Part 20

Accordingly, with this holy kafilah he departed from Tursheez on the 28th of December; and being, as the reader will have perceived, of an exceedingly sociable disposition, he very quickly found a substitute for the moollah in the person of a seid, or descendant of Mohammed, who has doubtless more descendants than any other man ever had. This green-turbaned personage was a native of Ghilān, and, take him for all in all, his conduct did more honour to his great ancestor than any other member of his family commemorated by European travellers. With this honest man Forster very quickly entered into partnership; but the seid being old and infirm, the laborious portion of their operations necessarily fell on the traveller. One little incident among many will serve to show the terms upon which they lived together. The kafilah having halted in a desert on the 3d of January, 1784, at a small stream, “the Ghilān seid and I,” says Forster, “had filled our bottle for mutual use; and the bread, cheese, and onions which supplied our evening meal giving me a violent thirst, I made frequent applications to our water stock. The seid, seeing that I had taken more than a just portion, required that the residue should be reserved for his ceremonial ablutions. While the seid retired to pray I went in search of fuel, and, returning first to our quarter, I hastily drank off the remaining water, and again betook myself to wood-cutting, that I might not be discovered near the empty vessel by my associate, who had naturally an irascible temper. When I supposed he had returned from his prayer, I brought in a large load of wood, which I threw on the ground with an air of great fatigue, and of having done a meritorious service ‘Ay,’ says he, ‘while I, like a true believer, have been performing my duty to God, and you toiling to procure us firing for this cold night, some hardened kaufir, who I wish may never drink again in this world, has plundered the pittance of water which was set apart for my ablutions.’ He then made strict search among our neighbours for the perpetrator of this robbery, as he termed it; but receiving no satisfactory information, he deliberately delivered him or them to the charge of every devil in the infernal catalogue, and went grumbling to sleep.”

In this way they proceeded until, having escaped from the deserts of Khorasan, they entered the mountainous, woody, and more thickly-peopled province of Mazenderan, the inhabitants of which Forster found more civilized and humane than the Khorasans. On the night of the 24th of January, while pushing on through the forests, most of the passengers beheld a star with an illuminated tail, which, from its form and quick motion, our traveller supposed to be a comet. In several of the woods through which their road now lay, no vestige of a habitation or signs of culture appeared, excepting a few narrow slips of land at the bases of the hills. But as they proceeded the valleys soon “opened, and exhibited a pleasing picture of plenty and rural quiet. The village all open and neatly built, the verdant hills and dales, encircled by streams of delicious water, presented a scene that gave the mind ineffable delight. The air, though in winter, was mild, and had the temperature of an English climate in the month of April.” Frazer, the able author of the Kuzzilbash, has given in his travels a no less favourable idea of the rich scenery of Mazenderan.

In a few days he arrived at Mushed Sir, on the Caspian Sea, where he was hospitably received and entertained by the Russian merchants established there. At this city he embarked for Baku, where he shaved his beard, forswore Mohammed, and again embarked in a Russian frigate for Astrakhan, where he arrived on the evening of the 28th of April. From this place, where he remained some time in order to recruit his strength, he proceeded through Moscow to Petersburg, which he reached on the 25th of May. Here his stay was but short, for he had now become impatient to visit England; and therefore, embarking about the middle of June in a trading vessel, he arrived in England in the latter end of July, 1784.

Forster seems to have occupied himself immediately on his arrival in throwing into form a portion of the literary materials which he had collected during one of the most hazardous and adventurous journeys that ever were performed; for in 1786 he published in London his “Sketches of the Mythology and Manners of the Hindoos,” which was received with extraordinary favour by the public. How long he remained in England after the publication of this work I have not been able to discover; but we find him in 1790 at Calcutta, where he published the first volume of his “Journey from Bengal to England,” and prepared the second volume for the press. However, before the completion of his work, the political troubles which at that period shook the whole empire of Hindostan involved him in their vortex. He was despatched by the governor-general, whose personal friendship he would appear to have enjoyed, on an embassy to Nagpoor, in Gundwarra, the capital of the Bhoonsla Mahratta dynasty, where he died about eight months after his arrival, in the month of February, in 1791. His papers were conveyed to England. Here, six years after his death, a complete edition of his travels appeared, in two volumes quarto; but the person who undertook the task of editor, with a degree of negligence which cannot be sufficiently admired, not only omitted to give the public any account of the author, but, which is more unpardonable, did not even condescend to inform them when, how, and from whom the manuscript was obtained. However, the extraordinary merit of the work, and the lively, laughing style in which it is written, quickly recommended it sufficiently to the literary world. The celebrated Meiners, professor of philosophy in the university of Göttingen, translated it into German; and Langlès, the well-known orientalist, published in 1802 a French translation, with copious notes, a chronological notice on the khans of the Krimea, and a map of Kashmere.

In English there has not, I believe, appeared any new edition,—none, at least, which has acquired any reputation; though there are extremely few books of travels which better deserve to be known, or which, if properly edited, are calculated to become more extensively popular. Forster was a man of very superior abilities; and his acquirements—whatever M. Langlès, a person ill calculated to judge, may have imagined—were various and extensive. He possessed an intimate knowledge of the Persian, and the popular language of Hindostan; and appears to have made a considerable progress even in Sanscrit. Neither was he slightly conversant with modern literature; and although it may be conjectured from various parts of his work that the history of ancient philosophy and literature had occupied less of his attention, he may yet be regarded as one of the most accomplished and judicious of modern travellers. This being the case, it is difficult to explain why he should now be less read than many other travellers, whose works are extremely inferior in value, and incomparably less amusing.

JAMES BRUCE.

Born 1730.—Died 1794.

JAMES BRUCE, one of the most illustrious travellers whom any age or country has produced, was born on the 14th of December, 1730, at Kinnaird, in the county of Stirling, in Scotland. His mother, who died of consumption when he was only three years old, seemed to have bequeathed to him the same fatal disorder; for during childhood his health was bad, and his constitution, which afterward acquired an iron firmness, appeared to be particularly feeble. His father, who had married a second wife, by whom he had a large family, sent James at the age of eight years to London, where he remained under the care of his uncle, counsellor Hamilton, until 1742, when he was placed at Harrow school. Here he remained four years, during which he made considerable progress in his classical studies; and while he commanded the enthusiastic approbation of his teachers (one of whom observed, that for his years he had never seen his fellow), he laid the foundations of many valuable friendships which endured through life.

On leaving school at the early age of sixteen, Bruce, who at that time could of course understand nothing of his own character, imagined himself admirably adapted for the study of divinity and the tranquil life of a clergyman; but his inclination not receiving the approbation of his father, he necessarily abandoned it, and prepared, in obedience to paternal authority, to study for the Scottish bar. He returned to Scotland in 1747, and, having spent the autumn of that year in destroying wild fowl and other game, for which noble and rational species of recreation he always, we are told, retained a peculiar predilection, he resumed his studies, which, as they now led him through the dusty mazes of ancient and modern law, seem to have possessed much fewer charms for our future traveller than shooting grouse upon the mountains. Two years, however, were uselessly consumed in this study. At the termination of this period it was discovered that it was not as a lawyer that Bruce was destined to excel; and therefore, abandoning all thoughts of a career for which he had himself never entertained the least partiality, he returned in a considerably impaired state of health to his favourite field sports in Stirlingshire.

Here he lived about four years, undetermined what course of life he should pursue; but at length, having resolved to repair as a free trader to Hindostan, he proceeded to London in 1753 for the purpose of soliciting permission from the directors. An event now occurred, however, which promised to determine for ever the current of his hopes and pursuits. Conceiving an attachment for the daughter of an eminent wine-merchant, who, on dying, had bequeathed considerable wealth and a thriving business to his widow and child, Bruce relinquished his scheme of pushing his fortunes in the East, married, and became himself a wine-merchant. But Providence had otherwise disposed of his days. In a few months after his marriage, consumption, that genuine pestilence of our moist climates, deprived him of his amiable wife at Paris, whither he had proceeded on his way to the south of France. For some time after this event he continued in the wine trade, the interests of which requiring that he should visit Spain and Portugal, he applied himself during two years to the study of the languages of those countries, of which he is said to have possessed a very competent knowledge.

This preliminary step having been made, he may be said to have commenced his travels with a voyage to the Peninsula. Landing on the northern coast of Spain, he traversed Gallicia, spent four months in Portugal, and then, re-entering Spain, made the tour of a large portion of Andalusia and New Castile, and then proceeded to Madrid. His enthusiasm and romantic character, which had probably a new accession of ardour from the wild scenes still redolent of ancient chivalry which he had just visited, recommended him strongly to the Spanish minister, who used many arguments to induce him to enter the service of his Catholic majesty. This by no means, however, coincided with Bruce’s views. That restlessness which the man who has once conceived the idea of travelling ever after feels, unfitted him in reality for all quiet employment. He felt himself goaded on by the desire of fame; to be in motion seemed to be on the way to acquire it. He therefore proceeded across the Pyrenees into France, and thence, through Germany and Holland, to England, where he arrived in July, 1758.

He had learned at Rotterdam the death of his father, by which he succeeded to the family estate at Kinnaird. He likewise continued during another three years to derive profit from his business as a wine-merchant; but at the termination of that period the partnership was dissolved. All this while, however, his leisure had been devoted to the acquisition of the Arabic and other eastern languages, among the rest the Ethiopic, which probably first directed his attention to Abyssinia. In the mean while, an idea which he had conceived while at Ferrol in Gallicia was the means of bringing him into communication with the English ministry; this was, that in case of a rupture with Spain, Ferrol would be the most desirable point on the Spanish coast for a descent. Should the scheme be adopted, he was ready to volunteer his services in aiding in its execution. The plans appeared feasible to Lord Chatham, with whom Bruce had the honour of conversing on the subject. But this great man going out of office before any thing definitive had been concluded on, Bruce began to imagine that the plan had been abandoned; but was for some time longer amused with hopes by the ministers, until the affair was finally dropped at the earnest solicitation of the Portuguese ambassador.

He now retired in apparent disgust to his estate in Scotland; but shortly afterward, Lord Halifax, who seems to have penetrated into Bruce’s character, recalled him to London, and proposed to him, as an object of ambition, the examination of the architectural curiosities of Northern Africa, and the discovery of the sources of the Nile. This latter achievement, however, was spoken of in an equivocal manner, and as if, while he mentioned it, his lordship had entertained doubts of Bruce’s capacity for successfully conducting so difficult and dangerous an enterprise. Such a mode of proceeding was well calculated, and was probably meant, to pique the vanity of Bruce, and urge him, without seeming to do so, into the undertaking of what with great reason appeared to be an herculean labour. But whatever may have been Lord Halifax’s intentions, which is now a matter of no importance, the hint thus casually or designedly thrown out was not lost. Bruce’s imagination was at once kindled by the prospect of achieving what, as far as he then knew, no man had up to that moment been able to perform; and secretly conceiving that he had been marked out by Providence for the fulfilment of this design, he eagerly seized upon the idea, and treasured it in his heart.

Fortune, moreover, appeared favourable to his views. The consulship of Algiers, the possession of which would greatly facilitate his proceedings in the early part of the scheme proposed, becoming vacant at an opportune moment, he was induced to accept of it; and, having been appointed, he immediately furnished himself with astronomical instruments and all other necessaries, and set out through France and Italy for the point of destination.

During a short stay in Italy, spent in the assiduous study of antiquities, he engaged Luigi Balugani, a young Bolognese architect, to accompany him as an assistant on his travels; and, having received his final instructions from England, he embarked at Leghorn, and arrived at Algiers in the spring of 1763.

The leisure which Bruce now enjoyed, interrupted occasionally by business or altercations with the dey, was devoted to the earnest study of the Arabic, in which his progress was so rapid, that in the course of a year he considered himself fully competent to dispense with the aid of an interpreter. In the Ethiopic want of books alone prevented his making equal progress; for with him the acquiring of a language was a task of no great difficulty. He was now, having thus qualified himself for penetrating into the interior with advantage, peculiarly desirous of commencing his travels; for to continue longer at Algiers would, he rightly considered, be uselessly to sacrifice his time; and he repeatedly requested from Lord Halifax permission to resign his consulship. For a considerable time, however, his desires were not complied with. The critical position of the British in that regency required a firm, intelligent consul; and until a dispute which had just then arisen with the dey respecting passports should be settled, it was not judged expedient to recall Bruce, whose intrepidity, which was thus tacitly acknowledged, admirably adapted him to negotiate with barbarians. The dispute arose out of the following circumstances:—On the taking of Minorca by the French, a number of blank Mediterranean passports fell into their hands. These, in the hope of embroiling the English and Algiers, they filled up and sold to the Spaniards and other nations inimical to the Barbary powers. The effect desired was actually produced. Ships were taken bearing these forged passports; and although, upon examination, the fraud was immediately detected by the British consul, Bruce’s predecessor, it was not easy to calm the violent suspicions which had thus been excited in the mind of the dey, that the English were selling their protection to his enemies. In fact, the conduct of the governor of Mahon and Gibraltar, who, as a temporary expedient, granted what were termed _passavants_ to ships entering the Mediterranean, strongly corroborated this suspicion; for these ill-contrived, irregular passports appeared to be purposely framed for embarrassing or deluding the pirates. Bruce endeavoured, with all imaginable firmness and coolness, to explain to the dey that the first inconvenience originated in accident, and that the second was merely a temporary expedient; but it is probable that had not the regular admiralty passports arrived at the critical moment, he might have lost his life in this ignoble quarrel.

This disagreeable affair being terminated, he with double earnestness renewed his preparations for departure. Aware that a knowledge of medicine and surgery, independently of all considerations of his own health, might be of incalculable advantage to him among the barbarous nations whose countries he designed to traverse, he had, during the whole of his residence at Algiers, devoted a portion of his time to the study of this science, under the direction of Mr. Ball, the consular surgeon; and this knowledge he afterward increased by the aid of Dr. Russel at Aleppo.

The chaplain of the factory being absent, to avoid the necessity of taking the duties of burying, marrying, and baptizing upon himself, he took into his house as his private chaplain an aged Greek priest, whose name was Father Christopher, who not only performed the necessary clerical duties, but likewise read Greek with our traveller, and enabled him, by constant practice, to converse in the modern idiom. The friendship of this man, which he acquired by kindness and affability, was afterward of the most essential service to him, and contributed more, perhaps, than any other circumstance to preserve his life and forward his views in Abyssinia.

At length, in the month of August, 1765, Bruce departed from Algiers, furnished by the dey with ample permission to visit every part of his own dominions, and recommendatory letters to the beys of Tunis and Tripoli. He first sailed to Port Mahon, and then, returning to the African shore, landed at Bona. He then coasted along close to the shore, passed the little island of Tabarca, famous for its coral fishery, and observed upon the mainland prodigious forests of beautiful oak. Biserta, Utica, Carthage were successively visited; and of the ruins of the last, he remarks, that a large portion are overflowed by the sea, which may account, in some measure, for the discrepancy between the ancient and modern accounts of the dimensions of the peninsula on which it stood.

At Tunis he delivered his letters, and obtained the bey’s permission to make whatever researches he pleased in any part of his territories. He accordingly proceeded with an escort into the interior, visited many of the ruins described or mentioned by Dr. Shaw, feasted upon lion’s flesh, which he found exceedingly tough and strongly scented with musk, among the Welled Sidi Booganim, and then entered the Algerine province of Kosantina. Here, he observes, he was greatly astonished to find among the mountains a tribe of Kabyles, with blue eyes, fair complexions, and red hair. But he ought not to have been astonished; for Dr. Shaw had met with and described the same people, and supposed, as Bruce does, that they were descendants of the Vandals who anciently possessed this part of Africa.

Having visited and made drawings of numerous ruins, the greater number of which had previously been described more or less accurately by Dr. Shaw, he returned to Tunis, and, after another short excursion in the same direction, proceeded eastward by Feriana, Gaffon, and the Lake of Marks, to the shores of the Lesser Syrtis. Here he passed over to the island of Gerba, the Lotophagitis Insula of the ancients, where, he observes, Dr. Shaw was mistaken or misinformed in imagining that its coasts abounded with the _seedra_, or lotus-tree. He must have spoken of the doctor’s account from memory; for it is of the coasts of the continent, not of the island, that Dr. Shaw speaks in the passage alluded to.

In travelling along the shore towards Tripoli Bruce overtook the Muggrabine caravan, which was proceeding from the shores of the Atlantic to Mecca,[8] and his armed escort, though but fifteen in number, coming up with them in the gray of the morning, put the whole body, consisting of at least three thousand men, in great bodily terror, until the real character of the strangers was known. The English consul at Tripoli received and entertained our traveller with distinguished kindness and hospitality. From hence he despatched an English servant with his books, drawings, and supernumerary instruments to Smyrna, and then crossed the Gulf of Sidra, or Greater Syrtis, to Bengazi, the ancient Berenice.

Footnote 8:

Bruce says, “From the Western Ocean to the _western banks_ of the Red Sea, _in the kingdom of Sennaar_.” His recent biographer omits the “kingdom of Sennaar,” but still places Mecca on the “western banks of the Red Sea.” For “western,” however, we must read “eastern” in both cases.

Here a tremendous famine, which had prevailed for upwards of a year, was rapidly cutting off the inhabitants, many of whom had, it was reported, endeavoured to sustain life by feeding upon the bodies of their departed neighbours, ten or twelve of whom were every night found dead in the streets. Horror-stricken at the bare idea of such “Thyestœan feasts,” he very quickly quitted the town, and proceeded to examine the ruins of the Pentapolis and the petrifactions of Rao Sam, concerning which so many extraordinary falsehoods had been propagated in Europe. From thence he returned to Dolmetta (Ptolemata), where he embarked in a small junk for the island of Lampedosa, near Crete. The vessel was crowded with people flying from the famine. They set sail in the beginning of September, with fine weather and a favourable wind; but a storm coming on, and it being discovered that there were not provisions for one day on board, Bruce hoped to persuade the captain, an ignorant landsman, to put into Bengazi, and would no doubt have succeeded; but as they were making for the cape which protects the entrance into that harbour, the vessel struck upon a sunken rock, upon which it seemed to be fixed. They were at no great distance from the shore, and as the wind had suddenly ceased, though the swell of the sea continued, Bruce, with a portion of his servants and a number of the passengers, lowered the largest boat, and, jumping into it, pushed off for the shore. “The rest, more wise,” he observes, “remained on board.”