visited Mount Sinai; and, having returned to Cairo, was making preparations to commence his long-delayed journey to Fezzan, to explore the source of the Niger, when he was attacked with dysentery on the 14th, and died on the 15th of October, 1817. 'I have closed,' says Mr. St. John, 'the lives of few travelers with more regret.' His obsequies were performed after the Mohammedan custom, according to his own request to Mr. Salt, to whom he observed, a few moments previously to his death, 'that as he had lived as a Mussulman in the east, the Turks would claim his body; and perhaps,' said he, 'you had better let them.'
Thus fell another victim in the cause of geographical discovery, which, in Mr. Burckhardt, may be said to have lost one of its most able and enterprising devotees. Patient, courageous, cautious, and intelligent, no fatigues dispirited, no obstacle disconcerted, and no dangers dismayed him. He conformed himself to the manners of the various countries through which he passed with admirable tact; and, with an apparent carelessness of what was passing around him, suffered nothing worth observation to escape his attention.
JAMES BRUCE.
James Bruce was born at Kinnaird, near Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, on
the 14th of December, 1730, and, in 1738, was placed under the care of
his uncle, a barrister in London, who sent him, in January, 1742, to school,
at Harrow. Here he so successfully prosecuted his studies, that Dr. Cox,
the head-master, said of him, in a letter to a friend, 'When you write to
Mr. Bruce's father about his son, you cannot say too much; for he is as
promising a young man as ever I had under my care; and, for his years,
I never saw his fellow.' From Harrow, he went, for a few months, to a
private academy, where he renewed his classical studies, and acquired a
knowledge of French, drawing, arithmetic and geometry. In the November
of 1747, he entered the University of Edinburgh, with the intention
of studying the law; which, at his father's desire, he had determined on
adopting as his profession. Disinclination, however, and ill-health, induced
him, in the spring of 1748, to relinquish for ever the sedentary labors
of a law student; and being threatened with consumption, he retired to
Scotland, where he remained till 1753. In the July of that year, he
went to London, with the intention of embarking for the East Indies,
where he purposed settling as a free trader, under the patronage of the
Company, to whom he had already prepared a petition. An attachment,
however, frustrated this design; and, in February, 1754, he married a
Miss Allan, daughter of a deceased wine-merchant; and, for a short time,
held a share in the business. This he relinquished on the death of his
wife, which happened in Paris, eight months after her marriage; and such
was the bigotry of the catholics towards protestants, that he was compelled
to inter her at midnight, and to steal a grave in the burying ground assigned
to the English embassy.
After this event, he again turned his attention to literature, and acquired a knowledge of the Spanish and Portuguese tongues, as well as the art of drawing; all of which studies he pursued with a view to their utility in the future travels that he secretly contemplated. At the commencement of the vintage season, in July, 1757, he embarked for the continent; and,
