394 
GEOGRAPHICAL SYSTEMS 
The frontier of Abyssinia was brought from ten de- 
grees south of the line, to ten degrees north ; and 
this immense change placed it at once in its true 
position. The source of the Bahr-el-Azrek, and 
all the details of its early course, are given with 
very great precision. This river, however, is still 
represented as the Nile, while the Abiad, con- 
founded with the Maleg, appears as a much infe- 
rior stream. This delineation is preserved in alt 
his subsequent maps. 
While, however, Delisle had made this remark- 
able correction upon the position of Abyssinia, he 
had not lost that abhorrence of a vacuum which 
had ever been prevalent in the minds of geogra- 
phers. He could not reconcile himself to acknow- 
ledge his ignorance, as to the contents of the space 
out of which he had withdrawn Abyssinia. He 
filled it up, by extending, far eastward, the fron- 
tier of Congo. In particular, the large branch of 
the Congo, which flows from south to north, is 
made by him to flow from east to west, and there- 
by reaches across more than half the continent. 
All the other features being stretched in like man- 
ner, the vacant space was filled up, and the dread- 
ed appearance of a void effectually covered. 
In consequence of these erroneous views, De- 
lisle lost on one side a part of what he had gained 
on the other. It was D' Anville who first "laid the 
" axe to the root of the tree." In his map, (1731,) 
i 
