James Bruce and Mungo Park, North Africa Explorations, 1790s

Entitled: A map showing the progress of, discovery and improvement, in the geography of North Africa. The double line of dots shows Mr. Mungo Park's route in the West Mr. James Bruce's in the East. The first European to have seen the Blue Nile in Ethiopia and the river's source was Pedro PCgez, a Spanish Jesuit, who reached the river's source in 1613. The source of the Blue Nile was also reached in 1629 by the Portuguese Jesuit missionary JerCunimo Lobo and in 1770 by James Bruce. James Bruce (December 14, 1730 - April 27, 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia, where he traced the origins of the Blue Nile. After many adventures and misadventures he achieved his goal and argued that the Blue Nile was the Nile of the ancients and thus he was the discoverer of its source. In 1790 he published his Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773, but was assailed by other travelers as being unworthy of credence. The substantial accuracy of his Ethiopian travels has since been demonstrated, and it is considered that he made a real addition to the geographical knowledge of his day. He died in 1794 at the age of 63

Picture No

12696328

Media ID

47669029

Size

4950px x 2842px (4.2MB)

Credit

LOC/Geography and Map Division/Science Source/Mary Evans