THESOURCE OF THE NILE. 3 $S
juft time which that prince reigned. This, indeed, as errors compenfate fvil as frequently as they accumulate, will Sel- dom amoun- to a difference above three years ; a fpace of time too tr '^ial to be of any confequence in the hillory of barbarous nations.
Hoover, it will occur that even this agreement is no p f ir .ve evidence of the exactnefs of the time, for it may fo happen that the fum-totals may agree, and yet every parti- cular fum conftituting the whole ma 7 be falle, that is, if the quantity of errors which are too much exactly correfpond with the quantity of errors that are too little ; to obviate this as much as potflble, I have confidered three eclipfes of the fun as recorded in the Abyflinian annals. The firil was in the reign ot David III. the year before the king marched out to his iirft campaign againft Mafl'udi the Moor, in the unfortunate war with Adel. The year that the king march- ed into Dawaro was the 1526, after having difpatched the Portugucfe ambaffador Don Roderigo de Lima, who em- barked at Mafuah on die 26th of April on board the fleet commanded by Don Hector de Silveyra, who had come from India on purpofe to fetch him ; and the Abyflinian annals fay, that, the year before the king marched, a remarkable eclipfe of the fun had happened in the Ethiopic month Ter. Now, in confulting our European accounts, we find that, on the fecond of January, aniwering to the 18th day of Ter, there did happen an eel- pie of the fun, which, as it was in the time of trie year when the fky is cloudlefs both night and day, mull: have been viftble all the time of its du- ration. So here our accounts do agree precifely.
Y y 2 Tee
