In 1768, James Bruce, a Scottish gentleman of position, set out with the determination of solving this mystery--a determination which he had made in early youth, and carried out with characteristic pertinacity.

He had acquired a certain amount of knowledge of Arabic and acquaintance with African customs as Consul at Algiers.

He went up the Nile as far as Farsunt, and then crossed the desert to the Red Sea, went over to Jedda, from which he took ship for Massowah, and began his search for the sources of the Nile in Abyssinia.

He visited the ruins of Axum, the former capital, and in the neighbourhood of that place saw the incident with which his travels have always been associated, in which a couple of rump-steaks were extracted from a cow while alive, the wound sewn up, and the animal driven on farther.
Here, guided by some Gallas, he worked his way up the Blue Nile to the three fountains, which he declared to be the true sources of the Nile, and identified with the three mysterious lakes in the old maps.

From there he worked his way down the Nile, reaching Cairo in 1773.