Public-domain ebook
by James Bruce
Language: en923 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Adventure·Travel Writing·History - Modern (1750+)
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #54180.
The opening · free to read
The study and knowledge of the Globe, for very natural and obvious reasons, seem, in all ages, to have been the principal and favourite pursuit of great Princes; perhaps they were, at certain periods, the very sources of that greatness.
But as Pride, Ambition, and an immoderate thirst of Conquest, were the motives of these researches, no real advantage could possibly accrue to mankind in general, from inquiries proceeding upon such deformed and noxious principles.
In later times, which have been accounted more enlightened, still a worse motive succeeded to that of ambition; Avarice led the way in all expeditions, cruelty and oppression followed: to discover and to destroy seemed to mean the same thing; and, what was still more extraordinary, the innocent sufferer was stiled the Barbarian; while the bloody, lawless invader, flattered himself with the name of Christian.
With Your MAJESTY‘s reign, which, on many accounts, will for ever be a glorious æra in the annals of Britain, began the emancipation of discovery from the imputation of cruelty and crimes.
It was a golden age, which united humanity and science, exempted men of liberal minds and education, employed in the noblest of all occupations, that of exploring the distant parts of the Globe, from being any longer degraded, and rated as little better than the Buccaneer, or pirate, because they had, till then, in manners been nearly similar.
It is well known, that an uncertainty had still remained concerning the form, quantity, and consistence of the earth; and this, in spite of all their abilities and improvement, met philosophers in many material investigations and delicate calculations. Universal benevolence, a distinguishing quality of Your MAJESTY, led You to take upon Yourself the direction of the mode, and furnishing the means of removing these doubts and difficulties for the common benefit of mankind, who were all alike interested in them.
By Your MAJESTY‘s command, for these great purposes, Your fleets penetrated into unknown seas, fraught with subjects, equal, if not superior, in courage, science, and preparation, to any that ever before had navigated the ocean.
But they possessed other advantages, in which, beyond all comparison, they excelled former discoverers. In place of hearts confused with fantastic notions of honour and emulation, which constantly led to bloodshed, theirs were filled with the most beneficent principles, with that noble persuasion, the foundation of all charity, not that all men are equal, but that they are all brethren; and that being superior to the savage in every acquirement, it was for that very reason their duty to set the example of mildness, compassion, and long-suffering to a fellow-creature, because the weakest, and, by no fault of his own, the least instructed, and always perfectly in their power.
Thus, without the usual, and most unwarrantable excesses, the overturning ancient, hereditary kingdoms, without bloodshed, or trampling under foot the laws of society and hospitality, Your MAJESTY‘s subjects, braver, more powerful and instructed than those destroyers of old, but far more just, generous, and humane, erected in the hearts of an unknown people, while making these discoveries, an empire founded on peace and love of the subject, perfectly consistent with those principles by which Your MAJESTY has always professed to govern; more firm and durable than those established by bolts and chains, and all those black devices of tyrants not even known by name, in Your happy and united, powerful and flourishing kingdoms.
While these great objects were steadily conducting to the end which the capacity of those employed, the justness of the measures on which they were planned, and the constant care and support of the Public promised, there still remained an expedition to be undertaken which had been long called for, by philosophers of all nations, in vain.
Fleets and armies were useless; even the power of Britain, with the utmost exertion, could afford no protection there, the place was so unhappily cut off from the rest of mankind, that even Your MAJESTY‘s name and virtues had never yet been known or heard of there.
The situation of the country was barely known, no more: placed under the most inclement skies, in part surrounded by impenetrable forests, where, from the beginning, the beasts had established a sovereignty uninterrupted by man, in part by vast deserts of moving sands, where nothing was to be found that had the breath of life, these terrible barriers inclosed men more bloody and ferocious than the beasts themselves, and more fatal to travellers than the sands that encompassed them; and thus shut up, they had been long growing every day more barbarous, and defied, by rendering it dangerous, the curiosity of travellers of every nation.
Although the least considerable of your MAJESTY‘s subjects, yet not the least desirous of proving my duty by promoting your MAJESTY‘s declared plan of discovery as much as the weak endeavours of a single person could, unprotected, forlorn, and alone, or at times associated to beggars and banditti, as they offered, I undertook this desperate journey, and did not turn an ell out of my proposed way till I had completed it: It was the first discovery attempted in Your MAJESTY‘s reign. From Egypt I penetrated into this country, through Arabia on one side, passing through melancholy and dreary deserts, ventilated with poisonous winds, and glowing with eternal sun-beams, whose names are as unknown in geography as are those of the antediluvian world. In the six years employed in this survey I described a circumference whose greater axis comprehended twenty-two degrees of the meridian, in which dreadful circle was contained all that is terrible to the feelings, prejudicial to the health, or fatal to the life of man.
In laying the account of these Travels at Your MAJESTY‘s feet, I humbly hope I have shewn to the world of what value the efforts of every individual of Your MAJESTY‘s subjects may be; that numbers are not always necessary to the performance of great and brilliant actions, and that no difficulties or dangers are unsurmountable to a heart warm with affection and duty to his Sovereign, jealous of the honour of his master, and devoted to the glory of his country, now, under Your MAJESTY‘s wise, merciful, and just reign, deservedly looked up to as Queen, of Nations. I am,
However little the reader may be conversant with ancient histories, in all probability he will know, or have heard this much in general, that the attempt to reach the Source of the Nile, the principal subject of this publication, from very early ages interested all scientific nations: Nor was this great object feebly prosecuted, as men, the first for wisdom, for learning, and spirit (a most necessary qualification in this undertaking) very earnestly interested themselves about the discovery of the sources of this famous river, till disappointment followed disappointment so fast, and consequences produced other consequences so fatal, that the design was entirely given over, as having, upon the fairest trials, appeared impracticable. Even conquerors at the head of immense armies, who had first discovered and then subdued great part of the world, were forced to lower their tone here, and dared scarcely to extend their advances toward this discovery, beyond the limits of bare wishes. At length, if it was not forgot, it was however totally abandoned from the causes above mentioned, and with it all further topographical inquiries in that quarter.
Upon the revival of learning and of the arts, the curiosity of mankind had returned with unabated vigour towards this object, but all attempts had met with the same difficulties as before, till, in the beginning of his Majesty’s reign, the unconquerable spirit raised in this nation by a long and glorious war, did very naturally resolve itself into a spirit of adventure and inquiry at the return of peace, one of the first-fruits of which was the discovery of these coy fountains[1], till now concealed from the world in general.
The great danger and difficulties of this journey were well known, but it was likewise known that it had been completely performed without disappointment or misfortune, that it had been attended with an apparatus of books and instruments, which seldom accompanies the travels of an individual; yet sixteen years had elapsed without any account appearing, which seemed to mark an unusual self-denial, or an absolute indifference towards the wishes of the public.
Men, according to their different genius and dispositions, attempted by different ways to penetrate the cause of this silence. The candid, the learned, that species of men, in fine, for whom only it is worth while to travel or to write, supposing (perhaps with some degree of truth) that an undeserved and unexpected neglect and want of patronage had been at least part of the cause, adopted a manner, which, being the most liberal, they thought likely to succeed: They endeavoured to entice me by holding out a prospect of a more generous disposition in the minds of future ministers, when I should shew the claim I had upon them by having promoted the glory of the nation. Others, whom I mention only for the sake of comparison, below all notice on any other ground, attempted to succeed in this by anonymous letters and paragraphs in the newspapers; and thereby absurdly endeavoured to oblige me to publish an account of those travels, which they affected at the same time to believe I had never performed.
But it is with very great pleasure and readiness I do now declare, that no fantastical or deformed motive, no peevish disregard, much less contempt of the judgment of the world, had any part in the delay which has happened to this publication. I look upon their impatience to see this work as an earnest of their approbation of it, and a very great honour done to me; and if I had still any motive to defer submitting these observations to their judgment, it could only be that I might employ that interval in polishing and making them more worthy of their perusal. The candid and instructed public, the impartial and unprejudiced foreigner, are tribunals merit should naturally appeal to; it is there it always has found sure protection against the influence of cabals, and the virulent strokes of malice, envy, and ignorance.
It is with a view to give every possible information to my reader, that in this introduction I lay before him the motives upon which these travels were undertaken, the order and manner in which they were executed, and some account of the work itself, as well of the matter as the distribution of it.
Every one will remember that period, so glorious to Britain, the latter end of the ministry of the late Earl of Chatham. I was then returned from a tour through the greatest part of Europe, particularly through the whole of Spain and Portugal, between whom there then was an appearance of approaching war. I was about to retire to a small patrimony I had received from my ancestors, in order to embrace a life of study and reflection, nothing more active appearing then within my power, when chance threw me unexpectedly into a very short and very desultory conversation with Lord Chatham.
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