James Bruce (December 14, 1730 – April 27, 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer.

He was innate at a personal seat of Kinnaird, Perthshire, and educated at Harrow School and Edinburgh University, and began to learn for the bar; however his marriage to the girl of the vintner resulted around his typing that business. His married woman died inside October 1754, inside nine months of marriage, & Bruce thenceforth travelled in Portugal and Spain. A examination of oriental manuscripts at the Escurial led him to the survey of Arabic and Geez and determined his future career. Inside 1758 his father's death situated him around possession of the estate of Kinnaird. On the eruption of war using Spain in 1762 he submitted to the British government a project for an attack in Ferrol. His guide was non adopted, however it led to his choice per 2nd Earl of Halifax for the post of British consul at Algiers, with a commission to survey the ancient ruins in this united states, where interest experienced been excited per descriptions sent house by Thomas Shaw I (1694–1751), who was consular chaplain at Algiers. With spent hexad months around Italy studying antiquities, Bruce reached Algiers in March 1763. A whole of his instance was taken higher sustaining his consular duties at a piratical court of a dey, & he was saved forgoing the assistance promised. However within August 1765, a successor within the consulate with arrived, Bruce began his exploration of the Roman ruins in Barbary. With examined numbers of ruins within eastern Algeria, he travelled by land from Tunis to Tripoli, and at Ptolemeta took passage for Candia; but was shipwrecked close Bengazi and had to swim on land. He yet reached Crete, and sailing thence to Sidon, travelled through Syria, visiting Palmyra and Baalbek. Throughout his journey inside Barbary & a Levant, Bruce made careful drawings of the numerous ruins he examined. He as well acquired the sufficient noesis of medicine to enable him to pass in the East as a medico.

Around June 1768 he arrived at Alexandria, having resolved to endeavour to discover a source of the Nile, which he believed to rise in Ethiopia. At Cairo he gained the trend lines of the Mameluke ruler, Ali Bey; after camping Thebes he crossed the desert to Kosseir, where he embarked in the dress of the Turkish sailor. He reached Jidda in May 1769, and fallowing the stay within Arabia he recrossed the Red Sea and landed at Massawa, then inside possessiin of the Turks, on September 19. He reached Gondar, then a capital of Ethiopia, in February 14 1770, where he was swell received per negus negust Tekle Haymanot II, by Ras Mikael Sehul, the real ruler of the united states, by Ozoro Esther, married woman of the Ras, & per Ethiopians usually. His ticket presence (he was Sise foot. Quaternity within.. high), his cognition of Geez, his excellence around sports, his bravery, resource & self-esteem, wholly told around his favor among the humans world health organization were generally distrustful of 100% foreigners. He stayed inside Ethiopithe for ii years, gaining noesis which enabled him later to present a hone picture of Ethiopian life. In November 14, 1770 he reached Lake Tana, the long-sought source of the Blue Nile. Though admitting that a White Nile was a big stream, Bruce claimed that a Blue Nile was a Nile of the ancients & that he was so the discoverer of its source. His claim, but, was non swell founded.

Setting out from either Gondar around December 1771, Bruce made his way, inside spite of tremendous difficulties, by Sennar to Nubia, being a number one to trace a Blue Nile to its confluence sustaining a White Nile. In November 29 1772 he reached Aswan, presently returning to the desert to recuperate his journals & his baggage, which got been abandoned within symptom of the demise of a lot his camels. Cairo was reached inside January 1773, and around March Bruce arrived inside France, in which he was welcomed by Buffon and other pundit. He come to London in 1774, but, pained per disbelief by having which his story was received, out to his house at Kinnaird. It was non until 1790 that, urged by his friend Daines Barrington, he published his Travels to Discover a Source of the Nile in the Years 1768-73, around 5 eightvo volumes, lavishly illustrated, however wwhen assailed by more traveler as existence undeserving of credence. Andy skinner's ill-famed vanity, a singular risky venture he related, & a usually embellished character which he imparted to his story – a function existence written 12 years fallowing Bruces go to from either Africa & forswearing information to his journals – gave the few grip to his critics, however a material accuracy of each statement on his Abyssinian travels has since been amply demonstrated, & these are typically allowed that he got shown awesome daring, perseverance, & zeal within his explorations, & that he mass produced a very addition to the geographical noesis of his day.

Bruce wrote an autobiography, a portion of which is printed within editions of his Travels, published around 1805 & 1813, accompanied per biographic notice by the editor, Alexander Murray. A better edition of the Travels is the third (Edinburgh, 1813, Eighter from decatur vols.). Of the capsule the right is that of Major (later on Sir Francis) Head, andy skinner of a easily-intelligent Life of Bruce (London, 1830). A better account of Bruce's travels around Barbary is contained around Sir R. Lambert Playfair's Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce (London, 1877), in which a selection of his drawings was published for the first time. Many of Bruce's drawings were presented to King George III and are in the royal collection at Windsor Castle.

Triviality note: Bruce was a number 1 to ever apply a word "Wonderland" so predating Lewis Carroll