Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773
Bruce, James
Egypt -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- History; Natural history -- Ethiopia; Nile River
I delivered my letters from the Bey, and obtained permission to visit
the country in whatever direction I should please. I took with me a
French renegado, of the name of Osman, recommended to me by Monsieur
Bartheleny de Saizieux, consul of France to that state; a gentleman
whose conversation and friendship furnish me still with some of the
most agreeable reflections that result from my travels. With Osman
I took ten spahi, or horse-soldiers, well armed with firelocks, and
pistols, excellent horsemen, and, as far as I could ever discern upon
the few occasions that presented, as eminent for cowardice, at least,
as they were for horsemanship. This was not the case with Osman, who
was very brave, but he needed a sharp look-out, that he did not often
embroil us where there was access to women or to wine.
One of the most agreeable favours I received was from a lady of the
Bey, who furnished me with a two-wheeled covered cart, exactly like
those of the bakers in England. In this I secured my quadrant and
telescope from the weather, and at times put likewise some of the
feeblest of my attendants. Besides these I had ten servants, two of
whom were Irish, who having deserted from the Spanish regiments in
Oran, and being British born, though slaves, as being Spanish soldiers,
were given to me at parting by the Dey of Algiers.
The coast along which I had sailed was part of Numidia and Africa
Proper, and there I met with no ruins. I resolved now to distribute my
inland journey through the kingdom of Algiers and Tunis. In order to
comprehend the whole, I first set out along the river Majerda, through
a country perfectly cultivated and inhabited by people under the
controul of government, this river was the ancient Bagrada[12].
After passing a triumphal arch of bad taste at Basil-bab, I came the
next day to Thugga[13], perhaps more properly called Tucca, and by the
inhabitants Dugga. The reader in this part should have Doctor Shaw’s
Work before him, my map of the journey not being yet published; and,
indeed, after Shaw’s, it is scarcely necessary to those who need only
an itinerary, as, besides his own observations, he had for basis those
of Sanson.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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