Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/645

 r THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 621

the plain of Afhoa about 300 feet below the level of the ground where the mountain of Geefh Hands, at the very foot of which is the marfli wherein are the fources of the river.

Again, neither Sacala nor Geefh are on the weft fide of Gojam, nor approach to thefe directions ; as, firft the high mountains of Litchambara, then the ftill higher of Amid Amid, are to be crofled over, before you reach Gojam from Sacala; and after defcending from that high barrier of moun- tains called Amid Amid, you come into the province of Da- mot, when the whole breadth of that province is ftill be- tween you and the weft part of Gojam. Thefe are miftak.es which it is almoft impofhble to make, when a man is up- on the fpot, in the midft of a whole army, every one ca- pable, and furely willing (as he was a favourite of the king to give him every fort of information; nor was there proba- bly any one there who would not have thought himfelf honoured to have been employed to fetch ajraw for him from the top of Amid Amid. -

Both the number and fituations of the fountains, and ths fituations of the mountain and village of Geefh with refpect to them, are therefore abfolutely falfe, as the reader will ob* ferve in attending to my narrative and the map. This rela- tion of Paez's was in my hand the 5th of November, when I furveyed thefe fountains, and all the places adjacent. I mea* fured all his diftances with a gunter's chain in my own hand, and found every one of them to be imaginary ; and thefe meafures fo taken, as alfo the journal now fubmitted to the public, were fairly and fully written the fame day that they were made, before the clofe of each evening.

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