534 
that of Ptolemy, Edrisi, and Abulfeda, 
concerning the western branch, and the 
real source of the Nile; but in the publi- 
cation of his Travels, his conduct evinces 
a secret conviction that the Abiad was 
the genuine Nile of antiquity. The cu- 
rious information contained in the jour- 
nals is suppressed in the Travels. Onthe 
junction of the Azergue, at Wed Ulojela, 
which is placed to the north instead of 
the south of Halfeia, we are, for the frst 
time, accidentally informed, that “ the 
river Abiad, which is longer than the Nile, 
joins it there;” that “ still the Nile pre- 
serves the name of the Blue River, which 
it got at Sennaar;” and after an idle ob- 
servation on a Fakir’s tomb, we are 
merely told, that “ the Abiad is a very 
deep river, runs dead, and with little in- 
clination, and preserves its stream always 
undiminished, because rising in latitudes 
where there are continual rains, it suf- 
fers not the decrease the Nile does by 
the six months dry weather.” Not a 
word is said of its great magnitude; that 
it was twice as broad, and three times as 
big, as the Azergue, of its being navigable, 
and fuil of islands inhabited by pirates; 
much less of its rising near, and within 
four degrees at least of the line; of its 
course from the south east; or of its 
banks running as far as is known to the 
south-west, in an opposite direction; the 
real direction, however, of the Bahr ei 
Abiad. 
These notices are evidently suppressed, 
and his Travels are filled with his own ad- 
ventures at Feawa, and Sennaar, in or- 
der to divert our attention from the genu- 
ine Nile. In constructing his maps he 
adapted Ludolf’s map of the Abyssinian 
empire as the basis of his own. In that 
map the river Maleg, which rises in the 
southern province of Damot, surrounds 
the western coast of Abyssinia, and_ falls 
into the Nile; but according to Rennel’s 
idea, itis more probably united to the Abi- 
ad before the junction of the Azergue, In 
Bruce’s maps the course of the Maleg is 
traced from Ludolf, -with little variation, 
but the name is converted into the Bahr 
el Abiad. Instead of a river thrice as 
tween Alexandria and Syene as observed by 
Eratosthenes 3 which are both introduced into 
his fictitious voyage from Luxor to Syene 
Mem. des Inscrip. xxxi. 82, xxix. 250. The 
first memoir in particular Sur la mesure du 
Schene Egyptien, immediately follows D’An- 
Ville’s two memoirs onthe undiscovered sources 
of the Nile, and on the rivers in the interior 
of Africa. ib. xxvi. 46, 64 
On the Credit due to Bruce’s Travels. 
[Jan. 1, 
large as the Azergue, and whose source 
is remote, in the regions of perpetual 
rain, and within less than four degrees of 
the line, a river much smaller is described 
in his map, rising in latitude 8° the same 
latitude with the most southern sources 
of the Abyssinian Nile. The name of 
Maleg is so industriously suppressed, 
not only in his maps but in his Journals 
and Travels, that it is only once inciden- 
tally mentioned in his Abyssinian History, 
in describing from Telles the journey of 
Antonio Fernandez, who, in 1613, cross- 
ed the Maleg on his way from Gojam to 
Melinda; after which he observes, “ they 
came to a river called Maleg” (vol. I. 
p. 325), as if some unknowa river, whea 
Telles’s and Ludelf’s maps, containing 
the Maleg, his own Abiad, were before 
his eyes. In these circumstances it is 
impossible for us to vindicate the author 
from the charge preferred against him by 
Hartman and Pinkerton; viz. that, by 
transferring the name to an inferior 
stream, and confounding the Bahr el 
Abiad with the Maleg, Mr. Bruce has 
purposely cut off the great western branch 
of the river, when conscious of its exist- 
ence, in order to conceal from the pub- 
lic that the sources of the genuine Nile 
were not yet discovered. 
The eclipse of the moon as it appeared 
at Feawa has afforded a final objec- 
tion, which it is impossible to ob- 
viate. Instead of the important in- 
formation which the author collected 
at Feawa and Sennaar, his Travels 
are full of his personal adventures with 
the Shekh of Atbara, of which no trace ap- 
pears in his journals. To mtimidate the 
Shekh, by whom he was detained at 
Feawa, he addressed him (April 13, 17723 
thus, according to the firstedition: “ Fri- 
day, the 17th, is your festival. Ifthe af- 
ternoon of that day shall pass lke those 
of common days, then am I a worthless 
man, and an impostor; but if on that 
day, before? el’asser (el’asser is four 
o’clock), a sign be seen in the heavens, 
which shall be thought by all of you un- 
usual and extraordinary, then am [ an 
innocent man, and Fidele’s (the Shekh’s) 
designs against me are known to the 
world; and will not be pleasing either to 
God or man.” 4to. edit. vol. IV. p. 397. 
The sign was an approaching eclipse of 
the moon, which he made use of to 
frighten and punish Fidele. Accordingly, 
on the 17th, he repaired in the afternoon to 
the Shekh’s house, having rectified hiswatch 
by observation, and knowing that he 
could 
