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THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 615 



The firft in latter days who vifitcd Abyflinia was a monk, 

 and at the fame time a merchant ; he was fent by Nonnofus, 

 ambafTador of the emperor Juttin, in the fifth year of the 

 reign of that prince, that is A. D. 522. He is called Cofmas the 

 hermit, as alfo Indoplauftes. Many have thought that this 

 name was given him from his having travelled much in 

 India, properly fo called ; but we have no evidence that Cof- 

 mas was ever in the Afiatic India, and I rather imagine he 

 obtained his name from his travels in Abyflinia, called by 

 the ancients India ; he went as far as Axum, and leems to 

 have paid proper attention to the difference of climates, 

 names, and fituations of places, but he arrived not at the 

 Nile, nor did he attempt it. The province of the Agows 

 was probably at that time inacceffible, as the court was 

 then in Tigre at Axum, a coniiderable diftance beyond the 

 Tacazze, and is to the eailward of it. 



None of the Poriuguefe who firfl arrived in Abyfilnia, 

 neither Covillan, Rcd'-rigo de Lima, Chriflopher de Gama, 

 nor the patriarch Afphonfb Mendes, ever faw, or indeed pre- 

 tended to have feen, the fource of the Nile. At hit, in the 

 reign of ZaDenghel, came Peter Paez, who laid claim to this 

 honour ; how far his pretenfions are juil I am now going to 

 confider. — Paez has left a hiilory of the million, and fome 

 remarkable occurrences that happened in that country, in 

 two thick volumes octavo, clofely written in a plain ftile 5 

 copies of this work were circulated through every college 

 and feminary of Jefuits that exiited in his time, and which, 

 have been everywhere found in their libraries fince the dif- 

 grace of that learned body. 



Athanasius. 



