• People
• Bruce, James

Scottish explorer, physician and diplomat. After having visited the Iberian Peninsula for private buisness, the examination of oriental manuscripts at the Escorial in Spain led him to the study of Arabic and Ge'ez and determined his future career. He was appointed consul at Algiers (1763) and from there he visisted large part of northern Africa and the Levant (Tunis, Tripoli, Candia, Benghazi, Crete, Sidon, Palmyra, Baalbek). In 1768 he arrived at Alexandria and Cairo, visiting Egyptian archeological sites. After visiting Thebes he crossed the Red Saea and reached Jedda. In 1769 he left for Ethiopia, recrossing the Red Sea, with the intention to discover the source of the Nile, passing through Eritrea and the Semien, and reaching Gondar (1770), Lake Tana and, finally, the sources of the Blue Nile. He stayed in Ethiopia for two years, gaining knowledge, copying books and collecting medical herbs. On his way back, from Gondar to Egypt, he crossed Sennar and Nubia (1773). During his travels and stay he collected around a hundred manuscripts (most of them in Arabic, the other Ethiopic) which are nowadays kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.