from Janni, a young man and flave, who spoke and wrote Greek perfectly; the other two fervants were Ras Michael's, or rather the king's, both wearing the red short cloak, lined and turned up with mazarine blue, which is the badge of the king's fervant, and is called fhalaka. Ras Michael's letters to the Naybe were very short. He faid the king Hatze Hannes's health was bad, and wondered at hearing that the phyfician fent to him by Metical Aga from Arabia, was not forwarded to him instantly at Gondar, as he had heard of his being arrived at Masuah fome time before. He ordered the Naybe, moreover, to furnish him with neceffaries, and dispatch him without lofs of time.* for Mafuah, by a great variety of obfervations of the fun and ftars, was found to be in lat. 15° 35′5′′, and, by an obfervation of the fecond fatelite of Jupiter, on the 22d of September 1769, its longitude was found to be 39° 36′ 30′′ east of the meridian of Greenwich. The island of Mafuah is very unwholefome, as indeed is the whole coaft of the Red Sea, from Suez to Babelmandeb, but more especially between the tropics. Violent fevers, called there nedad, make the principal figure in this fatal list, and generally terminate the third day in death. If the patient furvives till the fifth day, he very often recovers by drinking wa ter only, and throwing a quantity of cold water upon him, even in his bed, where he is permitted to lay without attempting to make him dry, or change his bed, till another deluge adds to the first. The bark is the most fovereign remedy here; but it must be given in very different times and manners from thofe pursued *Moft of the Europeans who have vifited Abyffinia by way of Mafuah, have been cruelly pillaged there, Father Lobo, with his companions, whom our traveller regards with no favorable eye, were ftill more liardly dealt with than Mr. Bruce: The Jefuit, returning from Abyffinia by Mafuah, was ftripped by the governor of all he had. His fervant was taken from him, and he threatened with fevere baftinado, unless he purchased his fervant back with 60 piafters. When Lobo and his companions proceeded from Mafuah to Suaquem, the Bafha threatened to put them to death, if they could not purchafe their fafety at least with 15,000 crowns. The demand was at length abated to 43001. but three of the company were detained in custody. LOBO, tranflated by Johnson, p. 140, &c in Europe. Were a phyfician to take time to prepare his pa· tient for the bark, by firft giving him purgatives, he would be dead of the fever before his preparation was completed. The fecond or third dofe of the bark, if any quantity is fwallowed, never fails to purge; and if this evacuation is copious, the patient rarely dies, but, on the contrary, his recovery is generally rapid. Moderate purging is for the most part to be adopted, and rice is a much better food than fruit. The next common disease in the low country of Arabia, the intermediate, island of Mafuah, and all Abyffinia, (for the diseases are exactly fimiliar in all this tract), is the Tertian fever, which is in nothing different from our Tertian, and is fuccessfully treated here in the fame manner as in Europe.. As no fpecies of this disease, as far as Mr. Bruce saw,`menaces the patient with death, especially in the beginning of the diforder, fome time may be allowed for preparation to those who doubt the effect of the bark in this country. But ftill he apprehends the fafeft way is, to give small doses from the beginning, on the first intermiffion, or even remiffion, though this should be fomewhat obfcure and uncertain. *The next disease, which we may fay is endemial in the countries before mentioned, is called hanzeer, the hogs or the swine, and is a swelling of the glands of the throat, and under the arms. This the ignorant inhabitants endeavour to bring to a fuppuration, but in vain: They then open them" in feveral places; a fore and running follows, and a difeafe very much resembling what is called in Europe the Evil. The next (though not a dangerous complaint) has a very terrible appearance. Small tubercules or fwellings appear all over the body, but thickest in the thighs, arms, and legs. Thefe fwellings go and come for weeks together without pain; though the legs often fwell to a monstrous fize as in the dropfy. All the nations in Africa within the tropics are wonderfully affected at the fmalleft eruption or roughness of the skin. A black of Sennaar will hide himself in the houfe where dark, and is not to be feen by his friends, if he fhould have two or three three pimples on any part of his body. Nor is there any remedy, however violent, that they will not fly to for imme diate relief. The next complaint Mr. Bruce mentions, as common in these countries, is called Farenteit, a corruption of an Arabic word, which fignifies the worm of Pharaoh; all bad things being by the Arabs attributed to thefe poor kings, who feem to be looked upon by posterity as the evil genii of the country which they once governed. This extraordinary animal only afflicts those who are in constant habit of drinking stagnant water, whether that water is drawn out from wells as in the kingdom of Sennaar, or found by digging in the fand, where it is making its way to its proper level the fea, after falling down the fide of the mountains after the tropical rains. This plauge appears indifcriminately in every part of the body, but ofteneft in the legs and arms. Upon looking at this worm, on its firft appearance, a fmall black head is extremely visible, with a hooked beak of a whitish colour. Its body is feemingly of a white filky texture, very like a finall tendon bared and perfectly cleaned. After its appearance, the natives of thefe countries, who are used to it, seize it gently by the head, and wrap it round a thin piece of filk or fmall bird's feather. Every day, or feveral times a day, they try to wind it up upon the quill as far as it comes readily; and, upon the fmallest resistance, they give over for fear of breaking it. Mr. Bruce has feen five feet, or fomething more, of this extraordinary animal, wound out with invincible patience in the course of three weeks. No inflammation then remained, and fcarcely any rednefs round the edges of the aperture, only, a fmall quantity of lymph appeared in the hole or puncture, which scarcely iffued out upon preffing. In three days it was commonly well. Mr. Bruce himself experienced this complaint. He was reading upon a fofa at Cairo, a few days after his return from Upper Egypt, when he felt in the fore part of his leg, upon the bone, about feven inches below the centre of his knee-pan, an an itching refembling what follows the bite of a mufcheto Upon fcratching, a small tumour appeared very like a mufcheto-bite. The itching returned in about an hour afterwards; and being more intent upon his reading than his leg, he fcratched it till the blood came. He foon after obferved fomething like a black spót, which had already risen confiderably above the furface of the fkin. All medicine proved useless; and the disease not being known at Cairo, there was nothing for it but to have recourfe to the only received manner of treating it in this country. About three inches of the worm was wound out upon a piece of raw filk in the first week, without pain or fever; but it was broken afterwards through the care leffness and rafhnefs of the furgeon, when changing a poultice on board the fhip in which he returned to France: a violent inflammation followed; the leg fwelled fo as scarce to leave the appearance of knee, or ankle; the fkin, red and diftended, feemed glazed like a mirror. The wound was now healed, and difcharged nothing; and there was every appearance of mortification coming on. The great care and attention procured him in the lazaretto at Marfeilles, by a nation always foremost in the acts of humanity to ftrangers, and the attention and skill of the furgeon, recovered him from this troublesome complaint. Fifty-two days had elapfed fince it first begun'; thirty-five of which were spent in the greatest agony. It fuppurated at laft; and by enlarging the orifice, a good quantity of matter was difcharged. He had made conftant ufe of bark, both in fomentations and inwardly; but he did not recover the ftrength of his leg entirely till near a year after, by using the baths of Poretta. } The laft Mr. Bruce mentions of thofe endemial difeafes, and the most terrible of all others that can fall to the lot of man, is the Elephantiafis, which fome have chosen to call the leprofy, or Lepra Arabum ; though in its appearance, and in all its circumstances and frages, it no more resembles the leprofy of Palestine, than it does the gout or dropfy. During the courfe of it, the face is often healthy to appearance; the eyes vivid and fparkling: Thofe affected have fometimes a kind of drynefs upon the skin of their backs, which, upon scratching, leaves a mealinefs, or whiteness; the only circumstance in which it resembles the leprofy; but it has no fcalinefs. The hair too, is of its natural colour; not white, yellowish, or thin, as in the leprofy, but fo far from it, that though the Abyffinians have very rarely hair upon their chin, Mr. Bruce has feen people, apparently in the last flage of the elephantiafis, with a very good beard of its natural colour. The appetite is gen. erally good during this disease, nor does any change of regi men affect the complaint. Mr, Bruce's first general advice to a traveller is this; to remember well what the ftate of his conftitution was before he visited these countries, and what his complaints were, if he had any; for fear very frequently feizes us upon the first fight of the many and fudden deaths we fee upon our first arrival, and our spirits are fo lowered by perpetual perspiration, and our nervés fo relaxed, that we are apt to mistake the ordinary symptoms of a disease, familiar to us in our own country, for the approach of one of thefe terrible diftempers that are to hurry us in a few hours into eternity. This has a bad effect in the very flighteft diforders; fo that it hath become proverbial, "if you think you fhall die, you shall die.” If a traveller finds that he is as well after having been fome time in this country, as he was before entering it, his best way is to make no innovation in his regimen, further than in abating fomething in the quantity. But if he is of a tender conftitution, he cannot act more wifely than to follw implicitly the regimen of fober, healthy people of the country, without arguing upon European notions, or fubftituting what we confider as fuccedaneums to what we fee used on the spot. fpirits are to be avoided; even bark is better in water than in wine. The stomach being relaxed by profuse perspi ration, needs fomething to ftrengthen, but not inflame, and enable it to perform digeftion. For this reafon (instinct we should call it, if speaking of beasts) the natives of all eastern countries feafon every fpecies of food, even the fimpleft and mildest rice, fo much with spices, especially pepper, as abfolutely to blifter an European palate. These powerful antifeptics Providence has planted in these countries for this ufe; and the natives have, from the earliest times, had recourfe to them in proportion to the quantity they can procure. All Mr. Bruce |