Gondar, and that he had long heard of his having arrived at Masuah. He concluded, by ordering the Naybe to furnish the stranger with necessaries, and then to forward him without loss of time. In the evening, Bruce returned to the island of Masuah, to the great joy of his servants, who were afraid of some stratagem of the Naybe.

Without interruption, he got everything in readiness, and having concluded his observations upon this inhospitable island, infamous for the quantity of Christian blood which had been shed there on various pretences, he left Masuah on the 10th of November, after a detention of nearly two months. On arriving at Arkeeko, he found Achmet considerably better; but as he still appeared to be wonderfully afraid of dying, Bruce remained with him until he was convalescent, for which he testified very great gratitude.

The Naybe again endeavoured, by intimidation, to prevail upon Bruce to pay him a thousand patakas; and his friends seeing his obstinacy, and aware of the cruelty of his disposition, strongly recommended Bruce to give up all thoughts of proceeding to Abyssinia, as in passing through Samhar, and the many barbarous people whom the Naybe commanded there, he would most surely be cut off. However, Bruce shortly replied, that he was resolutely determined to go forwards, and accordingly, early in the morning of the 15th, he ordered his tents to be struck, and his baggage to be prepared, so as to show that he was resolved to stay no longer. At eight o'clock he went to the Naybe, who was almost alone, and who began with considerable fluency

of speech a long enumeration of the difficulties of the journey, the rivers, precipices, mountains, woods, wild beasts, savage, lawless people, &c., which were to be passed, and thus once more endeavoured, but in vain, to persuade Bruce to remain at Masuah. In the middle of their conversation, a servant entered the room covered with dust, and apparently fatigued with a rapid journey from some distant place. The Naybe, with much pretended uneasiness and surprise, read the letters which this man delivered to him, and then gravely told Bruce, that the three tribes who occupied Samhar, the common passage from Masuah to Tigré, had revolted, had driven away his servants, and had declared themselves independent. With apparent devotion, he then hypocritically lifted up his eyes, and said he thanked God that Bruce was not on his journey, as his death would have been sure to be unjustly imputed to him! Bruce only laughed at this barefaced imposition, on which the Naybe told him he might proceed if he thought proper, but that he only wished to warn him of his danger. • We have plenty of fire-arms,' replied Bruce, and your servants have often seen at Masuah that we are not ignorant of the use of them. It is true we may lose our lives: that is in the hands of the Almighty, but we shall not fail to leave enough on the spot, to give sufficient indication to the king and Ras Michael who were our assassins !' 'What I mentioned about the Shiho,' replied the Naybe, whose treacherous countenance now assumed a look of complacency,' was only to try you; all is peace. I only wanted to keep you here, if possible, to cure my nephew

Achmet; but since you are resolved to go, be not afr id, the roads are safe enough. I will give you you a person to conduct you safely.'

After bidding adieu to this wretch, Bruce had a short interview with Achmet, who privately told him it was yet far from the Naybe's intentions he should ever reach Gondar, but that he would take Bruce's final deliverance upon himself, and he concluded by advising him to set out immediately.

The short description which we have just concluded of the Naybe of Masuah may appear exaggerated to those who have never had the misfortune to treat with human beings of this uncivilized description. But, in fact, nothing can be worse than the mongrel race of the people of Masuah, who, as we have already stated, are a mixed breed between the savages of the western coast of the Red Sea, and those super-savages, the Turkish Janissaries.

Salt visited this place in 1810, forty-one years after Bruce had left it. Besides handsome presents which he made to the governor, he was unable to resist the impositions of the Naybe, his brothers, and his sons; and among this tribe of locusts,' Salt says, 'I was compelled to distribute nearly five hundred dollars before I could get clear of the place. With a pleasure somewhat similar to that expressed by Gil Blas, when he escaped from the robbers' cave, we quitted Arkeeko. Among all the descriptions of men I have ever met with, the character of the halfcivilized savages found at Arkeeko is the most detestable, as they have ingeniously contrived to lose all the virtues of the rude tribes to which

P

they belonged, without having acquired anything except the vices of their more civilized neighbours. The only description I recollect that would particularly suit them, may be found in Mr. Bruce's very energetic account of the inhabitants

of Sennaar.'

It is very singular that Salt, who invariably thus corroborates Bruce in all the principal features of his history, should have been, as we shall shortly see, so completely carried away by the party spirit which existed against him. Adversity,' it has been justly observed, 'makes men friends;' but though Bruce and Salt suffered at Masuah and Arkeeko under the same rod, yet the latter takes even there every opportunity of supporting Lord Valentia in his petty attempt to convict Bruce of 'falsehood' and exaggeration.' But the great tide of public opinion was still strong against Bruce, and upon its faithless waters Lord Valentia and his secretary floated in triumph.

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CHAPTER X.

JOURNEY FROM ARKEEKO, OVER THE MOUNTAIN OF TARENTA TO GÓNDAR, THE CAPITAL OF ABYSSINIA.

On the 15th of November, Bruce left Arkeeko, and, after crossing a small plain, pitched his tent near a shallow pit of rain water. Before him were the mountains of Abyssinia in three distinct ridges. The first broken into gullies, and thinly covered with shrubs; the second higher, steeper, more rugged and bare; the third a row of sharp edged mountains which would be considered high in any part of Europe. Far above them all, towered that stupendous mass, the mountain of Tarenta, the point of which is sometimes buried in the clouds, while sometimes completely enveloped in mist and darkness it becomes the seat of lightning, thunder, and storm. Tarenta is the highest pinnacle of that long steep ridge of mountains which, running parallel to the Red Sea, forms the boundary of the seasons. On its east side, or towards the Red Sea, the rainy season is from October to April, and on the western or Abyssinian side, cloudy, rainy, and cold weather reigns from May till October.

While Bruce was in his tent, he was visited by his grateful friend and faithful patient Achmet, who told him not to go to Dobarwa, for although it was a good road, the safest was always the best.