Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature: A History, Critical and ...

MACARTNEY-STAUNTON-BRUCE-MUNGO PARK. The growing importance of our trade with China suggested a mission to the imperial court, in order to obtain some extension of the limits within which the traffic was confined. In 1792 an embassy was formed on a liberal scale, LORD MACARTNEY (1737–1806) being placed at its head, and Sir GEORGE L. STAUNTON (1737-1801) being secretary of legation or envoy-extraordinary. These two able diplomatists and travellers had served together in India, Macartney as governor of Madras, and Staunton as his secretary. The latter negotiated the peace with Tippoo Sahib in 1784, for which he was elevated to the baronetcy, and received from the East India Company a pension of £500 a year. The mission to China did not result in securing the commercial advantages anticipated, but the ‘Journal' published by Lord Macartney, and the Authentic Account of the Embassy' by Sir George Staunton, added greatly to our knowledge of the empire and people of China. Sir George's work was in two volumes quarto, and formed one of the most interesting and novel book3 of travels in the language. It was read with great avidity, and translated into French and German.

One of the most romantic and persevering of our travellers was JAMES BRUCE of Kinnaird, a Scottish gentleman of ancient family and property, who devoted several years to a journey into Abyssinia to discover the sources of the river Nile. The fountains of celebrated rivers have led to some of our most interesting exploratory expeditions. Superstition has hallowed the sources of the Nile and

the Ganges, and the mysterious Niger long wooed our adventurous

travellers into the sultry plains of Africa. The inhabitants of moun- tainous countries still look with veneration on their principal streams, and as theś roli on before them, connect them in imagination with the ancient glories or traditional legends of their native land.

Bruce partook largely of this feeling, and was a man of an ardent entbusiastic temperament He was born at Kinnaird House, in the county of Stirliny, on the 14th of December 1730, and was intended for the legal profession. He was averse, however, to the study of the law, and entered into business as a wine-merchant in London.

Being led to visit Spain and Portugal, he was struck with the architectural ruins and chivalrous tales of the Moorisha dominion, and applied hiinself diligently to the study of Eastern antiquities and languages. On his return to England he became known to the government, and it was proposed that he should make a journey to Barbary, which had been partially explored by Dr. Shaw. At the same time, the consulship of Algiers became vacant, and Bruce was appointed to the office. He left England, and arrived at Algiers in 1762. Above six years were spent by our traveller at Algiers and in various travels during which he surveyed and sketched the ruins of Palmyra and Baalbecand it was not till June 1768 that he reached Alexandria. Thence he proceeded to Cairo, and embarked on the Nile. He arrived at Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, and after some stay there, he set out for the sources of Bahr-el-Azrek, under an impression that this was the principal branch of the Nile. The spot was at length pointed out by his guide—a hillock of green sod in the middle of a watery plain. The guide counselled him to pull off his shoes, as the people were all pagans, and prayed to the river as if it were God.

First Vier of the Supposed Source of the Nile. Half-undressed as I was.' continnes Bruce, by the loss of my sash, and throring off my shoes. I ran down the hill towards the hillock of green cod. which was about two hundred yards distant: the whole side of the bill was thick grown with flowers, the large bulbous roots of which appearing above the surface of the ground, and their skins coming off on ny treading upon them, occasioned me two very severe falls before I reached the brink of the marsh. I after this came to the altar of green turf. which was apparently the work of art, and I stood in rupture above the principal fountain, which rises in the middle of it. It is easier to gness than to describe the situation of my mind at that moment-standing in that spot which had baffled the genius, industry. and inqniry of both ancients and nioverns for the couret of near three thousand years, Kings had attempted this discovery at the head of armies, and each expedition was distinguished from the list only by the difference of numbers which had perished and agreed alone in the disappointment which had unifornlv. ard withont exception followed them all. Fame, riches, and honour had heen held ont for a series of ages to every individual of those myriads these princes commanded, withont having produced one man capable of graiifving the curiosity of his souprign. or wiping off this stain upon the enterprise and abilities of kind, or adding this desideratam for the encouragement of geography. Though a more private Briton. I triumphed here in my own mind, over kings and their armies! and every comparison was leading nearer and nearer to presumption, when the place itself where I stood, the object of my veinglory. suggested what depressed my short-lived triumph. I was hut a few minutes arrived at the sources of the Nie, through muinberless dangers and sufferings, the least of which would have

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Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature: A History ..., Объемы 7-8