James Bruce | |
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| Born | (1730-12-14)14 December 1730 Kinnaird House,Larbert, Stirlingshire, Scotland |
| Died | 27 April 1794(1794-04-27) (aged 63) Kinnaird House, Larbert, Stirlingshire, Scotland |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Traced the origins of the Blue Nile |
| Notable work | Travels (1790) |
James Bruce of Kinnaird (14 December 1730 – 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller andtravel writer who physically confirmed the source of theBlue Nile. He spent more than a dozen years in North and East Africa and in 1770 became the first European to trace and document the course of the Nile by following it upstream from Egypt through Sudan to its origins in the Blue Nile in Ethiopia.
James Bruce was born at the family seat of Kinnaird,Stirlingshire, and educated atHarrow School andEdinburgh University. He began to study for the bar, but his marriage to the daughter of a wine importer and merchant resulted in him entering that business instead. His wife died in October 1754, within nine months of marriage, and Bruce thereafter travelled in Portugal and Spain as part of the wine trade. The examination of oriental manuscripts at theEscorial in Spain led him to the study ofArabic andGeʽez and determined his future career. In 1758, his father's death placed him in possession of the estate of Kinnaird.[1]
On the outbreak of war with Spain in 1762, he submitted to the British government a plan for an attack onFerrol. His suggestion was not adopted, but it led to his selection by the2nd Earl of Halifax for the post of British consul atAlgiers, with a commission to study the ancient ruins in that country, in which interest had been excited by the descriptions sent home byThomas Shaw (1694–1751), who was consular chaplain at Algiers. Having spent six months in Italy studying antiquities, Bruce reached Algiers in March 1763. The whole of his time was taken up with his consular duties at the piratical court of thedey, and he was kept without the assistance promised. But in August 1765, a successor in the consulate having arrived, Bruce began his exploration of the Roman ruins inBarbary. Having examined many ruins in eastern Algeria, he travelled by land fromTunis toTripoli, and atPtolemaida took passage forCandia; but was shipwrecked nearBenghazi and had to swim ashore. He eventually reachedCrete, and sailing thence toSidon, travelled through Syria, visitingPalmyra andBaalbek. Throughout his journeyings in Barbary and theLevant, Bruce made careful drawings of the many ruins he examined. He also acquired a sufficient knowledge of medicine to enable him to pass in the East as a physician.[1]
In June 1768, he arrived atAlexandria, having resolved to endeavour to discover the source of theNile, which he believed to rise in Ethiopia. AtCairo, he gained the support of theMamluk ruler,Ali Bey. After visitingThebes, where he entered the tomb ofRamesses III,KV11, he crossed the desert toKosseir, where he embarked in the dress of a Turkish sailor. After an extensive navigation of the Red Sea in a local vessel, he reachedJidda in May 1769, and after a stay inArabia he recrossed theRed Sea and landed atMassawa, then nominally in possession of the Turks, but actually controlled by the localNa'ib, on 19 September. He reachedGondar, then the capital of Ethiopia on 14 February 1770, where he was well received by theEmperorTekle Haymanot II, RasMikael Sehul, the real ruler of the country, Weizero Aster, wife of the Ras (whom Bruce calls "Esther"), and all Ethiopians generally. His fine presence (he was 6-foot 4 inches high), his knowledge of Ge'ez, his excellence in sports, his courage, resource and self-esteem, all told in his favour among a people who were in general distrustful of all foreigners.[1] He received court appointments as Gentleman of the Bedchamber and commander of the Koccob Horse, the Emperor's household cavalry. He stayed in Ethiopia for two years, gaining knowledge, copying books and collecting herbs that had special medical use, which he later presented as a gift to the French and Italian monarchs.
Determined to reach the source of the Blue Nile, after recovering frommalaria, Bruce set out again in October 1770. This time he travelled with his own small party, which included Balugani and a Greek named Strates. The final march was made on 4 November 1770. Late in the afternoon, after having climbed to 9,500 feet, Bruce's party came upon a rustic church, and the guide, pointing beyond it, indicated a little swamp with a hillock rising from the centre. That, he declared, was the source of the Nile. On 14 November 1770, he reachedGish Abay, the source of theLesser Abay. When they reached the springs at Gish, James Bruce celebrated his achievement, by picking up a half coconut shell he used as a drinking cup, filling it from the spring, then obliged Strates to drink a toast to "His Majesty KingGeorge III and a long line of princes", and another to "Catherine, Empress of all the Russians" – this last was a gesture to Strates' Greek origin, sinceCatherine the Great was just thenat war with the Turks in the Aegean Sea. More toasts followed.[citation needed] Though admitting that theWhite Nile was the longer stream, Bruce was the first European to argue that the Blue Nile (which supplied most of its water) was the Nile of the ancients—and thus its source.[1]
A Spaniard, theJesuit missionaryPedro Páez, had previously reached the source of the Blue Nile by travelling from the opposite direction through the mountains of Ethiopia from theRed Sea coast in 1618.[2] Páez had describedLake Tana as the source of the Blue Nile in his two-volumeHistória da Ethiópia ("History of Ethiopia"). The same location had been visited and speculated about in a similar vein in 1629 by the Portuguese Jesuit missionaryJerónimo Lobo, who like Páez had arrived in Ethiopia by the Red Sea route. Bruce's journey proved this theory about the source of the Blue Nile to be fact but he disputed the historicity of Páez's visit because Lobo had failed to mention it. Bruce suggested that the relevant passage in Páez's memoirs had been fabricated byAthanasius Kircher, a Jesuit who had spread the news of Páez's discovery in Europe in 1664. Bruce also sought to discredit the writings of Lobo, joking that he seemed to be able to sail on land and denying the existence of aspitting cobra described by him.[3] However, more recent research has shown that Lobo's description of the source was correct in its details.[4]
Setting out from Gondar in December 1771, Bruce made his way, in spite of enormous difficulties, bySennar toNubia, being the first European to trace the Blue Nile to its confluence with the White Nile.[1] He was detained inAl Qadarif (which he calls "Teawa") by its governor Fidele, until a combination of cunning, diplomacy and a show of force by his friend the Ethiopian governor of "Ras el Fils" (Ras Filuk) induced Fidele to release him.[5] Once in Sennar he found himself detained there, and on the night of 25 August the house he was staying in was attacked by thieves, whom Bruce for good reason suspected to be acting with the knowledge, if not on the orders of KingIsmai'l.[6] As he and his companions crossed the desert on the eastern side of the bend of the Nile, they came across the corpses of the caravan of the Muslim dignitary Mahomet Towash they had hoped to travel with; despite his status, they had been waylaid, robbed, and killed by the local tribesmen.[7] On 29 November 1772, he reachedAswan, presently returning to the desert to recover his journals and his baggage, which had been abandoned in consequence of the death of all his camels.[1] In January 1773, Bruce reached Cairo. In March, he arrived in France and was welcomed by theComte de Buffon and other savants.
He came to London in June 1774, and was interviewed byJames Boswell, who published a lengthy account of his travels in theLondon Magazine. Offended by the incredulity with which his story was received, Bruce retired to his home at Kinnaird at age 44.[1]
In retirement, Bruce devoted himself to the management of his estate and the oversight of his collieries. In May 1776, he married Mary Dundas, the daughter of a neighbour, with whom he had three children. After his wife's early death in 1785, and at the urging of his friendDaines Barrington, he embarked on writing up his travels, which were published in five quarto volumes (totalling 3,000 pages) asTravels to Discover the Source of the Nile. The book was very successful, selling very well and being favourably reviewed in the monthly journals, but was assailed by other travellers as being unworthy of credence.[1] The substantial accuracy of his Ethiopian travels has since been demonstrated, and it is considered that he made a real addition to the geographical knowledge of his day.
Bruce was a Scottish Freemason. He was Initiated in Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, No. 2, on 1 August 1753. The Lodge history, which details his Initiation in the Lodge reads: 'Bruce, James, Younger of Kinnaird – the Abyssinian Traveller.'[8]
In his final years, Bruce became very corpulent. He died on 27 April 1794 of injuries sustained when on the previous day he fell down stairs at Kinnaird House. He was buried behind his wife in the Larbert old churchyard. The highly unusual monument was made out of cast iron by the localCarron Ironworks and stands on the south east corner of the churchyard.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bruce, James".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 676.