17 Facts About James Bruce

1.

James Bruce of Kinnaird was a British traveller and travel writer who confirmed the source of the Blue Nile.

2.

James Bruce spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia and in 1770 became the first European to trace the origins of the Blue Nile from Egypt and Sudan.

3.

James Bruce was born at the family seat of Kinnaird, Stirlingshire, and educated at Harrow School and Edinburgh University.

4.

James Bruce 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.

5.

James Bruce's suggestion was not adopted, but it led to his selection by the 2nd Earl of Halifax for the post of British consul at Algiers, with a commission to study the ancient ruins in that country, in which interest had been excited by the descriptions sent home by Thomas Shaw, who was consular chaplain at Algiers.

6.

James Bruce eventually reached Crete, and sailing thence to Sidon, travelled through Syria, visiting Palmyra and Baalbek.

7.

James Bruce acquired a sufficient knowledge of medicine to enable him to pass in the East as a physician.

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Athanasius Kircher
8.

James Bruce received court appointments as Gentleman of the Bedchamber and commander of the Koccob Horse, the Emperor's household cavalry.

9.

James Bruce 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.

10.

Late in the afternoon, after having climbed to 9,500 feet, James 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.

11.

James Bruce disputed his claim and suggested that the relevant passage in Paez's memoirs had been fabricated by Athanasius Kircher.

12.

The source of the Blue Nile was again visited by the Portuguese missionary Jeronimo Lobo in 1629, who like Paez arrived by the Red Sea route; James Bruce sought to discredit the writings of Lobo, but more recent research has shown that Lobo's description of the source was perfectly correct in details.

13.

James Bruce went as far as to claim, that Lobo seemed to be able to sail on land and denied the existence of a spitting cobra described by Lobo.

14.

James Bruce was detained in Al Qadarif 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" induced Fidele to release him.

15.

In retirement, James Bruce devoted himself to the management of his estate and the oversight of his collieries.

16.

For most of his life James Bruce resided in a fine house on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, previously occupied by George Lockhart of Carnwath and named Lockhart's Court.

17.

James Bruce was buried behind his wife in the Larbert old churchyard.