BRUCE, James (1730-1794). Two autograph letters signed to George Robinson, 'Bookseller in Pater Noster row', London, Edinburgh, 14 February, 5 December 1790, 7 pages, 4to, the first with integral address leaf and seal, some wear along both centre folds (including one small hole).

BRUCE, James (1730-1794). Two autograph letters signed to George Robinson, 'Bookseller in Pater Noster row', London, Edinburgh, 14 February, 5 December 1790, 7 pages, 4to, the first with integral address leaf and seal, some wear along both centre folds (including one small hole).

Bruce gives instructions to the publisher of the first edition of his Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1790. He informs Robinson that he has put on board ship in Edinburgh 'one hundred Thirty five Bales of the Discovery of the Nile ... I have caused to be collated by Two different hands'; and assures him that this amounted to 2,024 copies of the ordinary edition and 21 copies of the 'imperial set' and that the certificate enclosed specified that he had retained only copies for Paris and Leipzig and one of each edition for correcting purposes; he discusses the illustrations [by James Heath], the quality of paper, the 'Royal copy' and bills, some of which Robinson had paid on Bruce's behalf. Bruce arrived in Algiers in 1763 to take up the position of consul. He travelled extensively, he was in Egypt in 1768 and sailed up the Nile to Assouan. He later crossed the desert to the Red Sea, reached Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia in 1770 and explored the sources of the Blue Nile. He returned to England in 1774.