THESOURCE OF THE NILE. 3 $S 



juft time which that prince reigned. This, indeed, as errors 

 compenfate fvil as frequently as they accumulate, will Sel- 

 dom amoun- to a difference above three years ; a fpace of 

 time too tr '^ial to be of any confequence in the hillory of 

 barbarous nations. 



Hoover, it will occur that even this agreement is no 

 p f ir .ve evidence of the exactnefs of the time, for it may fo 

 happen that the fum-totals may agree, and yet every parti- 

 cular fum conftituting the whole ma 7 be falle, that is, if the 

 quantity of errors which are too much exactly correfpond 

 with the quantity of errors that are too little ; to obviate 

 this as much as potflble, I have confidered three eclipfes of 

 the fun as recorded in the Abyflinian annals. The firil was 

 in the reign ot David III. the year before the king marched 

 out to his iirft campaign againft Mafl'udi the Moor, in the 

 unfortunate war with Adel. The year that the king march- 

 ed into Dawaro was the 1526, after having difpatched the 

 Portugucfe ambaffador Don Roderigo de Lima, who em- 

 barked at Mafuah on die 26th of April on board the fleet 

 commanded by Don Hector de Silveyra, who had come from 

 India on purpofe to fetch him ; and the Abyflinian annals 

 fay, that, the year before the king marched, a remarkable 

 eclipfe of the fun had happened in the Ethiopic month 

 Ter. Now, in confulting our European accounts, we find 

 that, on the fecond of January, aniwering to the 18th day of 

 Ter, there did happen an eel- pie of the fun, which, as it 

 was in the time of trie year when the fky is cloudlefs both 

 night and day, mull: have been viftble all the time of its du- 

 ration. So here our accounts do agree precifely. 



Y y 2 Tee 



