THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 427 



$435^ 



C H A IP. IV. 



Some Account of the Trade Winds and Monfoons—Afiplicati&n of this 

 to the Voyage to Ophlr and Tarfb'tfo. 



IT is a matter of real affliction, which fhews the vanity of 

 all human attainments, that the preceding pages have 

 been employed in describing, and, as it were, drawing from 

 oblivion, the hiftory of thofe very- nations that firft convey- 

 ed to the world, not the elements of literature only, but all 

 forts of learning, arts, and fciences in their full detail and 

 perfection. We fee that thefe had taken deep root, and 

 were not eafily extirpated. The firft great and fatal blow 

 they received was from the deftruction of Thebes, and its 

 monarchy, by the firft invafion of the Shepherds under Sa- 

 lads, which iliook them to the very foundation. The next 

 was in the conqueft of the Thebaic! under Sabaco and his 

 Shepherds. The third was when the empire of Lower Egypt 

 (I do not think of the Thebaid) was transferred to Mem- 

 phis, and that city taken, as writers fay, by the Shepherds 

 of Abaris only, or of the Delta, though it is fcarcely proba* 

 ble, that r -in ft> favourite a caufc as the deftruction of cities, 

 the wliolc Shepherds did not lend their affiiiance. 



s'H-s TbesS 



