Sir Francis Bond Head

“ 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. ”

“ Bruce stepped one pace backward, and dropped the burnoose behind him, holding a small blunderbuss in his hand, without taking it off the belt. In a firm tone of voice he replied, "This is my answer: I am not a man, as I have told you before, to die like a beast by the hand of a drunkard; on your life, I charge you, stir not from your sofa." ”

“ The king now made a sign, and a slave brought a cushion, which Bruce would have refused, but was forced to sit down upon it.
A cadi who was present then asked Bruce when the Hagiuge Magiuge were to arrive. "Hagiuge Magiuge," said the cadi, "are little people, not so big as bees, or like the zimb, or fly of Sennaar, that come in great swarms out of the earth, ay, in multitudes that cannot be counted; two of their chiefs are to ride upon an ass, and every hair of that ass is to be a pipe, and every pipe is to play a different kind of music, and all that hear and follow them are carried to hell." ”

“ 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. ”

“ Bruce soon left, and was accompanied by a slave, who presented to him a basket of oranges, which he said were given by order of the bey.
"In that country," says Bruce, "it is not the value of the present, but the character and power of the person that sends it, that creates the value; twenty thousand men that slept in Cairo that night would have thought the day on which the bey gave them, at an audience, the worst orange in that basket, the happiest one in their life. It is a mark of friendship and protection, and the best of all assurances. ”

“ In the harsh judgment of those who gravely make it a rule to disapprove of, and even to ridicule, every thought or action which quiet English domestic life has not stamped as regular and customary, Bruce must be still considered as a mountebank and a juggler, sometimes living by his head, sometimes hanging by his heels; but those who liberally take into consideration the unusual difficulties which opposed his solitary progress, will see, in the many lines and features of his conduct, the noble picture of a brave man successfully struggling with adversity. ”

“ 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! ”

“ What proportion did a puny rill, that might flow through a pipe of two inches in diameter, bear to that vast rolling mass of waters which gave fertility to Egypt? And again, Was the "hillock of green sod before him" actually the source of that immense river, or did it only nourish one of the innumerable streams which fed the "father of waters?" In short, had not human curiosity been pushed too far, and had it made any other discovery than of its own weakness? ”

“ Bruce was then about to offer his present, when the ras, with an air of natural dignity, thus calmly addressed him: "Yagoube, I think that is your name, hear what I have to say to you, and mark what I recommend to you. You are a man, I am told, who make it your business to wander in solitary places to search for trees and grass, and to sit up all night alone looking at the stars of heaven. ”

“ Again, if anything was to befall you, what should I answer to the king and the iteghe? It would be said the Turk has betrayed him!"
"Mohammed," said Bruce, "you need not dwell on these professions; I have lived twelve years with people of your religion, my life always in their power, and I am now in your house, in preference to being in a tent out of doors with Netcho and his Christians. I do not ask you whether I am to go or not, for that is resolved on; and, though you are a Mohammedan and I a Christian, no religion teaches a man to do evil. ”

“ As Bruce's residence in Abyssinia is now rapidly drawing to a close, one may pause to observe of what honest materials his character seems to have been composed. Personal courage, that gem of the human breast, which, however roughly set, is brilliant even in the rude conduct of the savage, shines with unusual lustre in Bruce's life ”

“ There is scarcely a monk in the hot, unwholesome monastery of Waldubba, a hermit who passes his life shivering on the bleak, solitary mountains, or a priest who has lived sequestered from society, who does not pretend that he is enabled to see and foretel what is to happen in future, from his perfect ignorance of the present and the past. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Achmet, Bruce, and his party then rose with solemnity, and repeating the fedtah, or prayer of peace, they parted never to meet again. "Thus finished," says Bruce, in the narrative of his travels, "a series of trouble and vexation, not to say danger, superior to anything I ever before had experienced, and of which the bare recital (though perhaps a too minute one) will give but an imperfect idea. These wretches possess talents for tormenting and alarming far beyond the power of belief; and, by laying a true sketch of them before a traveller, an author does him the most real service." ”

“ 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. ”

“ Gimbaro scarcely noticed our traveller when first he entered the room; but, finding that no obeisance was offered to himself, he at last stepped awkwardly forward, bowed, and attempted to kiss his hand. "I apprehend, sir," said Bruce, with great firmness, and at the same time drawing away his hand, "you do not know me?" Gimbaro bowed, and said he did, but that he was not at first aware who it was that had encamped at the brook: he added, that the message he had sent was only in sport! "And was it sport, sir," said Bruce, "when you said you would send me the flesh of elephants to eat? ”

“ The horses and beasts of burden that carried the baggage of the army, and which had passed before us, had spoiled every ford, and we saw to-day a number of dead mules lying about the fields, the houses all reduced to ruins, and smoking like so many kilns: even the grass or wild oats, which were grown very high, were burned in large plots of a hundred acres together; everything bore the marks that Ras Michael was gone before, while not a living creature appeared in those extensive, fruitful, and once well-inhabited plains. ”

“ Bruce was again sent for by the sheikh. He was in the alcove of a spacious room, sitting on a sofa surrounded by curtains. After he had taken two whiffs of his pipe, and when the slave had left the room, "Are you prepared?" he said; "have you brought the money along with you?" Bruce replied, "My servants are at the outer door, and have the vomit you wanted." "Curse you and the vomit too," says he, with great passion: "I want money, and not poison. Where are your piastres?" "I am a bad person," replied Bruce, "Fidele, to furnish you with either. ”

“ Any one who has ever had the misfortune to witness an African slave-market, and for a moment to stand surrounded by its wretched, emaciated victims, must, after his first feelings have subsided, have found himself filled with astonishment that human nature could ever be induced deliberately to continue so guilty a traffic! ”

“ As the little band proceeded, terrified at the thunder which was resounding in their ears, tigers and other wild beasts at times presented themselves, their voracity seeming for the moment to be appeased by astonishment; while immense baboons hurried by, clambering up the trees, as if eager to view creatures so strangely resembling themselves. At last the woods grew thinner, and some fields appeared; but Mateo and Don Roderigo's servant, worn out by fear, fatigue, and fever, became unable to proceed, and died. ”

“ Bruce, drooping, bending in despondency over the fountains of the Nile, forms a striking picture, [Pg 260] strongly exemplifying the practical difference between moral and religious exertions; for although, among men, he had gained his prize, it may justly be asked, What was it worth? The course of a river is like the history of a man's life, and all of it that is useful is worth knowing; but the source of the one is as the birth of the other, and "the hillock of green sod" is the "infant mewling and puking in its nurse's arms." ”

“ The spirits of Bruce's companions now began completely to fail them. The miserable stock of black bread on which they had hitherto subsisted was nearly exhausted, and though they had extracted water from the carcasses or stomachs of the camels, and, like vampires, were thus sucking a horrid nourishment from the bodies of the dead, yet the difficulties which opposed them seemed greater than their strength, and they began to abandon even the hope of ever getting out of the desert. ”

“ He had scarcely retired, when Ayto Aylo came to Bruce to say that Welled Hawaryat was so very ill, that his mother, Ozoro Esther, the beautiful wife of old Ras Michael, and the iteghe, or queen-mother, desired that Bruce, on the following day, would come to see him, and some others who were also sick.
"Look!" said Bruce to Ayto Aylo, "the smallpox is a disease that will have its course; and, during the long time the patient is under it, if people feed them and treat them according to their own ignorant prejudices, my seeing him or advising him is in vain. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The boy instantly threw down the musket, which had terrified the hyæna, and made him let go the ass; but he stood ready to fight Yasine, who, not amusing himself with a choice of weapons, gave him so rude a blow with the tent-pole upon his head, that it felled him to the ground; others, with pikes, put an end to his life. ”

“ Nothing can be more beautiful than this small territory, moderately elevated above the water which surrounds it on every side except the north. Its climate is delightful, and no fevers or other diseases rage within it. The prospect of the lake and distant mountains is magnificent beyond European conception, and nature seems to have pointed out this lovely spot for pleasure, health, and retirement.
As soon as Paez had obtained possession of his territory, he began to build a convent. He had previously not only made tools of the European shape, but taught several of the natives how to use them ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ After dinner they slipped away to parties of ladies, where anarchy prevailed as completely as at the house of the ras. All the married women ate, drank, and smoked like the men; in short, it is impossible to convey, in terms of proper decency, any idea of this bacchanalian scene.
Although the king's favour, the protection of the ras, and Bruce's obliging, unassuming behaviour to everybody, had made him as popular as he could wish at Gondar and among the Tigrans, yet it was easy to perceive that that "untoward" occurrence, his quarrel with Guebra Mascal, was not forgotten. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Besides, it must be evident to every one, that, when a man visits such immense countries as Bruce travelled over, his great difficulty is to attend to details. No man can attempt to conduct a trigonometrical survey, and to fill it up at the same time: if he has to determine the grand features of the country, it is impossible that he should be very attentive to minute parts; and if he be particular in his details, he can look but little to the general character of the regions he describes.
But Bruce was disbelieved in toto; and it was even proclaimed that he had never been in Abyssinia at all! ”

“ 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. ”

“ Coming out of their dark huts, they express great joy at her brightness, and they celebrate the birth of every new moon. They are immoderately fond of swine's flesh, and maintain great herds of these animals. There is no running stream in the immense plain which they inhabit, and their water is all procured from draw-wells.
On the 25th Bruce set out from the villages of the Nuba, intending to reach Basboch, which is the ferry over the Nile; but he had scarcely advanced two miles into the plain when he and his party were enveloped by that sort of whirlwind which at sea forms the water-spout. ”

“ He is bold and daring among the brave, resolute before tyrants, a physician to his friends, a magician before the rabble, and before the gentler sex (in these latitudes we should offend them were we to call them fair) he is on his knee, and respectfully kisses their hands, whether it be their custom or no.
After passing the small island of Kurgos, where Bruce saw the first ruins he had met with since those of Axum in Abyssinia, he travelled for five days, when he reached the ferry on the great river Tacazzé, Atbara, or Astaboras, which was about a quarter of a mile broad, and exceedingly deep. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ During supper, Guebra Mascal, as was his custom, vaunted incessantly about his skill in firearms. Petros said to him, laughing, "Now Yagoube (meaning Bruce) is come, he will teach you something worth talking about." They had all drunk rather freely: Guebra Mascal, full of wine and pride, uttered words in contempt of Bruce, who quickly replied by saying that the end of a tallow candle in his gun would do more execution than an iron ball in Guebra Mascal's! Guebra immediately rose up and gave Bruce a kick with his foot, calling him a Frank and a liar ”

“ 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. ”