2g6 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



this fact has received no confirmation from mo- 

 dern travellers, at lead from fuch of them as me- 

 rit the greater! degree of credit: They all agree *, 

 that the hippopotamus is found in the Nile, and 

 Senegal or Niger, the Gambia, the Zaira, the 

 other great rivers and lakes of Africa f, efpecially 

 in the fouthern and eattern regions of that country. 

 None of them fay pofitively that this animal 

 exifts in Afia. Father Boym \. is the only one 

 who feems to infinuate that the hippopotamus is 

 found in Aha. But his relation appears to be 

 fufpicious, and, in my opinion, only proves that 

 this animal is common in Mofambique, and all 

 the eaftern parts of Africa. At prefent, the hip- 

 popotamus, which the ancients call the horfe of 

 the Nile, is fo rare in the lower Nile, that the 

 inhabitants of Egypt are totally ignorant of the 

 name §. He is equally unknown in all the nor- 

 thern 



* Cofmographie du Levant, par Andre Thevet, p. 139. — 



Leonis Afric. Africae defcript. torn. 2. p. 758 L'Afrique de 



Marmol, torn 1. p. 51. ; et torn. 2. p. 144. — Relation de The- 

 venot, torn. 1. p. 491. — Relation de PEthiopie, par Poncel. 

 Lettres edif. 4. Recueil, p. 363.— Defcription de l'Egypte, 

 par Maillet, torn. 2. p. 126. — Defcription du Cap de Bonne- 

 Efperance, par Kolbe, torn. 3. p. 30. — Voyage de Flacourt, 



P- 394- 1 — Hirtoire de PAbyffinie, par Ludoff. p. 43. et 44. 



Voyage au Senegal, par M. Adanfon, p. 73. &c. 



f Relation de PEthiopie, par Ch. Jacq. Poncel ; fuite des 

 Lettres edifiantes, 4. Recueil. p. $6$. 



t Flora Sinenfis, a P. Michael e Boym, p. 1. — La Chine 

 illuftrce, par-d'Alquie, p. 25S. 



§ With regard to animals, the prefent inhabitants of Egypt 

 know nothing of the hippopotamus; Shaiits travels. — The hip- 

 popotamus is produced in ^Ethiopia .... defcends by the 



Nile 



