90 A HISTORY OF 



admiration, are lost in its bosom. It proceeds, after their junction, 

 with its usual appearance, without any visible change in its breadth 

 or rapidity ; and, if we may so express it, remains great without os- 

 tentation. In some places it displays its whole magnificence, dividing 

 into several large branches, and encompassing a multitude of islands ; 

 and, at length, discharges itself into the ocean, by a channel of a 

 hundred and fifty miles broad. Another river, that may almost rival 

 the former, is the St. Lawrence, in Canada, which rising in the lake 

 Assiniboils, passes from one lake to another, from Christineaux to 

 Alempigo ; from thence to lake Superior ; thence to the lake Hu- 

 rons ; to lake Erie ; to lake Ontario ; and, at last, after a course of 

 nine hundred leagues, pours their collected waters into the Atlantic 

 Ocean. The river Mississippi is of more than seven hundred leagues 

 in length, beginning at its source near the lake Assiniboils, and end- 

 ing at its opening into the gulf of Mexico. The river Plate runs a 

 length of more than eight hundred leagues from its source in the river 

 Parana, to its mouth. The river Oroonoko is seven hundred and fif- 

 ty-five leagues in length, from its source near Pasto, to its discharge 

 into the Atlantic Ocean. 



Such-is the amazing length of the greatest rivers ; and even in some 

 of these, the most remote sources very probably yet continue un- 

 known. In fact, if we consider the number of rivers which they re- 

 ceive, and the little acquaintance we have with the regions through 

 which they run, it is not to be wondered at that geographers are di- 

 vided concerning the sources of most of them. As among a number 

 of roots by which nourishment is conveyed to a stately tree, it is dif- 

 ficult to determine precisely that by which the tree is chiefly suppli- 

 ed ; so among the many branches of a great river, it is equally diffi- 

 cult to tell which is the original. Hence it may easily happen, 

 that a smaller branch is taken for the capital stream ; and its runnings 

 are pursued, and delineated, in prejudice of some other branch that 

 better deserved the na'me and the description. In this manner* in 

 Europe, the Danube is known to receive thirty lesser rivers: the 

 Wolga, thirty-two or thirty-three. In Asia, the Hohano receives 

 thirty-five ; the Jenisca above sixty ; the Oby as many ; the Amour 

 about forty ; the Nanquin receives thirty rivers ; the Ganges twen- 

 ty ; and the Euphrates about eleven. In Africa, the Senegal receives 

 more than twenty rivers ; the Nile receives not one for five hundred 

 leagues upwards, and then only twelve or thirteen. In America, the 

 river Amazon receives above sixty, and those very considerable ; 

 he river St. Lawrence about forty, counting those which fall into its 

 lakes ; the Mississippi receives forty ; and the river Plate above fifty. 



I mentioned the inundations of the Ganges and the Nile, but almost 

 every other great river whose source lies within the tropics, have 

 their stated inundations also. The river Pegu has been called, by 

 tra\ oilers, the Indian Nile, because of^the similar overflowings of its 

 stream : this it does to an extent of thirty leagues on each side : and 

 o fei tilizes the soil, that the inhabitants send great quantities of rice 

 into other countries, and have still abundance for their own CMHSI mp- 



* Ruffon, vol. li. p. 74. 



