Here it begins to run northward, winding, however, a little to the Eaft, for the space of nine or ten leagues, and then enters the fomuch-talked-of Lake of DAMBIA, flowing with fuch violent rapidity, that its waters may be distinguished through the whole paffage, which is no less than fix leagues. Here begins the greatnefs of the Nile. Fifteen miles further, in the land of ALATA, it rushes precipitately from the top of a high rock, and forms one of the most beautiful water-falls in the world. Lobo fays, he paffed under it without being wet, and refting himself, for the fake of the coolness, was charmed with a thousand delightful rainbows, which the fun-beams painted on the water, in all their fhining and lively colours *. The *This Mr. Bruce, the late traveller, avers to be a downright falfehood. He fays, a deep pool of water reaches to the very foot of the rock; and, allowing that there was a feat or bench (which there is not) in the middle of the pool, it is abfolutely impoffible, by any exertion of human ftrength, to have arrived at it. But it may be asked, can Mr. Bruce fay what was the face of the country in the year 1622, when Lobo faw the magnificent fight, which he has defcribed? Mr. Bruce's pool of water may have been formed fince; and Lobo, perhaps, was content to fit down without a bench. fall of this mighty ftream, from fo great a height, makes a noise that may be heard at a confiderable distance; but it was not found, that the neighbouring inhabitants were deaf. After the cataract, the Nile collects its fcattered ftream among the rocks, which are fo near each other, that, in Lobo's time, a bridge of beams, on which the whole imperial army paffed, was laid over them. Sultan SEQUED has fince built a ftone bridge of one arch, in the fame place, for which purpose he procured mafons from India. Here the river alters its courfe, and paffes through various kingdoms, fuch as AMHARA, OLACA, CHOAA, DaMOT, and the kingdom of GoOIAMA, and, after various windings, returns within a short day's journey of its fpring. To pursue it through all its mazes, and accompany it round the kingdom of GOIAMA, is a journey of twenty-nine days. From Abyffinia the river paffes into the countries of FAZULO and OMBARCA, two vaft regions little known, inhabited by nations entirely different from the Abyffins. Their hair, like that of the other blacks in those regions, is fhort and curled. In the year 1615, RASSELA CHRISTOS, Lieu tenant tenant-general to Sultan SEQUED, entered thofe kingdoms in a hoftile manner; but, not being able to get intelligence, returned without attempting any thing. As the empire of Abyffinia terminates at thefe defcents, Lobo followed the courfe of the Nile no farther, leaving it to range over barbarous kingdoms, and convey wealth and plenty into Egypt, which owes to the annual inundations of this river its envied fertility *. Lobo knows nothing of the Nile in the reft of its paffage, except that it receives great increase from many other rivers, has feveral cataracts like that already described; and that few fish are to be found in it. That scarcity is to be attributed to the river-horse and the crocodile, which deftroy the weaker inhabitants of the river. Something, likewife, must be imputed to the cataracts, where fifh cannot fall without being killed. Lobo adds, that neither he, nor any with whom he converfed about the crocodile, ever faw him weep; and therefore all that * After comparing this defcription with that lately given by Mr. Bruce, the reader will judge whether Lobo is to lose the honour of having been at the head of the Nile near two centuries before any other European traveller, b 4 hath hath been faid about his tears must be ranked among the fables invented for the amusement of children. "As to the caufes of the inundations of the Nile, Lobo obferves, that many an idle hypothefis has been framed. Some theorists afcribe it to the high winds, that ftop the current, and force the water above its banks. Others pretend a fubterraneous communication between the Ocean and the Nile, and that the fea, when violently agitated, fwells the river. Many are of opinion, that this mighty flood proceeds from the melting of the fnow on the mountains of Æthiopia; but fo much fnow and fuch prodigious heat are never met with in the fame region. Lobo never faw fnow in Abyffinia, except on Mount SEMEN in the kingdom of TIGRE, very remote from the Nile; and on NAMARA, which is, indeed, not far diftant, but where there never falls fnow enough to wet, when diffolved, the foot of the mountain. To the immenfe labours of the Portuguese mankind is indebted for the knowledge of the real caufe of thefe inundations, fo great and fo regular. By them we are informed, that Aby f Abyffinia, where the Nile rifes, is full of mountains, and, in its natural fituation, is much higher than Ægypt; that in the winter, from June to September, no day is without rain; that the Nile receives, in its course, all the rivers, brooks, and torrents, that fall from those mountains, and, by neceffary confequence, fwelling above its banks, fills the plains of Egypt with inundations, which come regularly about the month of July, or three weeks after the beginning of the rainy feafon in Ethiopia. The different degrees of this flood are fuch certain indications of the fruitfulness or sterility of the enfuing year, that it is publickly proclaimed at Cairo how much the water hath gained during the night." Such is the account of the Nile and its inundations, which, it is hoped, will not be deemed an improper or tedious digreffion, efpecially as the whole is an extract from Johnson's tranflation. He is all the time the actor in the fcene, and in his own words relates the story. Having finished this work, he returned in February, 1734, to his native city, and, in the month of Auguft following, published Pro pofals |