties, but likewise read Greek with our traveller, and enabled
him, by constant practice, to converse in the modern idiom. The
friendship of this man, which he acquired by kindness and affability,
was afterward of the most essential service to him, and contributed
more, perhaps, than any other circumstance to preserve his life and
forward his views in Abyssinia.
At length, in the month of August, 1765, Bruce departed from Algiers,
furnished by the dey with ample permission to visit every part of his
own dominions, and recommendatory letters to the beys of Tunis and
Tripoli. He first sailed to Port Mahon, and then, returning to the
African shore, landed at Bona. He then coasted along close to the shore,
passed the little island of Tabarca, famous for its coral fishery, and
observed upon the mainland prodigious forests of beautiful oak. Biserta,
Utica, Carthage were successively visited; and of the ruins of the last,
he remarks, that a large portion are overflowed by the sea, which may
account, in some measure, for the discrepancy between the ancient and
modern accounts of the dimensions of the peninsula on which it stood.
At Tunis he delivered his letters, and obtained the bey’s permission to
make whatever researches he pleased in any part of his territories. He
accordingly proceeded with an escort into the interior, visited many of
the ruins described or mentioned by Dr. Shaw, feasted upon lion’s flesh,
which he found exceedingly tough and strongly scented with musk, among
the Welled Sidi Booganim, and then entered the Algerine province of
Kosantina. Here, he observes, he was greatly astonished to find among
the mountains a tribe of Kabyles, with blue eyes, fair complexions, and
red hair. But he ought not to have been astonished; for Dr. Shaw had met
with and described the same people, and supposed, as Bruce does, that
they were descendants of the Vandals who anciently possessed this part
of Africa.
Having visited and made drawings of numerous ruins, the greater number
of which had previously been described more or less accurately by Dr.
Shaw, he returned to Tunis, and, after another short excursion in the
same direction, proceeded eastward by Feriana, Gaffon, and the Lake of
Marks, to the shores of the Lesser Syrtis. Here he passed over to the
island of Gerba, the Lotophagitis Insula of the ancients, where, he
observes, Dr. Shaw was mistaken or misinformed in imagining that its
coasts abounded with the _seedra_, or lotus-tree. He must have spoken of
the doctor’s account from memory; for it is of the coasts of the
continent, not of the island, that Dr. Shaw speaks in the passage
alluded to.
In travelling along the shore towards Tripoli Bruce overtook the
Muggrabine caravan, which was proceeding from the shores of the Atlantic
to Mecca,[8] and his armed escort, though but fifteen in number, coming
up with them in the gray of the morning, put the whole body, consisting
of at least three thousand men, in great bodily terror, until the real
character of the strangers was known. The English consul at Tripoli
received and entertained our traveller with distinguished kindness and
hospitality. From hence he despatched an English servant with his books,
drawings, and supernumerary instruments to Smyrna, and then crossed the
Gulf of Sidra, or Greater Syrtis, to Bengazi, the ancient Berenice.
Footnote 8:
Bruce says, “From the Western Ocean to the _western banks_ of the Red
Sea, _in the kingdom of Sennaar_.” His recent biographer omits the
“kingdom of Sennaar,” but still places Mecca on the “western banks of
the Red Sea.” For “western,” however, we must read “eastern” in both
cases.
Here a tremendous famine, which had prevailed for upwards of a year, was
rapidly cutting off the inhabitants, many of whom had, it was reported,
endeavoured to sustain life by feeding upon the bodies of their departed
neighbours, ten or twelve of whom were every night found dead in the
streets. Horror-stricken at the bare idea of such “Thyestœan feasts,” he
very quickly quitted the town, and proceeded to examine the ruins of the
Pentapolis and the petrifactions of Rao Sam, concerning which so many
extraordinary falsehoods had been propagated in Europe. From thence he
returned to Dolmetta (Ptolemata), where he embarked in a small junk for
the island of Lampedosa, near Crete. The vessel was crowded with people
flying from the famine. They set sail in the beginning of September,
with fine weather and a favourable wind; but a storm coming on, and it
being discovered that there were not provisions for one day on board,
Bruce hoped to persuade the captain, an ignorant landsman, to put into
Bengazi, and would no doubt have succeeded; but as they were making for
the cape which protects the entrance into that harbour, the vessel
struck upon a sunken rock, upon which it seemed to be fixed. They were
at no great distance from the shore, and as the wind had suddenly
ceased, though the swell of the sea continued, Bruce, with a portion of
his servants and a number of the passengers, lowered the largest boat,
and, jumping into it, pushed off for the shore. “The rest, more wise,”
he observes, “remained on board.”
They had not rowed twice the length of the boat from the vessel before a
wave nearly filled the boat, at which its crew, conscious of their
helplessness, uttered a howl of despair. “I saw,” says Bruce, “the fate
of all was to be decided by the very next wave that was rolling in; and
apprehensive that some woman, child, or helpless man would lay hold of
me, and entangle my arms or legs, and weigh me down, I cried to my
servants, both in Arabic and English, ‘We are all lost; if you can swim,
follow me.’ I then let myself down in the face of the wave. Whether that
or the next filled the boat I know not, as I went to leeward, to make my
distance as great as possible. I was a good, strong, practised swimmer,
in the flower of life, full of health, trained to exercise and fatigue
of every kind. All this, however, which might have availed much in deep
water, was not sufficient when I came to the surf. I received a violent
blow upon my breast from the eddy wave and reflux, which seemed as given
by a large branch of a tree, thick cord, or some elastic weapon. It
threw me upon my back, made me swallow a considerable quantity of water,
and had then almost suffocated me.
“I avoided the next wave, by dipping my head and letting it pass over;
but found myself breathless, and exceedingly weary and exhausted. The
land, however, was before me, and close at hand. A large wave floated me
up. I had the prospect of escape still nearer, and endeavoured to
prevent myself from going back into the surf. My heart was strong, but
strength was apparently failing, by being involuntarily twisted about,
and struck on the face and breast by the violence of the ebbing wave. It
now seemed as if nothing remained but to give up the struggle and resign
to my destiny. Before I did this I sunk to sound if I could touch the
ground, and found that I reached the sand with my feet, though the water
was still rather deeper than my mouth. The success of this experiment
infused into me the strength of ten men, and I strove manfully, taking
advantage of floating only with the influx of the wave, and preserving
my strength for the struggle against the ebb, which, by sinking and
touching the ground, I now made more easy. At last, finding my hands and
knees upon the sands, I fixed my nails into it, and obstinately resisted
being carried back at all, crawling a few feet when the sea had retired.
I had perfectly lost my recollection and understanding, and, after
creeping so far as to be out of the reach of the sea, I suppose I
fainted, for from that time I was totally insensible of any thing that
passed around me.”
In giving the history of this remarkable escape of Bruce, I have made
use of his own words, as no others could bring the event so vividly
before the mind of the reader. He seems, in fact, to rival in this
passage the energetic simplicity and minute painting of Defoe. The Arabs
of the neighbourhood, who, like the inhabitants of Cornwall, regard a
shipwreck as a piece of extraordinary good fortune, soon came down to
the shore in search of plunder; and observing Bruce lying upon the
beach, supposed him to be drowned, and proceeded at once to strip his
body. A blow accidentally given him on the back of the neck restored him
to his senses; but the wreckers, who from his costume concluded him to
be a Turk, nevertheless proceeded, with many blows, kicks, and curses,
to rifle him of his few garments, for he had divested himself of all but
a waistcoat, sash, and drawers in the ship, and then left him, to
perform the same tender offices for others.
He now crawled away as well as his weakness would permit, and sat down,
to conceal himself as much as possible among the white sandy hillocks
which rose upon the coast. Fear of a severer chastisement prevented him
from approaching the tents, for the women of the tribe were there, and
he was entirely naked. The terror and confusion of the moment had caused
him to forget that he could speak to them in their own language, which
would certainly have saved him from being plundered. When he had
remained some time among the hillocks several Arabs came up to him, whom
he addressed with the _salaam alaikum_! or “Peace be with you!” which is
a species of shibboleth in all Mohammedan countries. The question was
now put to him whether he was not a Turk, and, if so, what he had to do
there. He replied, in a low, despairing tone, that he was no Turk, but a
poor Christian physician, a dervish, who went about the world seeking to
do good for God’s sake, and was then flying from famine, and going to
Greece to get bread. Other questions followed, and the Arabs being at
length satisfied that he was not one of their mortal enemies, a ragged
garment was thrown over him, and he was conducted to the sheikh’s tent.
Here he was hospitably received, and, together with his servants, who
had all escaped, entertained with a plentiful supper. Medical
consultations then followed; and he remained with the sheikh two days,
during which every exertion was made on the part of the Arabs to recover
his astronomical instruments, but in vain. Every thing which had been
taken from them was then restored, and they proceeded on camels
furnished by the Arabs to Bengazi.
At this port he embarked on board of a small French sloop, the master of
which had formerly received some small favours from Bruce at Algiers,
which he now gratefully remembered, and sailed for Canea, in Crete; from
whence he proceeded to Rhodes, where he found his books, to Casttrosso,
on the coast of Caramania, and thence to Cyprus and Sidon. His
excursions in Syria were numerous, and extended as far as Palmyra; but I
omit to detail them, as of minor importance, and hasten to follow him
into Egypt and Abyssinia.
On Saturday, the 15th of June, 1768, he set sail from Sidon, and
touching by the way at Cyprus, his imagination, which was on fire with
the ardour of enterprise, beheld on the high white clouds which floated
northward above the opposite current of the Etesian winds messengers, as
it were, from the mountains of Abyssinia, come to hail him to their
summits. Early in the morning of the fifth day he had a distant prospect
of Alexandria rising from the sea; and, upon landing, one of the first
objects of his search was the tomb of Alexander, which Marmol pretended
to have seen in 1546; but although his inquiries were numerous, they
were perfectly fruitless.
From this city he proceeded by land to Rosetta, and thence up the Nile
to Cairo. Here he was hospitably received by the house of Julian and
Bertran, to whom he had been recommended; and he likewise received from
the principal bey and his officers, men of infamous and odious
characters, very extraordinary marks of consideration, his cases of
instruments being allowed to pass unexamined and free of duty through
the custom-house, while presents were given instead of being exacted
from him by the bey. These polite attentions he owed to the opinion
created by the sight of his astronomical apparatus that he was a great
astrologer,—a character universally esteemed in the East, and held in
peculiar reverence by the secretary of the bey then in office, from his
having himself some pretensions to its honours.
This man, whose name was Risk, in whom credulity and wickedness kept an
equal pace, desired to discover, through Bruce’s intimate knowledge of
the language of the stars, the issue of the war then pending between the
Ottoman empire and Russia, together with the general fortunes and
ultimate destiny of the bey. Our traveller had no predilection for the
art of fortune-telling, particularly among a people where the bastinado
or impaling-stake might be the consequence of a mistaken prediction; but
the eulogies which his kind host bestowed upon the laudable credulity of
the people, and perhaps the vanity of pretending to superior science,
overcame his reluctance, and he consented to reveal to the anxious
inquirer the fate of empires. In the mean while he was directed to fix
his residence at the convent of St. George, about three miles from
Cairo. Here he was visited by his old friend Father Christopher, with
whom he had studied modern Greek at Algiers, and who informed him that
he was now established at Cairo, where he had risen to the second
dignity in his church. Understanding Bruce’s intention of proceeding to
Abyssinia, he observed that there were a great number of Greeks in that
country, many of whom were high in office. To all of these he undertook
to procure letters to be addressed by the patriarch, whose commands they
regarded with no less veneration than holy writ, enjoining them as a
penance, upon which a kind of jubilee was to follow, says Bruce, “that
laying aside their pride and vanity, great sins with which he knew them
much _infected_, and, instead of pretending to put themselves on a
footing with me when I should arrive at the court of Abyssinia, they
should concur heart and hand in serving me; and that before it could be
supposed they had received instructions from _me_, they should make a
declaration before the king that they were not in condition equal to me;
that I was a free citizen of a _powerful nation_, and servant of a great
king; that they were born slaves of the Turk, and at best ranked but as
would my servants; and that, in fact, one of their countrymen was in
that station then with me.”[9]
Footnote 9:
In the biography of Bruce recently published there are a few mistakes
in the account of this transaction, which, simple as it may appear,
was precisely that upon which Bruce’s whole success in Abyssinia
depended. Major Head says, that Father Christopher was the patriarch,
that he accosted Bruce upon his arrival at the convent, and that it
was he who addressed the letters to Abyssinia. Bruce, on the contrary,
says that he was _Archimandrites_; and that it was “at his
solicitation that Risk had desired _the patriarch_ to furnish” him
with an apartment in the convent of St. George. Nor was he at the
convent to accost Bruce on his arrival. “The next day after my
arrival,” says the traveller, “I was surprised by the visit of my old
friend Father Christopher.” He goes on to say, that between them they
digested the plan of the letters, and that Father Christopher
undertook to manage the affair,—that is, to procure the patriarch to
write and forward the letters.—_Bruce’s Travels_, vol. 1. p. 34, 35,
4to. _Edin._ 1790.
Our traveller was soon called upon to perform in the character of an
astrologer. It was late in the evening when he one night received a
summons to appear before the bey, whom he found to be a much younger man
than he had expected. He was sitting upon a large sofa covered with
crimson cloth of gold; his turban, his girdle, and the head of his
dagger all thickly covered with fine brilliants; and there was one in
his turban serving to support a sprig of diamonds, which was among the
largest Bruce ever saw. Abruptly entering upon the object of their
meeting, he demanded of the astrologer whether he had ever calculated
the consequences of the war then raging between the Turks and Russians?
“The Turks,” replied Bruce, “will be beaten by sea and land wherever
they present themselves.” The bey continued, “And will Constantinople be
burned or taken?”—“Neither,” said the traveller; “but peace will be made
after much bloodshed, with little advantage to either party.” At hearing
this the bey clapped his hands together, and, having sworn an oath in
Turkish, turned to Risk, who stood before him, and said, “That will be
sad indeed! but truth is truth, and God is merciful.”
This wonderful prophecy procured our traveller a promise of protection
from the bey, to whom a few nights afterward he was again sent for near
midnight. At the door he met the janizary aga, who, when on horseback,
had absolute power of life and death, without appeal, all over Cairo;
and, not knowing him, brushed by without ceremony. The aga, however,
stopped him just at the threshold, and inquired of one of the bey’s
people who he was. Upon their replying “It is the _hakim Inglese_”
(English physician), he politely asked Bruce in Turkish “if he would go
and see him, for he was not well;” to which the latter replied in
Arabic, “that he would visit him whenever he pleased, but could not then
stay, as he had just received a message that the bey was waiting.”—“No,
no; go, for God’s sake go,” said the aga; “any time will do for me!”
Upon entering the bey’s apartment, he found him alone, sitting,
leaning forward, with a wax taper in one hand, and in the other a
small slip of paper, which he was reading, and held close to his eyes,
as if the light were dim or his sight weak. He did not, or affected
not, to observe Bruce until he was close to him, and started when he
uttered the “salām.” He appeared at first to have forgotten why he had
sent for the physician, but presently explained the nature of his
indisposition; upon which, among other questions, Bruce inquired
whether he had not been guilty of some excess before dinner. The bey
now turned round to Risk, who had by this time entered, and exclaimed,
“Afrite! Afrite!”—(He is a devil! he is a devil!) Bruce now prescribed
warm water, or a weak infusion of green tea, as an emetic, and added,
that having taken a little strong coffee, or a glass of spirits, he
should go to bed. At this the bey exclaimed, “Spirits! do you know I
am a Mussulman?”[10]—“But I,” replied the traveller, “am none. I tell
you what is good for your body, and have nothing to do with your
religion or your soul.” The bey was amused at his bluntness, and said,
“He speaks like a man!” The traveller then retired.
Footnote 10:
Major Head, in his account of this laughable consultation, by omitting
all mention of the spirits, makes it appear that the bey meant to
insinuate that vomiting, or drinking green tea, was contrary to the
Mohammedan religion. But, although the Koran commands its followers to
abstain from wine, under which denomination rigid Islamites include
all kinds of spirits, it is by no means so unreasonable as to prohibit
vomiting, or the drinking of warm water, or weak green tea.
Our traveller now prepared to depart; and having obtained the necessary
letters and despatches both from the patriarch and the bey, commenced
his movements with a visit to the Pyramids. He then embarked in a kanja,
and proceeded up the river, having on the right-hand a fine view of the
pyramids of Gizeh and Saccara, with a prodigious number of others built
of white clay, which appeared to stretch away in an interminable line
into the desert. On reaching Metraheny, which Dr. Pococke had fixed upon
as the site of Memphis, Bruce discovered what he thought sufficient
grounds for concurring in opinion with that traveller in opposition to
Dr. Shaw, who contends in favour of the claims of Gizeh. The Serapium,
the Temple of Vulcan, the Circus, and the Temple of Venus, the ruins of
which should be found on the site of Memphis, are nowhere discoverable
either at Metraheny or Gizeh, and are not improbably supposed by Bruce
to be buried for ever beneath the loose sands of the desert. A man’s
heart fails him, he says, in looking to the south and south-west of
Metraheny. 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 sultry climates, shrinks from attempting
any discovery in the moving sands of the Saccara, and embraces in safety
and in quiet the reports of others, who, he thinks, may have been more
inquisitive and more adventurous than himself.
Continuing to stem the current of the Nile, admiring as they moved along
the extraordinary scenery which its banks presented, they arrived at the
village of Nizelet ul Arab, where the first plantations of sugar-cane
which Bruce had met with in Egypt occurred. A narrow strip of green
wheat bordered the stream during the greater part of its course, while
immediately behind a range of white mountains appeared, square and flat
like tables on the summit, and seeming rather to be laid upon the earth
than to spring out of and form a part of it. The villages on the shore
were poor, but intermingled with large verdant groves of palm-trees,
contrasting singularly with the arid and barren aspect of the rocky
ridges behind them; and presenting many features of novelty, they were
not without their interest.
On arriving at Achmim he landed his quadrant and instruments for the
purpose of observing an eclipse of the moon; but the heavens soon after
her rising became so obscured by clouds and mist, that not a star of any
size was to be seen. Malaria here produced extraordinary effects upon
the inhabitants, or rather on the female portion of them; for while the
men were vigorous and active, from their constant motion and change of
air, the women, who remained more at home, were of a corpse-like colour,
and looked more aged at sixteen than many Englishwomen at sixty. They
were nubile, however, at ten years old; and Bruce saw several who had
not yet attained the age of eleven who were about to become mothers.
In the afternoon of December 24th they arrived in the vicinity of
Dendera, which they visited next morning, and found it in the midst of a
thick grove of palm-trees. Having examined its gigantic temples,
sculptures, and hieroglyphics, he returned to his station on the river.
It was in this neighbourhood that he first saw the crocodiles. They were
lying in hundreds, like large flocks of cattle, upon every island, yet
inspired little or no terror in the inhabitants, who suffered their
beasts of every kind to stand in the water for hours; while the women
and girls who came to fetch water in jars waded up to their knees in the
stream.
They arrived, January 7, 1769, at El Gourni, which in Bruce’s opinion
formed a part of ancient Thebes. The stupendous character of the ruins,
the temples, the palaces, the sepulchres, the sarcophagi, the antique
paintings,—every thing appeared equally to deserve attention; but his
time was short, and he employed it in copying a curious fresco executed
in brilliant colours on the wall of a tomb. He would have remained
longer, but his guides, pretending apprehension of danger from the
robbers of the neighbouring mountain, refused to continue their aid,
and, dashing their torches against the walls, retreated, leaving him and
his people in the dark. He then visited Saxor and Karnac, where he
observed two beautiful obelisks and two vast rows of mutilated sphinxes,
which, with similar lines of dog-headed figures, probably formed the
avenue of some magnificent structure.
From thence they proceeded to Sheikh Ammor, the encampment of the Ababdé
Arabs. Bruce had met with Ibrahim, the sheikh’s son, at Furshoot; and
now, upon his arrival, this young man came forth with twelve armed
followers to meet him, and, conducting him into a tent, presented him to
his father, Sheikh Nimmer, or the “Tiger Chief.” The old man was ill,
and Bruce’s medical knowledge now enabled him, by allaying the
sufferings of the sheikh, to acquire a powerful and a grateful friend.
Observing the hospitable and friendly manner of Nimmer, our traveller
said, “Now tell me, sheikh, and tell me truly upon the faith of an
Arab,—would your people, if they met me in the desert, do me any wrong?”
The old man upon this rose from his carpet and sat upright, and a more
ghastly and more horrid figure, says Bruce, I never saw. “No,” he
replied; “cursed be those of my people or others that ever shall lift up
their hands against you, either in the deserts or the _tell_ (the
uncultivated land). As long as you are in this country, or between this
and Kosseir, my son shall serve you with heart and hand. One night of
pain from which your medicines have relieved me would not be repaid were
I to follow you on foot to _Misr_” (Cairo).
They then discussed together the means of facilitating Bruce’s entrance
into Abyssinia, and, after much consideration, it was agreed that the
most practicable route was by way of Kosseir and Jidda. The principal
persons of the tribe then bound themselves by an oath not to molest or
injure the traveller; but, on the contrary, in case he should ever
require it, to protect him at the hazard of their lives. They would have
extended their liberality still further, intending to present him with
seven sheep, but these, as he was going among Turks who were obliged to
maintain him, he requested they would keep for him until his return.
They then parted.
At Assuan, which he next day reached, he was very politely entertained
by the Turkish aga, who had received instructions from the bey to behave
respectfully towards the stranger. From thence he proceeded, on beasts
furnished by the aga, to the cataracts. On leaving the town they passed
over a small sandy plain, where there were numerous tombs with Arabic
inscriptions in the Kufic character; and after riding about five miles
farther, arrived at the cataracts. The fall of the waters is here so
inconsiderable that vessels are able to pass up and down; but the bed of
the river, which may perhaps be about half a mile in breadth, is divided
into numerous small channels by enormous blocks of granite, from thirty
to forty feet in height. Against these the river, running over a sloping
bottom, through a channel of insufficient breadth, dashes with extreme
noise and violence, and is thrown back in foam and a thousand whirling
eddies, which, eternally mingling with each other, produce a disturbed
and chaotic appearance which fills the mind with confusion.
On the 26th of January, after much altercation with his host, he
embarked in his kanja, and began to descend the river. Having reached
Badjoura, he employed himself until the departure of the caravan, with
which he was to cross the desert to Kosseir, in examining the
observations he had made, and in preparing his journal for publication;
in order that, should he perish, the labours he had already achieved
might not be lost. This done, he forwarded them to his friends at Cairo
till he should return, or news should arrive that he was otherwise
disposed of.
On the 16th of February the caravan set out from Ghena (the Cæne
Emporium of antiquity), and proceeded over plains of inconceivable
sterility towards the Red Sea. “The sun,” says Bruce, “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!”
It was whispered about in the caravan that the Atouni Arabs were lying
in wait for them somewhere on the road; and on their arrival at the
wells of El Egheita, therefore, they halted to wait for the coming up of
the caravans of Cus, Esneh, and Ebanout, in order to oppose as
formidable a number as possible to the enemy. While they were at this
place, Abd el Gin, or the “Slave of the Genii,” an Arab whom Bruce had
received into his kanja on the Nile, and treated with much kindness,
came up to him, and requested that he would take charge of his money,
which amounted to nineteen sequins and a half. “What, Mohammed!” said
Bruce, “are you never safe among your countrymen, neither by sea nor
land?”—“Oh, no,” replied Mohammed; “the difference when we were on board
the boat was, we had three thieves only; but when assembled here, we
shall have above three thousand. But I have a piece of advice to give
you.”—“And my ears, Mohammed,” said the traveller, “are always open to
advice, especially in strange countries.”—“These people,” continued
Mohammed, “are all afraid of the Atouni Arabs, and, when attacked, they
will run away and leave you in the hands of these Atouni, who will carry
off your baggage. Therefore, as you have nothing to do with their corn,
do not kill any of the Atouni if they come, for that will be a bad
affair, but go aside, and let me manage. I will answer with my life,
that though all the caravan should be stripped stark naked, and you
loaded with gold, not one article belonging to you shall be touched.”
And upon putting numerous questions to the man, Bruce was so well
satisfied with his replies that he determined to conform in every
respect to his advice.
While the minds of all present were busied in calculating the extent of
their dangers, and the probabilities of escape, twenty Turks from
Caramania, mounted on camels, and well armed, arrived at the camp, and
learning that the principal tent belonged to an Englishman, entered it
without ceremony. They informed our traveller they were hajjis, going on
pilgrimage to Mecca, and had been robbed upon the Nile by those swimming
banditti, who, like the Decoits of the Ganges, are indescribably
dexterous in entering vessels by night, and plundering in silence. By
the people of the country they had, in fact, been ill-treated, they
said, ever since their landing at Alexandria; but that having now found
an Englishman, whom they regarded as their countryman, since the
English, according to their historical hypothesis, came originally from
Caz Dangli in Asia Minor, they hoped, by uniting themselves with him, to
be able to protect themselves against their enemies. This preference was
flattering, and “I cannot conceal,” says Bruce, “the secret pleasure I
had in finding the character 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!”
On the 19th they continued their journey over the desert between
mountains of granite, porphyry, marble, and jasper, and pitched their
tents at _Mesag el Terfowy_, in the neighbourhood of the Arab
encampment. This, under most circumstances, is a position of
considerable danger; for, as there are generally thieves in all
caravans, as well as in all camps, marauders from one side or the other
commonly endeavour to exercise their profession in the night, and
embroil their companions. Such was the case on the present occasion. The
thieves from the Arab camp crept unseen into Bruce’s tent, where they
were detected, endeavouring to steal a portmanteau. One of them escaped;
but the other, less nimble, or less fortunate, was taken, and beaten so
severely, that he shortly afterward died. At this moment Bruce was
absent; but on his return, a messenger from Sidi Hassan, chief of the
caravan, summoned him to appear before him. It being late, our traveller
refused. Other messengers followed—the camp was kept in unintermitted
anxiety all night—and after much altercation and gasconading on both
sides, fear of the Atouni Arabs at length induced them to calm their
passions and consult their interest.
Proceeding in their course, however, without encountering an enemy of
any kind, they arrived on the morning of the 21st in sight of the Red
Sea, and in little more than an hour after entered Kosseir. Here he
established himself in a house, and amused himself with observing the
manners of the motley crowds assembled in the town. Next morning, being
in a fishing-dress on the beach, seeking for shells, a servant came
running in great haste to inform him that the Ababdé Arabs, to the
number of four hundred, had arrived, and that having met with Mohammed
Abd el Gin, whom they discovered to be an Atouni, had hurried him away
with intent to cut his throat, there being blood between his tribe and
theirs.
Together with this news the servant had brought a horse, and Bruce,
without a moment’s reflection, sprang upon his back, and driving through
the town in the direction which had been pointed out, quickly arrived at
the Ababdé encampment. Upon his drawing near a number of them surrounded
him on horseback, and began to speak together in their own language. The
traveller now began to think he had advanced a step too far. They had
lances in their hands, one thrust of which would have stretched him upon
the earth; and by their looks he did not think they were greatly averse
to using them. However, there was no retreating, so he inquired whether
they were Ababdé, from Sheikh Ammor, and if so, how was the Nimmer, and
where was Ibrahim. Upon their acknowledging that they were Ababdé, he
gave them the _salaam_; but, without returning it, one of them demanded
who he was. “Tell me first,” replied Bruce, “who is this you have before
you?”—“He is an Arab, our enemy,” said they, “guilty of our blood.”—“He
is my servant,” replied the traveller; “a Howadat, whose tribe lives in
peace at the gates of Cairo!—but where is Ibrahim, your sheikh’s
son?”—“Ibrahim is at our head, he commands us here; but who are
you?”—“Come with me, and show me Ibrahim, and you shall see!” replied
Bruce.
They had already thrown a rope about the neck of their prisoner, who,
though nearly strangled, conjured Bruce not to leave him; but the
latter, observing a spear thrust up through the cloth of one of the
tents, the mark of sovereignty, hastened towards it, and saw Ibrahim and
one of his brothers at the door. He had scarcely descended, and taken
hold of the pillar of the tent, exclaiming _Fiar duc_, “I am under your
protection,” when they both recognised him, and said, “What, are you
Yagoube, our physician and friend?”—“Let me ask you,” replied Bruce, “if
you are the Ababdé of Sheikh Ammor, who cursed yourselves and your
children if ever you 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 Ammor—there are no other—and we still say, ‘Cursed be he, whether
our father or children, who lifts his hand against you, in the desert or
in the ploughed field!’”—“Then,” replied Bruce, “you are all accursed,
for a number of your people are going to murder my servant.”—“Whew,”
said Ibrahim, with a kind of whistle, “that is downright nonsense. Who
are those of my people who 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 Bruce, he desired him to go into the
tent and sit down; “for God renounce me and mine,” said 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!”
Upon inquiry it was discovered that Sidi Hassan,[11] the captain of the
caravan, had been the cause of this attempt at murder; having, in
revenge for Ab del Gin’s discovering the robber in Bruce’s tent,
denounced him to the Ababdé as an Atouni spy.
Footnote 11:
Upon parting with Ibrahim, Bruce, enraged at the baseness and
treachery of Sidi Hassan, entreated the young chief to revenge his
wrongs upon this man, which was solemnly promised. Upon coolly
considering the action, when he came to write his travels, he says, “I
cannot help here accusing myself of what, doubtless, may be well
reputed a very great sin.” Major Head, relating this transaction,
quotes the following addition to the above sentence: “the more so,
that I cannot say I have yet heartily repented of it.” This would have
argued extreme cold-heartedness, to say the least of it; but the words
are not found in the original quarto edition, whatever they may be in
others of comparatively no authority.
While waiting for a ship bound for Tor, he undertook a short voyage to
the Mountains of Emeralds, or Jibbel Zumrud, where he found the ancient
pits, and many fragments of a green crystalline mineral substance,
veiny, clouded, but not so hard as rock-crystal. This he supposed was
the _smaragdus_ of the Romans, and the _siberget_ and _bilur_ of the
Ethiopians, but by no means identical with the genuine emerald, which is
equal in hardness to the ruby. Returning to Kosseir, he forthwith
commenced his survey of the Red Sea. Having visited the northern portion
of the gulf, he arrived, almost overcome with fatigue, and suffering
much from ague, at Jidda, where there were a great number of Englishmen,
from whom he very naturally expected a hospitable reception.
It must be acknowledged, however, that on this occasion, as on many
others, Bruce’s conduct bordered strongly upon the absurd. His dress and
whole appearance were those of a common Turkish sailor, which as long as
he remained on board might be very prudent; but when he came to present
himself before his countrymen, from whom he expected the treatment due
to a gentleman, it would have been decorous either to have improved his
costume, or have given two or three words of explanation. He did
neither, but desired the servant of the _Emir el Bahr_, or
“harbour-master,” who had run over the names of all the English captains
then in port, to conduct him to a relation of his own, who, when they
arrived, was accidentally leaning over the rail of the staircase leading
up to his own apartment. Bruce saluted him by his name, but without
announcing his own; and the captain, no less hasty than himself, fell
into a violent rage, called him “villain, thief, cheat,” and “renegado
rascal,” declaring that if he attempted to proceed a step farther, he
would throw him over the stairs. The traveller went away without reply,
followed by the curses and abuse of his polite relative.
“Never fear,” said the servant, shrugging up his shoulders, “I will
carry you to the best of them all.” He was now conducted to the
apartment of Captain Thornhill, but having entered the room, “I was
not,” says Bruce, “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 go away and shut the
door. ‘Sir,’ says he, ‘are you an Englishman? 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 any thing.’ ‘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 that should be either in his bed
or 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.’”
Bruce kept up the farce some time longer; despatched the mutton and the
broth; and then threw himself at full length upon the mat in the
courtyard, and fell asleep. The arrival of the Vizier of Jidda, who, in
the traveller’s absence, had opened his trunks, and been terrified at
the sight of the grand seignior’s firman, now disclosed Bruce’s rank and
consequence to the English factory, and his acting the poor man was
laughed at and excused.
His countrymen, when his objects and purposes were explained, did
whatever was in their power for the furtherance of his views. Letters to
the governor of Masuah, the King of Abyssinia, Ras Michael, and the King
of Sennaar, were procured from Metical Aga and other influential
persons, and a person who required a few weeks to prepare for the
journey was appointed to accompany him. The time which must elapse
before this man could be ready, Bruce employed in completing his survey
of the Red Sea.
Having been joined at Loheia by Mohammed Gibberti, the person
commissioned by the authorities of Jidda to accompany him to Masuah, he
sailed from that part of Yemen on the 3d of September, 1769, and on the
19th cast anchor in the harbour of Masuah. This is a small island, lying
directly opposite the town of Arkeeko, on the Abyssinian shore; and at
the time of Bruce’s visit was under the authority of a governor holding
his title by firman from the Ottoman Porte, under condition of paying an
annual tribute. The Turkish power having greatly decayed in the Red Sea,
this governor, or naybe, had gradually assumed the independent authority
of a sovereign; though, in order to command a sufficient supply of
provisions from Abyssinia, he had agreed to share with the sovereign of
that country the customs of the port. Observing, however, the disorderly
state of the government, he had lately withheld from the Abyssinian
monarch his portion of the revenue, which had so far irritated Ras
Michael, then at the head of the government, that he had caused it to be
signified to the naybe “that, in the next campaign, he would lay waste
Arkeeko and Masuah, until they should be as desert as the wilds of
Samhar!”
While affairs were in this position, the naybe received intelligence
that an English prince was about to arrive at Masuah on his way to
Abyssinia; and it was forthwith debated by him and his counsellors in
full divan, whether he should be hospitably received or murdered
immediately upon his arrival. Through the influence of Achmet, the
nephew and heir-apparent of the governor, pacific measures were resolved
upon.
Being desirous of enjoying one night’s repose to prepare him for the
toilsome contentions which he foresaw would arise, Bruce did not land
until the next day; but Mohammed Gibberti went immediately on shore, and
contrived to despatch letters to the court of Abyssinia, announcing
Bruce’s arrival, and requesting that some one might be sent to protect
him from the well-known rapacity and cruelty of the governor. He then
waited upon this petty despot and his nephew, and artfully endeavoured
to inspire them with very exalted notions of our traveller’s rank and
consequence. The way being thus skilfully paved, Bruce himself landed
next morning. He was received in a friendly manner by Achmet, who, when
they had seated themselves, after the usual salutation, commanded coffee
to be brought in, as a sign to the traveller that his life was not in
danger. He then observed, with a somewhat serious air, “We have expected
you here some time, but thought you had changed your mind, and were gone
to India.”—“Since sailing from Jidda,” replied Bruce, “I have been in
Arabia Felix, the Gulf of Mokha, and crossed last from Loheia.”—“Are you
not afraid,” said he, “so thinly attended, to venture upon these long
and dangerous voyages?”—“The countries where I have been,” Bruce
replied, “are either subject to the Emperor of Constantinople, whose
firman I have now the honour to present you, or to the Regency of Cairo,
and Port of Janizaries—here are their letters—or to the Sheriff of
Mecca. To you, sir, I present the sheriff’s letters; and, besides these,
one from Metical Aga, your friend, who depending on your character,
assured me this alone would be sufficient to preserve me from ill-usage,
so long as I did no wrong. As for the danger of the road from banditti
and lawless persons, my servants are indeed few, but they are veteran
soldiers, tried and exercised from their infancy in arms, and I value
not the superior numbers of cowardly and disorderly persons.”
To this Achmet made no reply, but returning him the letters, said, “You
will give these to the naybe to-morrow. I will keep Metical’s letter, as
it is to me, and will read it at home.” He put it accordingly in his
bosom; and on Bruce’s rising to take his leave, he was wet to the skin
by a deluge of orange-flower water, poured upon him from silver bottles
by his attendants. He was now conducted to a very decent house, which
had been assigned him, whither his baggage was all sent unopened.
Late in the evening he was surprised by a visit from Achmet, who came
alone, unarmed, and half-naked. Bruce expressed his acknowledgments for
the civility which had been shown him in sending his baggage unopened;
but Achmet, more solicitous to do good than listen to compliments, at
once turned the discourse into another channel; and, after several
questions respecting his rank and motives for travelling, advised him by
no means to enter Abyssinia, and let fall some few hints respecting the
character of the people of Masuah. To express his gratitude, and secure
a continuance of his good offices, Bruce begged his acceptance of a pair
of pistols.
“Let the pistols remain with you,” says Achmet, “till I send you a man
to whom you may say any thing; and he shall go between you and me, for
there is in this place a number of devils, not men. But, _Ullah kerim_!
(God is merciful.) The person that brings you dry dates in an Indian
handkerchief, and an earthen bottle to drink your water out of, give him
the pistols. You may send by him to me any thing you choose. In the mean
time sleep sound, and fear no evil; but never be persuaded to trust
yourself to the Kafro of Habesh at Masuah.”
Next morning the governor returned from Arkeeko, attended by three or
four servants miserably mounted, and about forty naked savages on foot,
armed with short lances and crooked knives. Before him was beaten a
drum, formed of an earthen jar, such as they send butter in to Arabia,
covered over at the mouth with a skin, like a jar of pickles. Bruce’s
reception by this ferocious despot was inauspicious. On his presenting
to him the firman of the grand seignior, upon seeing which the greatest
pacha in the Turkish empire would have risen, kissed it, and lifted it
to his forehead; he pushed it back contemptuously, and said, “Do you
read it all to me, word for word.” Bruce replied that it was written in
the Turkish language, of which he comprehended not a word. “Nor I
neither,” said the naybe, “and I believe I never shall.”
The traveller then gave him his letters of recommendation, which he laid
down unopened beside him, and said, “You should have brought a moollah
along with you. Do you think I shall read all these letters? Why, it
would take me a month!” And while he spoke he glared upon his guest with
his mouth open, so extremely like an idiot, that it was with the utmost
difficulty Bruce kept his gravity. However, he replied, “Just as you
please—you know best.”
After a short conversation in Arabic, which the naybe at first affected
not to understand, our traveller brought forward his present, which the
naybe understood without the assistance of a moollah, and shortly
afterward took his leave.
The inhabitants of Masuah were at this time dying so rapidly of the
small-pox, that there was some reason to fear the living would not
suffice to bury the dead. The whole island was filled with shrieks and
lamentations both day and night; and they at last began to throw the
bodies into the sea, which deprived Bruce and his servants of the
support they had derived from fish, of which some of the species caught
there were excellent.
On the 15th of October, the naybe, having despatched the vessel in which
Bruce had arrived, began to put out his true colours, and, under various
pretences, demanded an enormous present. Bruce, of course, refused
compliance. He then sent for him to his house, and after venting his
fury in a storm of abuse, concluded by saying, in a peremptory tone,
that unless our traveller were ready in a few days to pay him three
ounces of gold, he would confine him in a dungeon, without light, air,
or food, until his bones should come through his skin for want. To
aggravate the affair, an uncle of his, then present, added, that
whatever the naybe might determine respecting his own demands, he could
in nowise abate a jot from those of the janizaries; which, however, in
consideration of the letter he had brought from the port of the
janizaries at Cairo, were moderate—only forty ounces of gold.
To all this Bruce replied firmly, “Since you have broken your faith with
the grand seignior, the government of Cairo, the pasha at Jidda, and
Metical Aga, you will no doubt do as you please with me; but you may
expect to see the English man-of-war the Lion before Arkeeko some
morning by daybreak.”
“I should be glad,” said the naybe, “to see that man at Arkeeko or
Masuah who would carry as much writing from you to Jidda as would lie
upon my thumb-nail. I would strip his shirt off first, and then his
skin, and hang him up before your door to teach you more wisdom.”
“But my wisdom,” replied Bruce, “has taught me to prevent all this. My
letter has already gone to Jidda; and if in twenty days from this
another letter from me does not follow it, you will see what will
arrive. In the mean time, I here announce to you that I have letters
from Metical Aga and the Sheriff of Mecca, to Michael Suhul, governor of
Tigrè, and the King of Abyssinia. I therefore would wish that you would
leave off these unmanly altercations, which serve no sort of purpose,
and let me continue my journey.”
The naybe now muttered in a low voice to himself, “What, Michael too!
then go your journey, and think of the ill that’s before you!” Upon
which the traveller left him.
Other altercations, still more violent, ensued, and attempts were made
by the creatures of the naybe to break into his house and murder him in
the night; but these were constantly defeated by the courage and
fidelity of his servants. Achmet, too, the nephew of the naybe, exerted
whatever influence he possessed in behalf of the traveller; who, in
return, was, under Providence, the means of preserving his life; for
Achmet at this time falling ill of an intermittent fever, Bruce
assiduously attended and prescribed for him, and in the course of a few
days had the satisfaction of pronouncing him out of danger.
On the morning of the 6th of November, while at breakfast, Bruce
received the agreeable intelligence that three servants had arrived from
Tigrè; one from Jamai, the Greek, the other two from Ras Michael, both
wearing the royal livery. Ras Michael’s letters to the naybe were short.
He said the king’s health was bad, and that he wondered the physician
sent to him by Metical Aga from Arabia had not been instantly forwarded
to him at Gondar, as he had heard of his having been some time at
Masuah. He therefore commanded the naybe to despatch the physician
without loss of time, and to furnish him with all necessaries.
To these peremptory orders the naybe felt himself compelled to yield
obedience; and accordingly Bruce was at length suffered to depart. In
order, however, to make one attempt more at murdering the stranger, for
which the old man appeared to have acquired a kind of passion, he
furnished him with a guide and several attendants, who, it was suspected
by the nephew, had received secret orders to cut him off upon the road.
To counteract the designs of this worthy old relative, Achmet removed
these attendants, and replaced them by servants of his own; and
prevailing upon Bruce to proceed by a different route from that
recommended by the naybe, for which purpose he supplied him with another
guide, he took his leave, saying, “He that is your enemy is mine. You
shall hear from me by Mohammed Gibberti.”
Bruce now proceeded over a plain partly covered with groves of
acacia-trees, in full flower, towards the mountains, upon the ascent to
which he met with considerable numbers of the wild mountain shepherds,
descending with their families and flocks to the seashore, drawn thither
by the fresh grass which springs up in October and November all along
the coast. Their path, from the time they had reached the acclivity, lay
over a broken, stony road, along the bed of a mountain torrent; but
having reached a small green hill at some distance from the stream, they
pitched their tent; and, it being near evening, prepared to pass the
night there. The weather, which had hitherto been fine, now seemed to
threaten rain. The loftier mountains, and a great portion of the lower
ones, were quite hidden by thick clouds; the lightning was very
frequent, broad, and deeply tinged with blue; and long peals of thunder
were heard at a distance. “The river,” says Bruce, “scarcely ran at our
passing it. All on a sudden, however, we heard a noise on the mountains
above, louder than the loudest thunder. Our guides upon this flew to the
baggage, and removed it to the top of the green hill; which was no
sooner done than we saw the river coming down in a stream about the
height of a man, and breadth of the whole bed it used to occupy. The
water was thickly tinged with red earth, and ran in the form of a deep
river, and swelled a little above its banks, but did not reach our
station on the hill.”