Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/44

 and suffered in the course of his travels. He related anecdotes of the Abyssinian and Nubian tribes, and gave descriptions of localities and natural objects, which certainly appeared wonderful to a civilized people, though only because they were novel: he related nothing either morally or physically impossible. Unfortunately, however, the license of travellers was proverbial in Britain as elsewhere. It was also a prevailing custom at that time in private life, to exert the imagination in telling wonderful, but plausible, tales, as one of the amusements of the table. There was furthermore a race of travellers who had never been able to penetrate into any very strange country, and who, therefore, pined beneath the glories of a brother who had discovered the source of the Nile. For all these reasons, the stories of Bruce were at the very first set down for imaginary tales, furnished forth by his own fancy. This view of the case was warmly taken up by a clique of literary men, who, without science themselves, and unchecked by science in others, then swayed the public mind. A mere race of garreteers, or little better, destroyed the laurels of this greatly accomplished man, who had done and endured more in the cause of knowledge during one day of his life, than the whole of them together throughout the entire term of their worthless and mercenary existence. This is a dreadful imputation upon the age of George III., but we fear that the cold and narrow poverty of its literature, and the almost non-existence of its science, would make any less indignant account of its treatment of Bruce unjust. Even the country gentlemen in Scotland, who, while he was carving out a glorious name for himself and providing additional honour for his country, by the most extraordinary and magnanimous exertions, were sunk in the low sottishness of the period, or at most performed respectably the humble duties of surveying the roads and convicting the poachers of their own little districts, could sneer at the "lies" of Bruce. His mind shrunk from the meanness of his fellows; and he retired, indignant and disappointed, to Kinnaird, where, for some time, he busied himself in rebuilding his house, and arranging the concerns of his estate, which had become confused during his long absence. In March 1776, he provided additional means of happiness and repose, by marrying, for his second wife, Mary Dundas, daughter of Thomas Dundas, Esq. of Fingask, and of Lady Janet Maitland, daughter of the Earl of Lauderdale. This amiable and accomplished person was much younger than Bruce, and it is rather a singular coincidence, remarks Captain Head, that she was born in the same year in which his first wife had died. For nine years Bruce enjoyed too much domestic happiness to admit of his making a rapid progress in the preparation of his journals for the press. But, after the death of his wife in 1785, he applied to this task with more eagerness, as a means of diverting his melancholy. We have heard that in the composition of his book, he employed the assistance of a professional litterateur, who first transcribed his journals into a continuous narrative, and then wrote them over again, involving ail the alterations, improvements, and additional remarks, which the traveller was pleased to suggest. The work appeared in 1790, seventeen years after his return to Europe. It consisted of five large quarto volumes, besides a volume of drawings, and was entitled, "Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile, in the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773, by James Bruce, of Kinnaird, Esq., F. R. S." It was dedicated to the king; and it is but justice to the memory of that sovereign to state, that, while society in general raised against it the cry of envy, jealousy, and ignorant incredulity, his Majesty stood boldly up in its favour, and contended that it was a very great work. The King used to say, that, had it not been for the indecorous nature of certain passages, he could have wished to find it in the hands of all his subjects, and he would himself have placed a copy of it in every one of his palaces. The taste of this mon-