80 MEMOIR OF BRUCE 



England, from which he had heen absent twelve 

 years. He was introduced to George III., who not 

 only accepted his drawings of Baalbec, Palmyra, 

 and the African cities, but complimented him on 

 the personal exertions he had made to enlarge the 

 bounds of geographical science. 



His company, while in London, it may well b< 

 supposed, was courted by all classes, the learned 

 and the gay, the young and the old. In describing 

 his adventures, he generally related those circum- 

 stances which he thought most likely to amuse 

 people, by the contrast they afforded to the popular 

 customs, fashions, or habits in Europe. But his 

 narratives were so new, so extraordinary, so roman- 

 tic, and related scenes and manners so totally dif- 

 ferent from any thing that had been known or heard 

 of in England, that his facts appeared too strong, 

 and his statements began to be received with a 

 degree of incredulity. He was assailed by poets, 

 critics, reviewers, and garret philosophers, from 

 Dr. Johnson to Peter Pindar, who ridiculed the 

 possibility of human beings eating raw flesh, wearing 

 rings in their noses or lips instead of their ears, 

 using rancid butter for pomatum, and plaiting their 

 hair with the entrails of animals instead of playing 

 tunes upon them. All this appeared so horrid, so 

 barbarous, and so un-English, that Bruce was gene 

 rally regarded as making too free with the traveller's 

 license, and amusing the public with idle fables. 



It has been already mentioned that the veracity 

 of Bruce has, since his time, been corroborated by 



