[ *95 1 

 XIIL 



On EGYPT and other COUNTRIES 



Adjacent to the Ca'li' River, or Nile of Ethiopia, from the Ancient 

 Books of the Hindus. 



By Lieutenant FRANCIS W I L F R D, 



Section the First. 



MY original defign. was to compofe a difTertation, entirety geographical, 

 on Egypt and other countries bordering upon the Nile ; but, as the 

 Hindus have no regular work on the fubject of Geography, or none at leafr, 

 that ever came to my knowledge, I was under a neceflity of extracting my 

 materials from their historical poems, or, as they may be called more pro- 

 perly, their legendary tales ; and in them I could not expect to meet with 

 requifite data for afcertaining the relative fituations of places : I was obliged, 

 therefore, to ftudy fuch parts of their ancient books, as contained geogra- 

 phical information, and to follow the track, real or imaginary, of their 

 Deities and Heroes j comparing all their legends with fuch accounts of 

 holy places in the regions of the Weft, as have been preferved by the Greek 

 Mythologilts, and endeavouring to prove the identity of places by the 

 Similarity of names and of remarkable circumjlances ; a laborious, though 

 neccflary, operation, by which the progrefs of my work has been greatly 

 retarded. 



