most starved, they were happily relieved by the arrival of a friendly tribe. At Gilina, he obferved a large heap of rub bish and stones, but no diftinét trace of any building. Muchtar, the ancient Tucca Terebenthina, was the next remarkable place which he vifited; it is diftinguished by two triumphal arches, the largest of which he imagines equal in taste, execution and mafs, to any thing now existing in the world. He has draughts of both in his collections.

Kiffar, the Colonea Affuras of the ancients, next attracted his notice. A triumphal arch, with an inscription, ascertaining the ancient name of the place, and a small square temple with feveral inftruments of facrifice carved upon it, are the most remarkable antiquities of the place. It stands on the declivity of a hill, overlooking a fertile plain. At Mufti, he obferved the fragments of a triumphal arch scattered on the ground. Proceeding from Mufti north east, he arrived again at Dugga, and went down the Bagradda to Tunis.

He made yet another journey through Tunis by Żowar, a high mountain, on which there is an aqueduct that once conyeyed water to Carthage. In this journey he again vifited Gilma and Spaitla, and spent other five days among the ruins of the latter. The town of Spaitla is not only valuable for its elegant remains of ancient architecture, but is fituated in the most beautiful spot in Barbary, furrounded with juniper trees, and watered by a pleasant stream, which finks there under ground, and appears no more. He next vifited Feriana, the ancient Thala, which was taken and destroyed by Metellus in his pursuit of Jugurtha. The only curiofity which ftruck his obfervation there, was baths without the town, of very, warm water. Warm as it was, a number of fishes, not unlike gudgeons, appeared in it. It was furprifing that any fishes could exift in water of fuch a temperature: but there were about five or fix dozen in the pool. And he was informed, that, in the day, they went down to a certain distance in the stream that ran from it, but returned at night into the warm and deep water of the pool.

He next visited fucceffively Gaffa, Tozer, Gabs, and Infkilla, without being detained at any of thefe places by any very remarkable curiofity. At El Gemme, norh-west of the last,

he

he found a large and fpacious amphitheatre. The lower part of that building appeared to have been formed to be occafionally filled with water, by means of a fluice and aqueduct still entire. For water games, the water rofe up in the middle through a large fquare hole, faced with hewn ftone. This was the last ancient building our traveller vifited in the kingdom of Tunis. And he believes, he may say with confidence, there is not in the territories of either Algiers or Tunis, one fragment of good taste of which he has not brought a drawing to Britain,

He now returned to Tunis, took leave of the Bey, and fet out for Tripoli. He travelled by the ifland of Gerba, the ancient island of the Lotophagi: but no bush, tree, or verdure, except fome fhort grafs which borders the fandy defert, is to be seen through all this tract of country. The Wargumma and Noile, two great tribes of Arabs, are mafters of the def erts.

Within about four days journey of Tripoli, he met the Emer Hadje conducting the caravan of pilgrims from Fez and Suz in Morocco acrofs Africa to Mecca. He was a middle aged man, of a stupid aspect. His caravan, a scurvy, diforderly, unarmed crowd, confifting of about 3000 men, with from 12 to 14,000 camels, loaded with merchandize and provifions, were ready to flee before Mr. Bruce's company of fifteen horsemen, when they first came up with them; but, when they learned who they were, their fears ceased, and they became infolent.

At Tripoli* our traveller was hospitably received by the British conful. He fent his books, drawings, and fupernume

rary

*The following account of Fezzan, which Mr. Lucas obtained from a fhereeff of that country, and which was confirmed by the information of Ben Alli, a native of Morocco, is introduced here, to gratify the reader with an account of an empire, in the heart of Africa, of which, till the African Society began their liberal exertions, the very name was fearce known to us.

Fezzan is defcribed to be fituated in the vaft wildernefs as an island in the midft of the ocean; the capital is, Mcurzouk, about 390 miles fouth from Mefurata The number of towns and villages is faid to be little less than one hundred, which appear to be chiefly inhabited by husbandmen and thepherds, for though they all contain the merchants, the artificers, the minifters of religion, and the officers of the executive government; yet, the bufinefs of agriculture and pafturage feems to be the principal occupation of the natives of Fezzan. The houses, like thofe of the little villages in the neighbourhood of Tripoli, are built

of

rary instruments thence by an English fervant to Smyrna, and himself croffed the Gulf of Sidra to Bengazzi. The province of Bengazzi was a fcene of confusion. The Bey was a weak, unhealthy young man. Two tribes of Arabs, who occupied the territory on the weft of the town, had by his misconduct, been involved in a quarrel. One had prevailed over the other,

and

of clay, and are covered with a flat roof, that is compofed of the boughs and branches of trees, on which a quantity of earth is laid. Inartificial and defective as this covering appears, it is suited to the climate: for as fain is never known in Fezzan, the principal requifites of a roof are shelter from the dews, and protection from the fun. The heats of the fummer, which begin in April and end in November, are stated to be very intenfe, fuch as often to threaten inftant fuffocation; but nature and custom have formed the conflitutions of the inhabitants to fuch high degrees of heat, that an approach to the common temperament of Europe entirely deftroys their comfort. Their drefs is fimilar to that of the Moors of Barbary, resembling, with fome exceptions, the drefs of a British feaman. In their common intercourse with each other, all diftin&ions of rank appear to be forgotten; for the fhereef and the towest plebcian, the rich and the poor, the mafter and the man, converse familiarly, and eat and drink together. Generous and eminently hofpitable, the Fezzanner, let his fare be fcanty or abundant is ever defirous that others fhould partake of his meal, and if twenty people fhould unexpectedly vifit his dwelling, they must all participate as far as it would go. The chief medium of payment is gold duft, the value of which is always expreffed in weight. A grain of gold is flated to be worth one-half at Fezzan, or three-fourths of its value in England.

Their government is purely monarchial, and the revenues of the crown arifes from taxes on the towns and villages, and duties on commerce; the king alfo appears to be the principal merchant in his kingdom, especially in the articles of trona and fenna.

Among the circumstances for which the natives of Fezzan, who travelled with Mr. Lucas, confidered their fovereign as eminently diftinguished, they often mentioned his juft and impartial, but severe and determined administration of juftice; and, as a proof of the afcendancy which, in this refpect, he has acquired over the minds of his fubjects, they defcribed the following cuftom.-If any man has injured another, and refuses to go with him to the judge, the complainant, drawing a circle round the oppreffor, folemnly charges him., in the king's name, not to leave the place till the officers of juftice, in search of whom he is going, fhali arrive; and such (if they are to be credited) is, on the one hand, his fear of the punishment which is inflicted on those who disobey the injunction, and fo great, on the other, is his dread of the perpetual banishment, which, if he feeks his fafety by withdrawing from the kingdom, muft be his inevitable lot, that this imag inary prifon operates as a real confinement, and the offender submissively waits the arrival of the officers of the judge.

South-east of the capital, at the diftance of 150 miles, is a wide and fandy def. ert, entirely barren and oppreffed with a fuffocating heat, about 200 miles in width; beyond which are the mountains of Tibefti, inhabited by a wild and favage people of that name. The vales are fertile in corn and pafturage for cattle, and are particularly celebrated for their breed of camels, which are effeemed the best in Africa. The trade to Fezzan confits of fenna and camels, for which the Tibeltians receive cora), allaiks, or harakans, imperial dollars, and brafs. Thefe people are ftated to have been conquered by the king of Fezzan, but at present they neither acknowledge him for their fovereign nor pay him any tribute,

To the fouth of the kingdom of Fezzan, in that vaft region which spreads itself from

C

and driven them within the town. It was crowded with thousands of inhabitants, for whom there were neither lodgings nor provisions. The streets was every night strewed with the carcaffes of numbers who died of hunger: and many were faid to fupport life with food at the very idea of which human nature shudders. He

from the river of the Antelopes weftward for 1200 miles, and includes a confiderable part of the Niger's course, two great empires, those of Bornou and those of Cashna, are established.-The foil, climate, and productions of these empires are defcribed as fimilar; the inhabitants are black, and the ruling people are Mahometans,

From Mourzouk to Bornou the route is faid to be more than a thousand miles, which is annually performed by the merchants of Fezzan, who convey a variety of articles, among which some are of European manufacture, from Tripoli through Fezzan to that capital, in return for which they receive slaves, gold duft, civit. Bornou, the name which the natives give to the country, is diftinguished in Arabic by the appellation of Bernou, or Bernoa, a word which fignifies the land of Noah ; for the Arabs conceive that on the first retiring of the deluge, its mountains received the ark. In this empire it is faid that thirty languages are spoken; that of Cashna contains one thousand villages and towns; but the boundaries and population are not fufficiently explained to enable the reader to form a judgment of their extent. These countries produce a great variety of fruits, different kinds of grain and vegetables, of which a tree called kedeynah is faid to be the most valuable; in form and height it refembles the olive, is like the lemon in its leaf, and bears a nut, of which the kernal is in great eftimation as a fruit, and the thell, when bruifed, furnishes oil for the lamps of the people of Bornou. The government of this country, and of Cashna, is an elective monarchy, the fucceffor to the throne being chofen from among the fons of the deceased. fovereign by three elders, whofe conduct in the ftate has invested them with the public engem. Their choice being made, the elders conduct the fovereign elect, to the place where the corpfe of his father lies, and point out to him the feveral virtues and the feveral defects which marked the character of his departed parent; and they alio forcibly defcribe with juft penegyric or fevere condemnation, which raised or depreffed the glory of his reign. You fee before you the end of your mortal career; the eternal, which fucceeds to it, will be miferable or happy in proportion as your reign fhall have proved a curie or a bleffing to your people.'

This mode of election, however, does not fecure the people from those commotions to which an elective monarchy is fubje&t; the rejected princes frequently revolt, and whilft he has a brother alive, the throne of the fovereign is feldom 'firmly established. The prefent fultan is described to have 500 ladies in his feraglio, and is the reputed father of 350 children, of which 300 are males. The difproportion is explained by fuppofing that the mother exchanges her female child for the male offspring of a ftranger, in hope of feeing herself the supposed parent of a future candidate for the empire.

South-east of Bournou, at the diftance of about twenty days travelling, is fituat ed an extenfive kingdom of the name of Begarmee, the inhabitants of which are rigid Mahometans, and, though perfectly black in their complexions, are not of the negro catt. Beyond this kingdom to the east are feveral tribes of negroes, idolaters in their religion, favage in their manners, and accuftomed, it is faid, to feed on human flesh. These nations the Begarmeese annually invade; and when they have taken as many prifoners as the opportunity affords, or their purpose may require, they drive the captives, like cattle, to Begarmee. It is faid, if any of them, weakened by age or exhaufted by fatigue, happen to linger in their pace, one of the horsemen feizes on the oldeft and cutting off his arm, ules it as a club to drive on the reft. From Begarmee they are fent to Bornou, from Bornou to Fezzan, and from Fezzan by Tripoli to different parts of the Levant. Such are the immenfe distances to which this unhappy race of men are feut into flavery from inland parts of their native country.

He retired, therefore, as haftily as poffible from Bengazzi, and continued his journey by Arfenoe and Barca, to Ras Sem, where we were perfuaded in England by the Tripoline ambassador, in the beginning of the prefent century, that there was a petrified city to be seen. The Arabs told Mr. Bruce too that he would find a petrified city but the only curiosity he saw there was the jerboa, a fpecies of mice little inferior in agility and activity to the winged tribes.

He advanced next to Ptolemeta, on the fea-coaft, the ancient Ptolemais built by Ptolemy Philadelphus. Of the remains of architecture which it affords, he took draughts. Learning here that the adjacent country was in the utmost confufion; that the caravan of Morocco had been plundered by a powerful tribe of Arabs who occupied the country between Plolemeta and Alexandria; and that Dema, the town to which he was next to proceed in his intended route, was ravaged at once by famine, plague, and civil diffenfions, he took a paffage on board a Greek veffel belonging to Lampedofa, which was then about to fail from the harbour.

This veffel was very ill accoutred. It had enough of fail, but no ballaft. A crowd of paffengers, fleeing before the famine, were taken on board. The commander was not ac. customed to fail thofe feas. A light, fteady breeze, promifing a fhort and agreeable voyage, foon became violent and cold. A ftorm of hail followed; and the gathering of the clouds feemed to threaten thunder. The captain was preparing, at Mr. Bruce's perfuafion, to put into the harbour of Bengazzi, when the veffel unexpectedly ftruck on a funken rock, in the entrance of that harbour, and at no great diftance from the fhore. One of two boats that were towed aftern, was presently unla fhed by Roger M'Cormack, Mr. Bruce's Irish fervant, who, before he deferted into the Spanifh fervice, had been failor on board the Monarch. Mr. Bruce, with him and his other fervant, went down into the boat. A crowd followed, whom they could not prevent. Before they had moved twice the length of the boat from the fhip, they were drenched by a wave, which nearly filled the boat. The wretches who filled it raised an howl of despair. Mr. Bruce had before stripped himself to a short undẹr waif

coat