Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/665

 THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 641

my forrow, to treat the inquiry about the fource of the Nile as a violent effort of a diftempered fancy : —

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he ihould weep for her ? —

Grief or defpondency now rolling upon me like a torrent ; relaxed, not refreihed, by unquiet and imperfect fleep, I ftart- e:i from my bed in the utmoit agony ; I went to the door of my tent ; every thing was Hill ; the Nile, at whofe head 1 fto' d, was not capable either to promote or to interrupt my {lumbers, but the coolnefs and ferenity of the night braced my nerves, and chafed away thofe phantoms that, while in bed, had oppreffed and tormented me.

It was true, that numerous dangers, hardfhips, and for- rows had befet me through this half of my excurfion ; but it was ftill as true, that another Guide, more powerful than my own courage, health, or underllanding, if any of thefe can be called man's own, had uniformly protected me in all that tedious half; I found my confidence not abated, that ftill the fame Guide was able to conduct me to my now wiihed-for home : I immediately refumed my former forti- tude, confidered the Nile indeed as no more than rifing from fprings, as all other rivers do, but widely different in this, that it was the palm for three thoufand years held out to all the nations in the world as a dettar digmjimo, which, in my cool hours, I had thought was worth the attempting at the rifk of my life, which I had long either refolved to lofe, or lay this difcovery, a trophy in which I could have no competitor, for the honour of my country, at the feet of my -fovereign, whofe fervant I was.

Vol. III. 4 M I had