62 TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
springs are compared to two eyes, and said to be 
each about the size of a coach-wheel. They " rise 
" in a little field covered with green and thick 
" wood. Travellers, and especially horsemen, are 
" easily convinced that this ground stands in the 
water, from its trembling and hollow sound. 
^' This field is lost in a lake, where 'tis under water. 
*' This plain is on the top of a high mountain over- 
" looking many spacious valleys, and from this 
" height insensibly descends. From the middle 
" of this descent is seen, near a trench entangled 
" with shrubs, the bigger of these springs, whose 
" bottom is not to be reached with a lance of five 
" and twenty palms, which, by the way, meets 
" with (as is guessed) the roots of the neighbour- 
" ing shrubs, so hindering further passage ; the 
" other spring is to be fathomed at sixteen palms. 
At little more than two days' journey from its 
head, the Nile is said to become so deep, that 
vessels may sail in it. Immediately after, it is so 
contracted between rocks that it may be stepped 
over. After treating at length of the grandeur 
and importance of the Nile, he concludes : " This 
" secret, with divers others of many parts of the 
" world, and their discovery, was reserved for the 
" indefatigable industry of the Portuguese, who 
" have seen with their eyes what many have de« 
** sired but could not obtain.'^ 
