Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile

Second Edition. “Few books of equal compass are equally entertaining; and few such monuments exist of the energy and enterprise of a single traveller” (DNB).Bruce arrived in Alexandria in 1768 having determined to discover the source of the Nile, which he believed to be in Abyssinia. He reached Kossier via Cairo and Thebes where he embarked in the dress of a Turkish sailor for Jidda. He eventually reached Gondar in Abyssinia in 1770 where his linguistic skills, resourcefulness and courage made a fine impression, especially upon the Negus and Ras Michael. He stayed there for two years before finally reaching the source of the Blue Nile, and in 1771 he also found its confluence with the White Nile having surmounted numerous difficulties. Bruce’s Travels is particularly important for its portrayal of Abyssinia, little-known to his contemporaries, for its literary merits and for the final volume on natural history, in spite of the incredulity with which his account was originally received. This incredulity is reflected in a discussion about Bruce that Boswell records took place with Doctor Johnson one April evening in 1775: “he told me that he had been in the company of a gentleman whose extraordinary travels had been the subject of conversation. But I found he had not listened to him with that full confidence, without which there is little satisfaction in the society of travellers.” But Bruce holds his place in the first rank of African travellers: “he will always remain the poet, and his work the epic, of African travel” (DNB).

7 volumes, 8vo, and plate volume, 4to. Text volumes uniformly bound in early 20th-century brown half calf by Bayntuns of Bath, spines lettered gilt and with gilt floral tools in compartments, cloth sides, yellow edges; the plate volume in contemporary calf, covers with thick-and-thin gilt rules, neatly rebacked. Portrait frontispiece; 79 plates, 3 large folding maps. Text volumes with modern bookplates of Thomas S. Standish, Wigan; plate volume with early armorial bookplate of John Lothian. Slight foxing at beginning and end of text, a very good set. With an early autograph letter concerning Bruce loosely inserted in vol. I.