8% TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
is no small glory, I think, in recording this fact, 
knowing it, as he did, to militate so strongly against 
his own most fondly cherished hypothesis. 
But this was not the only mortification which 
Mr Bruce had to encounter in returning to Eu- 
rope. The passage in Kircher, already noticed, was 
pointed out to him, where Payz reports the visit 
made by himself to those sources ; so that, even if 
they were the real fountains of the Nile, Mr Bruce 
was not the first European by whom they had been 
explored. This charge he openly meets, and en- 
deavours at great length to prove, that the narra- 
tive of Payz could not apply to the spot which he 
pretended to visit. These arguments do not seem 
well founded ; but Bruce nowhere misrepresents 
facts in order to support them. On the con- 
trary, his opponents have contested these argu- 
ments chiefly by a comparison of his description 
with that of Payz. Hartman thinks it sufficient to 
print the two in parallel columns, in order to 
shew their correspondence. Now, I think it is 
dealing rather hardly with Bruce to accuse him 
of positive falsehood, merely for forming erro- 
neous opinions ; when, instead of disguising the 
truth in order to support these opinions, he fur- 
Jiishes himself the facts by which they have been 
refuted. 
A heavy charge yet remains. There are two 
journeys which Mr Bruce professes to have made ; 
one from Badjoura up the Nile to Syene j the 
