228 Dr Beke on the Sources of the Nile 



nected sources ; that is to say, on the one hand, from travel- 

 lers who had ascended the river southwards from Egypt, and, 

 on the other, from navigators of the Red Sea and Indian 

 Ocean ; and, further, that it was from this second source of in- 

 formation that he obtained the details of the river above the 

 confluence of the Astaboras and Astapus, or, at all events, 

 above the junction, in 9° 20' N. lat,, of the two arms of the 

 Nile. In like manner, as our positive information concern- 

 ing the course of the main stream ceases in 4° 42' 42" N. lat., 

 or about four degrees and a half of latitude above the point at 

 which the two Niles of Ptolemy become a single stream, it is 

 to the information collected on the east coast of Africa that 

 we must principally look for the means of elucidating the par- 

 ticulars recorded by that geographer respecting the river be- 

 yond that point. 



It is to be observed, in the first place, that one of the re- 

 sults of the attention which modern geographers have given 

 to the subject, is the identification of the island of Zanzibar, 

 in about 6° S. lat., with the Menuthias of Ptolemy, an island 

 which is placed by him in 12° 30' S. lat. ; that is to say, in 

 the same parallel as the sources of the Nile. It is true, that 

 the generality of commentators have considered Menuthias 

 to be represented by Madagascar ; and, on the other hand, it 

 must not be concealed, that M. Gossellin supposed that island 

 to lie at the mouth of the river of Makdashu (Magadasho*). 

 It is, however, unnecessary to discuss this point here. The 

 subject has been investigated by D'Anvillef and Vincent,t 

 and recently very elaborately by De Froberville ;§ and the re- 

 sult is, that the greatest amount of probability is certainly in 

 favour of Zanzibar. 



It being absolutely essential to the investigation of the sub- 

 ject that we should advance from some fixed point, it will be 

 assumed that the identity of the island of Zanzibar with Me- 



* Recherches sur la Geographic des Ancienn, vol. i., p. 192. 



t Memoires de V Academic des Inscriptions et Belles Lcttres, vol. xxxv. (1770), 

 p. 599, et seq. 



X Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, vol. ii., p. 174, et seq. ; Voyage of 

 Ncarchus and Periplus, p. 80. 



§ Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic dc Paris, 3d Ser., vol. i., p. 224, et seq. 



