In October, 1814, Pierce the sailor, then in Abyssinia, wrote a "Small but True Account of the Ways and Manners of the Abyssinians," which was published in 1820, in the second vol. of "Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay." Pierce remained in Abyssinia thirteen years. He never succeeded in reaching the capital or the fountains of the Nile; but, having turned Mohammedan, he quarrelled with the ras, took to drinking, lost his nose and part of his face; and in 1818, having re-embraced Christianity, he came with one of his wives to Cairo, where he died in great distress, a miserable example of a man who had deserted his parents, his religion, and the colours of his country. His life is, we understand, at this moment about to be published.
Coffin, a very intelligent, pleasing, active lad, but of course illiterate, remained in Abyssinia until the year 1827, when he surprised his brother, who is now valet to Lord ——, and who had long supposed him to be dead, by suddenly calling upon him in London. From a conversation which we have just had with Coffin, we understand that he is about to return to Abyssinia; the present government having refused to give him anything for the king of that country beyond a trifling complimentary present.
As, excepting Lord Valentia, Salt, Pierce, and Coffin, no European travellers have visited Abyssinia since the days of Bruce, we have conceived it to be absolutely necessary, in order that the reader may be enabled to form a correct judgment, to explain the connexion which exists between Lord Valentia, his secretary, his valet, and Nathaniel Pierce the English sailor, who, after deserting from his majesty's brig the Antelope, was patronised by Lord Valentia: for, as the two former, men of education and distinction, have already most violently attacked Bruce, and as the two latter are, we believe, about to follow (naturally enough) the opinions of their masters (we even understand that Pierce's life has been actually prepared for publication by one or more of Mr. Salt's friends), we feel it to be a duty which we owe to science, to truth, and to Bruce's memory, to show that these four individuals, without any improper intention, support rather than corroborate each other; and, having made this explanation, we no less unwillingly proceed to notice a few of the observations which have been made against Bruce by Lord Valentia and Mr. Salt.
"On the 5th," says Lord Valentia, the commander-in-chief of Bruce's enemies, "I had a most severe attack of fever, which went off at night. I took James's powder, which I thought relieved it. On the 7th I was unwell in the morning, but the James's powder prevented a regular fit. I took two grains of calomel night and morning, which gradually recovered me."—Vol. ii., p. 218. His lordship, alluding to Bruce, farther says: "When a person attempts to give geographical information to the public, it is necessary that his information should be accurate, and that he should not give as certain a single circumstance of which he has not positively informed himself." Yet Lord Valentia not only published "Travels to Abyssinia" (having only landed at Masuah, a harbour which did not at that time even belong to the King of Abyssinia), but also thus ventures, merely from hearsay, to contradict Bruce, who had been an eyewitness of facts which he related. "Although," says his lordship, "I was not so fortunate as to reach Macowar, yet I was sufficiently near it to convince myself that the accounts I had received at Massowah and Suakim of its actual position were perfectly true; and that Mr. Bruce's adventures at and near it were complete romances. I confess that I always had some doubts in my mind respecting this voyage from Cosseir, from the absurdity of the account he gives of his taking a prodigious mat-sail, distended by the wind, then blowing a gale, in his arms, and yet having one hand at liberty to cut it in pieces with a knife. Nor could I more easily credit his finding at Gibel Zumrud or Sibergeit, the pits still remaining, five in number, none of them four feet in diameter, from which the ancients were said to have drawn the emeralds," &c., &c.
Now Belzoni, who in 1816 visited this identical spot, says (p. 325), "The plain which extends from the mountain to the sea was covered in many places with woods of sycamore and ciell (the male acacia) tree, which confirms the account of Bruce. I do not see any reason why Mr. Bruce's assertion of having visited these mountains should be doubted."
Lord Valentia proceeds to say, "I think it clear, from the above observations, that Mr. Bruce represented himself in the first place as visiting an island called Gibel Zumrud, in lat. 25° 3' N., though, in fact, that island lies in 23° 48'; and afterward as reaching another island, Macowar, in 24° 2' N., which, in fact, lies in 20° 38'. I think it appears equally clear that it was impossible for him to have made a voyage from Cosseir to the real Macowar, a distance of nearly four hundred miles, in the period he allows himself, from the 14th of March to the 17th;[23] and, consequently, that he never did see that place, although his description of it, and also his assertion that the Arabs there quit the coast of Africa to strike off for Jidda, are both correct. I think it impossible to account for these errors in any other way than by considering the whole voyage as an episodical fiction." Yet Captain Keys, who commanded his majesty's ship which Lord Valentia was actually on board, says, "Mr. Bruce is a very accurate observer, and I shall take his latitude and longitude."
We have thought it but fair to give to the reader Lord Valentia's testimony, that Bruce's adventures and voyage in the Red Sea are "complete romances" and "episodical fictions." Neither our limits nor our inclination will permit us to offend Lord Valentia by making any very long reply; but we cannot refrain from observing, that if his lordship had but weighed his words with the scrupulous accuracy with which he appears to have weighed his medicine, he would have paused before he spoke thus disrespectfully of the character of an honest man, whose undertaking was altogether on too vast a scale to be described with the same minute accuracy with which his lordship thus describes the interesting occupations of his own family group: "With the bait of a cockroach," says Lord Valentia, "my servant caught a small fish of the genus Diodon; Mr. Salt drew it, and I stuffed its skin!"
But we must now for a moment return to poor Bruce, who, the reader will recollect, was left asleep on the mat. While he was thus at rest, his baggage was taken to the custom-house; and the keys being in his own pocket, the vizier, who was exceedingly curious to witness the contents of so many large boxes, ordered them to be opened at the hinges.
The first thing which chanced to present itself to the vizier's eyes was the firman of the Grand Seignior, wrapped up in green taffeta, magnificently written and titled, and the inscription powdered with gold-dust. Next appeared a white satin bag, addressed to the Khan of Tartary! Then a green and gold silk bag, with letters directed to the Sherriffe of Mecca! Then a crimson satin bag, containing letters for Metical Aga, his chief minister, sword-bearer, and favourite! At last appeared a letter from Ali Bey, of Cairo, to the vizier himself, written with all the superiority of a prince to a slave, and concluding by saying, that if any accident happened to Bruce through his neglect, he would punish the affront at the very gates of Mecca!! At the sight of these letters the vizier's curiosity was very suddenly converted into the most painful alarm; he ordered the mighty stranger's boxes to be nailed up immediately, and, upbraiding the servants for not telling him to whom they belonged, he mounted his horse, and instantly rode down to the English factory. Great inquiry was everywhere made for the English nobleman, whom nobody had seen; and Bruce was still sitting yawning on his mat, when the vizier entered the courtyard, which was instantly filled with a crowd of people.
"In heaven!" replied Bruce, calmly and fearlessly, to a dapper custom-house clerk, who asked him if he could tell him where his master was. But the question being repeated, Bruce said that the baggage belonged to him; and he immediately rose up and introduced himself to the vizier and to several of his countrymen that were present; who, when they became better acquainted, united in making arrangements for getting him the strongest recommendations possible to the Naybe or governor of Masuah (the island in front of the port of Abyssinia), to the King of Abyssinia, and to the King of Sennaar.
The English gentlemen at Jidda, and more particularly that excellent and honourable man, Captain Thomas Price, of the Lion, of Bombay, used all their influence with Metical Aga to procure Bruce a good reception in Abyssinia; and it was moreover agreed among them that an Abyssinian, named Mohammed Gibberti, should be appointed to go with him, to be an