The short account which we have here given of the Naybe of Masuah may appear exaggerated to those who have never had the fortune to treat with human beings of this description. But, in fact, no human beings can be worse than the people of Masuah; who, as we have already observed, are a mongrel race between the savages of the western coast of the Red Sea, and those super-savages, the Turkish janisaries. Salt visited this place in 1810, forty-one years after Bruce had left it. Notwithstanding the handsome presents he made to the governor, he was unable to resist the impositions of the naybe, his brothers, and his sons; "and among this tribe of locusts," says Salt, "I was compelled to distribute nearly five hundred dollars before I could get clear of the place. With a pleasure somewhat similar to that expressed by Gil Blas, when he escaped from the robbers' cave, we quitted Arkeeko. Among all the descriptions of men I have ever met with, the character of the half-civilized savages found at Arkeeko is the most detestable, as they have ingeniously contrived to lose all the virtues of the rude tribes to which they belonged, without having acquired anything but the vices of their more civilized neighbours. The only description I recollect that would particularly suit them, may be found in Mr. Bruce's very energetic account of the inhabitants of Sennaar." It is very singular that Salt, who thus invariably corroborates Bruce in all the principal features of his history, should have been, as we shall shortly see, so completely carried away by the party spirit which existed against him. "Adversity," it has been justly remarked, "makes men friends;" but, though Bruce and Salt suffered at Masuah and Arkeeko under the same rod, yet the latter even there takes every opportunity of supporting Lord Valentia in his petty attempt to convict Bruce of "falsehood" and "exaggeration." The tide of public opinion was still strong against Bruce, and on its faithless waters Lord Valentia and his secretary were enabled to float in triumph. CHAPTER X. Journey from Arkeeko, over the Mountain of Tarenta to Gondar, the Capital of Abyssinia.