adherents, or rather the adherents of a mock king whom he had set up, were daily sacrificed. Bruce was at first somewhat uneasy in this disagreeable scene, and the maxim of the Abyssinians, never to permit a stranger to quit the country, came full upon his mind. Early, however, in January, 1771, he obtained the king's permission, on the plea of his health, to return home, though not without a promise that he would come back, when his health was re-established, bringing with him as many of his family as possible, with horses, muskets, and bayonets. Ere he could take advantage of this permission, fresh civil wars broke out, large provinces became disturbed, and Bruce found that, as he had had to take part in the national military operations in order to pave the way for reaching the head of the Nile, so was it now necessary that he should do his best for the suppression of the disturbances, that he might clear his way towards home. During the whole of the year 1771, he was engaged with the army, and he distinguished himself so highly as a warrior, that the king presented him with a massive gold chain, consisting of one hundred and eighty-four links, each of them weighing 3 and 1-12th dwts. It was not till the 26th of December, thirteen months after his return from the source of the Nile, that he set out on his way towards Europe; nor even then was the country reduced to a peaceable condition. He was accompanied by three Greeks, an old Turkish Janissary, a captain, and some common muleteers; the Italian artist Balugani having died at Gondar. On account of the dangers which he had experienced at Massuah from the barbarous Naybe, he had resolved to return through the great deserts of Nubia into Egypt, a tract by which he could trace the Nile in the greater part of its course.
On the 23d of March, after a series of dreadful hardships, he reached Teawa, the capital of Abbara, and was introduced to the Sheikh, who, it seemed, was unwell, though not so much so as to have lost any part of his ferocious disposition. Bruce here met with an adventure, which, as it displays his matchless presence of mind in a very brilliant light, may be here related. He had undertaken to administer medicine to the Sheikh, who was in the alcove of a spacious room, sitting on a sofa surrounded by curtains. On the entrance of Bruce, he took two whiffs of his pipe, and when the slave had left the room said, " Are you prepared? Have you brought the money along with you?" Bruce replied, "My servants are at the other door, and have the vomit you wanted." "Curse you and the vomit too," cried the Sheikh in great passion, "I want money and not poison. Where are your piastres?" "I am a bad person," replied Bruce, "to furnish you with either; I have neither money nor poison; but I advise you to drink a little warm water to clear your stomach, cool your head, and then lie down and compose yourself; I will see you to-morrow morning." Bruce was retiring, when the Sheikh exclaimed, "Hakim, [physician] infidel, or devil, or whatever is your name, hearken to what I say. Consider where you are; this is the room where Mek Baady, a king, was slain by the hand of my father: look at his blood, where it has stained the floor, and can never be washed out. I am informed you have twenty thousand piastres in gold with you; either give me two thousand before you go out of this chamber, or you shall die; I shall put you to death with my own hand." Upon this he took up his sword, which was lying at the head of his sofa, and drawing it with a bravado, threw the scabbard into the middle of the room, and, tucking the sleeve of his shirt above the elbow, like a butcher, he said, "I wait your answer." Bruce stept one pace backwards, and laid his hand upon a little blunderbuss, without taking it off the belt. In a firm tone of voice, he replied, u This is my answer: I am not a man to die like a beast by the hand of a drunkard; on your life, I charge you, stir not from your sofa. I had no need," says Bruce, "to give this injunction;
