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 This preliminary step having been made, he may be said to have commenced his travels with a voyage to the Peninsula. Landing on the northern coast of Spain, he traversed Gallicia, spent four months in Portugal, and then, re-entering Spain, made the tour of a large portion of Andalusia and New Castile, and then proceeded to Madrid. His enthusiasm and romantic character, which had probably a new accession of ardour from the wild scenes still redolent of ancient chivalry which he had just visited, recommended him strongly to the Spanish minister, who used many arguments to induce him to enter the service of his Catholic majesty. This by no means, however, coincided with Bruce's views. That restlessness which the man who has once conceived the idea of travelling ever after feels, unfitted him in reality for all quiet employment. He felt himself goaded on by the desire of fame; to be in motion seemed to be on the way to acquire it. He therefore proceeded across the Pyrenees into France, and thence, through Germany and Holland, to England, where he arrived in July, 1758.

He had learned at Rotterdam the death of his father, by which he succeeded to the family estate at Kinnaird. He likewise continued during another three years to derive profit from his business as a wine-merchant; but at the termination of that period the partnership was dissolved. All this while, however, his leisure had been devoted to the acquisition of the Arabic and other eastern languages, among the rest the Ethiopic, which probably first directed his attention to Abyssinia. In the mean while, an idea which he had conceived while at Ferrol in Gallicia was the means of bringing him into communication with the English ministry; this was, that in case of a rupture with Spain, Ferrol would be the most desirable point on the Spanish coast for a descent. Should the scheme be adopted, he was ready to volunteer his services in aiding in its execution.