that the author must really have vifited diftant regions, and that thofe regions are Abyffinia itself, where the head of every Frank is devoted the moment he croffes the fatal boundary, and from 'whose bourne,' according to another ufage, no traveller returns,' without great difficulty, even of those who are permitted to enter the country. It was therefore doubly improbable that any European fhould bring back an account of the spot where the Nile has for ages concealed his long-fought head. M. de Buffon, in the advertisement prefixed to the third volume of his Natural History of Birds, acknowledges, in ftrong terms, the advantage he had derived from our traveller's communications. I have,' fays he, to mention fome affiftance I have very lately received; it is the open and generous communication of Mr. Bruce's obfervations and information. In furveying the immenfe collection of drawings which he himself had • taken and coloured, I was ftruck with astonishment; he has made perfect reprefentations of animals, birds, fishes, plants, buildings, arms, drefs, &c. of the different nations; no object has escaped his curiofity, and every thing has been grasped by his talents.' This illuftrious teftimony, however it may have. contributed ftill more to raise curiofity, already at an high pitch, seems not fo much to our purpose as fome other information of a later date.

The Baron de Tott having infinuated that Mr. Bruce was never at the fources of the Nile, because Mr. Bruce's fervant (who was with him in Abyffinia) faid at Cairo that he never accompanied his mafter to any fuch fpot, a warm defence, attributed to Mr. D. Barrington, appeared in the Review of the late Mr. Maty for March 1786. The material part of this defence is a letter from Mr. Antes at Cairo, which states that • Mr. Bruce left Cairo in 1768, and proceeded thence into Abyffinia, by way of Jedda, Mafuah, and Arquico; that in 1771 a Greek came from Gondar with draft from Mr. Bruce on a French merchant at Cairo, for several hundred German crowns, and a letter; that Mr. Antes was prefent at a con• verfation between Mr. Bruce and two Armenians from Abyf finia, who seemed glad to fee him again; that the Franciscan friars at Affouan, the higheft town in Upper Egypt, are ready to atteft his return by Nubia and Upper Egypt; that • Mr. Antes often converfed with Michael, Mr. Bruce's Greek • fervant, who is ftated to have by no means had a lively imagination, and who always agreed with the circumstances mentioned by his mafter, and more particularly in relation to their having vifited the fources of the Nile, which the Baron Tott doubts of, from having had a converfation with this fame Greek fervant; that Baron Tott ftayed but a few days at • Cairo ;

Cairo; and, from his fhort refidence in that country, has given several erroneous accounts relative to Egypt; that Mr. • Antes converfed with others who had known Mr. Bruce inAbyffinia. Upon the force and tendency of this evidence, which we have given nearly in the words of Mr. Antes, no commentary is neceffary. It muft needs be admitted, unless we wantonly fuppofe a combination to propagate falfehood where there could be no inducement on the part of Mr. Antes.

But nothing rendered us fo eagerly defirous of the prefent publication, or predifpofed us fo much in its favour, as fome information lately communicated by a person inceffantly watchful to promote the interefts of every kind of learning. This information may be found in a converfation between Sir William Jones and Abram, an Abyffinian, as it is inferted in the Afiatic Refearches, Vol. I. p. 383. Sir William having made feveral inquiries, is thus anfwered by Abram: All these matters are, I suppose, explained in the writings of YAKUB, whom I faw thirteen years ago at Gwender; he was a physician, and had attended the king's • brother, who was also a vazir, in his last illness. The prince • died; yet the king loved YAKUB; and indeed all the court and • people loved him. The king received him in his palace as a gueft, fupplied him with every thing he could want, and when he went to fee the fources of the Nile and other curiofities, for he was extremely curious, he received every poffible affiftance and accommodation from the royal favour; he • understood the languages, and wrote and collected many books, which he carried' away ' with him.' It was impoffible, adds the celebrated orientalift, for me to doubt, efpecially when he described the perfon of YAKUB, that he meant James Bruce, Efq. who travelled in the dress of a Syrian phyfician, and probably affumed with judgment a name well known in Abyffinia, &c. Yagoubé is the way Mr. Bruce fpells the name; not affumed, as the prefident of the Afiatic Society imagines, but his own name of baptifm, James, Jacobus, Yakub, Yagoubé. Sir William Jones adds that he has seen our traveller mentioned with great regard in a letter from an Arabiań merchant at Mokha, and rightly conjectures that he entered Abyffinia by the way of Mufuwwa, or, according to Mr. Bruce's orthography, Mafuah.

Having thus fettled with the reader fo much of our preliminaries as relates to the general authenticity of Mr. Bruce's narrative, our estimate of the credibility of particulars must be given as we find them occurring in different parts of his extenfive journal and let it not be fuppofed that in this previous declaration of fufpicioufnefs and fcrupulofity, there is any thing dif paraging to the relater. We have to perufe the defcription

of a country extremely diffimilar to our own, and having many peculiarities of climate, foil, and furface; of a people cut off from mankind, and therefore offering many temptations to him who delineates them to employ too bold ftrokes, and colours too glaring. We are taught by examples, far too frequent, how common it is to give to the public erroneous accounts of adjacent countries, notwithstanding a wrong reprefentation must endanger the author's reputation, either for good faith or judgment, where it is so easy to compare the copy with the original, or with other copies. But, in a distant and inacceffible country, how eafily may fatigue or liftleffness perfuade the artist to content himself with a rough and imperfect sketch, when he is not likely to be reproached for his careleffnefs. Then behold another powerful caufe of misrepresentation: for who can bear his mind fo even and compofed that strange and unexpected appearances and customs shall raise neither admiration nor difguft? Who can restrain his bufy imagination from altering, in any shape, the pure and natural picture formed upon his eye? This praife, of all modern travellers, belongs almost exclusively to Niebuhr. That cold and fedate geographer fucceeded perfectly in fubduing this intrufive faculty; he alone could always keep his eye open, and his attention alive. Refolute and courageous, prudent and full of addrefs as he was, he is never the hero of his own tale; his conduct seems always to arife from circumftances, and every reader thinks he could have done as well; he never surveys, himself but as another man would furvey him. Thus modeft and difpaffionate, he impofed not on himself, nor suffered others to impose upon him. Always zealous to discharge his commiffion faithfully, and bearing up against fatigue, he brought back a more valuable ftock of information than could reasonably have been expected from the whole fociety of which he was the only furvivor. He scarce enters a town without giving a plan of it, fees an inscription without copying it, and how much his maps have added to geographical knowledge need not now be told. Mr. Bruce and this accurate and veracious traveller fometimes traverse the fame ground; and there cannot be a more agreeable task than to compare them. Of books relating to Abyffinia itfelf, at least of such as contain any information that can gratify rational curiofity, the penury is well known. We have several written by the Jefuits; but the philofophy of mankind was a science as yet unknown; and at no time likely to be fostered by the care of a Jefuit. Intent upon extending the influence of their order, and blinded by bigotry and fuperftition, their writings contain little but an account of their good or ill success in imposing the wretched and contemptible dogmas of their schoJaftic theology upon ignorant favages, or making them repeat

founds

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founds which pafs all underflanding. The voyage of Jerome Lobo is juftly degraded by Mr. Bruce to a rank much below that which it has held in this country; he fcruples not to call him the greatest liar among the Jefuits.' Towards the end of the laft century Leutholf, or Ludolph, had, by inceffant labour and admirable fagacity, extracted from the motley mass of materials fupplied by the ignorance and fuperftition of the miffionaries, together with the affiftance of a native Abyffinian, of whom the reader will find a portrait, and a curious and entertaining account in Ludolf's fecond volume, and fome other helps, every thing that is worth the notice of a philofophical inquirer. This work of grammar, hiftory natural and civil, and geography, was without a rival at the time of its publication, and is mentioned by Mr. Bruce with due refpect.

To many readers, both of Mr. Bruce's Travels and our abftract, a few words on the nature and importance of fuch intelligence as may be expected from thofe travels, may afford fome affiftance in eftimating their value. The fcene of the narrative is laid principally in Africa, on the eastern confines of that quarter of the globe. Now there are few who are not apprifed of the fcantinefs of our information concerning the interior parts, and indeed the whole of this broad tract of dry land, except the western and northern margin, and the fouthern point. And when the moderns plume themfelves upon that fuperior knowledge of man and nature which they owe to the civilisation of Germany, and the ancient Scandinavia, or countries north of the Baltic, the difcovery of America, the feveral expeditions fent from Peterfburgh to explore the vaft regions fubject to the Emprefs of Ruffia, the Danish miffion, and the late British navigators; they seem not fufficiently to recollect how much the ignorance of all these regions was compenfated to the ancients by their more intimate acquaintance with Africa. We may venture to advar ce that, among the remains only of the monuments of ancient science, more information is to be found than in all the numerous productions of modern prefies concerning the country of which we are speaking; and of this, much that occurs in Diodorus Siculus, and nearly every thing in Strabo, may be received as equally credible and authentic with the beft modern narratives. If Great-Britain and Denmark now send out armaments and bodies of learned men to explore the other hemifphere, the North Pacific Ocean, and both the defert and cultivated provinces of Arabia, Egypt was not always crufhed under the iron rod of her prefent rulers, or rather diftracted and helpless under her prefent anarchy. When the face of Britain and Denmark prefented only thickets and bogs, Egypt was vigorous and enterprifing, efpecially under the Ptolomies. The Greeks

at

at leaft were active and adventurous; and why should we fuppofe the other inhabitants to have loft all that spirit and art which cultivated their fields, dug their canals, and reared their monuments at a time when the favage and unfettled Greeks difputed with the beafts the poffeffion of their dens? Discoveries made in the part of Africa vifited by Mr. Bruce, by the Cooks and Niehbuhrs of other ages, were faithfully recorded by Artemidorus and Agatharcides, and copied by the other Greek writers already mentioned; by Diodorus more fervilely, and with a mixture of monftrous and abfurd fables from impurer fources; by Strabo, after a careful comparison and fevere fcrutiny. Every reader, therefore, will readily join the philofophical and learned profeffor of Gottingen in withing, I. That the ancient and modern accounts of Africa were thoroughly examined, and judiciously compared together, and that a full and diftinct extract was made from the whole; 2. That the states of Europe would follow the example of Denmark in attempting to penetrate Africa from various quarters, as well from the eaft as the west.

Of the latter defideratum a private affociation in this country is endeavouring to fulfil part; the travels before us are calcu'lated to fulfil another part; fo that we may hope yet, before the end of the century, to fee this great blank in our maps of the globe filled with the traces of rivers and the fhadows of mountains; fome of it perhaps with the names of populous cities, and nations no longer barbarous.

In the title-page of the prefent work we have the engraving of a medal, reprefenting on one fide the discoverer, on the other the detected head of the divinity of the Nile, from which Apollo lifts the veil, and looks towards the traveller; the reading is,

Nec contigit ulli

Hoc vidiffe caput.

Mr. Bruce, perhaps, rather too often breaks out, like another wandering hero,

Sum pius Æneas famâ fuper æthera notus.

It is always more prudent in an author to leave others to compliment him upon his achievements than to compliment himfelf. Admiration is a kind of commentary which every reader can fupply at pleasure. We are glad to fee that the work is dedicated to the king. But why did the author encumber himself with the difficulty of fo long a dedication? In this we fear he has failed with most of his brother dedicators; his meaning may generally be conjectured in fpite of the unhappy labour of his ill

constructed