Travels, between the years 1765 and 1773, through part of Africa, Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, into Abyssinia, to discover the source of the Nile : comprehending an interesting narrative of the author's adventures in Abyssinia, and a circumstantial account of the manners, customs, government, religion, history &c &c of that country : being the substance of the original work / by the late James Bruce.

  • Bruce, James, 1730-1794.
Date:
[1812]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels, between the years 1765 and 1773, through part of Africa, Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, into Abyssinia, to discover the source of the Nile : comprehending an interesting narrative of the author's adventures in Abyssinia, and a circumstantial account of the manners, customs, government, religion, history &c &c of that country : being the substance of the original work / by the late James Bruce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    508/516 (page 484)
    Chiggre, leaf from the groimd. At twenty minutes before five the simoom ceased, and a comfortable and cooling breeze came by starts from the north, blowing five or six minutes at a time, and then falling calm. They were now come to the Acaba, the ascent before they arrived at Chiggre, and at eight alighted in a sandy plain absolutely without herbage, covered with loose stones, a quarter of a mile due north of the well, which is in the narrow gorge, forming the southern outlet of this small plain. Chiggre is a small narrow valley, closely covered up and surrounded by barren rocks. The wells are ten in number, and the narrow gorge which opens to them is not ten yards broad. The springs, however, are very abundant. Wherever a pit is dug five or six feet deep, it is immediately filled with water. The principal pool is about forty yards square, and fi ve feet deep : but the best tasted water was in the cleft of a rock, about thirty yards higher, on the w^est side of this narrow outlet. All the water, however, was very foul, with a number of animals both aquatic and land. They left Chiggre, November 17, and on the 18th they passed through a sandy plain, without trees or verdure. At ten o’clock they alighted at a place called Erboygi, where are some trees, to feed their camels. At half-past one o’clock they left this, and came to a large wood of broom. Here, for the first time, they saw a shrub, which very much resembled Spanish broom. The whole ground is dead sand, with some rocks of reddish granite. In the evening they alighted in a wood, called Terfowey, full of trees and grass. The trees are the tallest and largest they had seen since leaving the Nile. On the 27th, at half-past five in the morning, they attempted to raise their camels by every method that they could devise, but all in vain; only one of them could get upon his legs, and that one did not stand two minutes, till he kneeled down and could never be raised afterwards. Every way they turned them- selves,