476 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



He departed the 15th in the evening, and travelled all 

 the night as far as Bacras, and arrived the day after at A- 

 bec ; then at Baha, a long day's journey of about ten hours. 

 He is miftaken, however, when he fays Baha is fituated up- 

 on the banks of the Nile, for it is upon a fmall river that 

 runs into it. Bin, at the fcafon he pafTed it, moft of thofe 

 rivers were dried up. 



On the 19th he came to Dodar, a place as inconfiderable 

 as Baha; then to Abra, a large village ; then to Debarke and 

 Enbulbul. On the 25 th they caiue to Gicfim. Giefim is a 

 large village fituated upon the banks of the Nile, in the 

 middle of a forcft of trees of a prodigious height and fize, 

 all of which are loaded with fruit or flowers, and crowded 

 with paroquets, and variety of other birds, of a thoufand dif- 

 ferent colours. They made a long flay at this place, not 

 lefs than nineteen days. 



In this interval, father Brevedent is faid to have made 

 an obfervation of the latitude of the place, which, if admit- 

 ted, would throw all the geography of this journey into 

 confufion. Poncet fays, that Gicfim is half-way between 

 Sennaar and the frontiers of Ethiopia, and that a fmall 

 brook, a little beyond Scrke, is the boundary between thofe 

 Hates. Nov/, from Sennaar to Giefim are nine ftages, and 

 one of them we may call a double one, but between Giefim 

 and Scrke, only four ; Giefim then cannot be half way be- 

 tween Sennaar and Serke.— ^Again, the latitude of Sennaar 

 is 13" 4' north, according to Brevedent, or rather 13° 34'. 

 Now, if the latitude of Giefim be 10", then the diftancc be- 

 tween Sennaar and it mull be about 250 miles which they 



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