THE EAIIXH. 153 



sources of this river were coiisidererl as iriscnitablc by tlse an- 

 cients-, and the causes of its periodical inundation were equally 

 unknown. They have both been ascertained by the niissiori- 

 aries who have travelled into the interior parts of ^Ethiopia. 



moderns, the overflowing of the Nile is no longer a matter of surprise ; nor 

 is the Nile in this respect singular. Every river which has its source within 

 the tropics annually overflows its batiks ; and the cause is the same in alL 

 The incessant torrents of rain which attend the vertical sun, and which con- 

 stitute the winter of tropical regions, swell every river beyond its ordinary 

 bounds, and lay the level country under water. This is fonnd to be the case 

 with the Plata and the Amazon, and with every considerable stream whose 

 source is not far removed from the equ;itor. The Nile rises within the 

 tropics, and consequently inundates yearly the neighbouring countries. The 

 proper rise of the waters is to the inhabitants an afiair the most i-nporlant. 

 A few feet less than the ordinary height, would prevent the tpreadiiig of I he 

 waters to a sufficient distance; a few feet more than the usual quantity 

 would prevent the water from draining otf in the proper season for sowing 

 and spread devastation throughout tlie country, as ni the years ISIS and 

 18:29; and, in either ca-;e, a famine, and perhaps an extensive loss of lives, 

 would be the consequer.ee. When the Nile has attained the proper height, 

 and when it seems not to rise too far, Egypt is the scene of festivity and con- 

 gratulation ; the inhabitants are assured of abundance, and anticipate with 

 joy the approaching harvest. 



Of the sources of this river, much ignorance and difference of opinion long 

 prevailed .- but it now appears that the sources of one of its principal branches 

 — if not of the Nile itself — was known to Europeans long before they credit- 

 ed the fact. Bruce, it is true — who undertook a search which was believed 

 to have eluded every former adventurer — assures lis that he was the first of 

 Etu-.ipeans « ho saw the fountains from which the Nile originates ; and, so 

 anxious was he to secure this honour to himself, that lie minutely examines 

 the accotmts of such travellers as pretend to have visited them before him, 

 and his decision, as was to be expected, is in his own favour. But 

 His examination of Kircher's account of the sources of the Nile, plainly 

 evinces, that the latter either visited these sources liimself, or received his 

 information from such as had visiied them. What were considered the 

 sources of the Tlue River, by some regarded as the head or main branch of 

 the Nile, were found and described by two Jesuits, Paez and Telle/, two 

 centuries before the pretended discovery of Bruce. A few differences and 

 inaccuracies detected by Bruce in the account, serve rather to confirm than 

 invalidate the truth of this early visit. Still, Bruce deserves all praise for hit 

 enterprising and laborious researches; and the reception of his narrative, 

 even by his own countrymen, can scarcely be accounted gentrous, wlien H 

 is considered that it was at first doubted whether he bad really ever 

 seen the head of the river which he described as the chief branch of tha 

 Nile; and when this could no longer be iasiniiated, it was immediately dis. 

 covered that he had only visited the head of an inferior branch, and that tha 

 true Nile originated far to the west, among the Mountains of the Moon. 

 Whether the branch visited by Bruce, called the Bii/ir- el- A zreek or 'Biae 

 River,' or the Western branch, called the Buhr-el-Abiud or ' Whitt Kiver' 



