THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 355 
juft time which that prince reigned. This, indeed, as errors 
compenfate full as frequently as they accumulate, will fel- 
dom amount to a difference above three years; a {pace of 
time too trivial to be of any confequence in the hiftory of 
barbarous nations. 
However, it will occur that even this agreement is no 
pofitive evidence of the exactnefs of the time, for it may fo 
happen that the fum-totals may agree, and yet every parti- 
cular fum conftituting the whole may be falfe, that is, if the 
quantity of errors which are too much exa¢tly correfpond 
with the quantity of errors that are too little; to obviate 
this as much as poffible, I have confidered three eclipfes of 
the fun as recorded in the Abyflinian annals. The firft was 
in the reign of David III. the year before the king marched 
out to his firft campaign againft Maffudi the Moor, in, the 
unfortunate war with Adel. The year that the king march- 
ed into Dawaro was the 1526, after having difpatched the 
Portuguefe ambaflador Don Roderigo de Lima, who em- 
barked at Mafuah on the 26th of April on board the fleet 
commanded by Don Hector de Silveyra, who had come from 
India on purpofe to fetch him; and the Abyflinian annals 
fay, that, the year before the king marched, a remarkable 
eclipfe of the fun had happened in the Ethiopic month 
Ter. Now, in confulting our European accounts, we find 
that, on the fecond of January, anfwering to the 18th day of 
Ter, there did happen an eclipfe of the fun, which, as it 
was in the time of the year when the {ky is cloudlefs both 
night and day, muft have been vifible all the time of its du- 
ration, So here our accounts do agree precifely. 
Yy2 THE 
