the Wufaa Ullah or payment of the meery,in Hadrian’s time, 
that it does at this day, and confequently the land of E- 
gypt has not increafed fince his time, that is, in the laf 
1600 years. ; a 
As a fummary of the whole relating to this periodical 
inundation of the Nile, I {hall here deliver my opinion, which 
T think, as it is founded upon ancient hiftory, confonant to 
that of intermediate times, and, invincibly eftablifhed by 
modern obfervation, can never be overturned by any argu- 
ment whatever. And this I fhall do as fhortly as poflible, 
left, having anticipated it in part by reflections explanatory 
of the narrative, it may at firfl fight have the appearance of 
repetition, ge 
Ir is agreed on all hands, that Egypt, in early ages, had | 
‘water enough to overflow the ground that compofed it. It 
was then a narrow valley as it is now; having been early 
the feat of the arts, crowded with a multitude of people, en- 
riched by the moft flourifhing and profitable trade, and its 
numbers fupplied and recruited when needful by the im- 
menfe nations to the fouthward of it, having grain and all 
the neceffaries and luxuries of life (oil excepted) for the 
great multitude which it fed, Egypt was averfe to any 
communication with ftrangers till after the foundation 
of Alexandria. 
Tue firft princes, after the building of Memphis, finding — 
the land turn broader towards the Delta, whereas before it 
had been a narrow ftripe confined between mountains ; 0b- 
ferving alfo that they had great command of water for fit- 
ting their land for cultivation, nay, that great part of itran 
to 
