20 MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 



wards given by Bruce. Jerome Lobo, another of 

 these missionaries, who resided there nine years, 

 and whose History was translated by Dr. Samuel 

 Johnson, also describes the " coy fountains" of that 

 celebrated river, as if he had seen them ; but whe- 

 ther he actually visited them, or merely wrote from 

 information communicated by others, has never been 

 clearly ascertained. The names of Ludolf and Geddes 

 are familiar as having written on Abyssinia; but 

 since the journey of Poncet (1698), who visited 

 Sennaar, Gondar, and other Abyssinian towns, a 

 long interval had elapsed, during which the name 

 of the country was almost forgotten ; and no travel- 

 ler seemed inclined to revive it, until the romantic 

 spirit of Bruce turned his attention to those ne- 

 glected regions, in the hope of tracing the hidden 

 fountains of the Nile ; a problem which had excited, 

 without rewarding, the curiosity of men of science 

 from the earliest ages. 



JAMES BRUCE, of Kinnaird, was descended of an 

 ancient Scottish family which claims kindred with 

 the royal hero of that name who restored the inde- 

 pendence of his country on the field of Bannock- 

 bum. He was born at Kinnaird House in Stirling- 

 shire, on the 14th of December, 1730. His mother 

 was a daughter of Graham of Airth, in the vicinity 

 of his own residence, who was then Dean of the 

 Faculty of Advocates, and Judge of the High Court 

 of Admiralty in Scotland ; a man of distinguished 

 abilities, and respected for his public and private 



