THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 619
ed near, or perhaps upon, the very fources themfelves ; a place, of all other, fuited for fnch a purpofe ; but this was in the year 1625, and Peter Paez died in the year 1622.
I shall now Hate, in Kircher's own words, tranflated in- to Englifli, the defcription he has given, as from Paez, of the fources which he faw ; and I will fairly fubmit, to any reader of judgment, whether this is a defcription he ought to be content with from an eye-witnefs, whether it may not fait the fources of any other river as well as thofe of the Nile, or whether in itfelf it is diftinct enough to leave one clear idea behind it.
" The river*, at this day, by the Ethiopians is called the Abaoy; it rifes in the kingdom of Gojam, in a territory called Sabala, whofe inhabitants are called Agows. The fource of the Nile is fituated in the weft part of Gojam, in the higheft part of a valley, which refembles a great plain on every fide, furrounded by high mountains. On the 21ft of April, in the year 1 6 1 8, being here, together with the king and his army, I afcended the place, and obferved every thing with great attention ; I difcovered firft two round fountains, each about four palms in diameter, and faw, with the great- eft delight, what neither Cyrus f king of the Perfians, nor Cambyfes, nor Alexander the Great, nor the famous Julius Csefar, could ever difcover. The two openings of thefe foun- tains have no iffue in the plain on the top of the mountain, but flow from the root of it. The fecond fountain lies
4 1 2 about
- In CEdipo Syntagma, I. cap. vii. p. 57.
■f I never heard that Cyrus had attempted this difcovery.
