THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 623 



From Dancaz they might have taken very properly their 

 departure, and, by a compafs, the ufe of which was then 

 well known to the Portuguefe, they might have kept then- 

 route to thofe fountains without much trouble, and, with 

 a fumcient degree of exadtnefs, to mew all the world the 

 road by which they went. They were not fifty miles di- 

 ilant from Geefh when at Gorgora, and they have erred a- 

 •bove fixty, which is ten miles more than the whole diftance; 

 this happened becaufe they fought the fountains inGojam, 

 from which, at Gorgora, they knew themfelves to be at 

 that diftance, and where the fource of the Nile never was. 



When I fet out from Gondar, whofe latitude and longi- 

 tude I had firft well afcertained, I thought in fuch a pur- 

 fuit as this, where local difcovery was the only thing fought 

 after in all ages, that the befl way was to fubftitute perhaps 

 a drier journal, or itinerary, to a more pleafant account; 

 with this view I kept the length of my journies each day by 

 a watch, and my direction by the compafs. I did obferve, 

 indeed, many altitudes of the fun and ftars at Dingleber, at 

 Kelti, and at Goutto ; and laftly, I afcertained the other ex- 

 treme, the fources of the Nile, by a number of obfervations 

 of latitude, and by a very diftinct and favourable one for the 

 longitude : I calculated none of thefe celeftial obfervations 

 till t went back to Gondar. I returned by a different way on 

 die other fide of the Nile, and made one obfervation of the 

 fun at Welled Abea Abbo, the houfe of Shalaka Welled Am- 

 lac, of whom I am about to fpeak. Arrived at Gondar, I 

 fummed up my days journies, reduced my bearings and 

 diftances to a plain courfe, as if I had been at fea, taking a 

 mean where there was any thing doubtful, and in this topo- 

 graphical draught laid down every village through which 



Vol. III. 4 ^ * -had 



