A CONVERSATION, &C. 383 



XXII. 

 A 



CONVERSATION 



WITH 



ABRAM, an ABYSSINIAN, 



CONCERNING THE 



City o/"Gwender and the Sources of the Nile. 

 By the PRESIDENT. 



HAVING been informed that a native of Abyjfinia 

 was in Calcutta, who fpoke Arabick with tolerable 

 fluency, I fent for and examined him attentively on 

 feveral fubjects with which he feemed likely to be ac- 

 quainted. His anfwers were fo fimple and precife, 

 and his whole demeanor fo remote from any fufpicion 

 of falfehood, that I made a minute of his examination, 

 which may not perhaps be unacceptable to the Society. 

 Gwender, which Bcrnier had long ago pronounced a 

 capital city, though Ludolf afferted it to be only a 

 military Jlation, and conjectured, that in a few years 

 it would wholly difappear, is certainly, according to 

 Abram, the Metropolis of AbyJJinia. He fays, that it 

 is nearly as large and as populous as Mifr, or Kdhcra, 

 which he faw on his pilgrimage to Jenifalem ; that it 

 lies between two broad and deep rivers, named Caka 

 and Ancrib, both which flow into the Nile at the dis- 

 tance of about fifteen days journey; that all the walls 

 of the houfes are of a red flone, and the roofs of thatch; 

 that the ftreets are like thofe of Calcutta, but that the 

 ways by which the king paffes are very fpacious; that 

 the palace, which has a plaftered roof, refembles a 

 fortrefs, and ftands in the heart of the city; that 

 the markets of the town abound in pulfe, and have 



alio 



