1807.] 
unqualified terms (for in such terms only 
can the fact be stated), nothing else than 
an absolute fiction, introduced that the 
author might not be outdone by Norden, 
Instead of proceeding, as he pretends, to 
Syene, he returned from Luxor directly to 
Badjoura, as appears not only from the 
preceeding extract from his journal, but 
from his letter to Mr. Wood :—(Gondar, 
March 1, 1770 ;)—** From Luxor we re- 
turned to Badjoura, a village upon the 
Nile, two miles from Farshout, the resi- 
dence of the Arab Shekh Haman.” 
(Vol. 1. p. 275.) Wedo not suppose 
that the relative situations of How, Far- 
sheut, Badjoura, and Dendera, of which 
he endeavours to ascertain the precise 
latitudes, were purposely inverted,* in 
order to introduce the adventure re- 
specting the new moon. But as he was 
prevented from copying some incriptions 
at Thebes, by two. villages being at war 
with each other on the plain (vol. i. 
p- 273), it is evident that, having heard 
ofa quarrel between them, concerning 
the appearance of the new moon on the 
fast of Ramadan, and finding afterwards 
in the Ephemeris anew moon, nominally 
on the7th of January, he in fradiaeed the 
anecdote into his Travels; and although 
he had previously gone forward to Den- 
dera, he prolonged | his supposed stay at 
Farshout till the.7th of January, in order 
to appropriate the adventure to himself. 
The Journal is entitled to the more au- 
thority, not only as it was written out 
complete, on the author’s return to Bad- 
joura, and couveyed directly to his friends 
at Cairo, but because every subsequent 
astronomical observation, taken from his 
journs als, corresponds in time and. place 
exactly with the ‘Travels, with a single 
exception too remarkable to be omitted, 
On the 27th ot _ daly, 1769, Mr. Bruce, 
according to his Travels, s: ered trom Loe- 
heia, in the Red- “sea, upon a voyage of 
observation to the Straits of Babelmau- 
del, frum which he returned to Loheia 
OSL es Ee ee TAS I A <= 
* The fact is certain, not only from the 
concurrence of D’ Anville, (Mem. de l’Acad, 
des Inscrip. xxix. 256), Norden, Sonini, 
Brown (130), and Weds bur from the jour- 
nal itself, that Farshout, and of course Bad- 
joura and How, are situated to the north of 
Dendera. The only explanation that can be 
given of this strange error in the observa- 
tions, is, that the altitudes had been taken 
down by Balugani in loose notes, or slips of 
paper, and that afterwards, in transferring” 
them to the journal, the observations made 
at one place were as3: igned to another. There 
is also some inconside aie error in the diffe. 
rent observations made at Luxor. 
On the Credit due to Bruce’s Travels. 
449 
on the 6th of August. On the 5th of 
August, however, the very day preceding 
his r return, two observations taken at Lo- 
heia, appear in his journals (vol. vii 
p. 856), in which there is no~ notice 
whatever of three observations taken 
during the voyage, and inserted in his 
Travels (vol. ii. p. 208-217). The voy- 
ave is as circumstantially told as the 
former from Luxor to Syene; but that it 
is utterly fictitious, is also certain, In 
Mr. Bruce’s letter already quoted, “ We 
left Jidda the beginning of July. The 
beginning of August we arrived at Lo- 
heia. Here we waited till the end of 
September, when we embarked on board 
asmnall boat for Massoua. In this Se- 
vat voyage across the Ited-sea,” (vol. 1. 
279), instead of the third, had he re- 
aay performed an intermediate. voyage 
from Loheia to the Straits of Babelman- 
del? The editor justly observes, that 
“ Mr. Bruce does not mention here his 
southern excursion,” (bid.) and Baluga~ 
ni, his draughtsman, is equally silent. 
Luigi Balagani, his Ttalian assistant, was 
employed to keep the journals from their 
leaving Cossair ; ‘and the first is,  Viagio 
di Cossair, a Jimbo, ed a Gidda, 2° Vi- 
agio di Gedda a Locheia, 3o Viagio di 
Locheia a Massoua,” &c. containing the 
routes and distances measured by time; 
but not the Icast intimation is given of 
the pretended voyage to the Straits of 
Babelmandel, (vol. i. p, 864). The voy- 
age from Cossair to Jibbel Zumrud, the 
mountains of Emeralds, seems to be an 
episode of the same description*®. We 
* Oftwenty charts or drawings taken by 
Balugani in the Red Sea, mot one relates to 
the pretended voyage from Cossair to Jibbel 
Zuimrud, or from Loheia to the straits of Ba- 
Paesccie the chart of the harbours of Mo- 
cha exceptrd, which is coniessedly a copy, and 
musthave been obtained from one of the Rn 
glish ships at fidda, most probably from a 
survey by Captain Newland (vol. i. p. 169. 
—vol ii. 164). The voyage to the straits 
was probably taken froma ship’s journal, ob- 
tained through the same channel, and adapted 
by Mr. Bruce to his own sd veneuies: As @ 
proos of mh the observations are made with 
a Hadley’s sextant, or ship’s quadrant, as it is 
called, an Pes auene which Mr. Bruce did 
not possess, but which would have been far 
more useful and portable than the large and 
unwieldy French quadrant which he. carried 
to Abyssinia. That quadrant is fit only for a 
very able astronomer; but Bruce was enraged 
when told by Herschel, that Hadley’s sextant 
would have served every purpose much better. 
His fictitious voyage to the straits of Babel. 
mandel was probably suggested by Irvin’s Voy- 
age up the Red Sea, published in 1780. 
must 
