Indiscriminate praise is of no value, but the sense of this noble Lord’s merits as a traveller, arises from the consideration of his engaging in such a service, at a time of life when young men of rank, think of little but their pleasures. It arises, moreover, from his attention to the manners of the nations which he visited, and from the judgment of the plan, which he executed with so much ardour and perseverance.
The survey of the western coast of the Red Sea, was a grand desideratum in geography, where nothing essential had been done since the voyage of De Castro. It is not a speculation of curiosity, but a duty incumbent upon a nation, possessed of the greatest maritime power that ever existed, to explore every region, where the sea is navigable, and this not only in a commercial view, but for the extension of science.
Lord ⸺’s coarse from the straits of Babulmandeb, up to Salaka, is a survey, not only of importance to navigation and science, but of great utility in shewing that there are means of approaching the most barbarous inhabitants of the coast.
Many of the observations which are introduced upon the coast, above and upon the country of Adel, are the best illustrations possible in regard to ancient geography. They must have been peculiarly gratifying to the very learned Dr. Vincent, as they coincide with the nature, both of the natives and the countries which his pen had delineated from ancient authority.
The trade and caravans of Adel, the intercourse of that country with Arabia and Adooli, the western entrance of the Straits, the Opsian Bay, the Bay of Adooli, the regal government of Axuma, the double sovereignty of Suakin, the independent Bedoweens, above the Tahama, or Tessiborike, the site of Berenice, in Foul Bay, the existence of the gold mines, and the evidence of gold, still obtainable on the coast, all prove, whatever may have been the revolution of governments, or the changes effected by the lapse of time, that the general features are still indelible, and the portrait true.
The bay to which the noble traveller has given the fantastic appellation of “Botherem Bay,” with all its intricacies, shoals, and islands, will be found perfectly consistent with both Agatharchides and Diodorus.
The Axumite inscription proves incontestibly the prevalence of the Greek language in Abyssinia. The fact undoubtedly was, that as soon as Adooli became a mart, approachable by the Greeks from Egypt, Greeks established themselves there as residents. Thus they had formerly done all around the Euxine, from the time of Herodotus, to the time when it was visited by Arrian, in the reign of Adrian.
Greeks of this sort were not only merchants, but became ministers, or agents for the native Sovereigns, such as Xenophon found in the time of Scuthes, and by such a Greek, the inscription was doubtless drawn up for Aeizaneus.
The whole work does the writer great credit. The style is unaffected; and the commercial speculations, in regard to Arabia and Abyssinia, of greater public importance, than they hitherto appear to have been considered.