language and' letters, although it was the only letter and language known to Mahomet, and the most learned of his fect in the first ages.

After paffing the tomb ftones without the gate, they came to a plain about five miles long, bordered on the left by a hill of no confiderable height, and fandy like the plain, upon which are feen fome ruins, more modern than those Egyptian buildings already described. They feem indeed to be a mixture of all kinds and ages.

The distance from the gate of the town to Termiffi, or Marada, the small villages on the cataract, is exactly fix English miles. After the defcription already given of this cataract in some authors, a traveller has reason to be surprised, when arrived on its banks, to find that veffels fail up the cataract, and confequently the fall cannot be so violent as to deprive people of hearing.

The bed of the river, occupied by the water, was not then half a mile broad. It is divided into a number of small channels, by large blocks of granite, from thirty to forty feet high. The current, confined for a long course between the rocky mountains of Nubia, tries to expand itself with great violence. Finding, in every part before it, oppofition from the rocks of granite, and forced back by thefe, it meets the oppofite currents. The chafing of the water against these huge obstacles, the meeting of the contrary currents one with another, creates fuch a violent ebullition, and makes fuch a noife and difturbed appearance, that it fills the mind with confufion, rather than terror.

On the 220, 23d, and 24th of January, our travellers being at Syene, in a house immediately eaft of the fmall island in the Nile, by a mean of three obfervations of the fun in the meridian, Mr. Bruce concluded the latitude of Syene to be 24 of 45 north.

As Mr. Bruce was now about to launch into that part of his expedition, in which he was to have no further intercourfe with Europe, he fet himself to work to examine all his obfervations, and put his journal in fuch forwardness by ex

plantations,

planations, where needful, that the labours and pains he had hitherto been at, might not be totally loft to the public, if he fhould perifh in the journey he had undertaken, which every day, from all information he could procure, appeared to be more and more defperate.

Having finished thefe, at least fo far as to make them intelligible to others, he conveyed them to his friends at Cairo, to remain in their cuftody till he fhould return, or news come that he was otherwife difpofed of.

On Thursday the 16th of February 1769, Mr. Bruce heard the caravan was ready to fet out for Kenné, the Cane Emporium of antiquity. All the way from Kenné, close to their left, were defert hills, on which not the leaft verdure grew, but a few plants of a large fpecies of Solanum, called Burrumbuc.

On the 17th, at eight o'clock in the morning, Mr. Bruce, having mounted his fervants all on horfeback, and taken the charge of their own camels, (for there was a confufion in their caravan not to be defcribed, and the guards they knew were but a fet of thieves) they advanced flowly into the defert. There were about two hundred men on horfeback, armed with firelocks; all of them lions, if you believed their word or appearance; but our travellers were credibly informed, that fifty of the Arabs, at firft fight, would have made thefe heroes fly without any bloodshed.

Our traveller's road was all the way in an open plain, bounded by hillocks of fand, and fine gravel, perfectly hard, and not perceptibly above the level of the plain country of Egypt. About twelve miles diftant there is a ridge of mountains of no confiderable height, perhaps the most barren in the world. Between thefe their road lay through plains, never three miles broad, but without trees, fhrubs, or herbs. There are not even the traces of any living creature, neither ferpent nor lizard, antelope nor oftrich, the ufual inhabitants of the most dreary deferts. There is no fort of water on the furface, brackish or fweef. Even the birds feem to avoid the place as peftilential, not one being feen of any kind so much

as

as flying over. The fun was burning hot, and upon rubbing two sticks together, in half a minute, they both took fire, and flamed ; a mark how near the country was reduced to a general conflagration !

At half past three, they pitched their tent near fome drawwells, which, upon tafting, they found bitterer than foot. They had, indeed, other water carried by the camels in skins. This well-water had only one needful quality, it was cold, and therefore very comfortable for refreshing them outwardly. This unpleasant station is called Legeta; here they were obliged to pass the night, and all next day, to wait the arrival of the caravan of Cus, Efiré, and a part of those of Kenne and Ebanout.

In the evening came twenty Turks from Caramania, which is that part of Afia Minor immediately on the fide of the Mediterranean oppofite to the coast of Egypt; all of them neatly and cleanly dreffed like Turks, all on camels, armed. with fwords, a pair of pistols at their girdle, and a fhort neat gun; their arms were in very good order, with their flints and ammunition ftowed in cartridge-boxes, in a very foldierlike manner. A few of these spoke Arabic, and Mr. Bruce's Greek fervant, Michael, interpreted for the rest. Having been informed, that the large tent belonged to an Englishman, they came into it without ceremony. They told Mr. Bruce, that they were number of neighbours and companions, who had fet out together to go to Mecca to the Hadje; and not knowing the language or customs of the people, they had been but indifferently used fince they landed at Alexandria, particularly fomewhere about Achmim; that one of the Owam, or swimming thieves, had been on board of them in the night, and had carried off a finall portmanteau with about 200 sequins in gold ; that, though a complaint had been made to the Bey of Girgeé, yet no satisfaction had been obtained ; and that now they had heard an Englishman was here, whom they reckoned their countryman, they had come to propose, that they should make a common cause to defend each other against all enemies.-What they meaned by countryman was this-There is in Afia Minor, fomewhere between Anatolia and Caramania, a district which they call Caz Dagli, and

F 2

this

this the Turks believe was the country from which the English first drew their origin; and on this account they never fail to claim kindred with the English wherever they meet, especially if they stand in need of their affistance.

Mr. Bruce fays, he cannot conceal the fecret pleasure he had in finding the character of his country fo firmly established among natons fo diftant, enemies to our religion, and ftrangers to our government, Turks from Mount Taurus, and Arabs from the defert of Libya, thought themselves unfafe among their own countrymen, but trusted their lives and their little fortunes implicitly to the direction and word of an Englishman whom they had never before feen.

They ftaid all the 18th at Legeta, waiting for the junction of the caravans, and departed the 19th at fix o'clock in the morning. Their journey, all that day, was through a plain, never less than a mile broad, and never broader than three; the hills, on their right and left, were higher than the former, and of a brownish calcined colour, like the ftones on the fides of Mount Vefuvius, but without any herb or tree upon them.

At half past ten, they paffed a mountain of green and red marble, and at twelve they entered a plain called Hamra, where they first observed the fand red, with a purple cast, of the colour of porphyry, and this is the fignification of Hamra, the name of the valley.

Mr. Bruce difmounted here, to examine of what the rocks were composed; and found that here began the quarries of porphyry, without the mixture of any other ftone; but it was imperfect, brittle, and foft. He had not been engaged in this purfait an hour, before they were alarmed with a report that the Atouni had attacked the rear of the caravan; they were at the head of it. The Turks and his fervants were all drawn together, at the foot of the mountain, and pofted as advantage oufly as poffible. But it foon appeared, that they were fome thieves only, who had attempted to fteal fome loads of corn from camels that were weak, or fallen lame, perhaps in intelligence with thofe of their own ca

ravans.

On

On the goth, at fix o'clock in the morning, they left Main el Mafarek, and, at ten, came to the mouth of the defiles. At eleven they began to defcend, having had a very imperceptible afcent from Kenné all the way.

On the 21ft, they departed early in the morning from Koraim, and, at ten o'clock, they paffed feveral defiles, perpetually alarmed by a report, that the Arabs were approaching ; none of whom they ever faw.

At length they arrived at Coffeir, a final mud-walled village, built upon the fhore, among hillocks of floating fand. It is defended by a fquare fort of hewn ftone, with fquare towers in the angles, which have in them three small cannon of iron, and one of brass, all in very bad condition; of no other use but to terrify the Arabs, and hinder them from plundering the town when full of corn, going to Mecca in time of famine. The walls are not high; nor was it neceffary, if the great guns were in order. But as this is not the cafe, the ramparts are heightened by clay, or by mud walls, to screen the foldiers from the firearms of the Arabs, that might otherwife command them from the fandy hills in the neighbourhood,

The port, if we may call it fo, is on the fouth-east of the town. It is nothing but a rock, which runs out about four hundred yards into the fea, and defends the veffels, which ride to the weft of it, from the north and north-eaft winds, as the houfes of the town cover them from the north-west. There is a large inclofure, with a high mud wall, and, within, every merchant has a shop or magazine for his corn and merchandise little of this laft is imported, unless coarse India goods, for the confumption of Upper Egypt, fince the trade to Dongala and Sennaar has been interrupted.

Mr. Bruce found, by many meridian altitudes of the fun, taken at the caftle, that Coffeir is in latitude 26° 7′ 51′′ north; and, by three obfervations of Jupiter's fatellites, he found its longitude to be 34° 4′ 15′′ east of the meridian of Greenwich.

The caravan from Syene arrived at this time, escorted by

four