Bruce, James, 1730-1794. Autograph letter to an unnamed trusted friend, from Cairo
Object Details
- General note
- Lacking the conclusion. Bound in green cloth.
- Collection Creator
- Train, Russell E., 1920-2012
- Russell E. Train Africana Collection (Smithsonian. Libraries)
- See more items in
- Russell E. Train Africana collection
- Russell E. Train Africana collection / Series 5: Manuscripts
- Extent
- 1 Item (Correspondence, 10 x 14.5 x 0.25 in. (bound journal))
- Date
- 1768 December 3
- Container
- Item M015
- Archival Repository
- Smithsonian Libraries
- Type
- Archival materials
- Collection Rights
- The collection is housed in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, which is open to researchers Monday through Friday in the afternoons, from 1:30 to 5:00 p.m.; morning visits are by appointment only. Please call (202) 633-1184 or email AskaLibrarian@si.edu for an appointment.
- Scope and Contents note
- Bruce recalls the King's recommendation to him "to make Excursions as far as I possibly could into the Continent of Africa & above all to endeavor to penetrate into Abyssinia as far as the Capital & the source of the Nile & to see what possibility or what profit would likely accrue from the cultivation of a commerce there"; he announces that he has executed the first article but had thought of abandoning the second when Mr. Montagu came to Egypt from England; however, now that Montagu has been expelled for misconduct Bruce finds himself "obliged either to undertake this last part or by abandoning it lose a great part of the merit of what I had already done"; he proceeds to explain in detail his mixed feelings about the dangers and merits of this task, offering an extraordinarily clear insight into his own motivation.
- Record ID
- ebl-1503510890585-1503510890682-2
- Metadata Usage
- CC0
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