THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 42; 





C H A P. IV. 



Some Account of the Trade Winds and Monfoons — Application of this 

 to the Voyage to Ophir and TarJ!?iJh. 



IT is a matter of real affliction, which fhews the vanity of 

 all human attainments, that the preceding pages have 

 been employed in describing, and, as it were, drawing from 

 oblivion, the hiftory of thole very nations that firfl convey- 

 ed to the world, not the elements of literature only, but all 

 forts of learning, arts, and fciences in their full detail and 

 perfection. We fee that thefe had taken deep root, and 

 were not eafily extirpated. The firil great and fatal blow 

 they received was from the destruction of Thebes, and its 

 monarchy, by the firfl invafion of the Shepherds under Sa- 

 lads, which fhook them to the very foundation. The next 

 was in the conquer! of the Thebaid under Sabaco and his 

 Shepherds. The third was when the empire of Lower Egypt 

 (I do not think of the Thebaid) was transferred to Mem- 

 phis, and that city taken, as writers fay, by the Shepherds 

 of Abaris only, or of the Delta, though it is Scarcely proba- 

 ble, that, in fo favourite a caufe as the deftruction of cities, 

 the whole Shepherds did not lend their afliflancc. 



% II 2 These 



