THE SOURCE OF THE. NILE, 607" 
SzsosTRis, one of the eatlieft and greateft conquerors of 
antiquity, is mentioned, amidft all his victories, earneftly to 
have defired to penetrate to the head of the Nile, as a glory 
he preferred to almoft univerfal monarchy :— 
Venit ad occafum, mundique extrema Sefoftris, 
Et Pharios currus regum cervicibus egit : 
Anté tamen veftros amnes Rhodaniimque, Padimque, 
Quinn Nilum de fonte bibit. 
Lucan. 
_ Camayszs’ attempt to penetrate intoEthiopia, and the defeat 
of his f{chemes, I have already narrated at fufficient length *. 
oa —Vefanus in ortus 
Cambyfes longi populos pervenit ad wl, 
Defectufque epulis, S paftus cade fuorum 
Ienoto te, Nile, redit. 
Lucan. 
Tue attention paid by Alexander, the next prince who at- 
tempted an expedition towards thefe unknown fountains, 
merits a little more of ourconfideration. After he had con- 
quered Egypt, and was arrived at the temple of Jupiter Am- 
mon, (the celebrated and ancient deity of the fhepherds) in 
-the Theban defert, the firft queftion he afked was con- 
cerning the fpot where the Nile rofe. Having received from 
the priefts fufficient directions for attempting the difcovery, 
he is faid, as the next very fenfible ftep, to have chofen na- 
tives of Ethiopia as the likelieft people to fucceed in the 
fearch he had commanded them to make ;— 
’ Summus. 
* Vol. IL. b.-ii..chap. vy», 
