THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 475 



t nces of near fifty obfervations, made with-a three-feet brafs 

 quadrant, in the courfe of feveral months I ftaid in that 

 town, is lat 13 34/ 36 // north. 



What I have to fay further concerning Sennaar will 

 come more naturally in my own travels ; and I mail only 

 fo far confider the reft of Poncet's route, as to explain and 

 clear it from miftakes, Sennaar being the only point in 

 which our two tracts unite. 



I shall beg the reader to remark, that, from the time of 

 Poncet's fetting out of Egypt till his arrival at Sennaar, fo 

 far was he from being ill- looked upon, or any bad conftruc- 

 tion being put upon his errand, that he was, on the con- 

 trary, refpected everywhere, as going to the king of Abyf- 

 finia. It never was then imagined he was to dry up the 

 Nile, nor that he was a conjurer to change its courfe, nor 

 that he was to teach the AbyfTinians to caftj cannon and 

 make war, nor that he was loaded with immenfe fums of 

 money. Thefe were all pia fraudes, lies invented by the 

 priefts and friars to incite thefe ignorant barbarians to 

 a crime which, though it palTed unrevenged, will juftly 

 make thefe brethren in iniquity the detefration of men of 

 every religion in all ages. 



Poncet left Sennaar the 12th of May 1699, and crolTed 

 the Nile at Bafboch, about four miles above the town, where 

 he flopped for three days. This he calls a fair village ; but 

 it is a very miferable one, confiding of fcarce 100 huts, built 

 of mud and reeds. 



.3O2 He 



