James Bruce of Kinnaird

James Bruce was born at the family seat of Kinnaird, Stirlingshire, and educated at Harrow School and Edinburgh University, and began to study for the bar, but his marriage to the daughter of a wine importer and merchant resulted in him entering that business instead.

His wife died in October 1754, within nine months of marriage, and Bruce thereafter travelled in Portugal and Spain as part of the wine trade. 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. In 1758 his father's death placed him in possession of the estate of Kinnaird.

---

James Bruce of Kinnaird (14 December 1730 – 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia, where he was the first European to trace the origins of the Blue Nile. Time in the desert In the early stages of this odyssey, they had traveled south to the Algerian desert looking for traces of ancient civilizations. Bruce and Balugani had already seen several Roman ruins as they explored more remote parts of the region.

BY RUBÉN MONTOYA PUBLISHED JULY 30, 2019

It isn’t often that entire cities vanish, but the Roman outpost of Thamugadi did. Founded by the emperor Trajan around A.D, 100, the city, also known as Timgad or Tamugas, was located in the North African province of Mumidia.

ome to veterans of the Third Augustan Legion, Thamugadi flourished for hundreds of years, becoming prosperous and thus an attractive target for raiders. After a Vandal invasion in 430, repeated attacks weakened the city, which never fully recovered and was abandoned during the 700s.

The desert sands swept in and buried Thamugadi. One thousand years would pass before the city received a visit from a team of explorers led by a maverick Scotsman in the 1700s. (See also: This warrior was the best of ancient Rome's 'five good emperors')

Statesman and scholar Best known now for his contested discovery of the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, Scottish nobleman James Bruce was serving as the British consul in the coastal city of Algiers (today the capital of Algeria) in 1763.

Imposingly tall and broad, Bruce was a voracious scholar with a curious mind. Before his arrival in Algiers to take up his post, he spent a few months in Italy poring over the history of the African region and its role in antiquity.

Bruce’s short temper and strong opinions soon led to clashes with his superiors in London. In 1765, he lost his appointment. Rather than return to Britain, he and a Florentine artist named Luigi Balugani embarked on an adventure across Africa. On their journey, they kept notes and made illustrations depicting the many extraordinary people and places they encountered.

North America’s most valuable resource is at risk On December 12, 1765, they reached what they identified as Thamugadi. Many believe that they were the first Europeans in centuries to visit the site, near the northern slopes of the Aurès mountains. “It has been a small town, but full of elegant buildings,” Bruce wrote in his diaries. He was confident that these ruins were what remained of the city founded by Trajan more than a millenium earlier.

On the first day, Bruce recorded and Balugani drew “the triumphal arch” of Trajan. They returned the next day to continue exploration and identified an amphitheater. Bruce cleared away the sand and uncovered sculptures of the Roman emperor who succeeded Hadrian in A.D. 138, Antoninus Pius, and his wife, Faustina the Elder, works he described as having “exquisite beauty.” (See also: Trajan's Column Soars Over Rome)

Bruce reburied the sculptures in the sand and continued traveling. He documented more sites throughout North Africa and Ethiopia, even claiming to find the source of the Blue Nile. Balugani died in 1770, and Bruce returned to London in 1774. When he reported his findings, they were greeted with skepticism and disbelief. Incredulous at this reaction, Bruce retired to Scotland. In 1780, he began writing a memoir of his time in Africa, a five-volume work known as Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile. The book was published in 1790. When Bruce died four years later, much of Britain still refused to recognize his achievements.

Roman splendor Thamugadi lay largely forgotten in the desert sands until 1875, when it was visited by Robert Lambert Playfair, Britain’s consul in Algiers. In his 1877 book, Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis, Playfair paid homage to his consular predecessor, visiting some of the sites Bruce had recorded.

• Wikipedia contributors. "James Bruce." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
• Hogg, Bruce; Freemasons and the Royal Society ed 2; Library and Museum of Freemasonry; January 2012; page 13