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Bezig met laden... The Pale Abyssinian: The Life of James Brucedoor Miles Bredin
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The achievements of James Bruce are the stuff of legends. In a time when Africa was an unexplored blank on the map, he discovered the source of the Blue Nile, lived with the Emperor of Abyssinia at court in Gondar, commanded the Emperor's horse guard in battle and fell in love with a princess. After 12 years of travels, and having cheated death on countless occasions, Bruce returned to England from his Herculean adventures only to be ridiculed and despised as a fake by Samuel Johnson and the rest of literary London. It was only when explorers penetrated the African interior 100 years later and were asked if they were friends with a man called Bruce, that it was finally confirmed that Bruce really had achieved what he had claimed. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)910.92History and Geography Geography and Travel Geography and Travel History, geographic treatment, biography - Discovery. exploration Geographers, travellers, explorers regardless of country of originLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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The author tries, in passing, to develop a theory that the true purpose of Bruce's journey was to find the Ark of the Covenant, reputed to be in Ethiopia. He bases this on Bruce's membership of the Freemasons, and on omissions and errors in Bruce's otherwise meticulous accounts. The evidence is not very compelling, but it's always interesting to speculate.
Bruce remains relatively unknown. I had never heard of him before. His manner did not endear himself to the establishment at the time (at least in Britain - he seems to have been more popular in mainland Europe), his experiences seemed rather too fantastic, and there were rivalries amongst different travellers and writers.
But he was an extremely important fore-runner of later explorers, indeed "the father of nineteenth century exploration and one with the purest motives", according to the author (p267). Another quoted opinion (p266) calls him "the first great scientific explorer of Africa, the first to go out there neither for trade, nor for war, nor to hoist a flag, nor for the Glory of God, but from curiosity". The last word is given to no less an authority than David Livingstone who, in 1868, described Bruce as "a greater traveller than any of us" (p268). ( )