THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. > $ 



more diftant mountainous country of Abyflinia ; and if the 

 .Ethiopia, where Candace reigned, was the fame as Abyflinia, 

 the ftory of the queen of Saba mull be given up as a falfe- 

 hood ; for, in that cafe, there would be a woman fitting up- 

 on the throne of that country 500 years after fhe was ex* 

 -eluded by a folemn deliberate fundamental law of the land. 



But it is known, from credible writers, engaged in no 

 controverfy, that this Candace reigned upon the Nile in 

 Atbara, much nearer Egypt. Her capital alfo was taken in 

 the time of Auguftus, a few years before the Converfion, by 

 Philip; and we lhall have occafion often to mention heriuc- 

 cefTors and her kingdom, as exifling in the reign of the Abyf- 

 iinian kings, long after the Mahometan conqueft ; they ex- 

 ifted when I paffed through Atbara, and do undoubtedly exifl 

 there to this day. What puts an end to all this argument 

 is a matter of fact, which is, that the Abymnians continued 

 Jews and Pagans, and were found to be fo above 300 yea s 

 after the time of the Apoflles. Inltead, therefore, of taking 

 the firft of this lift (Bazen) for the prince under whom Abyf- 

 finia was converted from Judaifm, as authors have advanced, 

 in conformity to the AbyfTmian annals, we mall fix upon 

 the 13 th (Abreha and Atzbeha, whom we believe to be but 

 one prince) and, before we enter into the narrative of that 

 remarkable event, we mall obferve, that, from Bazen to 

 Abreha, being 341 years inclufive, the eighth of Bazen be- 

 ing the firft -of Chrift, by this account of the converfion, 

 which happened under Abreha and Atzbeha, it mult have 

 been about ^^^ years after Chrift, or 341 after Bazen. 



But we certainly know, that the firft bifhop, ordained 



for the converfion of Abyffinia, was fent from Alexandria by 



Vol. I. 3 S St 



