6o8 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



Summus Alexander regum, quern Memphis adorat^ 

 Inv'idit NIIo, tnijitque per ultima terra 

 ./Ethiopian leclos : illos rubicunda pcrujii 

 Zona poll tenuit, Nilum vidcre calentem. 



LucAN. 



These Ethiopians, parting from their temple in the de- 

 fort of Elvah, or Oafis, or, which will come to the fame thing, 

 from the banks of the Nile, or Thebes, would hold nearly 

 the fame courfe as Poncet had done, till they fell in with 

 the Nile about Mofcho in the kingdom of Dongola ; they 

 would continue the fame route till they came to Halfaia, 

 where the Bahar el Abiad (or white river) joins the Nile 

 atHojila, five miles above that town; and, to avoid the 

 mountains of Kuara, they would continue on the weft fide 

 of the Nile, between it and the Bahar el Abiad ; and, keep- 

 ing the Nile clofe on their left, they would follow its direc- 

 tion fouth to the mountains of Fazuclo, through countries 

 where its courfe muil neceffarily be known. After having 

 paffed the great chain of mountains, called Dyre and Tegla, 

 between lat. 1 1° and 1 2 N. where are the great cataracts, 

 they again came into the flat country of the Gongas, as far as 

 Bizamo, nearly in 9 N. there the river, leaving its hitherto 

 conftant direction, N. and S. turns due E. and furrounds 

 Gojam. 



It is probable the difcoverers, always looking for it to the 

 fouth, took this unufualfudden turn eaft to be only a wind- 

 ing of the river, which would foon be compenfated by an 

 equal return to the weft where they would meet it again ; 

 they therefore continuedtheirjourney fouth, till near theline, 

 and never faw it more, as they could have no pomble notion 



4 it 



