6 9 4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



the Wafaa Ullab or payment of the meery, in Hadrian's time, 

 that it does at this day, and confequcntly the land of E- 

 gypt has not increafed fince his time, that is, in the laft 

 1600 years. 



As a fnmmary of the whole relating to this periodical 

 inundation of the Nile, Ifhall here deliver my opinion, which 

 I think, as it is founded upon ancient hiftory, confonant to 

 that of intermediate times, and, invincibly eitablifhed by 

 modern observation, can never be overturned by any argu- 

 ment whatever. And this I fhall do as fhortiy as pomble, 

 left, having anticipated it in part by reflections explanatory 

 of the narrative, it may at firfl light have the appearance of 

 repetition. 



It is agreed on all hands, that Egypt, in early ages, had 

 water enough to overflow the ground that compofed it. It 

 was then a narrow valley as it is now ; having been early 

 the feat of the arts, crowded with a multitude of people, en- 

 riched by the moft flouriihing and profitable trade, and its 

 numbers mpplied and recruited when needful by the im- 

 menfe nations to the louthward of it, having grain and all 

 the neceffaries and luxuries of life (oil excepted) for the 

 great multitude which it fed, Egypt was averfe to any 

 communication with Grangers till after the foundation 

 of Alexandria. 



The firft princes, after the building of Memphis, finding 

 the land turn broader towards the Delta, whereas before it 

 had been a narrow ftripe confined between mountains ; o >- 

 ferving alfo that they had great command of water for fit- 

 ting their land for cultivation, nay, that great part of it ran 



to 



