6o8 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
Summus Alexander regum, quern Memphis adorat^ Inv'idit NIIo, tnijitque per ultima terra ./Ethiopian leclos : illos rubicunda pcrujii Zona poll tenuit, Nilum vidcre calentem.
LucAN.
These Ethiopians, parting from their temple in the de- fort of Elvah, or Oafis, or, which will come to the fame thing, from the banks of the Nile, or Thebes, would hold nearly the fame courfe as Poncet had done, till they fell in with the Nile about Mofcho in the kingdom of Dongola ; they would continue the fame route till they came to Halfaia, where the Bahar el Abiad (or white river) joins the Nile atHojila, five miles above that town; and, to avoid the mountains of Kuara, they would continue on the weft fide of the Nile, between it and the Bahar el Abiad ; and, keep- ing the Nile clofe on their left, they would follow its direc- tion fouth to the mountains of Fazuclo, through countries where its courfe muil neceffarily be known. After having paffed the great chain of mountains, called Dyre and Tegla, between lat. 1 1° and 1 2 N. where are the great cataracts, they again came into the flat country of the Gongas, as far as Bizamo, nearly in 9 N. there the river, leaving its hitherto conftant direction, N. and S. turns due E. and furrounds Gojam.
It is probable the difcoverers, always looking for it to the fouth, took this unufualfudden turn eaft to be only a wind- ing of the river, which would foon be compenfated by an equal return to the weft where they would meet it again ; they therefore continuedtheirjourney fouth, till near theline, and never faw it more, as they could have no pomble notion
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