MEMOIR OF BRFCE. 
74 
Ethiopians have always claimed for the Blue River 
the distinction of being the genuine branch of the 
Nile. It was so considered throughout all antiquity ; 
and we learn from a recent traveller, Burckhardt, 
that the Abyssinians 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 Ras. Several desperate battles took 
