# Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile/Volume 1/Introduction

INTRODUCTION.
However little the reader may be conversant with ancient histories, in all probability he will know, or have heard this much in general, that the attempt to reach the Source of the Nile, the principal subject of this publication, from very early ages interested all scientific nations: Nor was this great object feebly prosecuted, as men, the first for wisdom, for learning, and spirit (a most necessary qualification in this undertaking) very earnestly interested themselves about the discovery of the sources of this famous river, till disappointment followed disappointment so fast, and consequences produced other consequences so fatal, that the design was entirely given over, as having, upon the fairest trials, appeared impracticable. Even conquerors at the head of immense armies, who had first discovered and then subdued great part of the world, were forced to lower their tone here, and dared scarcely to extend their advances toward this discovery, beyond the limits of bare wishes. At length, if it was not forgot, it was however totally abandoned from the causes above mentioned, and with it all further topographical inquiries in that quarter.
Upon the revival of learning and of the arts, the curiosity of mankind had returned with unabated vigour towards ​this object, but all attempts had met with the same difficulties as before, till, in the beginning of his Majesty's reign, the unconquerable spirit raised in this nation by a long and glorious war, did very naturally resolve itself into a spirit of adventure and inquiry at the return of peace, one of the first-fruits of which was the discovery of these coy fountains, till now concealed from the world in general.
The great danger and difficulties of this journey were well known, but it was likewise known that it had been completely performed without disappointment or misfortune, that it had been attended with an apparatus of books and instruments, which seldom accompanies the travels of an individual; yet sixteen years had elapsed without any account appearing, which seemed to mark an unusual self-denial, or an absolute indifference towards the wishes of the public.
Men, according to their different genius and dispositions, attempted by different ways to penetrate the cause of this silence. The candid, the learned, that species of men, in ​fine, for whom only it is worth while to travel or to write, supposing (perhaps with some degree of truth) that an undeserved and unexpected neglect and want of patronage had been at least part of the cause, adopted a manner, which, being the most liberal, they thought likely to succeed: They endeavoured to entice me by holding out a prospect of a more generous disposition in the minds of future ministers, when I should shew the claim I had upon them by having promoted the glory of the nation. Others, whom I mention only for the sake of comparison, below all notice on any other ground, attempted to succeed in this by anonymous letters and paragraphs in the newspapers; and thereby absurdly endeavoured to oblige me to publish an account of those travels, which they affected at the same time to believe I had never performed.
But it is with very great pleasure and readiness I do now declare, that no fantastical or deformed motive, no peevish disregard, much less contempt of the judgment of the world, had any part in the delay which has happened to this publication. I look upon their impatience to see this work as an earnest of their approbation of it, and a very great honour done to me; and if I had still any motive to defer submitting these observations to their judgment, it could only be that I might employ that interval in polishing and making them more worthy of their perusal. The candid and instructed public, the impartial and unprejudiced foreigner, are tribunals merit should naturally appeal to; it is there it always has found sure protection against the influence of cabals, and the virulent strokes of malice, envy, and ignorance.
Every one will remember that period, so glorious to Britain, the latter end of the ministry of the late Earl of Chatham. I was then returned from a tour through the greatest part of Europe, particularly through the whole of Spain and Portugal, between whom there then was an appearance of approaching war. I was about to retire to a small patrimony I had received from my ancestors, in order to embrace a life of study and reflection, nothing more active appearing then within my power, when chance threw me unexpectedly into a very short and very desultory conversation with Lord Chatham.
It was a few days after this that Mr Wood, then undersecretary of state, my very zealous and sincere friend, informed me that Lord Chatham intended to employ me upon a particular service; that, however, I might go down for a few weeks to my own country to settle my affairs, but by all means to be ready upon a call. Nothing could be more flattering to me than such an offer; when so young, to be thought worthy by Lord Chatham of any employment, was doubly a preferment. No time was lost on my side; but, just after my receiving orders to return to London, his Lordship had gone to Bath, and resigned his office.
Seven or eight months were past in an expensive and fruitless attendance in London, when Lord Halifax was pleased, not only to propose, but to plan for me a journey of considerable importance, and which was to take up several years. His Lordship said, that nothing could be more ignoble, than that, at such a time of life, at the height of my reading, health, and activity, I should, as it were, turn peasant, and voluntarily bury myself in obscurity and idleness; that though war was now drawing fast to an end, full as honourable a competition remained among men of spirit, which should acquit themselves best in the dangerous line of useful adventure and discovery. "He observed, that the coast of Barbary, which might be said to be just at our door, was as yet but partially explored by Dr Shaw, who had only illustrated (very judiciously indeed) the geographical labours of Sanson; that neither Dr Shaw nor San​son had been, or had pretended to be, capable of giving the public any detail of the large and magnificent remains of ruined architecture which they both vouch to have seen in great quantities, and of exquisite elegance and perfection, all over the country. Such had not been their study, yet such was really the taste that was required in the present times. He wished therefore that I would be the first, in the reign just now beginning, to set an example of making large additions to the royal collection, and he pledged himself to be my supporter and patron, and to make good to me, upon this additional merit, the promises which had been held forth to me by former ministers for other services.
The discovery of the Source of the Nile was also a subject of these conversations, but it was always mentioned to me with a kind of diffidence, as is to be expected from a more experienced traveller. Whether this was but another way of exciting me to the attempt I shall not say; but my heart in that instant did me justice to suggest, that this, too, was either to be atchieved by me, or to remain, as it had done for these had two thousand years, a defiance to all travellers, and an opprobrium to geography.
Fortune seemed to enter into this scheme. At the very instant, Mr Aspinwall, very cruelly and ignominiously treated by the Dey of Algiers, had resigned his consulship, and Mr Ford, a merchant, formerly the Dey's acquaintance, was named in his place. Mr Ford was appointed, and dying a few days after, the consulship became vacant. Lord Halifax pressed me to accept of this, as containing all sort of conveniencies for making the proposed expedition.
Thus prepared, I set out for Italy, through France; and though it was in time of war, and some strong objections had been made to particular passports solicited by our government from the French secretary of state, Monsieur de Choiseul most obligingly waved all such exceptions with regard to me, and most politely assured me, in a letter accompanying my passport, that those difficulties did not in any shape regard me, but that I was perfectly at liberty to pass through, or remain in France, with those that accompanied me, without limiting their number, as short or as long a time as should be agreeable to me.
On my arrival at Rome I received orders to proceed to Naples, there to await his Majesty's further commands. Sir Charles Saunders, then with a fleet before Cadiz, had orders ​to visit Malta before he returned to England. It was said, that the grand-master of that Order had behaved so improperly to Mr Hervey (afterwards Lord Bristol) in the beginning of the war, and so partially and unjustly between the two nations during the course of it, that an explanation on our part was become necessary. The grand-master no sooner heard of my arrival at Naples, than guessing the errand, he sent off Cavalier Mazzini to London, where he at once made his peace and his compliments to his Majesty upon his accession to the throne.
Nothing remained now but to take possession of my consulship. I returned without loss of time to Rome, and thence to Leghorn, where, having embarked on board the Montreal man of war, I proceeded to Algiers.
While at Naples, I received from slaves, redeemed from the province of Constantina, accounts of magnificent ruins they had seen while traversing that country in the camp with their master the Bey. I saw the absolute necessity there was for assistance, without which it was impossible for any one man, however diligent and qualified, to do any thing but bewilder himself. All my endeavours, however, had hitherto been unsuccessful to persuade any Italian to put himself wilfully into the hands of a people constantly looked upon by them in no better light than pirates.
While I was providing myself with instruments at London, I thought of one, which, though in a very small form and imperfect state, had been of great entertainment and use to me in former travels; this is called a Camera Obscura, the idea of which I had first taken from the Spectacle ​de la Nature of the Abbé Vertot. But the present one was constructed upon my own principles; I intrusted the execution of the glasses to Messrs Nairne and Blunt, Mathematical instrument-makers opposite to the Exchange, whom I had usually employed upon such occasions, and with whose capacity and fidelity I had, after frequent trials, the greatest reason to be satisfied.
This, when finished, became a large and expensive instrument; but being separated into two pieces, the top and bottom, and folding compactly with hinges, was neither heavy, cumbersome, nor inconvenient, and the charge incurred by the additions and alterations was considerably more than compensated by the advantages which accrued from them. Its body was an hexagon of six-feet diameter, with a conical top; in this, as in a summer-house, the draughtsman sat unseen, and performed his drawing. There is now, I see, one carried as a show about the streets, of nearly the same dimensions, called a Delineator, made on the same principles, and seems to be an exact imitation of mine.
By means of this instrument, a person of but a moderate skill in drawing, but habituated to the effect of it, could do more work, and in a better taste, whilst executing views of ruined architecture, in one hour, than the readiest draughtsman, so unassisted, could do in seven; for, with proper care, patience, and attention, not only the elevation, and every part of it, is taken with the utmost truth and justest proportion, but the light and shade, the actual breaches as they stand, vignettes, or little ornamental shrubs, which generally hang from and adorn the projections and edges of the several members, are finely expressed, and beautiful lessons given, ​how to transport them with effect to any part where they appear to be wanting.
Another greater and inestimable advantage is, that all landscapes, and views of the country, which constitute the background of the picture, are real, and in the reality shew, very strikingly indeed, in such a country as Africa, abounding in picturesque scenes, how much nature is superior to the creation of the warmest genius or imagination. Momentary masses of clouds, especially the heavier ones, of stormy skies, will be fixed by two or three unstudied strokes of a pencil; and figures and dress, in the most agreeable attitudes and folds, leave traces that a very ordinary hand might speedily make his own or, what is still better, enable him with these elements to use the assistance of the best artist he can find in every line of painting, and, by the help of these, give to each the utmost possible perfection; a practice which I have constantly preferred and followed with success.
It is true, this instrument has a fundamental defect in the laws of optics; but this is obvious, and known unavoidably to exist; and he must be a very ordinary genius indeed, and very lame, both in theory and practice, that cannot apply the necessary correction, with little trouble, and in a very short time.
I was so well pleased with the first trial of this instrument at Julia Cæsarea, now Shershell, about 60 miles from Algiers, that I commissioned a smaller one from Italy, which, though negligently and ignorantly made, did me this good service, that it enabled me to save my larger and more ​perfect one, in my unfortunate shipwreck at Bengazi, the ancient Berenice, on the shore of Cyrenaicum; and this was of infinite service to me in my journey to Palmyra.
Thus far a great part of my wants were well supplied, at least such as could be foreseen, but I still laboured under many. Besides that single province of ruined architecture, there remained several others of equal importance to the public. The natural history of the country, the manners and languages of the inhabitants, the history of the heavens, by a constant observation of, and attention to which, a useful and intelligible map of the country could be obtained, were objects of the utmost consequence.
Packing and repacking, mounting and rectifying these instruments alone, besides the attention and time necessary in using them, required what would have occupied one man, if they had been continual, which they luckily were not, and he sufficiently instructed. I therefore endeavoured to procure such a number of assistants, that should each bear his share in these several departments; not one only, but three or four if possible. I was now engaged, and part of my pride was to shew, how easy a thing it was to disappoint the idle prophecies of the ignorant, that this expedition would be spent in pleasure, without any profit to the public. I wrote to several correspondents, Mr Lumisden, Mr Strange, Mr Byers, and others in different parts of Italy, acquainting them of my situation, and begging their assistance. These gentlemen kindly used their utmost endeavours, but in vain.
While travelling in Spain, it was a thought which frequently suggested itself to me, how little informed the world yet was in the history of that kingdom and monarchy. The Moorish part in particular, when it was most celebrated for riches and for science, was scarcely known but from some romances or novels. It seemed an undertaking worthy of a man of letters to rescue this period from the oblivion or neglect under which it laboured. Materials were not wanting for this, as a considerable number of books remained in a neglected and almost unknown language, the Arabic. I endeavoured to find access to some ​of those Arabian manuscripts, an immense collection of which were every day perishing in the dust of the escurial, and was indulged with several conversations of Mr Wall, then minister, every one of which convinced me, that the objections to what I wished were founded so strongly in prejudice, that it was not even in his power to remove them.
All my success in Europe terminated in the acquisition of those few printed Arabic books that I had found in Holland, and these were rather biographers than general historians, and contained little in point of general information. The study of these, however, and of Maracci's Koran, had made me a very tolerable Arab; a great field was opening before me in Africa to complete a collection of manuscripts, an opportunity which I did not neglect.
After a year spent at Algiers, constant conversation with the natives whilst abroad, and with my manuscripts within doors, had qualified me to appear in any part of the continent without the help of an interpreter. Ludolf had assured his readers, that the knowledge of any oriental language would soon enable them to acquire the Ethiopic, and I needed only the same number of books to have made my knowledge of that language go hand in hand with my attainments in the Arabic. My immediate prospect of setting out on my journey to the inland parts of Africa, had made me double my diligence; night and day there was no relaxation from these studies, although the acquiring any ​single language had never been with me either an object of time or difficulty.
At this instant, instead of obtaining the liberty I had solicited to depart, orders arrived from the king to expect his further commands at Algiers, and not to think of stirring from thence, till a dispute about passports was settled, in which I certainly had no concern, further than as it regarded me as his Majesty's actual servant, for it had originated entirely from the neglect of the former consul's letters directed to the secretary of state at home, before my coming to Algiers.
The island of Minorca had been taken by the French; and when the fort of St Philip surrendered by an article common to all capitulations, it was stipulated, that all papers found in the fort were to be delivered to the captors. It happened that among these was a number of blank Mediterranean passes, which fell therefore into the hands of the French, and the blanks were filled up by the French governor and secretary, who very naturally wished to embroil us with the Barbary states, it being then the time of war with France. They were sold to Spaniards, Neapolitans, and other enemies of the Barbary regencies. The check (the only proof that these pirates have of the vessels being a friend) agreed perfectly with the passport filled up by the French governor, but the captor seeing that the crew of these vessels were dark-coloured, wore mustachoes, and spoke no English, carried the vessel to Algiers, where the British consul detect​ed the fraud, and was under the disagreeable necessity of surrendering so many Christians into slavery in the hands of their enemies.
One or two successful discoveries of this kind made the hungry pirates believe that the passport of every vessel they met with, even those of Gibraltar, were false in themselves, and issued to protect their enemies. Violent commotions were excited amongst the soldiery, abetted under hand by several of the neutral consuls there. By every occasion I had wrote home, but in vain, and the Dey could never be persuaded of this, as no answer arrived. Government was occupied with winding up matters at the end of a war, and this neglect of my letters often brought me into great danger. At last a temporary remedy was found, whether it originated from home, or whether it was invented by the governor of Mahon and Gibraltar, was never communicated to me, but a surer and more effectual way of having all the nation at Algiers massacred could certainly not have been hit upon.
Square pieces of common paper, about the size of a quarter-sheet, were sealed with the arms of the governor of Mahon, sometimes with red, sometimes with black wax, as the family circumstances of that officer required. These were signed by his signature, countersigned by that of his secretary, and contained nothing more than a bare and simple declaration, that the vessel, the bearer of it, was British property. These papers were called Passavants. The cruiser, uninstructed in this when he boarded a vessel, asked for his Mediterranean pass. The master answered, He had none, he had only a passavant, and shewed the paper, which having no ​check, the cruiser brought him and his vessel as a good prize into Algiers. Upon my claiming them, as was my duty, I was immediately called before the Dey and divan, and had it not been from personal regard the Turks always shewed me, I should not have escaped the insults of the soldiery in my way to the palace. The Dey asked me, upon my word as a Christian and an Englishman, whether these written passes were according to treaty, or whether the word passavant was to be found in any of our treaties with the Moorish regencies? All equivocation was useless. I answered, That these passes were not according to treaty; that the word passavant was not in any treaty I knew of with any of the Barbary states; that it was a measure necessity had created, by Minorca's falling into the hands of the French, which had never before been the case, but that the remedy would be found as soon as the greater business of settling the general peace gave the British ministry time to breathe. Upon this the Dey, holding several passavants in his hand, answered, with great emotion, in these memorable terms, "The British government know that we can neither read nor write, no not even our own language; we are ignorant soldiers and sailors, robbers if you will, though we do not wish to rob you; but war is our trade, and we live by that only. Tell me how my cruisers are to know that all these different writings and seals are Governor Mostyn's, or Governor Johnston's, and not the Duke of Medina Sidonia's, or Barcelot's, captain of the king of Spain's cruisers?" It was impossible to answer a question so simple and so direct. I touched then the instant of being cut to pieces by the soldiery, or of having the whole British Mediterranean trade carried into the Barbary ports. The candid and open manner in which I had spoken, the regard and esteem the Dey ​always had shewed me, and some other common methods with the members of the regency, staved off the dangerous moment, and were the means of procuring time. Admiralty passes at last came out, and the matter was happily adjusted; but it was an affair the least pleasing and the least profitable, and one of the most dangerous in which I was ever engaged.
All this disagreeable interval I had given to study, and making myself familiar with every thing that could be necessary to me in my intended journey. The king's surgeon at Algiers, Mr Ball, a man of considerable merit in his profession, and who lived in my family, had obtained leave to return home. Before I was deprived of this assistance, I had made a point of drawing from it all the advantages possible for my future travels. Mr Ball did not grudge his time or pains in the instruction he gave me. I had made myself master of the art of bleeding, which I found consisted only in a little attention, and in overcoming that diffidence which the ignorance how the parts lie occasions. Mr Ball had shewn me the manner of applying several sorts of bandages, and gave me an idea of dressing some kinds of sores and wounds. Frequent and very useful lessons, which I also received from my friend Doctor Russel at Aleppo, contributed greatly to improve me afterwards in the knowledge of physic and surgery. I had a small chest of the most efficacious medicines, a dispensary to teach me to compound others that were needful, and some short treatises upon the acute diseases of several countries within the tropics. Thus instructed, I flatter myself, no offence I hope, I did not occasion a greater mortality among the Mahometans and Pagans abroad, than may be attributed to ​some of my brother physicians among their fellow-Christians at home.
The rev. Mr Tonyn, the king's chaplain at Algiers, was absent upon leave before I arrived in that regency. The Protestant shipmasters who came into the port, and had need of spiritual assistance, found here a blank that was not easily filled up; I should therefore have been obliged to take upon myself the disagreeable office of burying the dead, and the more chearful, though more troublesome one, of marrying and baptizing the living; matters that were entirely out of my way, but to which the Roman Catholic clergy would contribute no assistance.
There was a Greek priest, a native of Cyprus, a very venerable man, part seventy years of age, who had attached himself to me from my first arrival in Algiers. This man was of a very social and chearful temper, and had, besides, a more than ordinary knowledge of his own language. I had taken him to my house as my chaplain, read Greek with him daily, and spoke it at times when I could receive his correction and instruction. It was not that I, at this time of day, needed to learn Greek, I had long understood that language perfectly; what I wanted was the pronunciation, and reading by accent, of which the generality of English scholars are perfectly ignorant, and to which it is owing that they apprehend the Greek spoken and written in the Archipelago is materially different from that language which we read in books, and which a few weeks conversation in the islands will teach them it is not. I had in this, at that time, no other view than mere convenience during my passage through the Archipelago, ​which I intended to visit, without any design of continuing or studying there: But the reader will afterwards see of what very material service this acquaintance was to me, so very essential, indeed, that it contributed more to the success of my views in Abyssinia than any other help that I obtained throughout the whole of it. This man's name was Padre Christophoro, or Father Christopher. At my leaving Algiers, finding himself less conveniently situated, he went to Egypt, to Cairo, where he was promoted to be second in rank under Mark, patriarch of Alexandria, where I afterwards found him.
Business of a private nature had at this time obliged me to present myself at Mahon, a gentleman having promised to meet me there; I therefore sailed from Algiers, having taken leave of the Dey, who furnished me with every letter that I asked, with strong and peremptory orders to all the officers of his own dominions, pressing recommendatory ones to the Bey of Tunis and Tripoli, states independent, indeed, of the Dey of Algiers, but over which the circumstances of the times had given him a considerable influence.
The violent disputes about the passports had rather raised than lowered me in his esteem. The letters were given with the best grace possible, and the orders contained in them were executed most exactly in all points during my whole stay in Barbary. Being disappointed in the meeting I looked for at Mahon, I remained three days in Quarantine Island, though General Townsend, then deputy-governor, by every civility and attention in his power, strove to induce ​me to come on shore, that he might have an opportunity of shewing me still more attention and politeness.
My mind being now full of more agreeable ideas than what had for some time past occupied it, I sailed in a small vessel from Port Mahon, and, having a fair wind, in a short time made the coast of Africa, at a cape, or headland, called Ras el Hamra, and landed at Bona, a considerable town, the ancient Aphrodisium, built from the ruins of Hippo Regius, from which it is only two miles distant. It stands on a large plain, part of which seems to have been once overflowed by the sea. Its trade consists now in the exportation of wheat, when, in plentiful years, that trade is permitted by the government of Algiers. I had a delightful voyage close down the coast, and passed the small island Tabarca, lately a fortification of the Genoese, now in the hands of the regency of Tunis, who took it by surprise, and made all the inhabitants slaves. The island is famous for a coral fishery, and along the coast are immense forests of large beautiful oaks, more than sufficient to supply the necessities of all the maritime powers in the Levant, if the quality of the wood be but equal to the size and beauty of the tree.
From Tabarca I sailed and anchored at Biserta, the Hippozaritus of antiquity, and thence went to pay a visit to Utica, out of respect to the memory of Cato, without having sanguine expectations of meeting any thing remarkable ​there, and accordingly I found nothing memorable but the name. It may be said nothing remains of Utica but a heap of rubbish and of small stones; without the city the trenches and approaches of the ancient besiegers are still very perfect.
After doubling Cape Carthage I anchored before the fortress of the Goletta, a place now of no strength, notwithstanding the figure it made at the time of the expedition of Charles V. Rowing along the bay, between the Cape and this anchorage, I saw several buildings and columns still standing under water, by which it appeared that old Carthage had owed part of its destruction to the sea, and hence likewise may be inferred the absurdity of any attempt to represent the site of ancient Carthage upon paper. It has been, besides, at least ten times destroyed, so that the stations, where its first citizens fell fighting for their liberty, are covered deep in rubbish, far from being trodden upon by those unworthy slaves who now are its masters.
Tunis is twelve miles distant from this: It is a large and flourishing city. The people are more civilized than in Algiers, and the government milder, but the climate is very far from being so good. Tunis is low, hot, and damp, and destitute of good water, with which Algiers is supplied from a thousand springs.
I delivered my letters from the Bey, and obtained permission to visit the country in whatever direction I should ​please. I took with me a French renegado, of the name of Osman, recommended to me by Monsieur Bartheleny de Saizieux, consul of France to that state; a gentleman whose conversation and friendship furnish me still with some of the most agreeable reflections that result from my travels. With Osman I took ten spahi, or horse-soldiers, well armed with firelocks and pistols, excellent horsemen, and, as far as I could ever discern upon the few occasions that presented, as eminent for cowardice, at least, as they were for horsemanship. This was not the case with Osman, who was very brave, but he needed a sharp look-out, that he did not often embroil us where there was access to women or to wine.
One of the most agreeable favours I received was from a lady of the Bey, who furnished me with a two-wheeled covered cart, exactly like those of the bakers in England. In this I secured my quadrant and telescope from the weather, and at times put likewise some of the feeblest of my attendants. Besides these I had ten servants, two of whom were Irish, who having deserted from the Spanish regiments in Oran, and being British born, though slaves, as being Spanish soldiers, were given to me at parting by the Dey of Algiers.
The coast along which I had sailed was part of Numidia and Africa Proper, and there I met with no ruins. I resolved now to distribute my inland journey through the kingdom of Algiers and Tunis. In order to comprehend the whole, I first set out along the river Majerda, through a country perfectly cultivated and inhabited by people under ​the controul of government, this river was the ancient Bagrada.
AFTER passing a triumphal arch of bad taste at Basil-bab, I came the next day to Thugga, perhaps more properly called Tucca, and by the inhabitants Dugga. The reader in this part should have Doctor Shaw's Work before him, my map of the journey not being yet published; and, indeed, after Shaw's, it is scarcely necessary to those who need only an itinerary, as, besides his own observations, he had for basis those of Sanson.
I found at Dugga a large scene of ruins, among which one building was easily distinguishable. It was a large temple of the Corinthian order, all of Parian marble, the columns fluted, the cornice highly ornamented in the very best style of sculpture. In the tympanum is an eagle flying to heaven, with a human figure upon his back, which, by the many inscriptions that are still remaining, seems to be intended for that of Trajan, and the apotheosis of that emperor to be the subject, the temple having been erected by Adrian to that prince, his benefactor and predecessor. I spent fifteen days upon the architecture of this temple without feeling the smallest disgust, or forming a wish to finish it; it is, with all its parts, still unpublished in my collection. These beautiful and magnificent remains of ancient taste and greatness, so easily reached in perfect safety, by a ride along the Bagrada, full as pleasant and as safe as along the Thames ​between London and Oxford, were at Tunis totally unknown. Doctor Shaw has given the situation of the place, without saying one word about any thing curious it contains.
From Dugga I continued the upper road to Keff, formerly called Sicca Venerea, or Venerea ad Siccam, through the pleasant plains inhabited by the Welled Yagoube. I then proceeded to Hydra, the Thunodrunum of the ancients. This is a frontier place between the two kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, as Keff is also. It is inhabited by a tribe of Arabs, whose chief is a marabout, or saint; they are called Welled Sidi Boogannim, the "sons of the father of flocks."
These Arabs are immensely rich, paying no tribute either to Tunis or Algiers. The pretence for this exemption is a very singular one. By the institution of their founder, they are obliged to live upon lions flesh for their daily food, as far as they can procure it; with this they strictly comply, and, in consideration of the utility of this their vow, they are not taxed, like the other Arabs, with payments to the state. The consequence of this life is, that they are excellent and well-armed horsemen, exceedingly bold and undaunted hunters. It is generally imagined, indeed, that these considerations, and that of their situation on the frontier, have as much influence in procuring them exemption from taxes, as the utility of their vow.
Before Dr Shaw's travels first acquired the celebrity they have maintained ever since, there was a circumstance that very nearly ruined their credit. He had ventured to say in conversation, that these Welled Sidi Boogannim were eaters of lions, and this was considered at Oxford, the university where he had studied, as a traveller's license on the part of the Doctor. They took it as a subversion of the natural order of things, that a man should eat a lion, when it had long passed as almost the peculiar province of the lion to eat man. The Doctor flinched under the sagacity and severity of this criticism; he could not deny that the Welled Sidi Boogannim did eat lions, as he had repeatedly said; but he had not yet published his travels, and therefore left it out of his narrative, and only hinted at it after in his appendix.
With all submission to that learned university, I will not dispute the lion's title to eating men; but, since it is not founded upon patent, no consideration will make me stifle the merit of Welled Sidi Boogannim, who have turned the chace upon the enemy. It is an historical fact; and I will not suffer the public to be misled by a misrepresentation ​of it; on the contrary, I do aver, in the face of these fantastic prejudices, that I have ate the flesh of lions, that is, part of three lions, in the tents of Welled Sidi Boogannim. The first was a he-lion, lean, tough, smelling violently of musk, and had the taste which, I imagine, old horse-flesh would have. The second was a lioness, which they said had that year been barren. She had a considerable quantity of fat within her; and, had it not been for the musky smell that the flesh had, though in a lesser degree than the former, and for our foolish prejudices against it, the meat, when broiled, would not have been very bad. The third was a a lion's whelp, six or seven months old; it tasted, upon the whole, the worst of the three. I confess I have no desire of being again served with such a morsel; but the Arabs, a brutish and ignorant folk, will, I fear, notwithstanding the disbelief of the university of Oxford, continue to eat lions as long as they exist.
From Hydra I passed to the ancient Tipasa, another Roman colony, going by the same name to this day. Here is a most extensive scene of ruins. There is a large temple, and a four-faced triumphal arch of the Corinthian order, in the very best taste; both of which are now in the collection of the King.
I here crossed the river Myskianah, which falls into the Bagrada, and continuing through one of the most beautiful and best-cultivated countries in the world, I entered the eastern province of Algiers, now called Constantina, ancient​ly the Mauritania Cæsariensis, whose capital, Constantina, is the ancient metropolis of Syphax. It was called Cirta, and, after Julius Cæsar's conquest, Cirta Sittianorum, from Caius Sittius who first took it. It is situated upon a high, gloomy, tremendous precipice. Part only of its aqueduct remains: the water, which once was carried into the town, now spills itself from the top of the cliff into a chasm, or narrow valley, above four hundred feet below. The view of it is in the King's collection; a band of robbers, the figures which adorn it, is a composition from imagination; all the rest is perfectly real.
The Bey was at this time in his camp, as he was making war with the Hanneishah, the most powerful tribe of Arabs in that province. After having refreshed myself in the Bey's palace I set out to Seteef, the Sitifi of antiquity, the capital of Mauritania Sitifensis, at some distance from which I joined the Bey's army, consisting of about 12,000 men, with four pieces of cannon. After staying a few days with the Bey, and obtaining his letters of recommendation, I proceeded to Taggou-zainah, anciently Diana Veteranorum, as we learn by an inscription on a triumphal arch of the Corinthian order which I found there.
From Taggou-zainah I continued my journey nearly straight S.E. and arrived at Medrashem, a superb pile of building, the sepulchre of Syphax, and the other kings of Numidia, and where, as the Arabs believe, were also depo​sited the treasures of those kings. A drawing of this monument is still unpublished in my collection. Advancing still to the S.E. through broken ground and some very barren valleys, which produced nothing but game, I came to Jibbel Aurez, the Aurasius Mons of the middle age. This is not one mountain, but an assemblage of many of the most craggy steeps in Africa.
Here I met, to my great astonishment, a tribe, who, if I cannot say they were fair like English, were of a shade lighter than that of the inhabitants of any country to the southward of Britain. Their hair also was red, and their eyes blue. They are a savage and independent people; it required address to approach them with safety, which, however, I accomplished, (the particulars would take too much room for this place), was well received, and at perfect liberty to do whatever I pleased. This tribe is called Neardie. Each of the tribe, in the middle between their eyes, has a Greek cross marked with antimony. They are Kabyles. Though living in tribes, they have among the mountains huts, built with mud and straw, which they call Dashkras, whereas the Arabs live in tents on the plains. I imagine these to be a remnant of Vandals. Procopius mentions a defeat of an army of this nation here, after a desperate resistance, a remnant of which may be supposed to have maintained themselves in these mountains. They with great pleasure confessed their ancestors had been Christians, and seemed to rejoice much more in that relation than in any connection with the Moors, with whom they live in perpe​tual war: they pay no taxes to the Bey, but live in constant defiance of him.
As this is the Mons Audus of Ptolemy, here too must be fixed his Lambesa, or Lambesentium Colonia, which, by a hundred Latin inscriptions remaining on the spot, it is attested to have been. It is now called Tezzoute: the ruins of the city are very extensive. There are seven of the gates still standing, and great pieces of the walls solidly built with square masonry without lime. The buildings remaining are of very different ages, from Adrian to Aurelian, nay even to Maximin. One building only, supported by columns of the Corinthian order, was in good taste; what its use was I know not. The drawing of this is in the King's collection. It was certainly designed for some military purpose, by the size of the gates; I should suspect a stable for elephants, or a repository for catapulta, or other large military machines, though there are no traces left upon the walls indicating either. Upon the key-stone of the arch of the principal gate there is a basso-relievo of the standard of a legion, and upon it an inscription, Legio tertia Augusta, which legion, we know from history, was quartered here. Dr Shaw says, that there is here a neat, round, Corinthian temple, called Cubb el Arrousah, the Cupola or Dome of the Bride or Spouse. Such a building does exist, but it is by no means of a good taste, nor of the Corinthian order; but of a long disproportioned Doric, of the time of Aurelian, and does not merit the attention of any architect. Dr Shaw ​never was so far south as Jibbel Aurez, so could only say this from report.
From Jibbel Aurez nothing occurred in the style of architecture that was material. Hydra remained on the left hand. I came to Cassareen, the ancient Colonia Scillitana, where I suffered something both from hunger and from fear. The country was more rugged and broken than any we had yet seen, and withal less fruitful and inhabited. The Moors of these parts are a rebellious tribe, called Nememshah, who had fled from their ordinary obligation of attending the Bey, and had declared themselves on the part of the rebel-moors, the Henneishah.
My intentions now were to reach Feriana, the Thala of the ancients, where I expected considerable subjects for study; but in this I was disappointed, and being on the frontier, and in dangerous times, when several armies were in the field, I thought it better to steer my course eastward, and avoid the theatre of war.
Journeying east, I came to Spaitla, and again got into the kingdom of Tunis. Spaitla is a corruption of Suffetula, which was probably its ancient name before it became a Roman colony; so called from Suffetes, a magistrature in all the countries dependent upon Carthage. Spaitla has many inscriptions, and very extensive and elegant remains. There are three temples, two of them Corinthian, and one of ​the Composite order; a great part of them is entire. A beautiful and perfect capital of the Composite order, the only perfect one that now exists, is designed, in all its parts, in a very large size; and, with the detail of the rest of the ruin, is a precious monument of what that order was, now in the collection of the King.
Doctor Shaw, struck with the magnificence of Spaitla, has attempted something like the three temples, in a stile much like what one would expect from an ordinary carpenter, or mason. I hope I have done them more justice, and I recommend the study of the Composite capital, as of the Corinthian capital at Dugga, to those who really wish to know the taste with which these two orders were executed in the time of the Antonines.
The Welled Omran, a lawless, plundering tribe, inquieted me much in the eight days I staid at Spaitla. It was a fair match between coward and coward. With my company, I was inclosed in a square in which the three temples stood, where there yet remained a precinct of high walls. These plunderers would have come in to me, but were afraid of my fire-arms; and I would have run away from them, had I not been afraid of meeting their horse in the plain. I was almost starved to death, when I was relieved by the arrival of Welled Hassan, and a friendly tribe of Dreeda, that came to my assistance, and brought me, at once, both safety and provision.
From Spaitla I went to Gilma, or Oppidum Chilmanense. There is here a large extent of rubbish and stones, but no distinct trace of any building whatever.
From Muchtar, or Tucca Terebinthina, we came to Kisser, which Dr Shaw conjectures to have been the Colonia Assuras of the ancients, by this it should seem he had not been there; for there is an inscription upon a triumphal arch of very good taste, now standing, and many others to be met with up and down, which confirms beyond doubt his conjecture to be a just one. There is, besides this, a small square temple, upon which are carved several instruments of sacrifice, which are very curious, but the execution of these is much inferior to the design. It stands on the declivity of a hill, above a large fertile plain, still called the Plain of Surse, which is probably a corruption of its ancient name Assuras.
From Kisser I came to Musti, where there is a triumphal arch of very good taste, but perfectly in ruins; the ​merit of its several parts only could be collected from the fragments which lie strewed upon the ground.
From Musti I proceeded north-eastward to Tubersoke, thence again to Dugga, and down the Bagrada to Tunis.
My third, or, which may be called my middle journey through Tunis, was by Zowan, a high mountain, where is a large aqueduct which formerly carried its water to Carthage. Thence I came to Jelloula, a village lying below high mountains on the west; these are the Montes Vassaleti of Ptolemy, as the town itself is the Oppidum Usalitanum of Pliny. I fell here again into the ancient road at Gilma; and, not satisfied with what I had seen of the beauties of Spaitla, I passed there five days more, correcting and revising what I had already committed to paper. Independent of the treasure I found in the elegance of its buildings, the town itself is situated in the most beautiful spot in Barbary, surrounded thick with juniper-trees, and watered by a pleasant stream that sinks there under the earth, and appears no more.
Here I left my former road at Cassareen, and proceeding directly S.E. came to Feriana, the road that I had abandoned before from prudential motives. Feriana, as has been before observed, is the ancient Thala, taken and destroyed by Metellus in his pursuit of Jugurtha. I had formed, I know not from what reason, sanguine expectations of ele​gant remains here, but in this I was disappointed; I found nothing remarkable but the baths of very warm water without the town; in these there was a number of fish, above four inches in length, not unlike gudgeons. Upon trying the heat by the thermometer, I remember to have been much surprised that they could have existed, or even not been boiled, by continuing long in the heat of this medium. As I marked the degrees with a pencil while I was myself naked in the water, the leaf was wetted accidentally, so that I missed the precise degree I meant to have recorded, and do not pretend to supply it from memory. The bath is at the head of the fountain, and the stream runs off to a considerable distance. I think there were about five or six dozen of these fish in the pool. I was told likewise, that they went down into the stream to a certain distance in the day, and returned to the pool, or warmest and deepest water, at night.
From Feriana I proceeded S.E. to Gafsa, the ancient Capsa, and thence to Tozer, formerly Tisurus. I then turned nearly N.E. and entered a large lake of water called the Lake of Marks, because in the passage of it there is a row of large trunks of palm-trees set up to guide travellers in the road which crosses it. Doctor Shaw has settled very distinctly the geography of this place, and those about it. It is the Palus Tritonidis, as he justly observes; this was the most barren and unpleasant part of my journey ​in Africa; barren not only from the nature of its soil, but by its having no remains of antiquity in the whole course of it.
From this I came to Gabs, or Tacape, after passing El Hammah, the baths which were the Aquas Tacapitanas of antiquity, where the small river Triton, by the moisture which it furnishes, most agreeably and suddenly changes the desert scene, and covers the adjacent fields with all kinds of flowers and verdure.
I was now arrived upon the lesser Syrtis, and continued along the sea-coast northward to Inshilla, without having made any addition to my observations. I turned again to the N.W. and came to El Gemme, where there is a very large and spacious amphitheatre, perfect as to the desolation of time, had not Mahomet Bey blown up four arches of it from the foundation, that it might not serve as a fortress to the rebel Arabs. The sections, elevations, and plans, with the whole detail of its parts, are in the King's collection.
I have still remaining, but not finished, the lower or subterraneous plan of the building, an entrance to which I forced open in my journey along the coast to Tripoli. This was made so as to be filled with water by means of a sluice and aqueduct, which are still entire. The water rose up in the arena, through a large square-hole faced with hewn-stone in the middle, when there was occasion for water-games or naumachia. Doctor Shaw imagines this was ​intended to contain the pillar that supported the velum, which covered the spectators from the influence of the sun. It might have served for both purposes, but it seems to be too large for the latter, though I confess the more I have considered the size and construction of these amphitheatres, the less I have been able to form an idea concerning this velum, or the manner in which it served the people, how it was secured, and how it was removed. This was the last ancient building I visited in the kingdom of Tunis, and I believe I may confidently say, there is not, either in the territories of Algiers or Tunis, a fragment of good taste of which I have not brought a drawing to Britain.
I continued along the coast to Susa, through a fine country planted with olive trees, and came again to Tunis, not only without disagreeable accident, but without any interruption from sickness or other cause. I then took leave of the Bey, and, with the acknowledgments usual on such occasions, again set out from Tunis, on a very serious journey indeed, over the desert to Tripoli, the first part of which to Gabs was the same road by which I had so lately returned. From Gabs I proceeded to the island of Gerba, the Meninx Insula, or Island of the Lotophagi.
Doctor Shaw says, the fruit he calls the Lotus is very frequent all over that coast. I wish he had said what was this Lotus. To say it is the fruit the most common on that coast is no description, for there is there no sort of fruit ​whatever; no bush, no tree, nor verdure of any kind, excepting the short grass that borders these countries before you enter the moving sands of the desert. Doctor Shaw never was at Gerba, and has taken this particular from some unfaithful story-teller. The Wargumma and Noile, two great tribes of Arabs, are masters of these deserts. Sidi Ismain, whose grandfather, the Bey of Tunis, had been dethroned and strangled by the Algerines, and who was himself then prisoner at Algiers, in great repute for valour, and in great intimacy with me, did often use to say, that he accounted his having passed that desert on horseback as the hardiest of all his undertakings.
About four days journey from Tripoli I met the Emir Hadje conducting the caravan of pilgrims from Fez and Sus in Morocco, all across Africa to Mecca, that is, from the Western Ocean, to the western banks of the Red Sea in the kingdom of Sennaar. He was a middle-aged man, uncle to the present emperor, of a very uncomely, stupid kind of countenance. His caravan consisted of about 3000 men, and, as his people said, from 12,000 to 14,000 camels, part loaded with merchandise, part with skins of water, flour, and other kinds of food, for the maintenance of the hadjees; they were a scurvy, disorderly, unarmed pack, and when my horsemen, tho' but fifteen in number, came up with them in the grey of the morning, they shewed great signs of trepidation, and were already flying in confusion. When informed who they were, their fears ceased, and, after the usual manner of cowards, they became extremely insolent.
I had hopes of finding something at Lebeda, formerly Leptis Magna, three days journey from Tripoli, where are indeed a great number of buildings, many of which are covered by the sands; but they are of a bad taste, mostly ill-proportioned Dorics of the time of Aurelian. Seven large columns of granite were shipped from this for France, in the reign of Louis XIV. destined for one of the palaces he was then building. The eighth was broken on the way, and lies now upon the shore. Though I was disappointed at Lebeda, ample amends were made me at Tripoli on my return.
From Tripoli I sent an English servant to Smyrna with my books, drawings, and supernumerary instruments, retaining only extracts from such authors as might be necessary for me in the Pentapolis, or other parts of the Cyrenaicum. I then crossed the Gulf of Sidra, formerly known by the name of the Syrtis Major, and arrived at Bengazi, the ancient Berenice, built by Ptolemy Philadelphus.
The brother of the Bey of Tripoli commanded here, a young man, as weak in understanding as he was in health. ​All the province was in extreme confusion. Two tribes of Arabs, occupying the territory to the west of the town, who in ordinary years, and in time of peace, were the sources of its wealth and plenty, had, by the mismanagement of the Bey, entered into deadly quarrel. The tribe that lived most to the westward, and which was reputed the weakest, had beat the most numerous that was nearest the town, called Welled Abid, and driven them within its walls. The inhabitants of Bengazi had for a year before been labouring under a severe famine, and by this accident about four thousand persons, of all ages and sexes, were forced in upon them, when perfectly destitute of every necessary. Ten or twelve people were found dead every night in the streets, and life was said in many to be supported by food that human nature shudders at the thoughts of. Impatient to fly from these Thyestean feasts, I prevailed upon the Bey to send me out some distance to the southward, among the Arabs where famine had been less felt.
I encompassed a great part of the Pentapolis, visited the ruins of Arsinoe, and. though I was much more feebly recommended than usual, I happily received neither insult nor injury. Finding nothing at Arsinoe nor Barca, I continued my journey to Ras Sem, the petrified city, concerning which so many monstrous lies were told by the Tripoline ambassador, Cassem Aga, at the beginning of this century, and all believed in England, though they carried falsehood upon the very face of them. It was not then the age of ​incredulity, we were fast advancing to the celebrated epoch of the man in the pint-bottle, and from that time to be as absurdly incredulous as we were then the reverse, and with the same degree of reason.
Ras Sem is five long days journey south from Bengazi; it has no water, except a spring very disagreeable to the taste, that appears to be impregnated with alum, and this has given it the name it bears of Ras Sem, or the Fountain of Poison, from its bitterness. The whole remains here consist in the ruins of a tower or fortification, that seems to be a work full as late as the time of the Vandals. How or what use they made of this water I cannot possibly guess; they had no other at the distance of two days journey. I was not fortunate enough to discover the petrified men and horses, the women at the churn, the little children, the cats, the dogs, and the mice, which his Barbarian excellency assured Sir Hans Sloane existed there: Yet, in vindication of his Excellency, I must say, that though he propagated, yet he did not invent this falsehood; the Arabs who conducted me maintained the same stories to be true, till I was within two hours of the place, where I found them to be false. I saw indeed mice, as they are called, of a very extraordinary kind, having nothing of petrifaction about them, but agile and active, so to partake as much of the bird as the beast.
Approaching now the sea-coast I came to Ptolometa, the ancient Ptolemais, the work of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the ​walls and gates of which city are still entire. There is a prodigious number of Greek inscriptions, but there remain only a few columns of the portico, and an Ionic temple, in the first manner of executing that order; and therefore, slight as the remains are, they are treasures in the history of architecture which are worthy to be preserved. These are in the King's collection, with all the parts that could be recovered.
Here I met a small Greek junk belonging to Lampedosa, a little island near Crete, which had been unloading corn, and was now ready to sail. At the same time the Arabs of Ptolometa told me, that the Welled Ali, a powerful tribe that occupy the whole country between that place and Alexandria, were at war among themselves, and had plundered the caravan of Morocco, of which I have already spoken, and that the pilgrims composing it had mostly perished, having been scattered in the desert without water; that a great famine had been at Derna, the neighbouring town, to which I intended to go; that a plague had followed, and the town, which is divided into upper and lower, was engaged in a civil war. This torrent of ill news was irresistible, and was of a kind I did not propose to wrestle with; besides, there was nothing, as far as I knew, that merited the risk. I resolved, therefore, to fly from this inhospitable coast, and save to the public, at least, that knowledge and entertainment I had acquired for them.
I embarked on board the Greek vessel, very ill accoutred, as we afterwards found, and, though it had plenty of sail, it had not an ounce of ballast. A number of people, men, women, and children, flying from the calamities which at​tend famine, crowded in unknown to me; but the passage was short, the vessel light, and the master, as we supposed, well accustomed to these seas. The contrary of this, however, was the truth, as we learned afterwards, when too late, for he was an absolute landsman; proprietor indeed of the vessel, but this had been his first voyage. We sailed at dawn of day in as favourable and pleasant weather as ever I saw at sea. It was the beginning of September, and a light and steady breeze, though not properly fair, promised a short and agreeable voyage; but it was not long before it turned fresh and cold; we then had a violent shower of hail, and the clouds were gathering as if for thunder. I observed that we gained no offing, and hoped, if the weather turned bad, to persuade the Captain to put into Bengazi, for one inconvenience he presently discovered, that they had not provision on board for one day.
However, the wind became contrary, and blew a violent storm, seeming to menace both thunder and rain. The vessel being in her trim with large latine sails, fell violently to leeward, and they scarce would have weathered the Cape that makes the entrance into the harbour of Bengazi, which is a very bad one, when all at once it struck upon a sunken rock, and seemed to be set down upon it. The wind at that instant seemed providentially to calm; but I no sooner observed the ship had struck than I began to think of my own situation. We were not far from shore, but there was an exceeding great swell at sea. Two boats were still towed astern of them, and had not been hoisted in. Roger M'Cormack, my Irish servant, had been a sailor on board the Monarch before he deserted to the Spanish service. He and the other, who had likewise been a sailor, presently unlash​ed the largest boat, and all three got down into her, followed by a multitude of people whom we could not hinder, and there was, indeed, something that bordered on cruelty, in preventing poor people from using the same means that we had done for preserving their lives; yet, unless we had killed them, the prevention was impossible, and, had we been inclined to that measure, we dared not, as we were upon a Moorish coast. The most that could be done was, to get loose from the ship as soon as possible, and two oars were prepared to row the boat ashore. I had stript myself to a short under-waistcoat and linen drawers; a silk sash, or girdle, was wrapt round me; a pencil, small pocket-book, and watch, were in the breast-pocket of my waistcoat; two Moorish and two English servants followed me; the rest, more wise, remained on board.
We were not twice the length of the boat from the vessel before a wave very nearly filled the boat. A howl of despair from those that were in her shewed their helpless state, and that they were conscious of a danger they could not shun. I saw 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, and 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 me 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, 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 sup​pose I fainted, for from that time I was totally insensible of any thing that passed around me.
In the mean time the Arabs, who live two short miles from the shore, came down in crowds to plunder the vessel. One of the boats was thrown ashore, and they had belonging to them some others; there was one yet with the wreck which scarcely appeared with its gunnel above water. All the people were now taken on shore, and those only lost who perished in the boat. What first wakened me from this semblance of death was a blow with the butt-end of a lance, shod with iron, upon the juncture of the neck with the back-bone. This produced a violent sensation of pain; but it was a mere accident the blow was not with the point, for the small, short waistcoat, which had been made at Algiers, the sash and drawers, all in the Turkish fashion, made the Arabs believe that I was a Turk; and after many blows, kicks, and curses, they stript me of the little cloathing I had, and left me naked. They used the rest in the same manner, then went to their boats to look for the bodies of those that were drowned.
After the discipline I had received, I had walked, or crawled up among some white, sandy hillocks, where I sat down and concealed myself as much as possible. The weather was then warm, but the evening promised to be cooler, and it was fast drawing on; there was great danger to be apprehended if I approached the tents where the women were while I was naked, for in this case it was very probable I would receive another bastinado something worse than the first. Still I was so confused that I had not recollected I could speak to them in their own language, and it now on​ly came into my mind, that by the gibberish, in imitation of Turkish, which the Arab had uttered to me while he was beating and stripping me, he took me for a Turk, and to this in all probability the ill-usage was owing.
An old man and a number of young Arabs came up to me where I was sitting. I gave them the salute Salam Alicum! which was only returned by one young man, in a tone as if he wondered at my impudence. The old man then asked me, Whether I was a Turk, and what I had to do there? I replied, I was no Turk, but a poor Christian physician, a Dervish that went about the world seeking to do good for God's sake, was then flying from famine, and going to Greece to get bread. He then asked me if I was a Cretan? I said, I had never been in Crete, but came from Tunis, and was returning to that town, having lost every thing I had in the shipwreck of that vessel. I said this in so despairing a tone, that there was no doubt left with the Arab that the fact was true. A ragged, dirty baracan was immediately thrown over me, and I was ordered up to a tent, in the end of which stood a long spear thrust through it, a mark of sovereignty.
I there saw the Shekh of the tribe, who being in peace with the Bey of Bengazi, and also with the Shekh of Ptolometa, after many questions ordered me a plentiful supper, of which all my servants partook, none of them having perished. A multitude of consultations followed on their complaints, of which I freed myself in the best manner I could, alledging the loss of all my medicines, in order to induce some of them to seek for the sextant at least, but all to no ​purpose, so that, after staying two days among them, the Shekh restored to us all that had been taken from us, and mounting us upon camels, and giving us a conductor, he forwarded us to Bengazi, where we arrived the second day in the evening. Thence I sent a compliment to the Shekh, and with it a man from the Bey, intreating that he would use all possible means to fish up some of my cases, for which I assured him he should not miss a handsome reward. Promises and thanks were returned, but I never heard further of my instruments; all I recovered was a silver watch of Ellicot, the work of which had been taken out and broken, some pencils, and a small port-folio, in which were sketches of Ptolemeta; my pocket-book too was found, but my pencil was lost, being in a common silver case, and with them all the astronomical observations which I had made in Barbary. I there lost a sextant, a parallactic instrument, a time-piece, a reflecting telescope, an achromatic one, with many drawings, a copy of M. de la Caille's ephemerides down to the year 1775, much to be regretted, as being full of manuscript marginal notes; a small camera obscura, some guns, pistols, a blunderbuss, and several other articles.
I found at Bengazi a small French sloop, the master of which had been often at Algiers when I was consul there. I had even, as the master remembered, done him some little service, for which, contrary to the custom of that sort of people, he was very grateful. He had come there laden with corn, and was going up the Archipelago, or towards the Morea, for more. The cargo he had brought was but a mite compared to the necessities of the place; it only re​lieved the soldiers for a time, and many people of all ages and sexes were still dying every day.
The harbour of Bengazi is full of fish, and my company caught a great quantity with a small net; we likewise procured a multitude with the line, enough to have maintained a larger number of persons than the family consisted of; we got vinegar, pepper, and some store of onions; we had little bread it is true, but still our industry kept us very far from starving. We endeavoured to instruct these wretches, gave them pack-thread, and some coarse hooks, by which they might have subsisted with the smallest attention and trouble; but they would rather starve in multitudes, striving to pick up single grains of corn, that were scattered upon the beach by the bursting of the sacks, or the inattention of the mariners, than take the pains to watch one hour at the flowing of the tide for excellent fish, where, after taking one, they were sure of being masters of multitudes till it was high water.
The Captain of the small vessel lost no time. He had done his business well, and though he was returning for another cargo, yet he offered me what part of his funds I should need with great frankness. We now sailed with a fair wind, and in four or five days easy weather landed at Canea, a considerable fortified place at the west end of the island of Crete. Here I was taken dangerously ill, occasioned by the bathing and extraordinary exertions in the sea of Ptolometa, nor was I in the least the better from the beating I had received, signs of which I bore very long afterwards.
Mr Peyssonel, French consul at Smyrna, a man not more distinguished for his amiable manners than for his polite taste in literature, of which he has given several elegant specimens, furnished me with letters for that part of Caramania, or Asia Minor, and there is no doubt but they would have been very efficacious. What increased the obligation for this kind attention shewn, was, that I had never seen Mr Peyssonel; and I am truly mortified, that, since my arrival in England, I have had no opportunity to return my grateful thanks for this kindness, which I therefore beg that he will now accept, together with a copy of these travels, which I have ordered my French bookseller to forward to him.
From Castelrosso I continued, without any thing remarkable, till I came to Cyprus; I staid there but half a day, and arrived at Sidon, where I was most kindly received by Mr Clerambaut, brother-in-law to Mr Peyssonel, and French consul at this place; a man in politeness, humanity, and every social quality of the mind, inferior to none I have ever known. With him, and a very flourishing, well-informed, and industrious nation, I continued for some time, then ​in a weak state of health, but still making partial excursions from time to time into the continent of Syria, through Libanus, and Anti Libanus; but as I made these without instruments, and passed pretty much in the way of the travellers who have described these countries before, I leave the history to those gentlemen, without swelling, by entering into particular narratives, this Introduction, already too long.
While at Canea I wrote by way of France, and again while at Rhodes by way of Smyrna, to particular friends both in London and France, informing them of my disastrous situation, and desiring them to send me a moveable quadrant or sextant, as near as possible to two feet radius, more or less, a time-keeper, stop-watch, a reflecting telescope, and one of Dolland's achromatic ones, as near as possible to three-feet reflectors, with several other articles which I then wanted.
I received from Paris and London much about the same time, and as if it had been dictated by the same person, nearly the same answer, which was this, That everybody was employed in making instruments for Danish, Swedish, and other foreign astronomers; that all those which were completed had been bought up, and without waiting a considerable, indefinite time, nothing could be had that could be depended upon. At the same time I was told, to my great mortification, that no accounts of me had arrived from Africa, unless from several idle letters, which had been industriously wrote by a gentleman whose name I abstain from mentioning, first, because he is dead, and next, out of respect to his truly great and worthy relations.
I conceived a violent indignation at this, and finding myself so treated in return for so complete a journey as I had then actually terminated, thought it below me to sacrifice the best years of my life to daily pain and danger, when the impression it made in the breasts of my countrymen seemed to be so weak, so infinitely unworthy of them or me. One thing only detained me from returning home; it was my desire of fulfilling my promise to my Sovereign, and of adding the ruins of Palmyra to those of Africa, already secured and out of danger.
In my anger I renounced all thoughts of the attempt to discover the sources of the Nile, and I repeated my orders no more for either quadrant, telescope, or time-keeper. I had pencils and paper; and luckily my large camera obscura, which had escaped the catastrophe of Ptolometa, was arrived from Smyrna, and then standing before me. I therefore began to cast about, with my usual care and anxiety, for the means of obtaining feasible and safe methods of repeating the famous journey to Palmyra. I found it was necessary to advance nearer the scene of action. Mr Abbot, British consul for Tripoli in Syria, kindly invited me, and ​after him Mr Vernon, his successor, a very excellent man, to take up my residence there. From Tripoli there is a trade in kelp carried on to the salt marshes near Palmyra. The Shekh of Cariateen, a town just upon the edge of the desert, had a contract with the basha of Tripoli for a quantity of this herb for the use of the soap-works. I lost no time in making a friendship with this man, but his return amounted to no more than to endeavour to lead me rashly into real danger, where he knew he had not consequence enough to give me a moment's protection.
There are two tribes almost equally powerful who inhabit the deserts round Palmyra; the one is the Annecy, remarkable for the finest breed of horses in the world; the other is the Mowalli, much better soldiers, but fewer in number, and very little inferior in the excellence of their horses. The Annecy possess the country towards the S.W. at the back of Libanus, about Bozra down the Hawran, and southward towards the borders of Arabia Petrea and Mount Horeb. The Mowalli inhabit the plains east of Damascus to the Euphrates, and north to near Aleppo.
These two tribes were not at war, nor were they at peace; they were upon what is called ill-terms with each other, which is the most dangerous time for strangers to have any dealings with either. I learned this as a certainty from a friend at Hassia, where a Shekh lives, to whom I was recommended by a letter, as a friend of the basha of Damascus. This man maintains his influence, not by a number of forces, but by constantly marrying a relation of one or both of these tribes of Arabs, who for that reason assist him in maintaining the security of his road, and he has the care ​of that part of it by which the couriers pass from Constantinople into Egypt, belonging to both these tribes, who were then at a distance from each other, and roved in flying squadrons all round Palmyra, by way of maintaining their right of pasture in places that neither of them chose at that time to occupy. These, I suppose, are what the English writers call Wild Arabs, for otherwise, though they are all wild enough, I do not know one wilder than another. This is very certain, these young men, composing the flying parties I speak of, are truly wild while at a distance from their camp and government; and the stranger that falls in unawares with them, and escapes with his life, may set himself down as a fortunate traveller.
Returning from Hassia I would have gone southward to Baalbec, but it was then besieged by Emir Yousef prince of the Druses, a Pagan nation, living upon mount Libanus. Upon that I returned to Tripoli, in Syria, and after some time set out for Aleppo, travelling northward along the plain of Jeune betwixt mount Lebanon and the sea.
I visited the ancient Byblus, and bathed with pleasure in the river Adonis. All here is classic ground. I saw several considerable ruins of Grecian architecture all very much defaced. These are already published by Mr Drummond, and therefore I left them, being never desirous of interfering with the works of others.
I passed Latikea, formerly Laodicea ad Mare, and then came to Antioch, and afterwards to Aleppo. The fever and ague, which I had first caught in my cold bath at Bengazi, had returned upon me with great violence, after passing ​one night encamped in the mulberry gardens behind Sidon. It had returned in very slight paroxysms several times, but laid hold of me with more than ordinary violence on my arrival at Aleppo, where I came just in time to the house of Mr Belville, a French merchant, to whom I was addressed for my credit. Never was a more lucky address, never was there a soul so congenial to my own as was that of Mr Belville: to say more after this would be praising myself. To him was immediately added Doctor Patrick Russel, physician to the British factory there. Without the attention and friendship of the one, and the skill and anxiety of the other of these gentlemen, it is probable my travels would have ended at Aleppo. I recovered slowly. By the report of these two gentlemen, though I had yet seen nobody, I became a public care, nor did I ever pass more agreeable hours than with Mr Thomas the French consul, his family, and the merchants established there. From Doctor Russel I was supplied with what I wanted, some books, and much instruction. Noboby knew the diseases of the East so well; and perhaps my escaping the fever at Aleppo was not the only time in which I owed him my life.
Being now restored to health, my first object was the journey to Palmyra. The Mowalli were encamped at no great distance from Aleppo. It was without difficulty I found a sure way to explain my wishes, and to secure the assistance of Mahomet Kerfan, the Shekh, but from him I learned, in a manner that I could not doubt, that the way I intended to go down to Palmyra from the north was tedious, troublesome, uncertain, and expensive, and that he did not wish me to undertake it at that time. It is quite superfluous in these ​cases to press for particular information; an Arab conductor, who proceeds with caution, surely means you well. He told me that he would leave a friend in the house of a certain Arab at Hamath, about half-way to Palmyra, and if in something more than a month I came there, and found that Arab, I might rely upon him without fear, and he would conduct me in safety to Palmyra.
I returned to Tripoli, and at the time appointed set out for Hamath, found my conductor, and proceeded to Hassia. Coming from Aleppo, I had not passed the lower way again by Antioch. The river which passes through the plains where they cultivate their best tobacco, is the Orontes; it was so swollen with rain, which had fallen in the mountains, that the ford was no longer visible. Stopping at two miserable huts inhabited by a base set called Turcomans, I asked the master of one of them to shew me the ford, which he very readily undertook to do, and I went, for the length of some yards, on rough, but very hard and solid ground. The current before me was, however, so violent, that I had more than once a desire to turn back, but, not suspecting any thing, I continued, when on a sudden man and horse fell out of their depth into the river.
I had a rifled gun slung across my shoulder, with a buff belt and swivel. As long as that held, it so embarrassed my hands and legs that I could not swim, and must have sunk; but luckily the swivel gave way, the gun fell to the bottom of the river, and was pickt up in dry weather by order of ​the basha, at the desire of the French merchants, who kept it for a relict. I and my horse swam separately ashore; at a small distance from thence was a caphar, or turnpike, to which, when I came to dry myself, the man told me, that the place where I had crossed was the remains of a stone bridge now entirely carried away; where I had first entered was one of the wings of the bridge, from which I had fallen into the space the first arch occupied, one of the deepest parts of the river; that the people who had misguided me were an infamous set of banditti, and that I might be thankful on many accounts that I had made such an escape from them, and was now on the opposite side. I then prevailed on the caphar-man to shew my servants the right ford.
From Hassia we proceeded with our conductor to Cariateen, where there is an immense spring of fine water, which overflows into a large pool. Here, to our great surprise, we found about two thousand of the Annecy encamped, who were quarrelling with Hassan our old friend, the kelp-merchant. This was nothing to us; the quarrel between the Mowalli and Annecy had it seems been made up; for an old man from each tribe on horseback accompanied us to Palmyra: the tribes gave us camels for more commodious travelling, and we passed the desert between Cariateen and Palmyra in a day and two nights, going constantly without sleeping.
It was impossible for two persons to think of designing ornaments, or taking measures, and there seemed the less occasion for this as Mr Wood had done this part already. I had no intention to publish any thing concerning Palmyra; besides, it would have been a violation of my first principle not to interfere with the labours of others; and if this was a rule I inviolably observed as to strangers, every sentiment of reason and gratitude obliged me to pay the same respect to the labours of Mr Wood my friend.
I divided Palmyra into six angular views, always bringing forward to the first ground an edifice, or principal group of columns, that deserved it. The state of the buildings are particularly favourable for this purpose. The columns are all uncovered to the very bases, the soil upon which the town is built being hard and fixed ground. These views are all upon large paper; the columns in some of them are a foot long; the figures in the fore-ground of the temple of the sun are some of them near four inches.
From Palmyra I proceeded to Baalbec, distant about 130 miles, and arrived the same day that Emir Yousef had reduced the town and settled the government, and was decamping from it on his return home. This was the luckiest moment possible for me, as I was the Emir's friend, and I obtained liberty to do there what I pleased, and to this indulgence was added the great convenience of the Emir's absence, so that I was not troubled by the observance of any court-ceremony or attendance, or teazed with impertinent questions.
Baalbec is pleasantly situated in a plain on the west of Anti Libanus, is finely watered, and abounds in gardens. It is about fifty miles from Hassia, and about thirty from the nearest sea-coast, which is the situation of the ancient Byblus. The interior of the great temple of Baalbec, supposed to be that of the sun, surpasses any thing at Pal​myra, indeed any sculpture I ever remember to have seen in stone. All these views of Palmyra and Baalbec are now in the King's collection. They are the most magnificent offering in their line that ever was made by one subject to his sovereign.
Passing by Tyre, from curiosity only, I came to be a mournful witness of the truth of that prophecy, That Tyre, the queen of nations, should be a rock for fishers to dry their nets on. Two wretched fishermen, with miserable nets, having just given over their occupation with very little success, I engaged them, at the expence of their nets, to drag in those places where they said shell-fish might be caught, in hopes to have brought out one of the famous purple-fish. I did not succeed, but in this I was, I believe, as lucky as the old fishers had ever been. The purple fish at Tyre seems to have been only a concealment of their knowledge of cochineal, as, had they depended upon the fish for their dye, if the whole city of Tyre applied to nothing else but fishing, they would not have coloured twenty yards of cloth in a year. Much fatigued, but satisfied beyond measure with what I had seen, I arrived in perfect health, and in the gayest humour possible, at the hospitable mansion of M. Clerambaut at Sidon.
I found there letters from Europe, which were in a very different style from the last. From London, my friend Mr Russel acquainted me, that he had sent me an excellent reflecting telescope of two feet focal length, moved by ​rack-work, and the last Mr Short ever made, which proved a very excellent instrument; also an achromatic telescope by Dolland, nearly equal to a three-feet reflector, with a foot, or stand, very artificially composed of rulers fixed together by screws. I think this instrument might be improved by shortening the three principal legs of it. If the legs of its stand were about six inches shorter, this, without inconvenience, would take away the little shake it has when used in the outer air. Perhaps this defect is not in all telescopes of this construction. It is a pleasant instrument, and for its size takes very little packing, and is very manageable.
I have brought home both these instruments after performing the whole journey, and they are now standing in my library, in the most perfect order; which is rather to be wondered at from the accounts in which most travellers seem to agree, that metal speculums, within the tropics, spot and rust so much as to be useless after a few observations made at or near the zenith. The fear of this, and the fragility of glass of achromatic telescopes, were the occasion of a considerable expence to me; but from experience I found, that, if a little care be taken, one reflector would be sufficient for a very long voyage.
From Paris I received a time-piece and a stop-watch made by M. Lepeaute, dearer than Ellicot's, and resembling his in nothing else but the price. The clock was a very neat, portable instrument, made upon very ingenious, simple principles, but some of the parts were so grossly neglected in the execution, and so unequally finished, that it was not difficult for the meanest novice in the trade to point out the ​cause of its irregularity. It remains with me in statu quo. It has been of very little use to me, and never will be of much more to any person else. The price is, I am sure, ten times more than it ought to be in any light I can consider it.
All these letters still left me in absolute despair about obtaining a quadrant, and consequently gave me very little satisfaction, but in some measure confirmed me in my resolution already taken, to go from Sidon to Egypt; as I had then seen the greatest part of the good architecture in the world, in all its degrees of perfection down to its decline, I wished now only to see it in its origin, and for this it was necessary to go to Egypt.
Norden, Pococke, and many others, had given very ingenious accounts of Egyptian architecture in general, of the disposition and size of their temples, magnificence of their materials, their hieroglyphics, and the various kinds of them, of their gilding, of their painting, and their present state of preservation. I thought something more might be learnt as to the first proportions of their columns, and the construction of their plans. Dendera, the ancient Tentyra, seemed by their accounts to offer a fair field for this.
I had already collected together a great many observations on the progress of Greek and Roman architecture in different ages, drawn not from books or connected with system, but from the models themselves, which I myself had measured. I had been long of the opinion, in which I am still further confirmed, that taste for ancient architecture, found​ed upon the examples that Italy alone can furnish, was not giving ancient architects fair play. What was to be learned from the first proportions of their plans and elevations seemed to have remained untouched in Egypt; after having considered these, I proposed to live in retirement on my native patrimony, with a fair stock of unexceptionable materials upon this subject, to serve for a pleasant and useful amusement in my old age. I hope still these will not be lost to the public, unless the encouragement be in proportion to what my labours have already had.
I now received, however, a letter very unexpectedly by way of Alexandria, which, if it did not overturn, at least shook these resolutions. The Comte de Buffon, Mons. Guys of Marseilles, and several others well known in the literary world, had ventured to state to the minister, and through him to the king of France, Louis XV. how very much it was to be lamented, that after a man had been found who was likely to succeed in removing that opprobrium of travellers and geographers, by discovering the sources of the Nile, one most unlucky accident, at a most unlucky time, should frustrate the most promising endeavours. That prince, distinguished for every good quality of the heart, for benevolence, beneficence, and a desire of promoting and protecting learning, ordered a moveable quadrant of his own military academy at Marseilles, as the nearest and most convenient port of embarkation, to be taken down and sent to me at Alexandria.
With this I received a letter from Mr Russel, which informed me that astronomers had begun to cool in the sanguine expectations of discovering the precise quantity of ​the sun's parallax by observation of the transit of Venus, from some apprehension that errors of the observers would probably be more than the quantity of the equation sought, and that they now ardently wished for a journey into Abyssinia, rather than an attempt to settle a nicety for which the learned had now begun to think the accuracy of our instruments was not sufficient. A letter from my correspondent at Alexandria also acquainted me, that the quadrant, and all other instruments, were in that city.
What followed is the voyage itself, the subject of the present publication. I am happy, by communicating every previous circumstance that occurred to me, to have done all in my power to remove the greatest part of the reasonable doubts and difficulties which might have perplexed the reader's mind, or biassed his judgment in the perusal of the narrative of the journey, and in this I hope I have succeeded.
I have now one remaining part of my promise to fulfil, to account for the delay in the publication. It will not be thought surprising to any that shall reflect on the distant, dreary, and desert ways by which all letters were necessarily to pass, or the civil wars then raging in Abyssinia, the robberies and violences inseparable from a total dissolution of government, such as happened in my time, that no accounts for many years, one excepted, ever arrived in Europe. One letter, accompanied by a bill for a sum borrowed from a Greek at Gondar, found its way to Cairo; all the rest had miscarried: my friends at home gave me up for dead; and, as my death must have happened in circumstances difficult to have been proved, my property became ​as it were an hereditas jacens, without an owner, abandoned in common to those whose original title extended no further than temporary possession.
A number of law-suits were the inevitable consequence of this upon my return. One carried on with a very expensive obstinacy for the space of ten years, by a very opulent and active company, was determined finally in the House of Peers, in the compass of a very few hours, by the well-known sagacity and penetration of a noble Lord, who, happily for the subjects of both countries, holds the first office in the law; and so judicious was the sentence, that harmony, mutual confidence, and good neighbourhood has ever since been the consequence of that determination.
Other suits still remained, which unfortunately were not arrived to the degree of maturity to be so cut off; they are yet depending; patience and attention, it is hoped, may bring them to an issue at some future time. No imputation of rashness can possibly fall upon the decree, since the action has depended above thirty years.
To these disagreeable avocations, which took up much time, were added others still more unfortunate. The relentless ague caught at Bengazi maintained its ground at times for a space of more than sixteen years, though every remedy had been used, but in vain; and, what was worst of all, a lingering distemper had seriously threatened the life of a most near relation, which, after nine years constant alarm, where every duty bound me to attention and attend​ance, conducted her at last, in very early life, to her grave.
The love of solitude is the constant follower of affliction; this again naturally turns an instructed mind to study. My friends unanimously assailed me in the part most accessible when the spirits are weak, which is vanity. They represented to me how ignoble it was, after all my dangers and difficulties were over, to be conquered by a misfortune incident to all men, the indulging of which was unreasonable in itself, fruitless in its consequences, and so unlike the expectation I had given my country, by the firmness and intrepidity of my former character and behaviour. Among these, the principal and most urgent was a gentleman well known to the literary world, in which he holds a rank nearly as distinguished as that to which his virtues entitle him in civil life; this was the Hon. Daines Barrington, whose friendship, valuable on every account, had this additional merit, that it had existed uninterrupted since the days we were at school. It is to this gentleman's persuasions, assistance, protection, and friendship, that the world owes this publication, if indeed there is any merit in it; at least, they are certainly indebted to him for the opportunity of judging whether there is any merit in it or not.
No great time has passed since the work was in hand. The materials collected upon the spot were very full, and seldom deferred to be set down beyond the day wherein the events described happened, but oftner, when speeches ​and arguments were to be mentioned, they were noted the instant afterwards; for, contrary I believe to what is often the case, I can assure the reader these speeches and conversations are absolutely real, and not the fabrication of after-hours.
It will perhaps be said, this work hath faults; nay, perhaps, great ones too, and this I readily confess. But I must likewise beg leave to say, that I know no books of the kind that have not nearly as many, and as great, though perhaps not of the same kind with mine. To see distinctly and accurately, to describe plainly, dispassionately and truly, is all that ought to be expected from one in my situation, constantly surrounded with every sort of difficulty and danger.
It may be said, too, there are faults in the language; more pains should have been taken. Perhaps it may be so; yet there has not been wanting a considerable degree of attention even to this. I have not indeed confined myself to a painful and slavish nicety that would have produced nothing but a disageeable stiffness in the narrative. It will be remembered likewise, that one of the motives of my writing is my own amusement, and I would much rather renounce the subject altogether than walk in fetters of my own forging. The language is, like the subject, rude and manly. My paths have not been flowery ones, nor would it have added any credit to the work, or entertainment to the reader, to employ in it a stile proper only to works of imagination and pleasure. These trifling faults I willingly leave as food to the malice of critics, who per​haps, were it not for these blemishes, would find no other enjoyment in the perusal of the work.
It has been said that parties have been formed against this work. Whether this is really the case I cannot say, nor have I ever been very anxious in the inquiry. They have been harmless adversaries at least, for no bad effects, as far as I know, have ever as yet been the consequences; neither is it a disquisition that I shall ever enter into, whether this is owing to the want of will or of power. I rather believe it is to the former, the want of will, for no one is so perfectly inconsiderable, as to want the power of doing mischief.
Having now fulfilled my promise to the reader, in giving him the motive and order of my travels, and the reason why the publication has been delayed, I shall proceed to the last article promised, the giving some account of the work itself. The book is a large one, and expensive by the number of engravings; this was not at first intended, but the journey has proved a long one, and matter has increased as it were insensibly under my hands. It is now come to fill a great chasm in the history of the universe. It is not intended to resemble the generality of modern travels, the agreeable and rational amusement of one vacant day, it is calculated to employ a greater space of time.
Those that are the best acquainted with Diodorus, Herodotus, and some other Greek historians, will find some very considerable difficulties removed; and they that are unacquainted with these authors, and receive from this work the first information of the geography, climate, and manners of these countries, which are little altered, will have no great ​occasion to regret they have not searched for information in more ancient sources.
The work begins with my voyage from Sidon to Alexandria, and up the Nile to the first cataract. The reader will not expect that I should dwell long upon the particular history of Egypt; every other year has furnished us with some account of it, good or bad; and the two last publications of M. Savary and Volney seem to have left the subject thread-bare. This, however, is not the only reason.
After Mr Wood and Mr Dawkins had published their Ruins of Palmyra, the late king of Denmark, at his own expence, sent out a number of men, eminent in their several professions, to make discoveries in the east, of every kind, with these very flattering instructions, that though they might, and ought, to visit both Baalbec and Palmyra for their own studies and improvement, yet he prohibited them to so far interfere with what the English travellers had done, as to form any plan of another work similar to theirs. This compliment was gratefully received; and, as I was directly to follow this mission, Mr Wood desired me to return it, and to abstain as much as possible from writing on the same subjects chosen by M. Niebuhr, at least to abstain either from criticising or differing from him on such subjects. I have therefore passed slightly over Egypt and Arabia; perhaps, indeed, I have said enough of both: if any shall be of another opinion, they may have recourse to M. Niebuhr's more copious work; he was the only person of six who lived to come home, the rest having died in different parts of Arabia, without having been able to enter Abyssinia, one of the objects of their mission.
The second begins with the restoration of the line of Solomon, compiled from their own annals, now first translated from the Ethiopic; the original of which has been lodged in the British Museum, to satisfy the curiosity of the public.
The third comprehends my journey from Masuah to Gondar, and the manners and customs of the Abyssinians, also two attempts to arrive at the fountains of the Nile—Description of these sources, and of every thing relating to that river and its inundation.
The fourth contains my return from the source of the Nile to Gondar—The campaign of Serbraxos, and revolution that followed—My return through Sennaar and Beja, or the Nubian desert, and my arrival at Marseilles.
In overlooking the work I have found one circumstance, and I think no more, which is not sufficiently clear, and may create a momentary doubt in the reader's mind, although to those who have been sufficiently attentive to the narrative, I can scarce think it will do this. The difficulty is, How did you procure funds to support yourself, ​and ten men, so long, and so easily, as to enable you to undervalue the useful character of a physician, and seek neither to draw money nor protection from it? And how came it, that, contrary to the usage of other travellers, at Gondar you maintained a character of independence and equality, especially at court; instead of crouching, living out of sight as much as possible, in continual fear of priests, under the patronage, or rather as servant to some men of power.
To this sensible and well-founded doubt I answer with great pleasure and readiness, as I would do to all others of the same kind, if I could possibly divine them:—It is not at all extraordinary that a stranger like me, and a parcel of vagabonds like those that were with me, should get themselves maintained, and find at Gondar a precarious livelihood for a limited time. A mind ever so little polished and instructed has infinite superiority over Barbarians, and it is in circumstances like these that a man sees the great advantages of education. All the Greeks in Gondar were originally criminals and vagabonds; they neither had, nor pretended to any profession, except Petros the king's chamberlain, who had been a shoemaker at Rhodes, which profession at his arrival he carefully concealed. Yet these were not only maintained, but by degrees, and without pretending to be physicians, obtained property, commands, and places.
Hospitality is the virtue of Barbarians, who are hospitable in the ratio that they are barbarous, and for obvious reasons this virtue subsides among polished nations in the same proportion. If on my arrival in Abyssinia I assumed ​a spirit of independence, it was from policy and reflection. I had often thought that the misfortunes which had befallen other travellers in Abyssinia arose from the base estimation the people in general entertained of their rank, and the value of their persons. From this idea I resolved to adopt a contrary behaviour. I was going to a court where there was a king of kings, whose throne was surrounded by a number of high-minded, proud, hereditary, punctilious nobility. It was impossible, therefore, too much lowliness and humility could please there.
Mr Murray, the ambassador at Constantinople, in the firman obtained from the grand signior, had qualified me with the distinction of Bey-Adzè, which means, not an English nobleman (a peer) but a noble Englishman, and he had added likewise, that I was a servant of the king of Great Britain. All the letters of recommendation, very many and powerful, from Cairo and Jidda, had constantly echoed this to every part to which they were addressed. They announced that I was not a man, such as ordinarily came to them, to live upon their charity, but had ample means of my own, and each professed himself guarrantee of that fact, and that they themselves on all occasions were ready to provide for me, by answering my demands.
The only request of these letters was safety and protection to my person. It was mentioned that I was a physician to introduce a conciliatory cirumstance, that I was above practising for gain. That all I did was from the fear of God, from charity, and the love of mankind. I was a physician in the city, a soldier in the field, a courtier every where, demeaning myself, as conscious that I was not unworthy ​of being a companion to the first of their nobility, and the king's stranger and guest, which is there a character, as it was with eastern nations of old, to which a certain sort of consideration is due. It was in vain to compare myself with them in any kind of learning, as they have none; music they have as little; in eating and drinking they were indeed infinitely my superiors; but in one accomplishment that came naturally into comparison, which was horsemanship, I studiously established my superiority.
My long residence among the Arabs had given me more than ordinary facility in managing the horse; I had brought my own saddle and bridle with me, and, as the reader will find, bought my horse of the Baharnagash in the first days of my journey, such a one as was necessary to carry me, and him I trained carefully, and studied from the beginning. The Abyssinians, as the reader will hereafter see, are the worst horsemen in the world. Their horses are bad, not equal to our Welsh or our Scotch galloways. Their furniture is worse. They know not the use of fire-arms on horseback; they had never seen a double-barrelled gun, nor did they know that its effect was limited to two discharges, but that it might have been fired on to infinity. All this gave me an evident superiority.
To this I may add, that, being in the prime of life, of no ungracious figure, having an accidental knack, which is not a trifle, of putting on the dress, and speaking the language easily and gracefully, I cultivated with the utmost assiduity the friendship of the fair sex, by the most modest, respectful distant attendance, and obsequiousness in public, ​abating just as much of that in private as suited their humour and inclinations. I soon acquired a great support from these at court; jealousy is not a passion of the Abyssinians, who are in the contrary extreme, even to indifference.
Besides the money I had with me, I had a credit of L.400 upon Yousef Cabil, governor of Jidda. I had another upon a Turkish merchant there. I had strong and general recommendations, if I should want supplies, upon Metical Aga, first minister to the sherriffe of Mecca. This, well managed, was enough; but when I met my countrymen, the captains of the English ships from India, they added additional strength to my finances; they would have poured gold upon me to facilitate a journey they so much desired upon several accounts. Captain Thornhill of the Bengal Merchant, and Captain Thomas Price of the Lion, took the conduct of my money-affairs under their direction. Their Saraf, or broker, had in his hands all the commerce that produced the revenues of Abyssinia, together with great part of the correspondence of the east; and, by a lucky accident for me, Captain Price staid all winter with the Lion at Jidda; nay, so kind and anxious was he as to send over a servant from Jidda on purpose, upon a report having been raised that I was slain by the usurper Socinios, though it was only one of my servants, and the servant of Metical Aga, who were murdered by that monster, as is said, with his own hand. Twice he sent over silver to me when I had plenty of gold, and wanted that metal only to apply it in furniture and workmanship. I do not pretend to say but sometimes these supplies failed me, often by my negligence ​in not applying in proper time, sometimes by the absence of merchants, who were all Mahometans, constantly engaged in business and in journies, and more especially on the king's retiring to Tigré, after the battle of Limjour, when I was abandoned during the usurpation of the unworthy Socinios. It was then I had recourse to Petros and the Greeks, but more for their convenience than my own, and very seldom from necessity. This opulence enabled me to treat upon equal footing, to do favours as well as to receive them.
Every mountebank-trick was a great accomplishment there, such as making squibs, crackers, and rockets. There was no station in the country to which by these accomplishments I might not have pretended, had I been mad enough to have ever directed my thoughts that way; and I am certain, that in vain I might have solicited leave to return, had not a melancholy despondency, the amor patriæ, seized me, and my health so far declined as apparently to threaten death; but I was not even then permitted to leave Abyssinia till under a very solemn oath I promised to return.
This manner of conducting myself had likewise its disadvantages. The reader will see the times, without their being pointed out to him, in the course of the narrative. It had very near occasioned me to be murdered at Masuah, but it was the means of preserving me at Gondar, by putting me above being insulted or questioned by priests, the fatal rock upon which all other European travellers had split: It would have occasioned my death at Sennaar, had I not been so prudent as to disguise and lay aside the independent car​riage in time. Why should I not now speak as I really think, or why be guilty of ingratitude which my heart disclaims. I escaped by the providence and protection of heaven; and so little store do I set upon the advantage of my own experience, that I am satisfied, were I to attempt the same journey again, it would not avail me a straw, or hinder me from perishing miserably, as others have done, though perhaps a different way.
I have only to add, that were it probable, as in my decayed state of health it is not, that I should live to see a second edition of this work, all well-founded, judicious remarks suggested should be gratefully and carefully attended to; but I do solemnly declare to the public in general, that I never will refute or answer any cavils, captious, or idle objections, such as every new publication seems unavoidably to give birth to, nor ever reply to those witticisms and criticisms that appear in newspapers and periodical writings. What I have written I have written. My readers have before them, in the present volumes, all that I shall ever say, directly or indirectly, upon the subject; and I do, without one moment's anxiety, trust my defence to an impartial, well-informed, and judicious public.
* ↑ This epithet given to the springs from which the Nile rises, was borrowed from a very elegant English poem that appeared in Dr Maty's Review for May 1786. It was sent to me by my friend Mr Barrington, to whom it was attributed, although from modesty he disclaims it. From whatever hand it comes, the poet is desired to accept of my humble thanks. It was received with universal applause wherever it was circulated, and a considerable number of copies was printed at the desire of the public. Accident seemed to have placed it in Dr Maty's book with peculiar propriety, by having joined it to a fragment of Ariosto, then first published, in the same Review. It has since been attributed to Mr Mason.
* ↑ He was long a slave to the Bey of Constantina, and appears to have been a man of capacity.
* ↑ This will be explained afterwards.
* ↑ Ludolf, lib. i. cap. 15.
* ↑ This is a running figure cut through the middle like the check of a bank note.
* ↑ Hippo. Reg. from Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 109.
* ↑ Hippo. Reg. id. ib.
* ↑ Aphrodisium. id. ib.
* ↑ Thabarca, id. ib.
* ↑ Plin. Ep. xxxiii. I, 9.
* ↑ Liv. Epit. xxx. I. 9.
* ↑ Strabo lib xvii. p. 1189. It signifies the river of Cows, or Kine. P. Mela lib. i. cap. 7. Sil. It. lib. vi. I. 140.
* ↑ Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. Procop, lib. vi. cap. 5. de Ædis.
* ↑ Val. Max. lib. ii. cap. 6. § 15.
* ↑ Ptol. Geog. lib. iv.
* ↑ Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 106.
* ↑ Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 111.
* ↑ Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 108.
* ↑ Vide Itin. Anton.
* ↑ Procop. Bell. Vand. lib. ii. cap. 13.
* ↑ Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 111.
* ↑ Shaw's Travels, chap. viii. p. 57.
* ↑ Shaw's Travels, cap. v. p. 119.
* ↑ Sal. Bel. Jug. § 94. L. Flor. lib. iii. cap. 1.
* ↑ Shaw's Travels, chap. v. p. 118.
* ↑ Itin. Anton. p. 3.
* ↑ Itin. Anton. p. 3.
* ↑ Shaw's Travels, cap. v. p. 115.
* ↑ Cel. Geog. Antique, lib. iv. cap. 4. and cap. 5. p. 118.
* ↑ Itin. Anton. p. 2.
* ↑ Ptol. Geog. lib. iv. p. 110.
* ↑ This fountain is called El Tarmid. Nub. Geog. p. 86.
* ↑ Sal. Bell. § 94.
* ↑ Itin. Anton, p. 4.
* ↑ Shaw's Travels, cap. v. p. 126.
* ↑ Itin. Anton. p. 4.
* ↑ Id. Ibid.
* ↑ Shaw's Travels, p. 117. cap. 5.
* ↑ Boch. Chan. lib. i. cap. 25. Shaw's Travels, cap. iv. p. 115.
* ↑ Itin. Anton. p. 104.
* ↑ Ptol. Geog. p. 4.
* ↑ Shaw's Travels, sect. vi. p. 156.
* ↑ Jerboa, see a figure of it in the Appendix.
* ↑ Itin. Anton. p. 4.
* ↑ The north boundary of the Holy Land.
* ↑ It is a post where a party of men are kept to receive a contribution, for maintaining the security of the roads, from all passengers.
* ↑ Ezek. chap. xxvi. ver. 5.
* ↑ Mrs Bruce died in 1784.