MAP OF ABYSSINIA, Sec 
partake more of romance than reality. The difficulties which 
opposed his progress must have been sufficiently great to have ob- 
tained for him the just praise of perseverance and courage ; and 
the country through which he travelled, affi)rded novelty that must 
have excited the interest of every reader ; yet as it is, he has so 
mixed the truth with the falsehood, that it is impossible to separate 
them ; and the deceptions which have been exposed, where any 
traveller has followed him, give but too much reason to fear, that 
the same would be the result, were a person of veracity to visit 
Ras-el-Feel, or Sennaar. ' 
The translation which he has given of the chronicles of Axum, 
is interesting, and I believe faithful : but the account of the descent 
from Solomon is now proved to be false, by the inscription at Axum ; 
the theories of the victories of Ptolemy fall before the same evi- 
dence ; and his worship of the Dog-star at this capital of Abyssinia, 
vanishes, with the proofs adduced by him of the many remains of 
their pedestals and statues. 
If Mr. Bruce be proved incorrect by the discoveries of Mr. Salt, 
and the ascertaining that the reliques of ancient magnificence at 
Axum have no resemblance to Egyptian architecture, it is satisfac- 
tory to find, that the authenticity of the author of the Periplus is 
confirmed in an equal degree, by the proof that, so late as the reign 
of Aeizanas, a king who spoke Greek remained on the throne of 
Zoskales, and ruled over the same country. 
It is also satisfactory to know, that the Christians of Abyssinia, 
however they may have fallen from the purity of the religion they 
profess, are not the monsters of cruelty and depravity which Mr. 
Bruce describes them, and that their country is not so inacces- 
