At the age of 24, Bruce married a girlfriend he had known since childhood, and his life was stable and happy, which made him feel very satisfied. However, only nine months after marriage, his wife developed tuberculosis, which was recognized as an incurable disease under the medical conditions and standards at that time. Bruce could only watch helplessly as his wife's round face became thinner and her skin lost its luster, and finally she vomited blood in pain and died.
The death of his wife made him very excited. In order to avoid injury, Bruce decided to travel overseas. He went to France, Italy and Holland. The beautiful scenery and splendid culture of these places did not make him feel lingering. On the contrary, when he came to Spain, he became interested in the strange customs, words and deeds of Arabs living there. These Arabs are descendants of the Arab Empire that conquered Spain in the 8th-/Kloc-0th-5th century A.D., and once had a profound influence on local politics, military affairs, economy, culture, education and folk customs. Bruce stayed in Spain to concentrate on learning Spanish and studying relevant historical documents. Two years later, through family ties, he got a position with the Royal Foreign Secretary and was sent to Algeria under Turkish control as British Consul General.
In order to adapt to the new job, and at the same time facilitate a more direct understanding of Africa, especially the Nile, which once contributed to the splendid ancient Egyptian civilization, James Bruce ignored the so-called "European dignity and identity" and invited local Muslim scholars to learn Amharic and Gash, which are popular in Ethiopia, and asked them about the upper Nile.
After living in Algeria for several years, Bruce resigned from his diplomatic post, declined the enthusiasm of his boss and plunged into the endless wilderness of North Africa. At that time, the so-called travel in Europe was mostly surrounded by local waiters and armed guards for luxurious and comfortable activities. Not only do they always choose some busy places, but they often think highly of themselves, are isolated from the local people and disdain to contact them. Bruce is not like this. He wears traditional Arab robes, drinks local wine brewed with dates, eats scones and camel meat, and lives the same life as Arabs. During the trip, he also learned to ride an Arabian horse from an Arab guide, and soon became proficient and became an excellent desert rider.
Near Damascus, Syria, Bruce contracted malaria and had to stop traveling. Fortunately, Pakhet Lareru, a tropical disease expert at that time, was also in Syria, and Bruce came to the door.
Dr. Lareru not only cured Bruce's illness quickly, but also enthusiastically taught him a lot of useful medical knowledge. Bruce is smart, studious, well-read, and has the ability to put on airs, so that when he leaves the doctor, he can pretend to be a doctor to treat others, without arousing the suspicion of patients and their families at all. With this skill, when Bruce decided to leave for Ethiopia in the upper Nile, the Mecca authorities handed him a document similar to today's travel passport. The document clearly says: "Mr. Bruce is a Christian doctor." He travels everywhere in order to find plants that are beneficial to human health. He is used to traveling around the world. "
1768, 38-year-old Bruce planned and prepared his expedition to Ethiopia in a hotel in Cairo. In order to draw a map along the way, he hired a young Italian painter, Reggie Barugalini, as his secretary. In addition, several Muslim armed guards, a guide and three slaves carrying luggage were hired. A group of 10 people set off from the Nile pier outside Cairo by boat and went upstream.
At that time, wars broke out between tribes in the area south of Aswan controlled by Turks, and many refugees and Arab businessmen fled the area. Local Turkish officials also advised Bruce that they had better stop sailing and go home. Because if you go further south, you may encounter accidents at any time, and there will be problems with food supplements. However, Bruce has made up his mind. 10 For many years, he has been dreaming and preparing for this trip. How could he give up easily? When the waterway was blocked, he went by land. So he abandoned the ship and landed, left the Nile with his men to the east, crossed the dry and hot East African desert and entered the Red Sea, then sailed southeast along the west coast of Arabian Peninsula opposite the Red Sea, and finally reached the port city of massawa on the Ethiopian coast.
In massawa, James Bruce had some trouble. Because since 1633, Fasilidas, the emperor who unified Ethiopia and quelled the civil war, signed a treaty with Turkish leaders according to Sawajin and massawa, prohibiting westerners, especially western missionaries, from landing there. Bruce tried his best to explain that it was still useless to produce the certificates of Turkish officials passing by and the documents issued by Mecca authorities. Finally, he had to give half of the gifts he had brought for the Ethiopian emperor to the Turkish leader and was allowed to enter the inland.
So far, they have been detained for two months.
Three months later, namely1768165438+10/0, Bruce and his party arrived in Gandahl, the Ethiopian capital. At this time, Gandahl was the cultural and political center of Ethiopia, with dozens of monasteries and churches. However, in this mountainous country, due to the lack of an effective means to control local feudal lords and the establishment of an administrative system to manage the whole country, the power of local feudal lords has gradually increased, and there has been a chaotic situation of feudal separatism in various places. Especially in the rainy season from June to June in 10, traffic in mountainous areas is difficult and it is inconvenient to use troops. Feudal lords can resist reunification and sometimes even unite against the central government. Moreover, since 1706, there has been a constant battle for the throne in the imperial court, and conspiracy assassinations have occurred one after another, further weakening the power of the central government. Although Gandahl is the capital, the emperor's power and financial resources are often inferior to those of the big feudal lords in China. Even the emperor himself is no longer the "king of kings".
Among Bruce's luggage, the most important and cumbersome thing is that when the source of the Nile was discovered, Shibungi, who was used to measure latitude, crossed the Ethiopian plateau from the coast and had to hire two groups of porters to carry it in turn. On the Ethiopian plateau, Bruce and his party also met a large group of African antelopes who were not afraid of people. These antelopes swagger in front of them and sometimes stand in their way. To this end, Bruce had to send a few people to drive specially to distract these bold antelopes along the way in order to pass smoothly.
Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic country. Most tribes are mainly engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, and many cows are raised. Bulls and cows are beautiful and almost all are white. Ethiopia's traditional food is honey and a kind of millet bread called "Dura". When they want to eat meat, they slaughter livestock. Near Gandahl, Bruce once saw three soldiers of the Royal Army chasing a cow. They chased the cow to the river, then tied it upside down, cut off two large pieces of meat from the side of the cow, then restored the cowhide to its original state, covered the wound, clamped it tightly with a small clip, then untied the rope that tied the cow and released the cow that had eaten the meat.
After learning about the history of Ethiopia's expulsion of Portuguese, James Bruce was ready to accept all kinds of refugees from Ethiopia when he entered Gandahl, but he didn't. This surprised him very much. Later, he learned that the Ethiopian was so polite because his Mecca document indicated his identity as a doctor. When smallpox spread in Gandahl, the emperor's doctors could do nothing about it. As soon as Bruce arrived, he was immediately introduced to the Emperor's Castle at the top of Gandahl, and was ordered to treat the sick royal children. When he arrived at this place, Bruce had no time to retreat. Fortunately, the way Lareru told him has not been forgotten. He had no choice but to get up the courage to dictate in Ethiopia's palace. He ordered all the doors in the palace to be closed, incense wood and myrrh to be burned in the room, and ordered the court servants to collect a large amount of vinegar from the market to clean the walls of all the rooms. After this ordeal, as if by providence, the princes and princesses soon recovered and Bruce's hanging heart was put down.
Bruce's efforts won the favor of Empress Yitiger, and she tried her best to protect him in the palace. With his tall and beautiful appearance and eloquence, Bruce soon established close friendship with other women in the palace. In fluent local language, he vividly told them all kinds of stories about the outside world that they were completely unfamiliar with. In order to make them happy, Bruce, the son of the British aristocrat, pays special attention to clothes, cuts his hair into a round Arabic shape, and sprays perfume every day besides tidying it up. Since then, his appearance has completely become Abyssinia (the old name of Ethiopia).