~ 
7 
a 
AC COUN TOF BOOK Ss, 
England,.as one of the fingularities 
which prevailed in this barbarous 
country, I was told by my friends 
it was not believed., I afked the 
’ reafon-of this difbelicf, and was an- 
fwered, that people who. had never 
been out of their own country, and 
others well acquainted with the 
manners of the world, for they had. 
travelled as far as France, had a- 
‘greed the thing was impoflible, and, 
therefore it was fo. My friends 
counfelled me further, that as thefe 
men were infallible, and had each 
the leading of a circle, I fhould by 
all means obliterate this from. my 
Journal, and not attempt to incul- 
cate-in the minds of my readers the 
belief of a thing that men who,had 
travelled pronounced’ to be impof- 
fible. They fuggefted to me, in the 
mot friendly manner, how rudely.a 
learned and worthy traveller 
5 soi : 
-had been treated, for daring to 
maintain that he had eat part of a 
lion, a ftory I have already taken 
-_ yi . 
‘ notice of in my Introduétion, They 
faid, that being convinced by thele 
connoiffeurs his having eaten. any 
part of a lion was impofsble, he had 
abandoned this affertion altogether, 
and after only mentioned it in an 
appendix ; and this was the fartheft 
T could poflibly venture. 
“ Far from being a convert to 
fuch prudential reafons, [ muft for 
ever profefs openly, that I think - 
them unworthy of me. To repre- 
fent as truth a thing I know to 
be a falfehood, not to avow a truth 
which I know [ ought to declare; 
the one is fraud, the other cowar-. 
dice: I hope I am equally diftant 
from them both; and | pledge my- 
felf never to retraét the faét here 
advanced, that the Abyffinians do 
feed in¢gommon upon live flefh; and 
that I myfelf have, for feveral years, 
' been partaker of that difagreeable 
173 
and beafily diet : on the contrary, I 
have no doubt, when time fhall be 
given to read this hi'tory to an 
end, there will be very few, if they, 
have candour enougiy to. own: it, 
that will not be afhamed of ever 
having doubted.” 
The third volume, fays the auy-. 
thor,comprehends my journey from 
Mafuah to Gondar, and the man- 
ners and cufloms of the Abyfiinians 
—alfo two attempts to arrive at the 
fountains of the Nile—defcription of 
thefe fources, and of every thing re- 
lating, to that river and its inunda~ 
tions. - 
The reader may not be difpleafed 
to learn the ftate of Mr. Bruce’s 
feelings at the moment he was ap~ 
proaching to the accomplifhment of 
his favourite obje&. * We faw,” he 
obferves, « immediately below us the 
Nile itfelf, ftrangely diminifhed in 
fize,and now only a brook that had 
{carcely water to turn a mill, [ 
could not fatiate myfelf with the 
fight, revolving in my mind all thofe 
claffical prophecies that-had given 
the Nile up to perpetual obfcyrity 
and concealment. The lines of 
the poet came immediately into my 
mind, and I enjoyed here, for the 
firft time, the triumph which alread Y> 
by the protection of Providence 
and my own intrepidity, I had 
gained over all that were powerful 
and all that were learned, fince the 
remotelt antiquity. 
i] — 
sve i's natura caput non prodidi¢ 
ulli , 
Nec licuit populis parvum te, Wile, 
videre, 
Amovitque finus, et gentes maluit or. 
tus 
Mirari, quam noffe tuo,” 
Lucan, 
In another place—« J after this ' 
came to the ifland of green turf, 
which was in form of an altar, apa 
‘ parently 
