The person of Mr. Bruce being nearly six feet four inches in height, and of great muscular strength, was well suited to the enterprises he undertook and the dangers he encountered. Though his hair was a dark red, his countenance had a handsome cast; and though he possessed great urbanity of manners, his mien was dignified, and almost haughty. He paid particular attention to his dress, especially during his travels, the fatigue and danger of which never prevented him from appearing in the most elegant costume of the different countries he visited. He was an excellent horseman and swimmer, and an unerring marksman; and, for his skill in the latter capacity, was mistaken by the barbarians, who were unaquainted with the use of fire-arms, for a magician. In addition to his numerous literary accomplishments, he acquired a considerable knowledge of physic and surgery, which he practiced with great success in Africa and Abyssinia. He possessed a mind prudent and vigorous, and a spirit untameable by danger or disappointment, so that he was enabled finally to ensure the success of his most ambitious projects. In Abyssinia he discovered a plant very serviceable in cases of dysentery; and brought the seeds of it to England, where it is known by the name of Brucea, having been so called by Sir Joseph Banks, in honor of its finder. An island in the Red Sea, on the coast of Abyssinia, also bears his name.
The doubt which prevailed respecting the truth of his narratives, was in a great degree owing to the habit he had of telling his own exploits, which he embellished with a coloring of romance calculated to weaken the credulity of his hearers. His account of his travels became the subject of much disputation; and Dr. Vincent, who defended it, allowed that Bruce was in some instances mistaken, by aspiring to knowledge and science which he had not sufficiently examined; though, he adds, ‘his work throughout bears internal marks of veracity, in all instances where he was not deceived himself; and his observations were the best which a man, furnished with such instruments, and struggling for his life, could obtain.’ He was often pompous and ostentatious, especially in his character of consul. The Bey of Cairo, having, after a long conversation, ordered him a purse of sequins, he declined accepting any thing more than a single orange, saying to the Bey, who requested to know his reason, ‘I am an Englishman, and the servant of the greatest king in Europe: it is not the custom of my country to receive pecuniary gratuities from foreign princes without the approbation of our sovereign.’ In alluding to his pictures of Palmyra and Balbec, which are in the king’s library at Kew, he used to speak of them as ‘the most magnificent presents ever made in that line by a subject to a sovereign.’ It has been said, however, that he received for these drawings the sum of £2000. He was descended, on his mother’s side, from Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, a circumstance he was excessively proud of; and he once said to a friend, that ‘he was entitled to give his servants royal livery.’ He occupied much of the latter part of his life in the formation of a museum, in his own house, which contained many rare and valuable curiosities.
He expressed an utter contempt for all kinds of suspicion with regard to his veracity, which he could never be prevailed on to take any pains to substantiate. When requested by his friends, to alter or explain any thing, he would sternly repeat, ‘What I have written, I have written!’ with which words he concluded the preface to his travels. ‘Dining out, one day,’ says Major Head, ‘at the house of a friend, a gentleman present observed, “that it was impossible the natives of Abyssinia could eat raw meat;” on which, Bruce without saying a word, left the table, and shortly returned from the kitchen with a piece of raw beef-steak, peppered and salted in the Abyssinian fashion, and said to the gentleman, “Sir, you will eat that, or fight me;” the person addressed chose to do the former, when Bruce calmly observed, “Now sir, you will never again say it is impossible.”’ Major Head also relates the following anecdote: ‘Single-speech Hamilton, who was Bruce’s first cousin, one evening said to him, “that to convince the world of his power of drawing, he need only draw something then in as good a style as those paintings which it had been said were done for him by his Italian artist.” “Gerard!” replied Bruce, very gravely, “you made one fine speech, and the world doubted its being your own composition; but, if you will stand up now here, and make another speech as good, we shall believe it to have been your own.”’
RAIL ROAD RRIDGE.
VIEW ON ELK CREEK.
He used to teach his daughter, who was scarcely twelve years old, the proper mode of pronouncing the Abyssinian words, ‘that he might leave,’ as he said, ‘some one behind him who could pronounce them correctly. He repeatedly said to her, with feelings highly excited, ‘I shall not live, my child, but you probably will, to see the truth of all I have written thoroughly confirmed.’