Though I understood Arabic well, I did not, till that day, know it had fuch powers, or that it contained expreflions at once to forcible and fo fimple. I found myfelf fo much moved, and my tears came fo faft, that it was in vain to endeavour to carry on a farce under fuch tragical appearances," Woman, faid I, I am not a Turk, nor do I make flaves, or kill children. It is your Arabs that force me to this; it was you that attacked me last night, it was you that murdered Mahomet Towash, one of your own religion, and bufied in his duty. I am a ftranger, feeking my own fafety, but you are all murderers and thieves." It is true, fays fle, they are all murderers and liars, and my husband, not knowing, may have lied too. Only let me hear what he told you, and I will tell you whether it is truth or not." Day was now advancing apace, and no refolution taken, whilft our prefent fitua tion was a very unsafe one. We carried the three prifoners bound, and fet George, the Greek, centinel over them. I then called the people together.

I ftated fairly, in a council held among ourselves, the horror of flaughtering the women and child, or even leaving them to starve with bunger by killing their camels, from whom they got their only fuftenance; for, though we should not ftain our hands with their blood, it was the fame thing to leave them to perifh: that we were frangers, and had fallen upon them by accident, but they were in their own country. On the contrary, fuppofe we only flew the man, any of the women might mount a camel, and, travelling with diligence, might in. form the Bithareen, who would fend a party and cut us off at the next well, where we muft pafs, and where it would be impoffible to escape them. I must fay, there was a confiderable majority for fparing the women and child, and not one but who willingly decreed the death of the man, who had confeffed he was endeavouring to fteal our camels, and that he intended to carry them to his party at the Nile; in which cafe the lofs of all our lives was certain, as we fhould have been ftarved to death, or murdered by the Arabs.

The very recital of this attempt fo enraged Hagi Ifmael that he defired he might have the preference in cutting off his head. The Barbarins, too, were angry for the lofs of their bracelets. Indeed every one's opinion was, that the Arab fhould die, and especially fince the account of their behaviour to Mahomet Towash, whofe death I, for my own part, cannot say I thought myself under any obligation to revenge. "Since you are differing in your opinions, and there is no time to lofe, faid I, allow me to give mine. It has appeared to me, that often, fince we began this journey, we have been preferved by visible inftances of God's protection, when we should have loft our lives if we had gone by the rules of our own judgment only. We are, it is true, of different religions, but all worship the fame God. Suppofe the prefent cafe fhould be a trial, whether we truft really in God's protection, or whether we believe our fafety owing to our own forefight and courage. If the man's life be now taken away, to-morrow we may meet the Bifhareen, and then we fhall all reflect upon the folly of our precaution. For my own part, my conftant creed is, that I am in God's hands, whether in the houfe or in the defert; and not in those of the Bithareen, or of any lawless fpoiler. I have a clear confcience, and am engaged in no unlawful purfuit, feeking on foot my way home, feeding on bread and water, and have done, nor defign, wrong to no man. We are well armed, are nine in number, and have twice as many firelocks, many of these with double-barrels, and others of a fize never before feen by Arabs, armies of whom have been defeated with fewer:

we are ragged and tattered in our clothes, and no prize to any one, nor do I think we fhall be found a party of pleasure for any fet of wild young men, to leave their own homes, with javelins and lances to waylay us at the well for sport and diverfion, fince gain and profit are out of the question. But this I declare to you, if ever we meet thefe Arabs, if the ground is fuch as has been near all the wells we have come to, I will fight the Bishareen boldly and chearfully, without a doubt of beating them with eafe. I do not fay my feelings would be the fame if my confcience was loaded with that moft heinous and horrid crime, murder in cold blood; and therefore my determination is to spare the life even of this man, and will oppofe his being put to death by every means in my power.'

It was ealy to fee, that fear of their own lives only, and not cruelty, was the reason they fought that of the Arab. They answered me, two or three of them at once, "That it was all very well; what fhould they do? should they give themselves up to the Bishareen, and be murdered like Mahomet Towafh? was there any other way of efcaping?" "I will tell you, then, fince you ask me what you thould do: You fhall follow the duty of felf-defence and felf-prefervation, as far as you can do it without a crime. You fhall leave the women and the child where they are, and with them the camels, to give them and their child milk; you fhall chain the hufband's right hand to the left of fome of yours, and you shall each of you take him by turns till we fhall carry him into Egypt. Perhaps he knows the defert and the wells better than Idris; and if he should not, ftill we have two Hybeers instead of one; and who can foretell what may happen to Idris more than to any other of us? But as he knows the ftations of his people, and their courfes at particular feafons, that day we meet one Bifharcen, the man that is chained with him, and conducts him, fhall inftantly ftab him to the heart, fo that he shall not fee, much lefs triumph in, the fuccefs of his treachery. On the contrary, if he is faithful, and informs Idris where the danger is, and where we are to avoid it, keeping us rather by fcanty wells than abundant ones, on the day I arrive fafe in Egypt I will cloath him anew, as also his women, give him a good camel for himself, and a load of dora for them all. As for the camels we leave here, they are she-ones, and necessary to give the women food. They are not lame, it is faid, but we fhall lame them in earnest, fo that they fhall not be able to carry a meffenger to the Bifhareen before they die with thirst in the way, both they and their riders, if they should attempt it."

An univerfal applause followed this fpeech; Idris, above all, declared his warmeft approbation. The man and the women were feat for, and had their fentence repeated to them. They all fubfcribed to the conditions chearfully; and the woman declared the would as foon fee her child die as be an instrument of any harm befalling us, and that, if a thousand Bifhareens fhould pass, the knew how to mislead them all, and that none of them fhould follow us till we were far out of danger.' It would be doing injuftice to Mr. Bruce to omit mentioning that, at his return to Cairo, by his manly and generous behaviour, he fo much won the heart of Mahomet Bey, that he obtained the firman of that prince, permitting the commanders of English veffels belonging to Bombay and Bengal, to bring their fhips and merchandize to Suez; a place far preferable, in all refpes, to Jidda, to which they were formerly confined. Of this permiflion, which no European nation

3

could

could ever before acquire, many English veffels have already availed themselves; and it has proved peculiarly ufeful both in public and private difpatches. Such was the worthy conclufion of this memorable journey through the defert, which terminated in obtaining this great national benefit!

[To be continued.]

ART. IX. Invocations, addreffed to the Deity, the Ocean, and to Woman: to which is added, the Diffolution, a Fragment. 12mo. pp. 69. 1s. 6d. Stalker. 1790.

"THE HE following fpecies of compofition very few have attempted, and in it ftill fewer have fucceeded.' Thus far the author: but before we proceed, let us inform our readers what this fpecies of compofition is. It is the true Bathos, concerning which our old friend Martinus Scriblerus ufed to talk; and in which we must confefs this writer has made unusual progrefs: but left every reader may not be able to find beauties hidden from the common eye,' we fhall endeavour, like another Newton, to ftrengthen their fight.-God faid let there be light, and Newton couched the powers of man's perception!'

Now there are three kinds of invocation: the admiring, the complaining, and the abufive: in the latter of thefe, our author chiefly excels, and, therefore, to it we confine our remarks..

The abufive invocation delights in an abrupt, rattling beginning; yet as the very genius of it is violence, and as violence is never fteady, the addrefs muft not long be directed to the perfonage invoked, but must speedily vary to fome object, as little connected with that perfonage as poffible. What a beautiful fpecimen of this we have in the invocation to the Ocean !

Rude, rough, rugged tyrant-beguiling grave of mortals. But hark! how diffonant thy fwelling furges, how awful those clashing waters!-that fierce face that frowns on man, at times affumes the hypocrite, and as the Syrens, enticeth to deftruction!

O Demosthenes, father of oratory! thou didst right to affail this roaring bully, to enure thee to the turbulent and difcontented fpirits of an irrefolute and falling people.'

Next, we are to dwell on the powers of the invoked, that they may give greater fplendor to the future enumeration of micchiefs, and fhew, in a stronger light, the boldness of the invoker:

Great thy power, and cruel is thy will-we truft in thee, and are deceived-we have faith, and yield our all, our life, to thy appetite but never art thou fatisfied.

When, on thy briny field, the proud veffel bends her onward way-when the, triumphant, ploughs along-borne by the western gale, and feems to ride aloof, the pride of power-her hoarse

founding

founding throats arrang'd on either fide-vomiting forth fire-and. lording o'er the cock-boat, fhiv'ring at her threats-or when the numerous fleet, array'd for fturdy conteft, the colours wafting in the wind, fends forth blood and defolation, crim foning thy verdant waters Imperious thou, and aggravated by polluted billows, doth fhew thy power-how infinitely more grievous is thy anger! Then comes the pathetic enumeration of miferies endured! Yet thy anger oft is wreaked on the fair merchant'—

At times, for leagues he gently ftems the current of thy waves, and, when ferenity around doth feem fubfervient to his hopes, when the azure sky, emblem of peace, doth line the horizon, till loft in the distant mift, to the impervious eye; when through the tackle Sol doth dart his beams, as the ignis fatuus, corrufcating on the deck, and, to the harden'd feaman, yields a bronze equal to Arabia's plains; then doth he reckon all his freight, the wealth that he'll accumulate by this profperous venture; and, fraught with the hopes of future fuch, draws a veil o'er his former troubles, confidering, for his hoary age, abundance is in ftore.'

Thus does the merchant build like Babel's ambitious fons, until a ftorm involves the brigh: hemifphere in dreary darkness, and on the approaching night, heav'n, as if in unifon, with thundering horrors darts forth fire on the devoted veffel. E'en rough Boreas inflates his jaws, and glories in the fray; then doft thou, old green-ey'd monster, fwell thy frothy mountains in contact with the fwoln clouds.

A little while fhe feuds it on, and, confident in her oaken fides, braves the horrors of the ftorm;-the fails, grown ponderous with the briny waters, divide the stubborn yard, and torrents fhower upon the labouring feaman ;-the bow-fprit, unus'd to bend, now feels the weight of concuffing elements, and the tall main-maft, that affail'd the fky, disjointed from its ftation, with a failor clinging round its knotted ftrength, floateth o'er the deep.

Yet Hope, ftill buoyant in their minds, preferves her reign o'er the fafcinated crew. The pilot yet exerts his fway, in hopes of pleafing profpects on the wish'd for morn.

But, how dread a landfcape does Aurora's beams unfold to thefe diftracted fons of woe!-The fteep, rude rock that towers on high, in whofe caverns pitchy darkness holds defpotic sway, and frothy furges bound from fide to fide; where the backward crab finds an habitation in the receffes perforated by the deep, and the monarch of the skies builds his neft on the pinnacle of deftruction— there, to feel pangs of premature death, after ftruggling with thy damn'd defpotifm, after buffeting thy fierce colleague olus, after being delug'd by the floating islands of the air, to be fplinter'd by the unpolish'd marble's rugged fides, is more than e'en Seneca or Socrates were fortified to bear.'

What a beautiful defcription! what an artful felection of circumftances! The ignis fatuus, the feaman's bronze, rough Boreas, the old green-eyed monster, the clinging failor, the REV. SEPT. 1790. backward

E

backward crab, the floating iflands of the air, and the marble rock; and then Seneca and Socrates! what a delightful,-what an affecting combination!

Now comes the peroratio abufrva; which muft always begin with a fimile

As the blood-thirfty tyger feeks his prey, wantonly and unprovok'd-as cruelty delights his favage breaft, form'd for hatred, for murder fenfual and unprofitable; as he hides beneath the plaited bramble. fiery phrenzy flashing from his fcowling eyes,-damn'd jealouly rankling in his foul at the happiness he views around, till pouncing on his devoted prey, the clotted gore yields but a short refpite to the victims of his future tyranny-Thus, ungenerously thou domineereft o'er the human race: He, fomething more noble, fhews his haggard eye, his deftructive talon, as beacons to his mind; but thou art all deceit-gently thy waters undulate from fhore to fhore-enticement dwells upon thy furface, while pleasure finiles around.

But in thy heart are lodg'd the keenest arrows of destruction ;— to thee is granted power which thou knoweft not how to use ;-all mankind are one to thee;-equally thou haft pain'd the orphan, widow, parent; at one fat haft thou doom'd thoufands to wretchedness who liv'd in happiness, in innocence ;-who ne'er difputed thy tyrannic will-who ne'er questioned thy defpotic power -who ne'er infulted thy polluted billows.

• Green-ey'd monfter, yield up all thy prey-fhew lifeless carcafes, diffever'd wrecks, unbounded wealth, veil'd by thy verdant curtain from human inquifition; let all thy deftructive deeds pass in review before us; - no longer let the painter's mockery pourtray, what thou can't fhew beyond defcription.

The Father of Heav'ns who made thee, gave thee power, and thou haft ufed it. He told thee thou fhould't be to all mankind a bleffing-he fupply'd thee with abundance to dispense thy favors equally;-haft thou done it ?-No. The hour that gave thee birth, made thee a monster-a devil-colleagu'd with thy brother

to torture man.

olus,

• Sometimes, forfooth, a fit of kindness swells thy bosom ;-sometimes the mariner feels not thy damn'd phrenzy, at the very time thou art brooding ill to half the world.'

After fo fublime an inftance of fplendid diction, who, without indignation, can behold the Invoker finking into the meannels of fupplication? Grant, old Ocean! that as we confide in thee, we may find mercy.'-We truft, however, that old Ocean is not fuch a fool as fo easily to make it up.

It is time, however, that we retreat; for really our little critical cock boat' is emerged in' terrors at the fiery throat' of this ranting, bluftering first-rate. 0.

ART.