Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/708

 f&jt TRAVELS TO DISCOVER

falfe meafures in the Nilometcr by the fovereign is abfo- hnely impracticable. Suppofmg the height of the Milo- meter, when at 8 cubits, mewed that there was juft corn enough to maintain the inhabitants, and that the tenant knew, by the quantity of land meafured r that he had bare- ly what was to pay his rent and fupport his family; this he mull know before he fowed, becaufe he meafured im- mediately after the inundation; and this he mull know likewife by the corn he borrows for feed from his landlord, who, as I have faid, furnifhes his tenant both with feed and labouring utenlils. If, then, he finds he can barely main- tain himfelf, and not pay his rent,, upon the proclamation at the Nilometer, he deferts his farm, and neither plows nor fows *, but flies to Paleftine to the Arabs, or into the cities, and.brings famine along with him. The next year there is a plague, and fweeps alTthcfe poor wretches, in a bad ftate of health by living upon bad food, into their graves, fo that the introduction, of a fuppofed falfe meafure,. directly advanced by Dr Shawf, and often alluded to by others, but always without poffibility of foundation, is ons of the many errors he has fallen into..

He knew nothing but of the Delta, never was in Upper, and no confiderable time even in Lower Egypt, but when the Nile had overflowed it, and I fuppofe never converfed with a fellah, or Egyptian peafant, in his life. All his wonders are

in

the people of Egypt likewife, transferred them from farms, not convenient for them, to o- ihers where they could thrive. The fame they do fpontaneoufly at this day, now they are Sk& f E>r Shaw, chap, ii, fc& 3. p. 383,
 * This was apparently the reafon why Jofeph, who had bought not only the lands, but