38 MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 



hospitable mansion of M. Clerambaut at Sidon, 

 much fatigued, but gratified exceedingly with what 

 he had seen. On his arrival, he found a supply of 

 mathematical and astronomical instruments, which 

 had been sent to him from Europe, to make up for 

 the loss he had sustained at Bengazi : his telescopes 

 had been forwarded to him from London ; a time- 

 piece and a stop-watch from Paris ; and a quadrant 

 from Louis XV., who had learned the story of his 

 misfortune from the Count de Buffon. Equally 

 flattered and delighted with this support, he resolved 

 to delay no longer his voyage to Egypt ; and on the 

 15th of June, 1768? three years after quitting 

 Algiers, he sailed from Sidon for Alexandria, which 

 he did not reach until the beginning of July, having 

 been detained for some time at Cyprus, as it was 

 not known there whether the plague had ceased in 

 Egypt. 



Bruce carried with him letters of recommendation 

 to the mercantile house of Julian and Bertram, and 

 to them he imparted his design of pursuing his 

 journey into Abyssinia; but as the government of 

 Cairo had always been jealous of visitors to that 

 country, he was obliged to pretend that his destina- 

 tion was to India. 



When his cases of instruments were opened at 

 the customhouse at Alexandria, they naturally sug- 

 gested to Risk, the secretary of Ali Bey, that their 

 owner must be versed in the science of astrology. 

 His supposed knowledge of the stars, and ability to 

 foretell contingent events, threatened to become 



