496 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



cient and modern travellers, his quotations from them are, 

 if poflible, Hill more vifionary and ridiculous. The only 

 ancient travellers, who, as I believe, ever vifited that coun- 

 try, were Cambyfes's ambafTadors ; who, probably, pafTed 

 this part of Poncet's track when they went to the Macrobii, 

 and the molt modern authors (if they can be called modern) 

 that came neareft to it, were the men fent by Nero * to difcover 

 the country, whofe journey is very doubtful; and they, when 

 they approached the parts defcribed by Poncet, fay "the 

 country began to be green and beautiful." Now I wifh M. 

 Renaudot had named any traveller more modern than thefe 

 meflengers of Nero, or more ancient than thofe ambaffa- 

 dors of Cambyfes, who have travelled through and defcrib- 

 ed the country of the Shangalla. 



I, that have lived months in that province, and am the 

 only traveller that ever did fo, muft corroborate every word 

 Poncet has faidupon this occafion. To dwell on landscapes 

 and picturefque views, is a matter more proper for a poet 

 than a hiftorian. Thofe countries which are defcribed by 

 Poncet, merit a pen much more able to do them juftice, 

 than either his or mine. 



It will be remembered when I fay this, it is of the coun- 

 try of the Shangalla, between lat. 12 and 13 north, that 

 this is the people who inhabit a hot woody ftripe called 

 Kolla, about 40 or 50 miles broad, that is from north to 

 fouth, bounded by the mountainous country of Abyilinia, 

 till they join the Nile at Fazuclo, on the Weft. 



I HAVE 



* -Plin - vol. i» Kb. 6. cap. 30. p. 3.76. 



