640 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
tain of the Nile to be 36° 55’ 30” eaft of the meridian of 
Greenwich. net 
Tue night of the 4th, that very night of my arrival, me- 
lancholy reflections upon my prefent ftate, the doubrful- 
nefs of my return in fafety, were I permitted to make the 
attempt, and the fears that even this would be refufed, ace 
cording to the rule obferved in Abyflinia with all travellers 
who have once entered the kingdom; the confcioufnefs of — 
the pain that I was then occafioning to many worthy indi- 
viduals, expecting daily that information concerning my 
fituation which it was not in my power to give them; 
fome other thoughts, perhaps, ftill nearer the heart than 
_ thofe, crowded upon my mind, and forbade all approach of 
fleep. | 
I was, at that very moment, in poffefflion of what had, 
for many years, been the principal object of my ambition 
and withes: indifference, which from the ufual infirmity 
of human nature follows, at leaft for a time, complete en- 
joyment, had taken place of it. The marfh, and the foun- 
tains, upon comparifon with the rife of many of our rivers, 
became now a trifling object in my fight. I remembered 
that magnificent fcene in my own native country, where 
the Twecd, Clyde, and Annan rife in one hill; three rivers, 
as I now thought, not inferior to the Nile in beauty, prefer- 
able to itin the cultivation of thofe countries through which 
they flow; fuperior, vaftly fuperior to it in the virtues and 
qualities of the inhabitants, and in the beauty of its flocks; 
crowding its paftures in peace, without fear of violence from 
man or beaft. I had feen the rife of the Rhine and Rhone, 
and the more magnificent fources of the Soane; I began, 1n 
I : my 
