'you look to be a man in distress; if you have a secret I shall respect it till you please to tell it me, but if you want a passage to India, apply to no one but Thornhill of the Bengal Merchant. Perhaps you are afraid of somebody, if so, ask for Mr. Greig, my lieutenant, he will carry you on board my ship directly, where you will be safe.' 'Sir,' said I, 'I hope you will find me an honest man: I have no enemy that I know, either in Jidda or elsewhere, nor do I owe any man any thing.' 'I am sure,' says he, 'I am doing wrong in keeping a poor man standing who ought to be in his bed. Here! Philip, Philip!' Philip appeared. 'Boy,' says he, in Portuguese, which, as I imagine, he supposed I did not understand, 'here is a poor Englishman that should be either in his bed or his grave; carry him to the cook, tell him to give him as much broth and mutton as he can eat. The fellow seems to have been starved—but I would rather have the feeding of ten to India, than the burying of one at Jidda.'"
Bruce kept up the farce some time longer; despatched the mutton and the broth; and then threw himself at full length upon the mat in the courtyard, and fell asleep. The arrival of the Vizier of Jidda, who, in the traveller's absence, had opened his trunks, and been terrified at the sight of the grand seignior's firman, now disclosed Bruce's rank and consequence to the English factory, and his acting the poor man was laughed at and excused.
His countrymen, when his objects and purposes were explained, did whatever was in their power for the furtherance of his views. Letters to the governor of Masuah, the King of Abyssinia, Ras Michael, and the King of Sennaar, were procured from Metical Aga and other influential persons, and a person who required a few weeks to prepare for the journey was appointed to accompany him. The time which must elapse before this man could be ready,
