174 
parently the work of art, and I 
ftood in rapture over the principal 
fountain which rifes in the middle 
of it. 
«< Tt is eafier to guefs than to de- 
fcribe the fituation of my mind at 
that moment—ftanding in that fpot 
which had baffled the genius, in- 
duftry, and inquiry of both ancients 
and moderns, for the courfe of near 
3000 years. Kings had attempted 
this difeovery at the head of armies, 
and each expedition was diftin- 
guifhed from the laft, only by the 
difference of the numbers which 
had perifhed; and agreed alone in 
the difappointment which had uni- 
formly and without exception fol- 
lowed them all. Fame, riches, and 
honour, had been held out for a 
feries of ages to every individual of 
thofe myriads thefe princes. com- 
manded, without having produced 
“one man capable of gratifying the 
curiofity of his fovereign, wiping 
off this ftain upon the enterprife 
and abilities of mankind, or adding 
this defideratum for the encourage- 
ment of geograshy. 
« Sefoitris, one of the earlicft 
and greateit conquerors of anti- 
quity, is mentioned, amidf all his 
victories, earneftly to have defired 
to penetrate to the head of the 
Nile, as a glory he preferred to al- 
moft univerfal monarchy : 
Venit ad occafuum, mundique extrema 
Sefoftris, “é 
Et Pharios currus regum cervicjbus 
egit: 
Ante tamen veftros amnes, Rhoda- 
numque Padumaue, 
Quam Nilum de fonte bibit.” 
Lucan. 
Whilft Mr. Bruce was congratu- 
lating himfelf in this ftrain of ex- 
ultation upon the fuccefs of his la- 
bonrs, it is hardly poflible to fuppofe 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
that he knew, nor yet fair to con- 
clude him ignorant, that his difco- 
very was a mere nullity, and his 
triumph over the antients an oe 
boaft. Not to enter into his dif- 
pute with the jefuits, it is evident 
that the ftream whofe fource he dif- 
covered, is but one of the innume- 
rable rivulets which form the lake 
of Dambeca or Tzana, and that this 
lake may perhaps, with more pro- 
priety, be called the head of the Nile. 
But be this as it may, Mr. D’Anville 
has clearly fhewn, that the Nile, 
whofe fource the ancients fought 
for, wasa different river, or atleaft a 
fouthern branch ofthe EgyptianNile, 
Befides, the moft judicious critics 
are of opinion, that when the an- 
cients fpeak of the hidden fources 
of the Nile, they generally fpeak 
metaphorically and mean the caufes 
of its inundation. Nor yet were 
thefe unknown to them, as is evi- 
dent from the account which Hero. 
dotus gives of information he re- 
_ceived in Egypt, and which agrees 
in almoft every particular with that 
given by our author. Indeed Mr, 
Bruce himfelf acknowledges, that 
his theory is the fame with that of 
Democritus of Abdera, recited 
amongft feveral others by Diodorus 
Siculus. The following extraét 
contains the fubftance of the argu- 
ment by which he fupports his opi- 
nion. 
«“ Modern travellers have found 
that the plentiful fall of the tropical 
rains, produced every year at the 
fame time, by the action of a violent 
fun, has been uniformly, without mi- 
racle, the caufe of Egypt being re- - 
gularly overflowed. 
«« The fun being nearly ftationary 
for fome days in the tropic of Ca. 
pricorn, the air there becomes fo 
much rarified, that the heavier 
winds, 
