74 MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 



Ethiopians have always claimed for the Blue River 

 the distinction of heing the genuine branch of the 

 Nile. It was so considered throughout all antiquity ; 

 and we learn from a recent traveller, Burckhardt, 

 that the Ahyssinians of the present day give the 

 name of Nile to the Bahr el Azrek. Bruce, there- 

 fore, has all the merit of resolving the grand geo- 

 graphical problem of his time. Whether he was 

 the first European that visited the sources at Geesh 

 has been disputed ; but if the Jesuit Paez saw these 

 " coy fountains" before him, the world was left in 

 all but total ignorance of the discovery. Bruce 

 performed the task with all the dangers and disad- 

 vantages of a first adventurer ; he reached the goal 

 which human curiosity had so long panted to attain ; 

 and by his dauntless courage alone, he achieved in 

 his day what Ross or Parry would have done in 

 ours, had they succeeded in erecting the British flag 

 on the north pole of the earth. 



Having accomplished his grand object, and taken 

 leave of the venerable Shum, Kefla Abay, Bruce left 

 Geesh on the 10th of November, 1770, and returned 

 to Gondar. Fasil had already departed for that 

 capital, and his wife and sisters insisted that the 

 traveller should marry them, it being, they said, the 

 invariable rule of that country, that the conqueror 

 should espouse the wives of his enemies. During 

 Bruce's absence, a great revolution had been effected 

 at Gondar, the throne of Tecla Haimanout having 

 been seized by a usurper, named Socinios, who had 

 appointed Fasil Has. Several desperate battles took 



