46 MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 



tions respecting the soundings, currents, bearings of 

 the different islands, and geographical position of 

 the principal points and harbours. His remarks 

 were chiefly nautical, but his collections of marine 

 productions, and his observations on the natural 

 history of the Red Sea were very extensive, although 

 not detailed at length in his travels, or even in his 

 private journals. 



After a long series of disasters and adventures, 

 this enterprising' traveller had at last reached the 

 land where lay the far-famed object of his researches, 

 u the coy fountains of the Nile." As it is to this 

 point chiefly that our attention in the present bio- 

 graphical sketch is directed, we shall pass with 

 very few remarks those parts of his narrative that 

 refer to the ancient history, as well as the civil and 

 ecclesiastical state of the country. 



The kingdom of Habbesh (the old name of Abys- 

 sinia) is reckoned in superficial extent about the 

 size of Great Britain. That sequestered region, 

 intersected with ranges or chains of high mountains 

 and low cultivated valleys, is traversed by hot 

 poisonous winds, and deserts of moving sand. The 

 ferocious manners of the people are more dangerous 

 to the traveller than the fervid climate they inhabit. 

 On the south it is surrounded by the various tribes 

 of the Galla nations ; the Shangalla (the ancient 

 Cushites or Ethiopians) lie on the northern boundary, 

 forming, as it were, a string to the bow of the Galla 

 territory, which almost encompasses the kingdom 

 in the opposite direction. 



