r. 



B R O 



fiippofcd improbability of certain faclt altogether repugnant 

 to European hubits and opinions. 



He «■»•* born at KinnairJ houfe, near I'alkirk, in Scot- 

 land, in the year 1730. His dcfccnt was ancient and ho- 

 nonrable ; on tlie female fide, to hi3 ow n intxprcfiibic grati- 

 fication, connefting itfelf even with royalty. He was edu- 

 cated at Harrow, where his proficiency is faid to have been 

 highly creditable to his talents. He was afterwards re- 

 moved to the univerfity of Edniburgh, where he became a 

 law (Indent. Circnmllancec, not necefl'ary to the ehitidation 

 of his public charader, occafioncd him to alter his views, 

 and enter into partnerdiip with a wine-merchant in London, 

 whofc daughter he married. His wife died in Icfs than a 

 twelvemonth, when he went abroad, and did not return, till 

 recalled by the death of his father. The tllate of Kinnaird 

 devolved to him, and he now began to entertain thoughts of 

 appearing in public life. The firll overtures of political cm- 

 :iloyment ended in difappoiutment to the adventurer : but 

 lord Halifax procured him the confulfliip at Algiers ; a fitu- 

 ation which, he hoped, would facilitate the projeft he already 

 entertained, of penetrating the interior of Africa. He went 

 to Algiers in 176;, where he lUidied the oriental languages 

 with much diligence. He likewife prepared himfcU for his 

 great expedition by what may comparatively be confidered as 

 /romt-travelsiof which he never publilhed any account, through 

 Afia Minor, the iflands of Rhodes and Cyprus, and other 

 contiguous countiies. Some of his drawings on this expe- 

 dition are in the king's library at Kew. 1'he ollentatious 

 traveller has charaderized this prefeut as '• the moll magnifi- 

 cent ever made in that line by a fubjcft to his fovereign." 

 He feems, indeed, to have had very jufl ideas of his fove- 

 reign's dignity, as well as very high ones of his own ; for, 

 when the bey of Cairo delired to fee him, and, after a long 

 converfation, ordered him a purfe of fcquins, covered with 

 fruit and flowers, Mr. Bruce accepted of one orange only, 

 but pofitivclv refufed the money. The bey requefted to 

 know the reafon. "' I am," faid Mr. Bruce, " an Englifli- 

 man, and the ftrvant of the greatelt king in Europe : it is 

 not tl»c cuftom of my country to receive pecuniary gratui- 

 ties from foreign princes without the approbation of our fo- 

 »creign." The bey, being himfelf a fovereign, was far 

 from being difpleafed with the elevated fentinient of the 

 cxcufe. 



It was in June, 1768, that he commenced his great jour- 

 ney to the fources of the Nile. He failed to Alexandria, 

 and thence proceeded to Cairo, which he left in December 

 of the fame year, embarking on the Nile, and navigating as 

 far as Sycne. He palfed through Arabia Deferta and Arabia 

 Felix, making various excurfions into the latter country. 

 His embarkation on the Red fea took place in 1769, and in 

 September he arrived at a fmall ifland on the fionticrs of 

 Abyflinia. In November he gained an entrance into the 

 kingdom, and arrived at Gondar, the capital, in 1770. 

 The limits of this article will not allow us to enter on his ad- 

 ventures, multifarious and oftentimes extraordinary as they 

 were. For a topographical and hiftorical account of Abyf- 

 finia, we mud refer to that head in the prefent work. In 

 November, I 770, he arrived at the fources of the Nile. A 

 confiderable degree of fofpicion has been thrown on his whole 

 narration by the triumph with which he congratulates him- 

 felf on having made a difcovery that had eluded all prior 

 refearch, when it is now generally underftood that the Por- 

 tugucfe Jefuits had been at thofe very fountains before him. 

 If he was acquainted with that fad, his vanity in that in- 

 ftance certainly triumphed over his veracity ; but it does 

 not feem neceffarily to follow, that the whole mud be treated 

 as a romance. After all, though the interell of every jour. 



B R O 



ney (liould be pointed by fome determinate objcft, the reader 

 will probably be much more engaged by the detail of circum- 

 ftances, and the delineation of manners and cullom*, than in 

 a dry controverfv, wiiethcr or not the traveller did really dif- 

 cover the forrccs of the Nile. In tliis point of view, tra- 

 velling may be compared with fporting ; the exercife is of 

 much more value than the game. 



On his return to Gondar, he found AbyfTinia in a ftate 

 of civil war. He engaged on the part of the reigning 

 prince, whofe favour vva.s attended with the inconveni- 

 ence of a politive refufal to part with him. The plea of ill 

 health, however, procured his releafe, and he was permitted 

 to fet out in the beginning of 1772. The dillrefs to which 

 he was reduced in this journey was extreme. His camels 

 all peridied ; and he was obliged to abandon his drawings, 

 papers, and inilruments, which however he afterwards re- 

 trieved. He arrived at Cairo with much difficulty, and the 

 lofs of nearly all his retinue. He pafTed fome time with 

 JjufFon in France, and returned to England in 177,;. 



He retired to Kinnaird for the recovery of his health, and 

 for a long time negledled the gratification of public curiofity. 

 His time was occupied by the circumftances attending a fe- 

 cond marriage, the improvement of the walle lands on his 

 paternal ellate, and the formation of a mufeum, enriched 

 with Araliic and AbyfTinian manufcripts, and various curio- 

 fities both natural and artificial. His work appeared in 

 1790, in >; volumes 4to. It was eagerly read; but an air 

 of vanity and arrogance pervading the Ityle, lecms to have 

 infpired the public with a difpolition to fevere criticifm and 

 incredulity, whidi the confirmation of many fads by fubfe- 

 quent travellers has already in fome meafure checked. Mr. 

 Bruce died in April, 1794, in conftqnence ot a fall in con- 

 dufting fome company down flairs, which at the time did 

 not threaten fuch fatal confequences. 



Mr. Bruce's figure was above the common fize; his limbs 

 athletic, but well-proportioned ; his complexion fanguinc ; 

 his countenance manly and good-tempered ; and his manners 

 eafy and polite. The whole outward man was fuch as to 

 announce a charaftcr well calculated to contend with the 

 many difficulties and trying occafions, which fo extraordinary 

 a journey could rot but have thrown in his way. His inter- 

 nal charaders, the features of his underftanding and difpo- 

 fition, feem in a great meafure to have correfponded with 

 tlicfe outward lineaments. As a country gentleman, tiiough 

 not without a tindure of haughtinefs, he exhibited the ele- 

 gance of a man of fafliion, and the hofpitality of a Briton. 



Bruce's IJlanil, in Geography, an illand in the Red ica, 

 on the coaft of Abyflinia. N. lat. 23° 42'. E. long. 35° 50'. 

 The fouth of it is high and rocky, and the north low and 

 terminating in a (loping bank. Bruce gave it his own name. 



Bruce Hill, a confiderable mountain in the fouth-wcllern 

 part of the county of Cavan, in Ireland, from which the 

 liver Erne takes its rife ; 1 1 miles S.S.W. of Cavan. 



BRUCEA, in Botany, (in honour of James Bruce, who 

 brought the feeds into England from Abyffinia). Schreb. 

 l.';o8. Jufl". 375. La Marck. Bofc. CMs, dlacia lelran- 

 dria. fiat. Ord. Terditilace^. JufT. Gen. Char, i . Barren 

 flowers. Ca/. perianth four-ckft, flat, villous; fegments 

 lanceolate, acute, fpreading. Cor. petals four, lanceolate, 

 acute, ciliate, fpreading, fcarcely larger than the calyx. 

 Nefl. placed on the receptacle, flat, four-lobcd ; the lobes 

 obfoletely emarginate, oppofite to the petals. S/atii. fila- 

 ments four, upright, (hoit, oppofite to the fegments of the 

 calyx, inferted on the receptacle between the lobes of the 

 nedary. ylnthers roundilh. 2. Fertile flowers. Cal. and 

 Cor. as in the former. Nea. the inner margin of the 

 receptacle thickened, four-lobed ; lobes emarginate. 



Slam. 



