TETE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 463 



Ptolemy Ever-getes, fon and facceiTor of Ptolemy Phila- 

 delphus, availed himfelf of thisdifcovery. Having provid- 

 ed himfelf amply with necefTaries for bis army, and order- 

 ed a fleet to coaft along befide him, up the Red Sea, he pe- 

 netrated quite through the country of the Shepherds into 

 that of the Ethiopian Troglodytes, who are black and wool- 

 ly-headed, and inhabit the low country quite to the moun- 

 tains of Abyfflnia. Nay*, he even afcended thofe moun- 

 tains, forced the inhabitants to fubmimon, built a large 

 temple at Axum, the capital of Sire, and raifed a great many 

 obelilks, feveral of which are Handing to this day. After- 

 wards proceeding to the fouth-eafc, he defcended into the 

 cinnamon and niyrrh country, behind Cape Gardefan, (the 

 Cape that terminates the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean) 

 from this, crofTed over to Arabia, to the Homerites, being 

 the fame people with the Abyffinians, .only on the Arabian 

 more. He then conquered feveral of the Arabian princes, 

 who firft refilled him, and had it in his power to have put 

 an end to the trade oflndia there, had he not been as great 

 a politician as he was a warrior. He ufed his victory, there- 

 fore, in no other- manner, than to exhort and oblige thefe 

 princes to protect trade, encourage itrangers, and, by every 

 means, provide for the furety of neutral intercourfe, by ma- 

 king rigorous examples of robbers by fea and land. . 



The reigns of the latter Ptolemies were calculated to 

 bring this commerce to a decline, had it not been for two 

 great events, the fall of Carthage, deftroyed. by Scipio, and 

 that of Corinth, by die conful Mummius. The importance of 



thefe 



Mop.. Aduli. 



