THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. ij 



There is nothing beautiful or pleafant in the prcfent Alex- 

 andria, but a handibme ftreet of modern houfes, where a 

 very active and intelligent number of merchants live upon 

 the miierable remnants of that trade, which made its glory 

 in the firft times. 



It is thinly inhabited, and there is a tradition among the 

 natives, that, more than once, it has been in agitation to a- 

 6andon,it all together, and retire to Rofetto, or Cairo, but 

 that they have been withheld by the opinion of divers faints- 

 from Arabia, who have allured them, that Mecca beinr de- 

 frayed, (as it mull be as they think by the Rullians) Alex- 

 andria is then to become the holy place \ and that Mahomet's 

 body is to be traniported thither; when that city is de- 

 stroyed, the fan&ified reliques are to be traniported to Cai- 

 rouan, in the kingdom of Tunis : laft!y,from Cairouan they 

 are to come to Rofetto, and there to remain till the con- 

 lamination of all things, which is not then to be at a great 

 diftance. 



Ptolemy. places his Alexandria in lat, 30 3 1 ' and m round ' 

 numbers in his almageft, lat. 31 ° north* 



Our Profeilbr/ 'Mr Greaves, one of whofe errands into 

 Egypt was to afcertain the latitude of this place, feems yet, 

 from fome caufe or other, to have failed in it, for though 

 he had a brafs fextant of five feet radius, he makes the la- 

 titude of Alexandria, from a mean of many obfervations, to 

 be lat 3 i° 4'N. whereas the French aftronomers from the 

 Academy of Sciences have fettled it at 31° -1 i'2 Q ",fo between 

 Mr Greaves and the French there is a difference of y' 20", 

 which is too much. There is not any thing, in point of 



fituation, . 



