THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 619 



ed near, or perhaps upon, the very fources themfelves ; a 

 place, of all other, fuited for fnch a purpofe ; but this was in 

 the year 1625, and Peter Paez died in the year 1622. 



I shall now Hate, in Kircher's own words, tranflated in- 

 to Englifli, the defcription he has given, as from Paez, of 

 the fources which he faw ; and I will fairly fubmit, to any 

 reader of judgment, whether this is a defcription he ought 

 to be content with from an eye-witnefs, whether it may not 

 fait the fources of any other river as well as thofe of the 

 Nile, or whether in itfelf it is diftinct enough to leave one 

 clear idea behind it. 



" The river*, at this day, by the Ethiopians is called the 

 Abaoy; it rifes in the kingdom of Gojam, in a territory 

 called Sabala, whofe inhabitants are called Agows. The 

 fource of the Nile is fituated in the weft part of Gojam, in 

 the higheft part of a valley, which refembles a great plain 

 on every fide, furrounded by high mountains. On the 21ft 

 of April, in the year 1 6 1 8, being here, together with the king 

 and his army, I afcended the place, and obferved every thing 

 with great attention ; I difcovered firft two round fountains, 

 each about four palms in diameter, and faw, with the great- 

 eft delight, what neither Cyrus f king of the Perfians, nor 

 Cambyfes, nor Alexander the Great, nor the famous Julius 

 Csefar, could ever difcover. The two openings of thefe foun- 

 tains have no iffue in the plain on the top of the mountain, 

 but flow from the root of it. The fecond fountain lies 



4 1 2 about 



* In CEdipo Syntagma, I. cap. vii. p. 57. 



■f I never heard that Cyrus had attempted this difcovery. 



