The Life and Adventures of Bruce, the African TravellerHead, Francis Bond, Sir
History
The Life and Adventures of Bruce, the African Traveller
Head, Francis Bond, Sir
Bruce, James, 1730-1794; Ethiopia -- Description and travel
For one moment we must stop to observe, that Bruce's account of the
number and the effect produced by these flies is a part of his narrative
which was long pointed at and ridiculed as being particularly unworthy
of belief; yet the description already quoted from Denham (page 100)
strongly corroborates Bruce's statement, which has also been confirmed
by the testimony of the Abyssinian, Dean, who was publicly examined at
Cairo by Dr. Clarke. No author has ever yet been able to impart to his
reader an adequate idea of the clouds of locusts which, in some parts of
the world, suddenly convert, for a hundred miles together, a green
country into a brown one, by the total destruction of vegetable life.
Bruce's account, therefore, of the havoc which the tsaltsalya, zimb, or
fly of Abyssinia produces among living creatures, however strange it may
sound in this country, does not, in the natural history of the world,
stand unsupported.
Why a portion of the animal and vegetable creation should be annoyed by
such scourges as the zimb and the locust; why parts of the world should
be disordered by hurricanes and earthquakes; and why the whole of
mankind should occasionally suffer from pestilential disorders, &c., are
problems which Bruce need not be called on to solve. He has merely added
one to a number of facts, concerning which all we know is, that they
form parts of a wise and beneficent system which it is entirely beyond
our power to comprehend.
Abyssinia being mountainous, lying in the middle of the torrid zone, and
being subject also to the heavy periodical rains just described, the
effect naturally produced by these three causes is, that the climates of
the high and low country are totally different. The mountainous or high
land of Abyssinia, which, it may be observed, is covered with long grass
and destitute of wood, is at all times dry, cool, temperate, and
healthy, and often even extremely cold; while the low, woody country,
hazy, close, and insufferably hot, suffers severely from the sickness
invariably produced by the excessive rains. Part of this low country,
however, is not covered with wood; and, though equally hot, from being
better ventilated, it is, generally speaking, healthy, while it is as
productive as Egypt, and covered with the finest cattle of all
descriptions. But where the waters of the rainy season, for want of
descent, stagnate on the plains, these hot, swampy marshes produce no
pasture, and are exceedingly unhealthy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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