Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/43

he heard the noise which the closing of the joint in the stock of the blunderbuss made, and thought I had cocked it, and was instantly to fire. He let his sword drop, and threw himself on his back upon the sofa, crying, ' For God's sake, Hakim, I was but jesting.'" Bruce turned from the cowed bully, and coolly wished him a good night. After being detained three weeks at this place, he set out for Sennaar, the capital of Nubia, which he reached at the end of April. He was here received kindly by the king, but the barbarous maxims of the country caused his detention for upwards of four months, during which the exhaustion of his funds caused him to sell the whole of his gold chain except a few links. At length, on the 5th of September, he commenced his journey across the great desert of Nubia, and then only, it might be said, began the true hardships of his expedition. As he advanced upon the sandy and burning plain, his provisions became exhausted, his camels and even his men perished by fatigue, and he was in the greatest danger, almost every day, of being swallowed up by the moving sands which loaded the breath of the deadly simoom. For weeks and months the miserable party toiled through the desert, enduring hardships of which no denizen of a civilized state can form the least idea. At last, on the 29th of December, just as he had given his men the last meal which remained to them, and when all, of course, had given themselves up for lost, they came within hearing of the cataracts of the Nile, and reached the town of Syene or Assouan, where succour in its amplest forms awaited them. Twelve dreadful weeks Bruce had spent upon the desert: his journey from the capital of Abyssinia to this point had altogether occupied eleven months. It was now exactly four years since he had left civilized society at Cairo; during all which time he had conversed only with barbarous tribes of people, from whose passions no man possessed of less varied accomplishment, less daring, and less address, could have possibly escaped. He sailed down the Nile to Cairo, which he reached on the 10th of January, 1773. He then sailed for Alexandria, whence he easily obtained a passage to Europe. Arriving at Marseilles in March, he was immediately visited and congratulated by a number of the French savans, at the head of whom was his former friend, Count de Buffon. For some time, however, he was not sufficiently recovered from the debilitating effects of his journey to enjoy the polished society to which he was restored. A mental distress, moreover, had awaited his arrival in Europe. His Maria, whose health he had only postponed to that of his sovereign in drinking from the fountain of the Nile, despairing of his return, had given her hand to an Italian Marchese. Bruce withered under this disappointment more than under the sun of Nubia. In a transport of indignation, he travelled to Rome, and in a style of rodomontade, only to be excused by a kind consideration of his impetuous and ingenuous character, called the Marchese to account for a transaction, in which it was evident that only the lady could be to blame. The Marchese, with Bruce's sword almost at his throat, disclaimed having married Maria with any knowledge of a previous engagement on her part: and with this Bruce had to rest satisfied. Mente alta reposcit; his only resource was to bury his regrets in his own proud bosom, and despise the love which could permit a question of time or space to affect it. In the summer of 1774, he returned to England, from which he had now been absent twelve years. His fame having gone before him, he was received with the highest distinction. He was introduced at court, where he presented to George III. those drawings of Palmyra, Baalbec, and the African cities, which his Majesty had requested him to execute before his departure from the country. The triumphs of this enterprising traveller were, however, soon dashed and embittered by the mean conduct of a people and age altogether unworthy of him. Bruce, wherever he went, was required to speak of what he had seen