armies,

expedition was distinguished from the laft, only by the difference of the numbers which had perifhed, and agreed alone in the difappointment which had uniformly, and without exception, followed them all. Fame, riches, and honour, had been held out for a feries of ages to every individual of those nyriads thefe princes commanded, without having produced one man capable of gratifying the curiofity of bis fovereign, or wiping off this ftain upon the enterprife and abilities of mankind, or adding this defideratum for the encouragement of geography.

Mr. Bruce defcribes the fources of the Nile, which have, as he says, remained to our days as unknown as they were to antiquity; no good or genuine voucher having yet been produced capable of proving that they were before difcovered, or feen by the curious eye of any traveller, from the earliest ages to this day; and it is with confidence Mr. Bruce proposes to his reader, that he will confider him as still standing at these fountains, and patiently hear from him the recital of the origin and circumstances of this the most famous river in the world.

Divine honours are paid by the Agows of Damot to the Nile; they worship the river, and thoufands of cattle have been offered, and ftill are offered, to the fpirit fuppofed to refide at its fource. They are divided into clans, or tribes; and it is worthy of obfervation, that it is faid there never was a feud, or he

preference among

its brethren, from the circumflance that, in its territory, and near the miferable village that gives it name, are fituated the much fought-for fprings from which the Nile rifes.

Geefh, however, though not far ther diftant from thefe than fix hundred yards, is not in fight of the fources of the Nile. The country upon the fame plane with the fountains, terminates in a cliff about three hundred yards deep down to the plain of Affoa, which flat country continues in the fame fubaltern degree of elevation, till it meets the Nile again about feventy miles fouthward, after it has made the circuit of the provinces of Gojam and Damot.

A prodigious cave is in the middle of this cliff, in a direction straight north towards the fountains, whether the work of nature or art, Mr Bruce cannot determine; in it are many bye-paths, fo that it is very, difficult for a stranger to extricate himfelf; it is a natural labyrinth, large enough to contain the inhabitants of the village, and their cattle. In this large cliff, Mr. Bruce tired himfelf part of feveral days, endeavouring to reach as far northward as poflible; but the air, when he had advanced fomething above one hundred yards, feemed to threaten. to extinguifh his candle by its dampnefs; and the people were befides not at all difpofed to gratify his curiofity, farther, after affuring him that there was nothing at the end more remarkable than what he then

cliff, which fronts to the fouth, has a moft picturefque appearance from the plain of Affoa below, parts of the houfes at every ftage appearing, through the thickets of trees and bufhes with which the whole face of the cliff is thickly covered; impenetrable fences of the very worst kind of thorn, hide the mouths of the caverns above mentioned, even from fight; there is no other communication with the houfes either from above or below, but by narrow winding fheep-paths, which through thefe thorns are very difficult to be difcerned, for all are allowed to be overgrown with the utmoft wildness, as a part of their defence; lofty and large trees (moft of them of the thorny kind) tower high up above the edge of the cliff, and feem to be a fence against people falling down into the plain; thefe are all at their proper feafon covered with flowers of different forts and colours, fo are the bushes below on the face of the cliff: every thorn in Abyffinia indeed bears a beautiful flower.

From the edge of the cliff of Geefh above where the village is fituated, the ground flopes with a very easy defcent due north, and Tands you at the edge of a triangular marth above eighty-fix yards broad, in the line of the fountains, and two hundred and eighty-fix yards two feet from the edge of the cliff above the house of the priest of the river, where Mr. Bruce refided.

Upon the rock in the middle of the plain, the Agows ufed to pile up the bones of the beafts killed in facrifice, mixing them with billets of wood, after which they fet them on fire. This is now difcontinued, or rather transferred to another place near the church.

In the middle of the marfh, near the bottom of the mountain of Geefh, arifes a hillock of a circular form, about three feet from the furface of the marsh itself, though apparently

founded much deeper in it. The diameter of this is fomething fhort of twelve feet; it is furrounded by a fhallow trench, which collects the water and voids it eastward; it is firmly built with fod or earthen turf, brought from the fides, and conftantly kept in repair, and this is the altar upon which all their religious ceremonies are performed. In the middle of this altar is a hole, obvioufly made, or at least enlarged, by the hand of man. It is kept clear of grafs, or other aquatic plants, and the water in it is perfectly pure and limpid, but has no ebullition or motion of any kind difcernible upon its furface. This mouth, or opening of the fource, is fome parts of an inch lefs than three feet diameter, and the water ftood at that time, the 5th of November, about two inches from the lip or brim; nor did it either increase or diminishi during all the time of his stay at Geefh, though they made plentiful ufe of it. This fpring is about fix feet fix inches deep.

At the distance of ten feet from the first of these fprings, a little to the weft of fouth, is the fecond fountain, about eleven inches in diameter; but this is eight feet three inches deep. And about twenty feet diftant from the firft, is the third fource, its mouth being fomething more than two feet large, and it is five feet eight inches deep. Both these last fountains ftand in the middle of fmall altars, made, like the former, of firm fod, but neither of them above three feet diameter, and having a foot of lefs elevation than the firft. The altar in this third fource feemed almoft diffolved by the water, which in both ftood nearly up' to the brim; at the foot of each appeared a clear and brifk running rill; thefe uniting joined the water in the trench of the first altar, and then proceeded directly out, pointing eastward, in a quantity that would have

filled a pipe of about two inches diameter. The water from thefe fountains is very light and good, and perfectly taftelefs; it was at this time moft intenfely cold, though exposed to the mid-day fun without fhelter, there being no trees nor bufhes nearer it than the cliff of Geeth on its fouth fide, and the trees that furround St. Michael Geefh on the north, which, according to the custom of Abyffinia, is, like other churches, planted in the midst of a grove.

1

height of twenty-two English inches. Sufpecting that fome air might have infinuated itself into the tube, he laid it by in a warm part of the tent, covered till morning, and returning to bed, flept there profoundly till fix, when, fatisfied the whole was in perfect order, he found it to stand at twenty-two English inches; neither did it vary fenfibly from that height any of the following days he ftaid at Geefh; and thence he inferred, that, at the fources of the Nile, he was then more than two miles above the level of the fea; a prodigious height, to enjoy a sky perpetually clear, as alfo a hot fun never over-caft for a moment with clouds. from rifing to fetting. On the 6th of November, at a quarter past five in the morning, Fahrenheit's thermometer ftood at 44°, at noon 96o, and at fun-fet 46°. It was, as to fenfe, cold at night, and ftill more fo an hour before fun-rife.

On the 5th of November, the day after Mr. Bruce's arrival at Geefh, the weather perfectly clear, cloudlefs, and nearly calm, in all refpects well adapted to obfervation, being extremely anxious to afcertain, beyond the power of controverfy, the precife fpot on the globe that this fountain had fo long occupied unknown, he pitched his tent on the north edge of the cliff, immediately above the prieft's houfe, having verified the inftrument with all the care poffible, both at the zenith and horizon. With a brafs quadrant of three feet radius, by one meridian altitude of the fun's upper limb, all neceffary equations and deductions confidered, he determined the lati tude of the place of obfervation to be 10° 59' 11"; and by another obfervation of the fame kind made on the 6th, 10° 59' 8"; after which, by a medium of thirty-three obfervations of ftars, the largest and neareft, the first vertical, he found the latitude to be 10° 59' 10"; a mean of which being 10° 59' 9", fay 10° 59 10. The longitude he afcerfained to be 36° 55 30 east of the meridian of Greenwich.

Mr. Bruce had procured from the English fhips, while at Jidda, fome quickfilver, perfectly pure, and heavier than the common fort; warming therefore the tube gently at the fire, he filled it with this quickfilver, and, to his great furprife, found that it flood at the

The Nile, keeping nearly in the middle of the marfh, runs east for thirty yards, with a very little increafe of ftream, but perfectly vifible, till met by the graffy brink of the land declining from Sacala. This turns it round gradually to the N. E. and then due north; and, in the two miles it flows in that direction, the river receives many small contributions from fprings that rife in the banks on each fide of it: there are two, particularly one on the hill at the back of St. Michael Geesh, the other a little lower than it on the other fide, on the ground declining from Sacala. Thefe laftmentioned fprings are more than double its quantity; and being arrived under the hill whereon ftands the church of St. Michael Sacala, about two miles from its fource, it there becomes a stream that would turn a common mill, fhallow, clear, and running over a rocky bottom about three yards wide: this muft be understood to be variable according to the feafon; and the prefent

ob

obfervations are applicable to the 5th of November, when the rains had ceafed for feveral weeks.

Nothing can be more beautiful than this fpot; the fmall rifing hills about them were all thick-covered with verdure, efpecially with clover, the largest and fineft he ever faw; the tops of the heights crowned with trees of a prodigious fize; the ftream, at the banks of which they were fitting, was limpid and pure as the fineft cryftal; the ford, covered thick with a bufhy kind of tree that feemed to affect to grow to no height, but thick with foilage and young branches, rather to court the furface of the water, whilst it bore, in prodigious quantities, a beautiful yellow Bower, not unlike a fingle wild rofe of that colour, but without thorns.

After having ftepped over the ford fifty times, he obferved it no larger than a common mill ftream. The Nile from this ford, turns to the weftward, and, after running over loofe ftones occafionally, in that direction, about four miles farther, the angle of inclination increafing greatly, broken water, and a fall commences of about fix feet, and thus it gets rid of the mountainous place of its nativity, and iffues into the plain of Goutto, where is its first cataract. Arrived in the plain of Goutto, the river seems to have loft all its violence, and fcarcely is feen to flow; but, at the fame time, it there makes fo many Barp, unnatural windings, that it differs from any other river Mr. Bruce ever faw, making about twenty fharp angular peninfulas in the courfe of five miles, through a bare, marthy plain of clay, quite deftitute of trees, and exceedingly inconvenient and unpleasant to travel. After paffing this plain, it turns due north, receives the tribute of many fmall ftreams, the Gometti, the Googueri, and the Kebezza, which defcend from the mountains of

Aformafha; and, united, fall into the Nile about twenty miles below its fource; it begins here to run rapidly, and again receives a number of beautiful rivulets, which have their rife in the heights of Litchambara, the femicircular range of mountains that pafs behind, and seem to inclofe Aformafha. Here it begins to become a confiderable ftream; its banks high and broken, covered with old timber trees for the space of about three miles; it inclines to the north-east, and winds exceedingly, and is then joined by the small river Diwa from the eaft. As the mere names of places, through which the Nile paffes, can afford very little amufement to our readers, we fhall only obferve, that it empties itself at last into the Mediterranean.

REMARKABLE INSTANCE OF TREACHERY. [From Bruce's Travels.] THE town of Dixan confists of Moors and Chriftians, and is very well peopled; yet the only trade of either of thefe fects is a very extraordinary one, that of felling of children. The Chriftians bring fuch as they have ftolen in Aby finia to Dixan as to a fure depofit; and the Moors receive them there, and carry them to a certain market at Mafuah, whence they are sent over to Arabia or India. The priests of the province of Tigré, especially thofe near the rock Damo, are openly concerned in this infamous practice; and fome of these have been licensed to carry it on as a fair trade, upon paying fo many firelocks for each dozen or fcore of flaves.

Two priests of Tigré, whofe names Mr. Bruce has forgotten, had been long intimate friends. They dwelt near the rock Damo. The youngest was married and had two children, both fons; the other was old, and

had

had none. The old one reproved his friend one day for keeping his children at home idle, and not putting them to fome profeffion by which they might gain their bread. The married priest pleaded his poverty and his want of relations that could affift him; on which, the old prieft offered to place his eldest fon with a rich friend of his own, who had no children, and where he fhould want for nothing. The propofal was accepted, and the young lad, about ten years of age, was delivered by his father to the old prieft, to carry him to this friend, who fent the boy to Dixan, and fold him there. Upon the old priest's return, after giving the father a fplendid account of his fon's reception, treatment, and profpects, he gave him a piece of cotton cloth, as a prefent from his fon's patron. The younger child, about eight years old, hearing the good fortune of his elder brother, became fo importunate to be allowed to go and vifit him, that the parents were obliged to humour him, and confent. But the old priest had a fcruple, faying, he would not take the charge of fo young a boy, unless his mother went with him. This being fettled, the old prieft conveyed them to the market at Dixan, where he fold both the mother and the remaining child. Returning to the father, the old prieft told him, that his wife would stay only fo long, and expected he would then fetch her upon a certain day, which was named. The day being come, the two priefts went together to fee this happy family; and, upon their entering Dixan, it was found, that the old priest had fold the young one, but not to the fame Moor to whom he had fold his family. Soon after, these two Moors who had bought the Chriftians, becoming partners in the venture, the old prieft was to receive forty cotton-cloths, that is, 10l. fterling, for the husband, wife, and children.

The payment of the money, perhaps the refentment of the family trepanned, and the appearance of equity which the thing itself bore, fuggefted to the Moorish merchants that there was fome more profit, and not more risk, if they carried off the old priest likewife. But as he had come to Dixan, as it were under public faith, in a trade that greatly interested the town, they were afraid to attempt any thing against him whilst there. They began then as it were to repent of their bargain, from a pretended apprehenfion that they might be stopped and questioned at going out of town, unless he would accompany them to fome fimall dif tance; in confideration of which, they would give him, at parting, two pieces of cloth to be added to the other forty, which he was to take back to Tigré with him upon his return. The beginning of fuch expeditions is in the night. When all were afleep, they fet out from Dixan, the buyers, the feller, and the family fold; and, being arrived, near the mountain where the way turns off to the defert, the whole party fell upon the old priest, threw him down, and bound him. The woman infifted that he might be allowed to cut, or tear off the little beard he had, in order, as fhe faid, to make him look younger; and this demand was reckoned too juft to be denied her. The whole five were then carried to Mafuah; the woman and her two children were fold to Arabia; but the two priests had not fo ready a market.