TRAVELS OF JAMES BRUCE the king returned to his camp he gave Bruce a massive gold chain and arrayed him in gorgeous apparel, according to the ancient custom of the country. On December 26th Bruce left Koskam and arrived at the frontier city of Tchenkin on January 2nd, 1772.

He then proceeded to Horkakamut, and then to Teawa, which he reached on March 22nd. On September 26th he arrived at Herbagi (Arbagi), and four days later he crossed the Nile by the ferry, and in the evening came to the village of Halfaya, about nine miles to the north of the junction of the Blue and White Niles. On October 4th he arrived at Shendi, which, he declared, was ruled by a woman, the sister of Wad Agib. From Shendi he proceeded by a desert route on the east bank of the Nile to Aswan, which he only reached after terrible hardships and great suffering.

He left Aswan on December nth and arrived at Cairo on January loth, 1773.

The history of his travels, which he subsequently compiled and published, throws very considerable light on the manners and customs of the Abyssinians, and affords much information concerning the kingdom of Sennaar, but it tells nothing about the country and the antiquities which lie between the First Cataract and Khartum. The most valuable portions of the narrative of his travels to the student of the Egyptian Sudan are those which deal with Nubia and Sennaar, but it must always be remembered that, though written by an able, accomplished, and intelligent traveller, they are not the work of a scientific investigator in the modern sense of the phrase. His nautical surveys have long since been superseded, and his astronomical calculations also, and his theorizing and views as to the historical development of civilization are valueless as a whole, because he regarded Ethiopia as the birthplace of ancient civilization, and the home of the arts and sciences, especially of architecture, astronomy, and writing, and he thought that all the trade and commerce of India and of the Gulf of Arabia were originally established by the Ethiopians. On the other hand, every credit is due to him for his personal bravery, and for the tact and thoroughness with which he carried out the great object of his life, viz., the discovery of the source of the Blue Nile, and although his labours only resulted in tracing to its rise the greatest tributary of that wonderful river, the Nile, 21