MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 
45 
instantly made for getting him the strongest possible 
recommendations to the Naib or governor of Mas- 
suah, to the sovereign of Abyssinia, and the king 
of Sennaar. All the English at Jidda were par- 
ticularly attentive to his wishes, and it was agreed 
that a native Abyssinian, called Mahomet Gibberti, 
should accompany him, to be an eye-witness of the 
treatment he should receive. 
While these preparations were getting ready, 
Bruce prosecuted his survey of the Red Sea. Leav- 
ing Jidda on the 8th of July, he landed at Gonfodah, 
and thence continued his voyage to Gibel Rahan, 
a small island in the Straits of Babelmandeb, where 
he drank from a jar of brandy to the health of his 
Britannic majesty. Having determined the latitude 
and longitude of the straits, and other places on the 
adjacent coast, he sailed northward (8th of August) 
and arrived at Loheia, an Arabian town directly 
opposite Massuah, and the port of Abyssinia. Here 
he was joined by his new guide, Mahomet Gibberti, 
who brought the firman for the Naib, and letters for 
Ras Michael, governor of the great province of Tigre. 
Quitting Loheia on the 3d of September, they passed 
Gibbel Teir, a volcanic isle, about midway from 
either shore; on the 14th they reached Dahalac, 
the largest island in the Red Sea, being thirty-seven 
miles in length and eighteen in breadth; and on 
the 19th, the vessel came to anchor in the harbour 
of Massuah. 
During his circumnavigation of the Arabian Gulf, 
Bruce made a great number of notes and observa- 
