Mr Salt makes another sneer at Bruce, when he says, " we passed on without observing Troglodytical caves, or being disturbed by hyenas." What a pity that tra vellers have not better memories, or a little more fore sight and consistency ! He had said only a few pages before, " we passed a cave inhabited by a family of the natives." And lie tells us, afterwards, that the usual mode of building in Abyssinia, is to choose a projecting rock, and after building two side walls, to lay on a roof level with the rock above, which gives the houses all the appearance of caves. He also confesses that many of the churches are more than half caves, the greater part of them being cut out of the solid rock. And as to the hyenas, he had not proceeded far till he tells us the whole party were kept awake by the barking of the dogs, on account of the near approach of these ravenous animals. Bruce describes admirably the appearance of Taranta, covered on the sides with that singular tree the kolquall, and on the top with the berry-bearing ce dar. Mr Salt confirms this description in every particu lar, but falls infinitely short of the graphic style of his predecessor.
Let us now attend Mr Salt to a Brind feast, which excited the wonder and incredulity of the public so much on the publication of Bruce's book. Mr Salt denies expressly that the flesh is eaten while the ani mal is alive ; and yet both he and Captain Rudland, who accompanied him, declare, that the flesh quivered all the time that they were eating it ; and it is not easy to con ceive how this could be the case if the animal was per fectly dead before it was cut up. Bruce says that it was not fashionable for people of distinction to feed them selves, but that they had persons employed to put the meat into their mouth : this Mr Salt denies. But Cap tain Rudland, who kept a separate journal, says express ly, that they fed one another as boys do magpies in England ; and that the Ras, by way of showing his atten tion, sometimes stuffed him till he was like to burst. Mr Salt declares it as his opinion, that the lascivious scenes o hich Bruce describes as taking place at the Brind feasts, had no existence but in his own imagina tion ; and yet both he and Captain Rudland say, that they often heard such conversation, and saw such scenes, even in the presence of the Ras and his ladies, as de cency would not permit them to describe. Notwith standing Mr Salt's incessant carping at Bruce, he con fesses that his account of the transactions in Abyssinia, whilst he was there, is true in the minutest particular: and he says that he shall never forget the astonishment expressed by the natives at the knowledge he displayed of their history. They looked upon him as a superior being when he exhibited Bruce's drawings of Gondar. All the persons whom Bruce mentions were well known ; many of them were alive, and spoke of him to Mr Salt with great affection. They all agreed that he was a great favourite of the king of the Iteghe and of Ozoro Esther. Mr Salt met with the person who was
sent to recover Bruce's baggage when he was robbed in his first attempt to reach the sources of the Nile, and also with an old chieftain who was present at the curi ous hunting match at Tcherkin, when Bruce was on his way to Sennaar. All the persons whom Mr Salt con versed with, agreed in saying that Bruce had visited the sour( es of the Nile : but it seems they also all agreed in saying that he never was governor of Ras-el-Feel: and on this account 'Mr Salt thinks he is authorised to say, Bruce has told a direct falsehood. We shall submit to our readers a specimen of Abyssinian evidence on this subject, and shall leave lawyers and logicians to draw the conclusion ; only premising, that, even according to Bruce's own account, he never took possession of the government of Ras-el-Feel in person, but administered it by deputy.
"At Suez, March 1793," says Browne, in the preface to his Travels, " I met an Armenian merchant, who had formerly traded to Abyssinia, and seemed a man of in telligence. Ile told me that he was at Gondar when Bruce was there : and that Yakub (the name by which Bruce was known in Abyssinia) was universaily talked of with praise. This merchant narrated, of his own accord, the story of shooting a wax candle through se ven shields. He observed, that Bruce had been appoint ed governor of Ras-el-Feel, a province where ?rabic was spoken." "In Dar-Fur," continues the same traveller, " I met a Bergoo merchant, named Hadje Hamed, who had long resided at Sennaar, and was in Bruce's party from Gondar to Sennaar. He said that Yakub had been highly favoured at the Abyssinian court, and lived splendidly. He was often observing the stars, &c. Both my informers agreed that he had been governor of Ras-el-Feel." If this evidence does not overturn that which Mr Salt collected in Abyssinia on this subject, it at least completely neutralizes it. If, as Browne's words seem to imply, the Armenian merchant mention ed, of his own accord, without being asked, that Bruce was governor of Ras-el-Feel, we may consider the ques tion as decided in favour of Bruce.
We shall conclude this article in the words of that accurate and profound scholar, Dr Vincent, who seems to have formed a very correct estimate of Bruce's cha racter. "We ought not to be ungrateful to those who explore the desert for our information. Bruce may have offended, from the warmth of his temper : he may have been misled, by aspiring to knowledge and science which he had not sufficiently examined ; but his work through out bears internal marks of veracity, in all instances where he was not deceived himself ; and his observa tions were the best which a man, furnished with such instruments, and struggling for his life, could obtain." See Bruce's Travels ; Murray's Life of Bruce ; Browne's Travels in Egypt ; and Vincent's Periplus of the Eryth. Sea, p.93. (g)