Part 4 (1/2)
It is with painful reluctance that we have paused for a moment in Bruce's history to make the above observations; but the advice which was given to poor Denham and his gallant companions may be again given to others; and as the proper mode of penetrating Africa is a most important problem, in which the lives of future travellers are involved, we only beg the reader henceforward to observe the effect which Bruce's plan of getting along produces, and then to judge for himself whether the traveller who wishes to penetrate Africa should publicly proclaim himself ”a Briton and a Christian,” or not. That he should inwardly be both, no one, we hope, will deny; yet religion, like loyalty, need not be vauntingly displayed; and as we know that the African abhors and despises both our religion and our dress, why should we irritate his prejudices by wilfully unfurling these flags of defiance? Most particularly as regards the useless fas.h.i.+on of our dress, which is so very badly adapted to the climate, it may at least be maintained that English breeches, stockings, and ”coats cut to the quick,” are far better relished by the phlebotomizing moschetoes of Africa than by its human inhabitants. Within the tropics, even the sheep wears hair instead of wool. Why, then, should ”a Briton” insist on carrying his fleecy hosiery to the Line?
Bruce being within a day of the cataracts of Syene, called by the Arabs a.s.suan, sailed on the 20th for that town, and had scarcely arrived when an unarmed janisary, dressed in long Turkish clothes, and holding in his hand a white wand, came to tell him that Syene was a garrison town, and that the aga was at the castle ready to give him an audience, having received a most particular letter from the Bey of Cairo. ”I found the aga,” says Bruce, ”sitting in a small kiosk or closet, upon a stone bench with carpets. As I was in no fear of him, I was resolved to walk according to my privileges. I sat down upon a cus.h.i.+on below him, after laying my hand on my breast, and saying, in an audible voice, 'Salam alic.u.m!' (Peace be between us); to which he answered, without any of the usual difficulty, 'Alic.u.m salum!' (There _is_ peace between us). After sitting down about two minutes, I again got up, and stood in the middle of the room before him, saying, 'I am bearer of a hatesheriffe, or royal mandate to you, Mohammed Aga!' and took the firman out of my bosom and presented it to him. Upon this he stood upright, and all the rest of the people, before sitting with him, likewise; he bowed his head upon the carpet, then put the firman to his forehead, opened it, and pretended to read it: but he knew well the contents, and, I believe, besides, he could neither read nor write any language. I then gave him the other letters from Cairo, which he ordered his secretary to read in his ear.
”All this ceremony being finished, he called for a pipe and coffee. I refused the first, as never using it, but I drank a dish of coffee, and told him that I was bearer of a confidential message from Ali Bey of Cairo, and wished to deliver it to him without witnesses, whenever he pleased. The room was accordingly cleared without delay, excepting his secretary, who was also going away, when I pulled him back by the clothes, saying, 'Stay, if you please, we shall need you to write the answer.' We were no sooner left alone, than I told the aga that, being a stranger, and not knowing the disposition of his people, or what footing they were on together, and being desired to address myself only to him by the bey and our mutual friends at Cairo, I wished to put it in his power (as he pleased or not) to have witnesses of delivering the small present I had brought him from Cairo. The aga seemed very sensible of this delicacy; and particularly desired me to take no notice to my landlord, the schourbatchie, of anything I had brought him.
”All this being over, and a confidence established with government, I sent his present by his own servant that night, under the pretence of desiring horses to go to the cataract next day. The message was returned, that the horses were to be ready by six o'clock next morning.
On the 21st, the aga sent me his own horse, with mules and a.s.ses for my servants, to go to the cataract.”
Having thus judiciously cleared the way before him, Bruce proceeded to the small villages of the cataract, which are about six miles from a.s.suan; and on arriving at what is called the cataract, he was much surprised to find that vessels could sail up it, the river being there not half a mile broad, but divided into a number of small channels.
During the whole of the 22d, 23d, and 24th of January, he was occupied with his instruments, besides which he made many other observations and memoranda; and on the 25th of January, 1769, he prepared to descend the river.
Fain would he have continued to stem the torrent, and it was with secret pain and silent reluctance that Bruce turned his back upon the sources of the Nile. Yet the advice he had received, and the course which had been recommended to him, he had firmly resolved to pursue; and accordingly, on the 26th of January, he embarked at Syene, from the very spot where he again took boat more than three years afterward.
To his bold, enterprising mind, there was now a melancholy change in the picture. The canja was no longer to be seen proudly striding over the opposing element; but, with her prodigious mainsail lowered, and even her masts uns.h.i.+pped, she was carried broadside down the stream in helpless captivity. From her deck no longer resounded those exclamations of eager delight and sudden surprise which had ushered each new object into view: the scene had lost its freshness and its bloom--the magic charm of novelty!
In pa.s.sing Sheikh Amner, Bruce called upon his patient Nimmer (the Tiger), Sheikh of the Ababde, who was better, and as thankful as ever.
Bruce renewed his prescriptions, and he his offers of service.
On the 2d of February he again took up his quarters at Badjoura, in the house which had formerly been a.s.signed to him. ”As I was now,” says Bruce, ”about to enter on that part of my expedition in which I was to have no farther intercourse with Europe, I set myself to work to examine all my observations, and put my journal in such forwardness by explanations where needful, that the labour and pains I had hitherto been at might not be totally lost to the public if I should perish in the journey I had undertaken, which, from all information I could procure, every day appeared to be more and more desperate. Having finished these, at least so far as to make them intelligible to others, I conveyed them to my friends Messrs. Julian and Rosa, at Cairo, to remain in their custody till I should return, or news came that I was otherwise disposed of.”
FOOTNOTES:
[12] Plin., lib. v., cap. 9.
[13] Plin., lib. x.x.xvi., cap. 12.
[14] Diod. Sic., p. 45, -- 50.
[15] Shaw's Travels, chap. 4, p. 298.
[16] Lib. ii., p. 141, 168, 105, 103.
[17] Strabo, lib. vii., p. 944.
[18] _Things not existing and those not appearing to exist we may account the same._
[19] The part of Egypt which is cultivated.
[20] Cairo.
CHAPTER V.
Bruce crosses the Desert to the Red Sea.--Meets with the Arabs Ababde at Cosseir.--His Adventures in the Red Sea.--Arrives at Ma.s.suah, the ancient Harbour of Abyssinia.
It was on Thursday, the 16th of February,[21] 1769, that Bruce joined the caravan which was setting out from Kenne, the _Coene Emporium_ of antiquity. They pa.s.sed through a few dirty villages of the Azaizy, a poor, inconsiderable tribe of Arabs, who live by furnis.h.i.+ng cattle for the caravans, and by attending on them. The huts of these poor people, which are made of clay in one piece, in the shape of a beehive, are seldom above ten feet high and six feet in diameter. After travelling nearly the whole day, Bruce pitched his tent at Gabba, about a mile from the borders of the desert, and here he pa.s.sed the night.
On the 17th, at eight o'clock in the morning, he ordered his servants to mount their horses, in order to take charge of their camels, for there was an indescribable confusion in the caravan, which was to be guarded by two hundred lawless, cowardly fellows, armed with firelocks, and on horseback. When all was ready, the whole party, at a funereal pace, slowly advanced into the gloomy region of the desert. There was nothing in the prospect to excite the mind or arouse the feelings. Men, camels, and horses, drooping as they went, seemed to be alike aware that the courage they had now to exert was wholly of a pa.s.sive character; that all that was required of them was--to suffer! Anger, hatred, and the other vengeful pa.s.sions, which, like intoxicating draughts, often make men thoughtless and insensible to danger, afforded no excitement here.
They had not the savage pleasure even of contending with human enemies; and the burning sand and burning sun it was out of their power to injure.
”Our road,” says Bruce, ”was all the way in an open plain, bounded by hillocks of sand and fine gravel, perfectly hard, and not perceptibly above the level of the plain country of Egypt. About twelve miles distant there is a ridge of mountains, of no considerable height, perhaps the most barren in the world. Between these our road lay through plains never three miles broad, but without trees, shrubs, or herbs.
There are not even the traces of any living creature; neither serpent nor lizard, antelope nor ostrich, the usual inhabitants of the most dreary deserts. There is no sort of water on the surface, brackish or sweet. Even the birds seem to avoid the place as pestilential, not having seen one of any kind so much as flying over. The sun was burning hot, and, upon rubbing two sticks together, in half a minute they both took fire and flamed; a mark how near the country was reduced to a general conflagration.”