MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 
35 
to Ras Sem, the petrified city, where the Arabs 
pretend <that men and horses, women churning, 
little children, dogs, eats, and mice, were to be seen 
in a state of petrifaction. It is needless to say that 
Bruce discovered none of these marvels, and found 
them all to he fables. Approaching the sea-coast he 
came to Ptolemeta, the ancient Ptolemais, the walls 
and gates of which he found still entire, and covered 
with an immense number of Greek inscriptions. 
The turbulent state of the country, the appearance 
of the plague, and the plundering of the great pil- 
grim caravan, induced our traveller to fly at once 
from that inhospitable coast, to save his life and the 
information he had so laboriously acquired. Em- 
barking with his little party on board a Greek 
junk belonging to Lampedosa, a small island near 
Crete, he resolved to proceed on his journey; but 
the vessel being badly appointed, and overcrowded 
with starved passengers, he discovered, when too 
late, that he only escaped one species of danger 
to encounter another. The captain was ignorant 
of his duty, and being overtaken with a storm, the 
ship struck upon a sunk rock at the entrance of the 
harbour of Bengazi ; a few of the men perished by 
attempting to save themselves in a boat ; Bruce was 
an expert swimmer, and reached the shore in a state 
of great exhaustion ; for a considerable time he lay 
insensible, and was at length roused from his stupor 
by a blow on the head from the lance of an Arab, a 
party of whom had come to plunder the vessel. 
From the fashion of his dress, which had been 
