6o6 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
dufty and defert, the farms without tenants, the tenants without feed, the houfes perhaps fituated in the middle of the inundation, when, at a ftated time, this mod brilliant iign fhone forth to warn the mailer to procure a peafant for his field, the peafant to procure feed for his tenement, and the flranger to remove his habitation from a fituation foon deilined to be laid wholly under water.
Nothing could be more natural than the inquiries how the encreafe of the flood was thus connected with the ri- fing of the dog-ilar ; many ufeful difcoveries were there- fore probably made in fearch after this, but the caufe of the inundation remained ilill undifcovered; at lail the ef- fects being found regular, and the efficient caufe infcrutable, no wonder if gratitude transferred to the ilar a portion of refpect for the benefits they were perfuaded they received from its influence. Though thefe observations were fuch as concerned Egypt and Nubia alone, yet from Egypt they paf- fed as objects proper for inquiry, as problems of the great- eil confequence to philofophers, and as phenomena worthy the attention of all that iludied nature.
A great ilep towards the accounting for thefe phenome- na was believed to be the difcovery of the Nile's fource, and this, as it was attended with very confiderable difficulties, was thought therefore to be a proper object of inveiligation, even by kings, who difcovered nations by conquering them, and by their power, revenue, and armies, removed moil of thofe obilacles which, fucceeding each others in detail, weary the diligence, overcome the courage, and baffle the endeavours of the moil intrepid and perfevering travellers.
3 Sesost ris
