Biography

Scottish aristocrat, laird of Kinnaird, also referred to as Kinnaird, James Bruce of and nicknamed 'The Abyssian'. A large man of unusual height and with dark red hair, quick-tempered and arrogant, he spent several years as Britain's consul general in Algiers. He was best known as a traveller who went in search of the source of the Nile (1767-1773). Though he did not follow the White Nile, he did reach the source of the Blue Nile on 1770 and plotted its position. Neither was he the first European; Jesuit priests had been there from as early as 1618.

A prominent Freemason, his exploration in Ethiopia may have been motivated more by legends and artefacts concerning the medieval Knights Templar and Solomon's Temple. Bruce immersed himself in Arabic culture, learning the languages of the area and dressing and riding in local fashion. While in Syria he suffered from an attack of malaria and was treated by the physician and naturalist Patrick Russell (1727-1805), who taught him sufficient medical knowledge to pass himself off as a physician.

When he finally returned to England (1774) his account of his travels, his adventures in the employ of the Ethiopian court and the hardships he had endured, were treated with great scepticism by London society. No-one believed wild tales of fat princesses with golden rings through their noses, saving the country's royal family from smallpox or eating raw meat cut from living cattle. Samuel Johnson claimed Bruce had never visited Ethiopia, let alone discovered the source of the Nile and dismissed him as a fraud. His claims caused outrage and scandal in genteel Georgian society and were later parodied in a sequel to the Travels of Baron Munchausen by Rudolph Raspe.

Humilated, Bruce left for his Scottish estate and did not publish an account of his travels until 1790, belatedly finding public acclaim. He died a few years later as the result of an accident falling down stairs at Kinnaird. Bruce brought seeds and other plant material from North Africa and the Near East to Europe. He met Attilio Zuccagni at the Florence Botanical Garden, visited Paris and sent a small amount of material to Joseph Banks, though no specimens have yet been located. The genus Brucea J.F. Mill. in the Simaroubaceae, based on B. antidysenterica J.F. Mill, was named in his honour.