Nilotic first
From Robert Bruce Browne-Clayton
Sir: Having read the review of Anthony Sattin's excellent book The Gates of Africa (29 November) and now the book itself, I am sad and maybe a little angry that yet again James Bruce, the Abyssinian explorer, is derided and dismissed as a liar and fool by both the reviewer and particularly by Sattin.
As a direct descendant of Bruce, with many of his letters, portraits, first and second editions of his journal, etc., in my possession. I would like to point the reviewer and author in the direction of the following quotation from maybe the greatest explorer of all, Dr David Livingstone, in 1868: 'Old Nile played the theorists a pretty prank by having his springs 500 miles south of them all! I call mine a contribution, because it is just 100 years since Bruce, a greater traveller than any of us, visited Abyssinia.'
Robert Bruce Browne-Clayton
Horsebridge, Devon
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