136 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



know, is that river in Abyflinia within 300 miles of any 

 fea ; and, flill more fo, how it could be in Nubia, and yet in 

 Upper Ethiopia. Dongola is, indeed, the capital of Nubia ; 

 it is upon the Nile in 20 north latitude ; but then it cannot 

 be in Upper Ethiopia, but certainly in the Lower, and is not 

 within a hundred miles of the Red Sea, and certainly not 

 the way for a fhip from India to get to Abyflinia, which, 

 failing down the Red Sea, it mull have palled feveral hun- 

 dred miles, and gone to the northward : Dongola, belides, 

 is in the heart of the great defert of Beja, and cannot, with 

 any degree of propriety, be faid to be eafily acceffible to any, 

 no, not even upon camels, but impoflible to Shipping, as it 

 is not within 200 miles of any fea. On the other hand, Dan- 

 cali, for which it may have been mifiaken, is a fmall king- 

 dom on the coafl of the Red Sea, reaching to the frontiers of 

 Abyflinia ; and through it the patriarch Mendes entered A- 

 byfhnia, as has been faid in myhiflory; but thenDancali is 

 in lat. 12 , it is not in Nubia, nor upon the Nile, nor within 

 feveral hundred miles of it. 



Again, Lobo has faid, (p. 30. 31.) " that a Portuguefe gal- 

 liot was ordered to fet him afhore at Pate, whofe inhabitants 

 were man-eaters." This is a very whimfical choice of a place 

 to land flrangers in, among man-eaters. I cannot conceive 

 what advantage could be propofed by landing men going 

 to Abyflinia fo far to the fouthward, among a people fuch as 

 this, who certainly, by their very manners, mufl be at war, 

 and unconnected with all their neighbours. And many ages 

 have palled without this reproach having fallen upon the 

 inhabitants of the eaft coafl of the peninfula of Africa from 

 any authentic teftimony ; and I am confident, after the few 

 fpecimens jufl given of the topographical knowledge of this 

 4 author, 



