THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 625 
. From Dancaz they might have taken very properly their 
departure, and, by a compafs, the ufe of which was then 
well known to the Portuguefe, they might have kept their 
route to thofe fountains without much trouble, and, with 
a fufficient degree of exactnefs, to fhew all the world the 
_ road by which they went. They were not fifty miles di- 
ftant from Geefh when at Gorgora, and they have erred a- 
bove fixty, which is ten miles more than the whole diftance; 
this happened becaufe they fought the fountains in Gojam, 
_from which, at Gorgora, they knew themfelves to be at 
that diftance, and where the fource of the Nile never was. 
Wuen I fet out from Gondar, whofe latitude and longi- 
tude I had firft well afcertained, I thought in fuch a pur- 
fuit as this, where local difcovery was the only thing fought 
after in all ages, that the beft way was to fubftitute perhaps 
2 drier journal, or itinerary, to a more pleafant account ; 
with this view I kept the length of my journies each day by 
a watch, and my direction by the compafs. I did obferve, 
indeed, many altitudes of the fun and ftars at Dingleber, at 
Kelti, and at Goutto; and laftly, I afcertained the other ex- 
treme, the fources of the Nile, by a number of obfervations 
of latitude, and by a very diftincét and favourable one for the 
- longitude: I calculated none of thefe celeftial obfervations 
till. I went back to Gondar. I returned by a different way on 
the other fide of the Nile, and made one obfervation of the 
fun at Welled Abea Abbo, the houfe of Shalaka Welled Am- 
lac, of whom I am.about to fpeak. Arrived at Gondar, I 
fummed up my days journies, reduced my bearings and 
diftances to a plain courfe, as if I had been at fea, taking a 
_mean where there was any-thing doubtful, and in this topo- 
graphical draught laid down every village through which 
Vor. IIL 4K f I had 
