BRUCE. 



D 





petty assailants. A parcel of contemptible fools, 

 who had never been out of sight of the smoke of 

 London, had the :-mladly to aver that he never had 

 bixn in Aby*siiia, and that his book, from begin- 

 ning to end, was a fabrication. Bruce's temper, 

 which was naturally haughty, served to provoke 

 these attacks ; and his vanity, which was very con. 

 eiderablir, afforded his enemies an opportunity of say- 

 ing, that he had magnified his exploits and his dan- 

 gers at the expence of truth. These insinuations, 

 however, gradually died away ; and the progress of 

 discovery, though not in the same field, served to 

 confirm all his statements. 



But a more serious attack has been made on him 

 lately, by Lord Valentia, who pretends to have de- 

 tected, by actual observation, not only his inaccu- 

 racies, but his falsehoods. This.has encouraged some 

 of the journals in which Bruce had been originally 

 assailed, to renew the attack, and to assume credit 

 for their discernment. Lord Valentia did not enter 

 Abyssinia himself, but he dispatched Mr Salt, one 

 of his attendants, whose attention seems to have 

 been particularly employed in endeavouring to over- 

 turn the authority of Bruce. Mr Salt has been 

 a second time in Abyssinia, but has not as yet fa- 

 voured the world with his second thoughts on the 

 subject. We are not afraid, however, to affirm, that 

 no traveller, and no writer of any description, has 

 done so much to confirm the accuracy of Bruce. 

 We beg leave to direct the attention of our read- 

 ers to the points on which he attacks the veracity of 

 Bruce. 



When Mr Salt's party had reached Hamhammou, 

 they were stopt by a violent storm ; upon which he 

 observes, that Bruce was exposed to a storm in the 

 same place, " which, however, he describes, says he, 

 with some exaggeration." Nothing can manifest a 

 stronger propensity to carping and unfairness than 

 this observation. How could Salt know that Bruce's 

 description of the storm was exaggerated ? Was it 

 the identical storm which Bruce described that Mr 

 Salt witnessed ? Or did the spirit of the storm ap- 

 pear to him to complain of misrepresentation ? In 

 fact, every step that he takes serves to confirm the 

 minute accuracy of Bruce. When he arrives at Tub- 

 bo, he is forced to confess, " Bruce has well de- 

 scribed this place." Bruce says, that between Shil- 

 lokeeb and Hamhammou, he first observed the dung 

 of .elephants. It is curious enough, that when Mr 

 Salt comes to the same place, he makes exactly the 

 same observation. Bruce, however, is by far the 

 most accurate coprologist of the two ; for he informs 

 us, that the dung which he observed, was filled with 

 the indigested branches of trees, which gives us some 

 insight into the habits of the elephant ; but Mr 

 Salt passes on satisfied, with barely introducing his 

 readers to this elegant phenomenon. He passes the 

 tribe of the Hazorta, whose residence he admits to 

 be admirably described by Bruce, and at last comes 

 to the famous mountain of Taranta. He is very se- 

 vere on Bruce for exaggerating the difficulties of the 

 pass, which he and his party cleared in a few hours, 

 whilst Bruce's party took part of two days. He 

 takes no notice, however, of Bruce's quadrant, which 

 took eight men to carry it, whilst Mr Salt's princi- 



VOL. V. PART J. 



Eal box was carried, as he himself informs ui, by a 

 oy of thirteen years of age. Besides, Bruce tells 

 us, that the asses -turned and ran down the- hill to a 

 great distance, which caused a general halt till they 

 were recovered. If Mr Suit had not been blinded 

 by prejudice, he would have acknowledged that none 

 of these causes of obstruction operated in his case ; 

 and that, therefore, the ascent or the mountain was 

 comparatively easy. Besides, the road on the mountain 

 was excessively bad in Bruce's time, which Mr Salt 

 confesses was not the case when he passed it. 



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 travellers have not better memories, or a lutle 

 more foresight and consistency ! He had said only a 

 few pages before, " we passed a cave inhabited by a 

 family of the natives." And he 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 cedar. Mr Salt confirms this description i 

 every particular, but falls infinitely short of the gra- 

 phic 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 thejlesh quiver- 

 ed all the time that they icere eating it ; and it is 

 not easy to conceive how this could be the case if 

 the animal was perfectly dead before it was cut up. 

 Bruce says that it was not fashionable for people of 

 distinction to feed themselves, but that they had 

 persons employed to put the meat into their mouth : 

 this Mr Salt denies. But Captain Rudland, who 

 kept a separate journal, says expressly that they fed 

 one another as boys do magpies in England ; and 

 that the Ras, by way of showing his attention, some- 

 times stuffed him till he was like to burst. Mr Salt 

 declares it as his opinion, that the lascivious scenes 

 which Bruce describes as taking place at the Brind 

 feasts, had no existence but in his own imagination ; 

 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 

 confesses that his account of the transactions in 

 Abyssinia, whilst he was there, is true in the minu- 

 test 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 exhi- 



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