of your people are going to murder my servant."—"Whew," said Ibrahim, with a kind of whistle, "that is downright nonsense. Who are those of my people who have authority to murder and take prisoners while I am here! Here, one of you, get upon Yagoube's horse, and bring that man to me." Then turning to Bruce, he desired him to go into the tent and sit down; "for God renounce me and mine," said he, "if it is as you say, and one of them hath touched the hair of his head, if ever he drinks of the Nile again!"
Upon inquiry it was discovered that Sidi Hassan,[1] the captain of the caravan, had been the cause of this attempt at murder; having, in revenge for Ab del Gin's discovering the robber in Bruce's tent, denounced him to the Ababdé as an Atouni spy.
While waiting for a ship bound for Tor, he undertook a short voyage to the Mountains of Emeralds, or Jibbel Zumrud, where he found the ancient pits, and many fragments of a green crystalline mineral substance, veiny, clouded, but not so hard as rock-crystal. This he supposed was the smaragdus of the Romans, and the siberget and bilur of the Ethiopians, but by no means identical with the genuine emerald, which is equal in hardness to the ruby. Returning to Kosseir, he forthwith commenced his survey of the Red Sea. Having visited the northern portion of the gulf, he arrived, almost overcome with fatigue, and suffering much from ague, at Jidda, where there were a great number of Englishmen,
- ↑ Upon parting with Ibrahim, Bruce, enraged at the baseness and treachery of Sidi Hassan, entreated the young chief to revenge his wrongs upon this man, which was solemnly promised. Upon coolly considering the action, when he came to write his travels, he says, "I cannot help here accusing myself of what, doubtless, may be well reputed a very great sin." Major Head, relating this transaction, quotes the following addition to the above sentence: "the more so, that I cannot say I have yet heartily repented of it." This would have argued extreme cold-heartedness, to say the least of it; but the words are not found in the original quarto edition, whatever they may be in others of comparatively no authority.
