MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 
31 
opposed the cruel resolution of the Dey to order 
every ship carrying apassavant , or written certificate, 
to be captured, concluding that as they differed 
from the old printed form they must have been 
forgeries. The result of this determined conduct 
was, that the British consul had his dragoman taken 
from him, and was commanded to quit the country 
in three days; and had not the savage passion of 
the Dey been somewhat abated by the opportune 
arrival of proper admiralty passes, the discoverer of 
the sources of the Nile might have fallen a sacrifice 
to the caprice of an ignorant barbarian. The dan- 
gerous post from which Bruce had so narrowly 
escaped, was immediately filled by a successor, who 
overstepped the bounds of conciliation so far as to 
allow the Algerine tyrant to impose a tax on British 
vessels, which he had no right to levy. 
The time that elapsed between Bruce’s dismissal 
and his obtaining an answer from Lord Halifax to 
his despatch, was assiduously devoted to study in 
making him familiar with every thing that was 
requisite for his intended journey. From Father 
Christopher, a Greek priest of Cyprus, who had 
formed his acquaintance at Algiers, he acquired a 
thorough knowledge of the Romaic or modem 
Greek, which was of great importance to him in 
Abyssinia. From Mr. Bell, the king’s surgeon, and 
from his friend Dr. Russell, physician to the British 
factory at Aleppo, he obtained some professional 
information on the compounding and administering 
