TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
other from Loheia, to the Straits of Babelmandel ; 
both of which, there is much reason to suspect, 
never were performed. There is no mention of 
them in his own journey ; none in those of his com- 
panion Balugani ; none in a letter to Mr Wood, 
where he gives a general summary of his early tra- 
vels. There are also astronomical observations taken 
at Loheia, on a day when, according to the Tra- 
vels, he ought to have been absent on the voyage 
to Babelmandel. The combination of all these 
circumstances certainly gives the affair a very un- 
favourable aspect. Yet I know not if it be so 
wholly impossible, as even his editor seems to sup* 
pose, that he really performed these journeys. 
Should we suppose Balugani to have remained be- 
hind, and to have made the observations, some of 
the difficulties would be solved. The circumstan- 
ces which might induce us to catch at any possibi- 
lity, is the want of all conceivable motive for these 
gross and scandalous fictions. Had the feigned 
excursions been made into some yet unknown re- 
gion in the heart of Africa, where no other tra- 
veller had penetrated, the case would have been 
very different. On the contrary, they were voy- 
ages made quite in the common and beaten track, 
in the performance of which there was neither 
glory nor difficulty. The one up the Nile, in parti- 
cular, carries him over the very same ground which 
he afterwards really traversed in his return from 
