Few narratives of travels have ever excited greater interest, or are better calculated to afford amusement, than that written by the subject of this chapter. No traveller ever possessed in a higher degree the confidence and courage requisite to enforce respect among rude nations; few were better qualified by talents of observation and general knowledge; and none, perhaps, has ever experienced more fully the reluctance with which mankind allow travellers the privilege of colouring the truth to give interest to their relation.

James Bruce, a gentleman of good family and fortune in North Britain, conceived in early life the project of examining the sources of the Nile, and thus solving what from the remotest times had been considered as the most interesting geographical problem. He travelled through most countries in Europe; and in Holland, where the oriental school of Erpenius and Schultens still flourished, he acquired a knowledge of the Arabic, and Geez or Ethiopic languages. He also applied himself to mathematics and to practical astronomy. The consulship of Algiers having become vacant in 1762, it was offered to Bruce, who accepted it with pleasure, and proceeded to his post, provided with a good collection of instruments for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus, and with the determination to make himself master of the Arabic tongue as it is spoken, being already well acquainted with the written language.

Great Britain now stood pre-eminently distinguished, and was looked up to with gratitude by all civilised nations, for the bold and successful expeditions which she had fitted out in pursuit of geographical discoveries. As soon as the war, commencing in 1778, was brought to a close, in 1783, France, emulous of the glory of a rival nation, hastened to equip a squadron destined to solve those geographical difficulties which Cook had left Untouched. The officer chosen to command this expedition was Francis Galaup de la Perouse, an officer of great experience and talents, and who had shown himself particularly fitted to conduct an enterprise of this nature, by his skill in combating the difficulties which thwart navigation in Hudson's Bay, whither in the late war he had been despatched with a squadron to de stroy the British settlements. In this affair he had also displayed a generosity in his treatment of the unfortunate colonists, which won him the applause and esteem of the English nation.

The directions given to La Perouse for his voyage were remarkably luminous and instructive; but the plan was too comprehensive to fall within the capabilities of a single expedition. It aimed at little less than the filling up of every chasm, and dispelling every obscurity, that still remained in maritime geography. He was ordered, in his passage to Cape Horn, to examine the southern coasts of Sandwich Land and New Georgia, so as to complete the survey made of these desolate countries by captain Cook. He was then to run in a high latitude to the west, in search of Drake's Land.