Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/634

 fro TRAVELS TO DISCOVER

-No7i illijlamma, nee tmdce y

Necjlerilh Libye, nee Syrtieus objlitit /bmnon. IJfet in occafus, mundi devexa fecutus • Ambijfetque polos, Nilumque a font e bibiffet : Occurrit fuprema dies, naturaqnc folum Hunc poluit Jinan vcfano ponere regi.

Luc AN". *

It muft no doubt feem prepofterous to tliofc that arc not very converfant with the dallies, that a prince fo well inftructed as Alexander himfelf was, who had with him in his army many philofophers, geographers, and aftrono- mers, and was in conftant correfpondence with Ariftotle, a man of almoft univerfal knowledge, that, after having feen the Nile in Egypt coming from the fouth, he mould think he was arrived at the head of it while on the banks of the Indus, fo far to the N. E. of its Ethiopian courfe. This difficulty, however, has a very eafy folution in the prejudi- ces of thofe times. The ancients were incorrigible as to their error in opinion concerning two feas.

The Cafpian Sea they had failed through in feveral direc- tions, and had almoft marched round it ; and whilil they conquered kingdoms between it and the lea, its water was fweet, it neither ebbed nor flowed, and yet they mod ridi- culouily would have it to be part of the ocean. On the other hand, they obitinately perliiled in believing that, from the eaft coaft of Africa, about latitude 15 fouth, a neck of land ran eaft and north-caft, and joined the peninfula of In- dia, and by that means made this part of the ocean a lake. In vain mips of different nations failed for ages to Sofala, and faw no fuch land ; this only made them remove the j neck