Bruce leaves Gondar and travels to Sennaar, the Capital of Nubia.
On the 26th of December, 1771, at one o'clock in the afternoon, Bruce, after having resided in Abyssinia two years and three months, took leave of Gondar and proceeded to the palace at Koscam. The king, who had done everything to delay his departure, still continued to trouble him with advice, and to throw trifling difficulties in his way; but Bruce at last declared to him that his servants had already set out, that he was determined to follow them the next morning, and begged that he might be left to follow his own fortunes, whatever they might be.
On the morning of his departure, an officer of rank and fifty mounted soldiers were sent by the king to attend him; but, being convinced that any distinction with which he might travel in Abyssinia would only increase his difficulties in passing through Sennaar, he declined the escort, and, starting on his perilous journey, he slowly ascended the mountain which overlooks the palace of Koscam.
He was accompanied by three Greeks, one of whom had been his servant ever since he left Cairo; another, named Georgis, was infirm, and nearly blind; while the rest of the party consisted of an old Turkish janisary, who had come into Abyssinia in the escort of the abuna, a Copt, who left Bruce at Sennaar, and a few common muleteers.
"All the disasters," says Bruce, "which I had been threatened with in the course of that journey which I had thus begun, now presented themselves to my mind, and made, for a moment, a strong impression upon my spirits. But it was too late to draw back; the die was cast, for life or for death; home was before me, however distant! and if, through the protection of Providence, I should be fortunate enough to arrive there, I promised myself both ease and the applause of my country, and of all unprejudiced men of sense and learning in Europe, for having, by my own private efforts alone, completed a discovery which had from early ages defied the address, industry, and courage of all the world."
These expressions have been construed by Bruce's enemies into the language of arrogance and conceit; and it would certainly have been well for him if he had confined his thoughts to his own breast, and, treating his reader with greater reserve, had declined intrusting to him the secret feelings of his heart; but, right or wrong, prudent or imprudent, it was not in Bruce's nature to conceal his sentiments.