3C8 TRAVELS IN UPPER, 



commerce, the sources of wealth hicalculable, par- 

 ticularly when the canal of junction between the 

 Nile and the Arabian gulf, one of the most con- 

 siderable and useful labours of the kings of ancient 

 Egypt, shall be discovered and dug up afresh. The 

 river itself, better known in its course, will see all 

 the obstacles which impede its navigation disap- 

 pear, and vv'ill waft along without danger, and at a 

 small expense, gold, and the other productions 

 which nature forms under the burning climate of 

 the interior of Africa ; whilst the Moor, with his 

 scorched visage, the unwearied broker of those sul- 

 try regions, shall quit the route of the coasts of 

 Africa, and conduct his caravans into Egypt, as 

 soon as he is certain of being in safety there, of 

 finding protection as well as abundance of the ob- 

 jects of which he makes his returns. Connexions 

 founded on commerce and on interest, but disen- 

 gaged from all ambition of religious conquest, the 

 pious mania of indiscreet missionaries, and which 

 has excluded the natives of Europe from an im- 

 mense and important country, may be formed with 

 the Abyssinians, whose possessions are watered by 

 the same river. New accumulations of wealth will 

 discover themselves with new nations ; and extend- 

 ing these connexions by degrees, the knov/ledge 

 of a part of the globe will be attained, into the bo- 

 som of which the heroes of antiquity, as well as 

 the most daring modern adventurers, have been hi- 

 therto unable io penetrate. 



In 



