THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 623
From Dancaz they might have taken very properly their departure, and, by a compafs, the ufe of which was then well known to the Portuguefe, they might have kept then- route to thofe fountains without much trouble, and, with a fumcient degree of exadtnefs, to mew all the world the road by which they went. They were not fifty miles di- ilant from Geefh when at Gorgora, and they have erred a- •bove fixty, which is ten miles more than the whole diftance; this happened becaufe they fought the fountains inGojam, from which, at Gorgora, they knew themfelves to be at that diftance, and where the fource of the Nile never was.
When I fet out from Gondar, whofe latitude and longi- tude I had firft well afcertained, I thought in fuch a pur- fuit as this, where local difcovery was the only thing fought after in all ages, that the befl way was to fubftitute perhaps a drier journal, or itinerary, to a more pleafant account; with this view I kept the length of my journies each day by a watch, and my direction by the compafs. I did obferve, indeed, many altitudes of the fun and ftars at Dingleber, at Kelti, and at Goutto ; and laftly, I afcertained the other ex- treme, the fources of the Nile, by a number of obfervations of latitude, and by a very diftinct and favourable one for the longitude : I calculated none of thefe celeftial obfervations till t went back to Gondar. I returned by a different way on die other fide of the Nile, and made one obfervation of the fun at Welled Abea Abbo, the houfe of Shalaka Welled Am- lac, of whom I am about to fpeak. Arrived at Gondar, I fummed up my days journies, reduced my bearings and diftances to a plain courfe, as if I had been at fea, taking a mean where there was any thing doubtful, and in this topo- graphical draught laid down every village through which
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