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 of the surf, he was at last successful. He had only, however, become exposed to greater dangers. A plundering party of Arabs came to make prey of the wrecked vessel, and his Turkish clothing excited their worst feelings. After much suffering he got back to Bengazi, but with the loss of all his baggage, including many valuable instruments and drawings. Fortunately, the master of a French sloop, to whom he had rendered a kindness at Algiers, happened to be lying in that port Through the grateful service of this person, he was carried to Crete. An ague, however, had fixed itself upon his constitution, in consequence of his exertions in the sea of Ptolemata: it attacked him violently in Crete, and he lay for some days dangerously ill. On recovering a little, he proceeded to Rhodes, and from thence to Asia Minor, where he inspected the ruins of Baalbec and Palmyra, By the time he got back to Sidon, he found that his letters to Europe announcing the loss of his instruments, were answered by the transmission of a new set, including a quadrant from Louis XV., who had been told by Count Buffon of the unhappy affair of Bengazi. In June 1768, he sailed from Sidon to Alexandria, resolved no longer to delay that perilous expedition which had taken possession of his fancy. "Previous to his first introduction to the waters of the Nile," says Captain Head, "it may not be improper, for a moment, calmly and dispassionately to consider how far he was qualified for the attempt which he was about to undertake. Being thirty-eight years of age, he was at that period of life in which both the mind and body of man are capable of their greatest possible exertions. During his travels and residence in Europe, Africa, and Asia, he had become practically acquainted with the religion, manners, and prejudices of many countries different from his own; and he had learned to speak the French, Italian, Spanish, Modern Greek, Moorish and Arabic languages. Full of enterprise, enthusiastically devoted to the object he had in view, accustomed to hardship, inured to climate as well as to fatigue, he was a man of undoubted courage, in stature six feet four, and with this imposing appearance, possessing great personal strength; and lastly, in every proper sense of the word, he was a gentleman; and no man about to travel can give to his country a better pledge for veracity than when, like Bruce, his mind is ever retrospectively viewing the noble conduct of his ancestors—thus showing that he considers he has a stake in society, which, by the meanness of falsehood or exaggeration, he would be unable to transmit unsullied to posterity." From Alexandria he proceeded to Cairo, where he was received with distinction by the Bey, under the character of a dervish, or soothsayer, which his acquaintance with eastern manners enabled him to assume with great success. It happened, fortunately for his design, that in the neighbourhood of Cairo resided a Greek patriarch, who had lived sometime under his roof at Algiers, and taught him the Modern Greek language. This person gave him letters to many Greeks who held high situations in Abyssinia, besides a bull, or general recommendation, claiming protection for him from the numerous persons of that nation residing in the country. Bruce had previously acquired considerable knowledge of the medical art, as part of that preparatory education with which he had fitted himself for his great task. The Bey fortunately took ill: Bruce cured him. His highness, in gratitude, furnished him with recommendatory letters to a great number of ruling personages throughout Egypt, and along both shores of the Red Sea. Bruce, thus well provided, commenced his voyage up the Nile, December 12, 1768, in a large canja or boat, which was to carry him to Furshoot, the residence of Amner, the Sheikh of Upper Egypt. For two or three weeks he enjoyed the pleasure of coasting at ease and in safety along the wonder-studded banks of this splendid river, only going on shore occasionally to give the more remarkable objects a narrower inspection. He was at Furshoot on the 7th of January, 1769. Ad-