to visit the former country, which Norden and Pococke had praised for the magnificence of its ancient ar chitecture. He expected to find in the temples of Dendera and Thebes, some original proportions and forms which had suggested the Greek or ders. The strength and simple grandeur of the Egyptian architecture were already known in Europe, but Mr. Bruce hoped to direct the attention of the learned to some of its other qualities, not less curious and remarkable. If in this he was not successful to the extent of his wishes, the disappointment that he felt was relieved by the hopes of more important discoveries in Abyssinia, into which he now had resolved to penetrate, at the expence of every other enjoyment, and at the hazard of his life.

"Having sailed from Sidon, June 15, 1768, he arrived soon after at Alexandria. As he had seldom quitted the Arab dress since his ship wreck at Bengazi, he retained it on landing in Egypt, in order to mislead the inquisitive spirit of the populace, who mistook him under this disguise for a Mugrebin, or Barbary Arab.

Egypt, at that time under the Mameluke government, was filled with oppression and injustice. There was no security for life or property. Though the supreme power was then in the hands of the celebrated Ali Bey, who favoured the Christians, he entrusted the management of the revenue to the Copts and Jews, whose aversion to the Franks counteracted the influence of his unusual partiality. The Bey retained on the throne the prejudices of his original condition, He was, like most Mahometans, an implicit believer in astrology, and therefore had chosen for his minister a Copt, called Maalem Risk, a pretender to that ridiculous science,

When Mr. Bruce's astronomical in struments were landed at Alexandria, Risk conceived a high opinion of their owner's skill in astrology, and ordered them to be forwarded without paying duty, or being examined at the custom-house.

"Mr. Bruce and his servants proceeded to Rosetto by land, travelling in the dress of Barbary Arabs, and thence embarked on the Nile for Cairo, where they arrived in the beginning of July. They were received with great kindness and hospitality by the mercantile house of Julian and Bertran, and by other French merchants, to whom Mr. Bruce was recommended by his friends in the Levant. When he privately communicated to them his intention of penetrating into Abyssinia, they were struck with astonishment at the rashness of such a design, but offered to assist him in it to the utmost of their power. In order that the government might not be prejudiced against him by in sinuations, he gave out that he was going to India, and seldom appeared in public, except in the disguise of a Dervish who was skilled in magic, and cared for nothing but study.

"Soon after his arrival, he was visited by Risk, who questioned him respecting his knowledge of the stars, and introduced him to his master as a physician and astrologer. After a few audiences, he completely gained the confidence and friendship of the Bey by his superior skill in medicine and prophecy.

"In the course of his attendance on the Bey, he met with a Coptic priest called Father Christopher, who had been his chaplain and intimate acquaintance at Algiers, and who was now promoted to the dig uity of Archimandrite under Mark, patriarch of Alexandria. This priest informed him, that there was a

number

number of Greeks in Abyssinia, many of whom enjoyed the first of fices in the state; and that they all had the greatest veneration for the patriarch, who was the head of the Abyssinian church, and honoured by the whole nation. He introduced his friend to the patriarch, and un. dertook to procure letters of recommendation to the principal Greeks at Gondar, accompanied with a general bull or pastoral admonition, in which they should be enjoined to renounce their pride and vanity, and to support, with all their influence, the stranger whom the patriarch sent among them. The priest made no delay in accomplishing his promises, and Maalem Risk furnished peremptory letters of recommendation, in the name of his master, to the cashiefs of the principal places on the Nile, to Hamam, Shekh of Upper Egypt, and to the governors of Deir and Ibrim, garrison towns far up the river, on the way to Dongola. The Bey likewise wrote in 'favour of "Yagoube his physician," to the Sheriffe or Prince of Mecca, the governor of Masuah, and to the King of Sennaar.

Mr. Bruce sailed from Cairo, December 12, 1768, on a voyage up the Nile. Soon after his departure he became acquainted with a Shekh of the Howadat Arabs, by whose friendship he was enabled to visit the country about Metrahenny, and to determine, after Pococke, the site of Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt. He thence successively reached Gawa, Achmim, and Dendera, the last of which places is well known to possess most magnificent remains of Egyptian architecture. At Furshout he was graciously received by Shekh Hamam, who held the government of the greater part of Upper Egypt, and by his nephew Ishmael at Badjoura, with whom

1808.

he resided till the 7th of January, 1769.

"Having resumed his voyage, he arrived at the villages Elgournu and Medinet-Abou, situated on the ground formerly occupied by Thebes, the oldest metropolis of Egypt. He there visited the caves, in the adjacent mountain, which were called the tombs of the kings. but seem to have been the common burial-place of the city. The banditti, who live in these sepulchres, obliged him to cross the Nile at mid- night to Luxor, where he was well received by the governor.

"Having passed Esne and Edfu, he came to a place called Shekh Ammer, the residence of Nimmer, chief of the Ababde Arabs, who possesses the desert on the southern frontier of Egypt. Mr. Bruce having asked the protection of Nimmer, who was an old man, in ill health, and much disposed to be grateful for some medicines which the former had sent him from Furshout, the Shekh rose from his couch, and, lifting his emaciated hand, pronounced a curse on any of the tribe who should injure him. He then summoned his people to the tent and concluded the covenant of friendship between them and his physician.

"After having secured the protection of the Ababde Arabs, Mr. Bruce visited Syene and the cataract. He then returned down the river Negadé and Badjoura, where he waited the departure of a caravan, partly belonging to Shekh Hamam, and partly to the Ababdé, which was soon to set out for Cosseir, on the Red Sea. Along with it, heleft Kenne, Feb. 16, 1709, and proceeded across the barren desert, which lies between the Nile and the Arabian Gulf. This wilderness is part of the chain of mountains which

E

runs

runs the whole length of the Red Sea, and which, except that which divides Barbary from the regions on the Niger, is perhaps the most arid in the world. Mr. Bruce after suffering much inconvenience from the people of the caravan, arrived at Cosseir on the 22d of February, and remained there till the 5th of April, when he sailed for Arabia. During his residence at Cosseir, he made an excursion up the coast of the Red Sea, as far as N. L. 23° 58′, and examined Jibbel Zumrûd, the emerald mine, described by Pliny and other ancient writers.

"Being desirous to visit as many parts of the Red Sea as possible, instead of sailing over to Jidda, he directed his course for Tor, a village at the bottom of the gulf, at no great distance from Mount Sinai. In this voyage, as indeed in all others which he performed in the east, he paid great attention to the hydrography of his courses, making plans of the different harbours, and observations for the use of future navigators. He likewise collected a number of marine productions, of various kinds, in which the Red Sea is exceedingly fertile.

"From Tor he sailed along the Arabian shore, by Imbo and Rabac, to Jidda, where he landed on the 3d of May. During this voyage he had slept little, being afflicted with slight returns of the ague which he had caught at Bengazi, and from which he suffered exceedingly in Syria. He had long worn the Arab dress, and had sometimes passed for a Barbary Arab at Cairo, Shekh Ammer, and other places of the desert. He now so much resembled a Turkish galiongy, or sailor, that the capt un of the port of Jidda was astonished to hear some of his servants say that he was an Englishman.

"As soon as Mr. Bruce came on

shore, his baggage was carried to the custom-house, while he went in his neglected dress to the English fac tory established in that town. Jidda is the port in Arabia from which the English East India Company usually disperses its merchandise over the adjoining countries. There was then a number of East India ships in the harbour, notwithstanding the unhealthiness of the station, and the enormous extortions of the Sheriffe of Mecca, sufficient to ruin any species of commerce. Mr. Bruce, whose appearance made no impression in his favour, was driven from the gate of the factory by one of his countrymen and relations, who mistook him for a vagrant; but he was received with great kindness and compassion by Captain Thornhill, of the Bengal Merchant. In the mean time, Yousef Cabil, governor of Jidda, having taken the liberty of examining his baggage, was surprised to find in it a number of valuable presents, and letters written by persons of the highest dignity, particularly a firman from the Sublime Porte, a letter to the Khan of Tartary, and several others from Ali Bey, addressed to the Sheriffe of Mecca, to his minister Metical Aga, and to Yousef Cabil himself. The style of these letters alarmed the governor. He came immediately to the factory to inquire about the Eoglish nobleman, recommended by the Grand Signior and Ali Bey, and was astonished to find him situng under a shed in the habit of a Turkish sailor. A good understanding was instantly established with Yousef; the English gentlemen used their whole influence to promote Mr. Bruce's designs, and every head was employed in procuring letters of the most effective kind from the Sheriffe of Mecca to the governor of Masuah, the king of Abyssinia,

Abyssinia, and his general and prime minister, Michael Suhûl.

"The country which Mr. Bruce now prepared himself to visit, though nearly bordering on the coast of the Red Sea, has no regular communication with the rest of the world. Though the oldest, and indeed the only Christian kingdom in Africa, its inhabitants are sunk in the deepest ignorance and superstition. Owing to a violent but unsuccessful attempt of the Portuguese Jesuits, in the seventeenth century, to change the form of religion from that of the Greek church of Alexandria to the Roman Catholic, the very name of Frank or European, is generally regarded in Abyssinia, as synonimous with pagan and infidel. Besides this prejudice, which had bitherto, occasioned in Habbesh the death or banishment of every European, a civil war of the most violent kind rendered, at this period, that country still less easy of access to foreigners. Three powerful parties the Kuaranya, the Galla, and the Tigré, divided the kingdom into as many factions, of which it is here necessary for the perspicuity of the ensuing narrative, to give a short account. The Kuaranya, so called from Kuara, a small province in the west of Abyssinia, where the kindred of Welleta Georgis, the queen, who, on the death of king Bacuffa, her husband, in 1729, being chosen guardian to her son Yasous II. confirmed her authority, by raising her own relations to all places of trust and importance. On the death of her son, in 1754, she was nominated guardian to her grandson Joas; but this Prince being descended by his mother from the Galla, a barbarous nation, which in former times had overrun the kingdom, regardless of the opinion of his Abyssinian subjects, put his relations in possession

of his army and provinces. The queen's kindred opposed this dangerous measure unsuccessfully. The Galla, in 1767, murdered Eshte, the principal leader of her party, which was followed by a junction of the Galla with Michael, governor of Tigré, the province of Habbesh, nearest to Arabia, a powerful, ambitious, and savage warrior, who detested both parties, and secretly aspired to the direction of the whole kingdom. The King and the Galla imprudently conferred on this general the high offices of Râs and Betúdet, which constituted him, by the laws of that country, guardian of the whole kingdom, under the King, and commander-in-chief of the national forces. This promotion oc casioned the rebellion of the Queen's son-in-law, Mariam Barea, governor of Begemder, a rich province near the capital, who was Michael's inveterate enemy, and who had been superseded in his government, by the King and the Galla. No sooner was the destruction of that nobleman accomplished, than Michael turned his arms against the Galla them selves, drove them from the capital, and having assassinated the King, placed on the throne a man entirely superannuated, grand-uncle of the Prince he had murdered. This person, being found incapable of dis charging the ordinary duties of government, was secretly destroyed by Michael's order, and his son Teclahaimanoût, a youth of fifteen years of age, raised to the sovereignty, under the general's direction and influence. To confirm these violent proceedings, the governor of Tigré attempted to secure an alliance with the old Queen, by marrying her daughter, the Princess Esther, the widow of Mariam Barea, and by concluding a league with Powussen and Gusho, governors of

the two great provinces of Begemder and Amhara, and both leaders of the Queen's party. This alliance was granted by the Queen and her relations, merely with the view of joining, at a more convenient time, with the Galla, in order to relieve themselves from their common enemy. Till this should be practicable, the Kuaranya acknowledged the King elected by Michael, and united their forces with his army in a general expedition (December 1768) against the Galla general Fasil. This person, hereditary chief of all the Galla nation in Abyssinia, and absolute master of the four southern provinces of Cojam, Damot, Maitsha, and Agow-midré, had declared his intention to revenge the murder of the late King, and to drive Michael home to his own district of Tigré. At the moment when Mr. Bruce approached the Abyssinian territories, Michael was wasting Fasil's province's with fire and sword. All subordination was for a time, at an end throughout the kingdom. The province of Tigré, belonging to Michael himself, was as disorderly as Agow-midré, the seat of war, in which Mr. Bruce intended to visit the fountains of the Nile. But the command of the province nearest to Arabia, and of the metropolis, united in the hands of the same person, was a favourable circumstance; and he now endeavoured, by every nieans, to secure Michael's favour and protection.

"Metical Aga, the Sheriffe's minister, was originally an Abyssinian slave. He was well acquainted with Michael, on account of the small distance between Jidda and Tigré, and still more on account of the great connection by trade which subsisted between the two kingdoms. The island of Masuah, and the district of Arkeeko, which form

the chief entrance by sea into Abys sinia, had been seized by the Turks in the sixteenth century, and was usually governed by an Aga and garrison of janizaries; but the Naybe, or Turkish deputy, had at length declared himself independent, and could be forced only by an alliance between the Turks and Abys sinians, to acknowledge the authority of the former. The Naybe, who then ruled at Masuah, was a person of a mean, cruel, and avaricious character, overawed only by the governor of Tigré. As it was well known that no stranger could escape out of his hands but with the greatest difficulty, Metical Aga, at the instance of the English, wrote in the most urgent terms to Râs Michael, that he was about to send him a Christian physician, who was accustomed to wander over the world in search of herbs and trees beneficial to the health of man; a subject of a great King, sovereign of a powerful people, called the English, settled in India, and much esteemed at Jidda. He added, that he himself, and all the English in Arabia, were interested in the safety of this man, and entreated Michael to save him from the violence of the Naybe of Masuah, and to protect him till he should return to Cairo, by way of Jidda, or of Sennaar. The influence which Ali Bey, and the English, had over Metical Aga, Mr. Bruce confirmed by presents; this precaution did not satisfy Captain Price, of the Lion of Bombay East India-man, who had taken a particular interest in his welfare, and whose friendship was of greater service to him than that of any other person at Jidda. He solicited Metical Aga to send a confidential servant with letters into Abyssinia, a measure to which Mr. Bruce owed the preservation of his life.

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