Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/728

 ■jo* TRAVELS TO DISCOVER

may differ from Dr Shaw, and yet be right, and that this writer, however learned he may be, cannot, for want of infoimation, be competent to folve this queftion which he fo much infifts upon, I ihall now, with great fubmimon to the judgment of my reader, endeavour to explain, in as few words as poilible, how the real Hate of the matter ftands, and he will then apply it as he pleafes.

There was a very ingenious gentleman whom I met with at Cairo, M. Antes, a German by birth, and of the Mo- ravian perfuafion, who, both to open to himfelf more freely the opportunities of propagating his religious tenets, and to gratify his own mechanical turn, rather than from a view of gain, to which all his fociety are (as he was) perfectly indifferent, exercifed the trade of watch-maker at Cairo. This very worthy and fagacious young man was often my unwearied and ufeful partner in many inquiries and trials, as to the manner of executing fome inftruments in the moft compendious form for experiments propofe,d to be made in my travels. By his affiftance, I formed a rod of brafs, of half an inch fquare, and of a thicknefs which did not eafily warp, and would not alter its dimenfions unlefs with a violent heat. Upon the three faces of this brafen rod we traced, with good glafTes and dividers, the meafure of three different peeks, then the only three known in Cairo, the exact length of which was taken from the ftandard model furnifhed me by the Cadi. The firft was the Stambouline, or Conftantinople peek, exactly 23 1 inches; the fecond, the Hendaizy, of i\-J- inches; and the third the peek El JBelledy, jq? 22 inches, all Englifh meafure.

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