James Bruce - The Nile and Ethiopia

The Nile and Ethiopia

In June 1768 he arrived at Alexandria, having resolved to endeavour to discover the source of the Nile, which he believed to rise in Ethiopia. At Cairo he gained the support of the Mamluk ruler, Ali Bey; after visiting Thebes (where he entered the tomb of Ramesses III, KV11) he crossed the desert to Kosseir, where he embarked in the dress of a Turkish sailor. He reached Jidda in May 1769, and after a stay in Arabia he recrossed the Red Sea and landed at Massawa, then in possession of the Turks, on 19 September. He reached Gondar, then the capital of Ethiopia 14 February 1770, where he was well received by the nəgusä nägäst Tekle Haymanot II, by Ras Mikael Sehul, the real ruler of the country, by Wozoro Aster, wife of the Ras (whom Bruce calls "Esther"), and by the Ethiopians generally. His fine presence (he was 6 foot 4 inches high), his knowledge of Ge'ez, his excellence in sports, his courage, resource and self-esteem, all told in his favor among a people who were in general distrustful of all foreigners. He stayed in Ethiopia for two years, gaining knowledge which enabled him subsequently to present a perfect picture of Ethiopian life.

Determined to reach the source of the Blue Nile, and after recovering from malaria, in October 1770 Bruce decided to set out again. This time he travelled with his own small party, which included Balugani and a Greek named Strates. The final march was made on November 4, 1770; late in the afternoon, after having climbed to 9,500 feet, 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; that, he declared, was the source of the Nile. On November 14, 1770 he reached Gish Abay, the source of the Lesser Abay. When they reached the springs at Gish, James Bruce determined to be merry, picked up a half coconut shell he used as a drinking cup. Filling it from the spring he oblidged Strates to drink a toast to "His Majesty King George III and a long line of princes" and another to "Catherine, Empress of all the Russians" - this last was a gesture to Strates' Greek origin, since Catherine (the Great) was just then at war with the Turks in the Aegean Sea. More toasts followed. Though admitting that the White Nile was the larger stream, Bruce argued that the Blue Nile was the Nile of the ancients and thus he was the discoverer of its source.