THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 413 
tend to fay whether his vifage cleared up, for he was ftill 
perfectly hid with the carpet, as it began to grow cool as 
well as dark; but the fight of the lights in the houfes of Da- 
ra, and the promife of the new cloaths and the fath, had 
very much foftened his voice and expreflions. 
“ Sir, fays he, bringing his mule clofe upto mine, now, 
you are not ina paffion, one may {peak to you. Do you not think 
that it is tempting Providence to come fo far from your 
own country to feek thefe d—n’d weeds and flowers, at the 
rifk of having your throat cut every hour of the day, and, 
what is wor/é, my throat cut too, and of being gelded into the 
bargain? Are there no weeds, and bogs, and rivers in your 
own country? what have you to do with that d—n’d Nile, 
where he rifes, or whether he rifes at all, or not? What 
will all thofe trees and branches do for you when thefe 
horrid blacks have done your bufinefs, as they were near do- 
ing mine? He then made a fign towards his girdle with his 
fingers, which made me underftand what he meant—* Nile, 
fays he, curfe upon his father’s head the day that he was. 
born.” 
“« STRATES, replied-I gravely, he has no father, and was 
never born. Fertur fine tefte creatus, {ays the poet.” ——“ There’s 
your Latin again; the poet is an afs and a blockhead, let 
him be who he will, continued Strates ; and I do ‘maintain, 
whether you be angry or not, that at Stanchio and Scio 
there are finer trees than ever you faw, or will fee in Abyf 
finia. There is a tree, fays he, that fifty: men like you, 
f{fpreading all your hands round about, would not be able to 
grafp it. Nay, it is not a tree, it is but half a tree; it is as 
old, I believe, as Methufelah: Did you ever fee it ?’—“ 1 tell 
you 
