38 
MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 
hospitable mansion of M. Clerambaut at Sidon, 
much fatigued, but gratified exceedingly with what 
he had seen. On his arrival, he found a supply of 
mathematical and astronomical instruments, which 
had been sent to him from Europe, to make up for 
the loss he had sustained at Bengazi : his telescopes 
had been forwarded to him from London ; a time- 
piece and a stop-watch from Paris ; and a quadrant 
from Louis XV., who had learned the story of his 
misfortune from the Count de Buffon. Equally 
flattered and delighted with this support, he resolved 
to delay no longer his voyage to Egypt ; and on the 
15th of June, 1768, three years after quitting 
Algiers, he sailed from Sidon for Alexandria, which 
he did not reach until the beginning of July, having 
been detained for some time at Cyprus, as it was 
not known there whether the plague had ceased in 
Egypt. 
Bruce carried with him letters of recommendation 
to the mercantile house of Julian and Bertram, and 
to them he imparted his design of pursuing his 
journey into Abyssinia ; hut as the government of 
Cairo had always been jealous of visitors to that 
country, he was obliged to pretend that his destina- 
tion was to India. 
When his cases of instruments were opened at 
the customhouse at Alexandria, they naturally sug- 
gested to Risk, the secretary of Ali Bey, that their 
owner must he versed in the science of astrology. 
His supposed knowledge of the stars, and ability to 
foretell contingent events, threatened to become 
