Bruce, having reached a fountain at Gisha (Abyssinia) regarded as the source of the Nile, uses a coconut to drink the water to the health of King George III and Empress Catherine the Great. James Bruce (December 14, 1730 - April 27, 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia, where he traced the origins of the Blue Nile. Artwork credited to Richard Morton Paye, undated.