THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, 619 
ed near, or perhaps. upon, the very fources themfelves; a 
place, of all other, fuited for fiich a purpofe ; but this was in 
the year 1625,'and Peter Paez died in the year 1622. 
py he - \ a 
IsHan now ftate, in Kitcher’s own words, tranflated in- 
‘to Englith, the defcription ‘he has given, as from Paez, of 
the fouvces which he faw and I will faitly fubmit, to any 
reader of judgment, whether this is a defcription he ought 
to be content with from an eye-witnefs, whether it may not 
fuit the‘ fources ‘of any other river as well as thofe of the 
Nile, or whether in itfelf it is diftinét enough to leave one 
clear idea behind it.’ 
“Tue river*, at this day, by the Ethiopians is called the 
Abaoy; it rifes in the kingdom of Gojam, in a territory 
called Sabala, whofe inhabitants are called Agows. The 
fource of the Nile is fituated in the weft part of Gojam, in 
the higheft patt of a valley, which refembles a great plain 
on every fide, furrounded by high mountains. On the 2rft 
of April, in the year 1618, being here, together with the king 
and his army,I afcended the glace, and obferved every thing 
with great attention ; I difcovered firft two round fountains, 
each about four palms in diameter, and faw, with the great- 
eft delight, what neither Cyrus} king of the Perfians, nor 
Cambyfes, nor Alexander the Great, nor the famous Julius 
Cefar, could ever difcover. The two openings of thefe foun- 
tains have no iffue in the plain on the top of the mountain, 
but flow from the root of it. The fecond fountain lies — 
gles about 
— 
* In Cedipo Syntagma, I. cap. vii. p. 57. 
+ I never heard that Cyrus had attempted this difcoyery. 
