80 
MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 
England, from which he had heen absent twelve 
years. He was introduced to George III., who not 
only accepted his drawings of Baalbec, Palmj’ra, 
and the African cities, but complimented him on 
the personal exertions he had made to enlarge the 
bounds of geographical science. 
His company, while in London, it may well bs 
supposed, was courted by all classes, the learned 
and the gay, the young and the old. In describing 
his adventures, he generally related those circum- 
stances which he thought most likely to amuse 
people, by the contrast they afforded to the popular 
customs, fashions, or habits in Europe. But his 
narratives were so new, so extraordinary, so roman- 
tic, and related scenes and manners so totally dif- 
ferent from any thing that had been known or heal'd 
of in England, that his facts appeared too strong, 
and his statements began to be received with a 
degree of incredulity. He was assailed by poets, 
critics, reviewers, and garret philosophers, from 
Dr. Johnson to Peter Pindar, who ridiculed the 
possibility of human beings eating raw flesh, wearing 
rings in their noses or lips instead of their ears, 
using rancid butter for pomatum, and plaiting their 
hair with the entrails of animals instead of playing 
tunes upon them. All this appeared so horrid, so 
barbarous, and so un-English, that Bruce was gene- 
rally regarded as making too free with the traveller’s 
license, and amusing the public with idle fables. 
It has been already mentioned that the veracity 
of Bruce has, since his time, been corroborated by 
