chael Sukul, the Ras, is such a character as Shakespeare would have conceived; nor is this commendation, high as it is, exaggerated. Other books may be better written, but there is none from which finer passages can be produced; and in these there are no tricks of composition, nothing that the Birmingham-manufacturers of plated style can counterfeit; it is the plain tale plainly told, the strong feeling naturally expressed. In the whole course of our reading, we remember nothing more deeply and lastingly impressive than the journey of Bruce across the

desert.

It now remains to state what has been added to the present edition, either from the papers of Bruce, or by the labours of the editor. An account of the life and writings of Bruce precedes the work. It appears that the conclusive act, by which presbytery was established as the national religion of Scotland, was obtained chiefly by the address and policy of the founder of his family. Whoever has seen presbyterianism north of the Tweed, will understand what reason Scotland and religion have to be obliged to him. In his youth, Bruce was considered as of a consumptive habit, which there was the more reason to apprehend, as his mother and sister had both been cut off by that curse of our country. He had the happiness to be educated in England, because his father was attached to the house of Hanover, and feared lest he might be infected by the prevalent spirit of jacobinism in his own country. Accordingly he was placed at Harrow, where he distinguished himself. As he advanced towards manhood, the symptoms of disease became more threatening: he was tall beyond the measure of his years, his joints feeble, his breast weak, and subject to violent coughs on catching the slightest degree of cold. Care and exercise saved him. For his profession he would have preferred theojogy himself, and wished to have entered the English church. This predilection did not meet with the approbation of his father, and, in obedience to his advice, he entered at Edinburgh and commenced the study of Scotch law: but neither health nor inclination permitted him to proceed with this. India was the next object: be was advised to petition the court of directors, for the liberty of settling as a free-trader under its patronage. To forward this scheme, he went to London in

1753, the twenty-second year of his ages there he became intimate with the family of Mrs. Allan, the widow of an eminent wine-merchant, married the daughter, and entered into the business with the son. In his own opinion this marriage, which prevented him from adventuring to India, saved him from the dreadful imprisonment in the black hole. He was now settled in a prosperous business, and happy with a wife; but, before the end of the year, manifest symptoms of consumption appeared in Mrs. Bruce. Bristol hot-wells proved, as they always must prove in such cases, inefficacious: the south of France was then recommended, which was her native country; but she only lived to reach Paris, where her last moments were persecuted by the catholic clergy, according to their detestable custom. We copy a very affecting letter witten shortly afterwards.

*

"Letter of Mr. Bruce to his Father. "Dear sir, Marklane, Nov. 12, 1754. "I received yours of the 28th ult. If I could be susceptible of more grief, I should have been much concerned for my good friend Mr. Hay; but my distress at present does not admit of augmentation. Death has been very busy amongst my relations of late. My poor wife, my kind uncle, who had been always a tender father to me, both gone in eight months! God Almighty do with me as he sees best! When I reflect upon what I have suffered these three years past, I am much more inclined to pray for my life being shortened than for a prolongation of it, if my afilictions must have no end but with my being. My mind is so shocked, and the impressions of that dreadful scene at Paris so strongly fixed, that I have it every minute before my eyes as distinctly, as it was then happening. Myself a stranger in the country; my servants unacquainted with the language and country, my presence so necessary among them, and indispensibly so with my dear wife; my poor girl dying before my eyes, three months gone with child, full of that affection and tenderness which marriage but not the cares of it; many of the Roman produces when people feel the happiness, catholic clergy hovering about the doors; myself unable to find any expedient to keep them from disturbing her in her last moments-Don't you feel for your son, dear sir, in these circumstances? But I will write no more; my afflicting you cannot alleviate my distress. I cannot, however, omit telling you an instance of lord Albemarle's very great humanity; he has been always a warm-protector of this house. The morning before my wife died, he sent his chaplain down to

effer his services in our distress. After hearing the service of the sick read, and receiving the sacrament together, he told me, in case I received any trouble from the priests, my lord desired I would tell them I belonged to the English ambassador. When my wife died, the chaplain came again to me, desired me to go home with him, and assured me, that my lord had given him orders to see my wife buried in the ambassador's burying ground, which was accordingly done; and had it not been for this piece of humanity, she must have been buried in the conumon yard, where the wood is piled that serves the town for firing. I could not, however, leave her as soon as dead, as is the custom in England, but having ordered the mournful solemnity, with as much decency as is allowed in that country to heretics, at midnight, between the 10th and 11th uit. accompanied only by the chaplain, a brother of my lord Foley's, and our own servants, we carried her body to the burying-ground, at the Porte St. Martin, where I saw all my comfort and happiLess laid with her in the grave. From thence, almost frantic, against the advice of every body, I got on horseback, having ordered the servant to have post horses ready, and set out in the most tempestuous night I ever saw, for Boulogne, where I arrived next day without stopping. There the riding, without a great coat, in the night time, in the rain, want of food, which, for a long time, I had not tasted, want of rest, fatigue, and excessive concern, threw me into a fever; but, after repeated bleedings, and the great care taken of me by Mr. Hay, I recovered well enough to set out for London on the Wednesday. I arrived at home on the Thursday, when my fever again returned, and a violent pain in my breast. The former is so far. abated, that I am endeavouring to do a little business, hoping, from the variety of that, to find some ease from reflections that at sent are too heavy for me. Thus ended my unfortunate journey, and with it my present prospect of happiness in this life.”

pre

He continued in the trade several years, and, in the course of business visited Spain, and Portugal, and France. Before this journey he had studied the languages of these countries, and improved himself in drawing. As his journals remain, we cannot but wish that all which is interesting in them had been inserted in this memoir: it might well have supplied the account of his writings, which, however fit for a biographical dictionary, is surely out of place when prefixed to the writings themselves. The following passage is given by the editor as a specimen of these journals.

"There are many particular customs in Portugal, all of which may be known by this rule, that whatever is done in the rest of the

world in one way, is in Portugal done by the contrary, even to the rocking of the cradle, which I believe in all the rest of the world is from side to side, but in Portugal is from head to foot. I fancy it is owing to this early contrariety that their brains work in so different a manner all their lives after. A Portuguese boatman always rows standing, not with his face, but his back to the stern of the boat, and pushes his oar from him. When he lands you, he turns the stern of the boat to the shore, and not the head. If a man and woman ride on the same mule, the woman sits before the man, with her face the contrary way to what they do in England. When you take leave of any person to whom you have been paying a visit, the master of the house always goes out of the room, down stairs, and out of the house, before you, to leave you, as he says, in possession of his house, and to shew you how much he, and all that are in it, are devoted to you. They are, indeed, very attentive to the smallest punctilio, knowing well one another's temper. The smallest affront is never forgiven. This is the occasion of the many murders which are continually committed here. It is, indeed, the only country where it can be said that murder is tolerated. Every family has. a son, a brother, or a nephew, who is priest, or friar. These are the instruments. As soon as the friar has committed the crime, he flies to his convent; and in six months the thing is no more talked off."

Much of this is prejudice, and the latter part is false. A curious anecdote occurs in another note. On arriving at Coimbra they visited the principal library, but none of the friars could tell where the Greek books were kept. Mr. Bruce's friend having been there on a former occasion, accidentally found one; and, on asking the friars in what language it was written, they answered, He alguma dus lenguas muertas, it is one of the dead languages.

In Spain he made some effort to obtain access to the Arabic MSS. in the Escurial. Don Ricardo Wall, the then minister, wished to engage him in the service of Spain, but did not, or could not, assist him in this plan. It seems that the observations which he had made in Spain were new and considerably numerous; but in consequence of an early resolution, which he never violated, he had determined to publish nothing on any subject which others had exhausted, or might easily illustrate-a resolution springing from that vanity which was his predomi

nant fault.

During this journey his father died and he succeeded to a respectable inheritance, though not equal to his growing

ambition. In 1761 he left the wine business. He had seen a battle at Crevelt without being engaged in it, and had conceived a passion for military enterprize. Having procured a plan of the harbour and works at Ferrol from some person in the Spanish service, he projected a scheme for attacking it, a Spanish war being then expected, and through his friend Mr. Wood, then under secretary of state, laid it before the ministry, adding, that if the king would entrust him with the command of the forlorn hope, and a pair of colours,

he would not desire the assistance of an

other boat except that in which he landed, till he had planted them with his own hand on the beach of Ferrol. He conceived himself justified in this, because models of the newest British ships of war had been secretly procured by the Spaniards. The justification is not admissible; nothing can justify a man of honour for performing the work of a spy.

The plan was approved, but laid aside for the sake of sending nearer relief to Portugal. He was preparing to return to Scotland, when lord Halifax requested

to see him.

"On meeting with him, his lordship laughed "On meeting with him, his lordship laughed at Mr. Bruce's design of retiring to the country at his time of life; suggested to him, that the way to rise in the present reign, was by enterprize and discovery; and that his majesty's love of the arts was a sure and effectual introduction to patronage. He observed, that Africa, though almost at our very door, was yet unexplored; that Dr. Shaw, a writer of undoubted credit, had spoken of magnificent remains of architecture existing in the kingdoms of Tunis and Algiers; and that something should now be done to preserve them, by drawing, and add them to the king's collection. As a further inducement, he informed him, that Mr. Aspenwall, his majesty's agent and consul-general at Algiers, had been recalled; that a merchant, of the naine of Ford, who had been appointed to succeed him, was since dead; in consequence of which the place was vacant. He warmly advised Mr. Bruce to accept this opportunity of visiting Africa, under the protection of a public character; promised that he should have leave to appoint a vice-consul for the dispatch of business in his absence; and that, if he made wide excursions into the country, and large additions to the king's collection, he should be recompensed with the rewards stipulated in the affair of Ferrol, or advanced to a higher situation in the diplomatic department. To these proposals Mr. Bruce acceded. He afterwards had several conversations with lord Halifax and Mr. Wood on the subject of Africa. In the course of these, meation was frequently made of the sources

of the Nile, and of the obscurity in which they had ever been concealed. The fountains of the river of Egypt were spoken of as likely to remain wholly unknown to the noderns, until some undaunted adventurer should trace it to its origin. Hints were obliquely thrown out, that the discovery of these "coy sources" could not be expected from an ordinary traveller, much less from one who had no experience in those difficulties which must accompany an enterprize of such magnitude and glory; and it was insinuated, that if any Eriton should fulfil the ought not, under such a monarch, and in a wishes of every age, in this particular, he period so auspicious to discovery and learning, to despair of a high reward."

The consulship at Algiers accordingly was given him. It appears from his own letters in the appendix, but not from the memoir, that he had accepted it because an attack upon Oran was projected, in which he hoped to have been of service. The fair promises of lord Halifax ended

as the promises of great men usually end. Not only was the promise which had been given him of a few months absence to visit the interior of the country never performed; but pressing dispatches upon the most urgent business, in which the property, and liberty, and life of British subjects were at stake, were neglected. As far as it was possible for an individual, Bruce defended the rights of his countrymen, and supported the honour of his country. If British property was confiscated, and British subjects dragged into slavery and scourged like slaves, the infamy does not lie at his door.

It was the plan of the Algerines to make the English pay them an annual tribute; for the many favours which they received from England, these ignorant barbarians attributed to fear-though not the true motive, quite as worthy and as wise as the true one. Bruce's advice, if followed, would have humbled their insolence for ever, and have preserved us thus detailed in one of the letters to lord a station in the Mediterranean. It is Halifax :

It is true, immediately make restitution, and desire a renewal of friendship, and if we are contented with that, the fleet will scarcely be disarmed, until they anew begin acts of violence, till constant equipments on our part, without any product but constant verbal submissions on theirs, will, they hope, in time, make us prefer a moderate annual expence to an excessive one so often as they please to provoke us to it. Therefore, my lord, I should humbly hope, besides restitution and reparation, that the expence of the armament might be insisted upon. They really are not in a condition for refusals. This, on our part, would be such a lasting mark of superiority, and, on theirs, so distinct a one of mal-adniinistration, that no Dey, for the future, would hazard measures that might bring such serious consequences on his country. They are, my lord, very capable of affording this: in the treasury in Algiers only, there are said to be contained thirty-five millions sterling in specie, besides an immense amount in jewels

and plate.

"But if it were his majesty's pleasure his royal highness should come hither with a fleet, there is a much more proper species of indemnification than that above mentioned, of more consequence to the nation in peace or war, which will much more readily be complied with by Algiers, and which is attended with certain circumstances in favour of li

berty, that make it perfectly proper for the first expedition of a prince.

"This is the cession of the island of Tabarca to Britain, the subject of the mentorial inclosed, wherein I have set down imperfectly the advantages attending the possession of it. It has been offered, by Algiers, to several powers, and they have differed upon small sums. It is of no sort of profit to the Alge

rines at present. The above your lordship may depend upon, as it is the result of many conversations with the commissary of Tabarca, now a slave here, and who is under obligations to me, though he knows not what use is to be made of his information.

Bruce had seen this island in a coasting voyage. It is famous for a coral fishery; and, along the coast, he says, are immense forests of large beautiful oaks, more than sufficient to supply the necessities of all the maritime powers in the Levant, if the quality of the wood be but equal to the size and beauty of the tree.

The whole correspondence is in the highest degree honourable to Bruce. He concludes one of his letters thus: My lord, in this country of murder, chains, and torture, your lordship will not expect me to be more explicit than I am as to measures."'

"I was just finishing the letter to your Fordship, when word is brought me, that this morning early, the master of the above-men tioned vessel, and the supercargo, were car

ried before the Dey, and in order to extort a confession if they had secreted any effects, were bastinadoed over the feet and loins in such a manner as the blood gushed out, and then loaded with heavy chains: the captain, it is thought, cannot recover. I have likewise received from a friend some insinuations, that I am in danger, and advice to fly; but as it was not the prospect of pay, or want of fortune, that induced me to accept of this employment, so I will not abandon it from fears or any motives unworthy a gentleman. One brother has this war already had the honour of dying in his majesty's service, two more are still in it, and all I hope is, if any accident befall me, as is hourly probable, his majesty will be favourable to the survivors of a family that has always served him faithfully."

It is impossible to read the correspondence without wishing the two men to taught the pirates a good lesson had he change situations. Bruce would have been in the ministry, and lord Halifax should have been sent to Algiers to teach him English feelings under Algerine discipline. Bruce was neglected in his public capacity, and ill-used as to his private concerns. The leave of absence was never granted him, and he was at last obliged either to make his excursion as a private individual, or to abandon the prin cipal design of his residence in Barbary.

The history of this journey is given by himself in the introduction to his travels. From this time, therefore, till his return. from Abyssinia to Europe, we may pass

The

over the occurrences of his life.
his complete recovery was of a very sin-
first business in which he engaged after
gular nature. Before he went to Algiers
he had received a promise of marriage
from a Scotch lady, settled, as we sup
pose, in Italy. As Bruce, however,
thought proper to make an excursion to
the sources of the Nile before he claimed
the performance of this promise, the lady
married an Italian nobleman, while he
was drinking her health at Geesh. He
thought himself injured, apparently with
less reason than she had thought herself
undervalued; and, in spite of the advice
of his friends, he went to Rome to chal-
lenge the marquis. The affair terminated
in the following correspondence:

"1. Mr. Bruce to Sig. Accoramboni.
Sir,

"Not my heart, but the entreaties of my friends, made me offer you the alternative by the abbe Grant. It was not for such satisfaction, that 9 ck, and covered with wounds, I have traversed so much inland sea to find you.