1772, he reached Aswan, presently returning to the desert to recover his journals and his baggage, which had been abandoned in consequence of the death of all his camels. In January 1773, Bruce reached Cairo. In March, he arrived in France and was welcomed by the Comte de Buffon and other savants. He came to London in June 1774, and was interviewed by James Boswell, who published a lengthy account of his travels in the London Magazine. Offended by the incredulity with which his story was received, Bruce retired to his home at Kinnaird at age 44. His Travels In retirement, Bruce devoted himself to the management of his estate and the oversight of his collieries. In May 1776, he married Mary Dundas, the daughter of a neighbour, with whom he had three children. After his wife's early death in 1785, and at the urging of his friend Daines Barrington, he embarked on writing up his travels, which were published in five quarto volumes (totalling 3,000 pages) as Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile. The book was very successful, selling very well and being favourably reviewed in the monthly journals, but was assailed by other travellers as being unworthy of credence. The substantial accuracy of his Ethiopian travels has since been demonstrated, and it is considered that he made a real addition to the geographical knowledge of his day. Freemasonry Bruce was a Scottish Freemason. He was Initiated in Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, No. 2, on 1 August 1753. The Lodge history, which details his Initiation in the Lodge reads: 'Bruce, James, Younger of Kinnaird – the Abyssinian Traveller.' Death For most of his life Bruce resided in a fine house on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, previously occupied by George Lockhart of Carnwath and named Lockhart's Court. In his final years, Bruce became very corpulent. He died on 27 April 1794 of injuries sustained when on the previous day he fell down stairs at Kinnaird House. He was buried behind his wife in the Larbert old churchyard. The highly unusual monument was made out of cast iron by the local Carron Ironworks and stands on the south east corner of the churchyard. Legacy Bruce's Travels were published in a second edition (1804–05) and a third (1813), both edited from Bruce's papers by Alexander Murray, who also wrote a valuable contemporary biography of Bruce (1808). Several of Bruce's drawings