Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/567

 THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 539

CCS of flatues, both of men and animals, had been dug up there ; the flatues of the men were moftly of black ftone. It is impoffible to avoid rifquing a guefs that this is the an- cient city of Meroe, whofe latitude fliould be 16° 26' ; and I appi^ehend further, that in this iHand was the obfervatory of that famous cradle of aftronomy. The Ethiopians can- not pronounce P ; there is, indeed, no fuch letter in their alphabet. Curgos, then, the name of the ifland, Ihould probably be Purgos, the tower or obfervatory of that city.

There are four remarkable rivers mentioned by the an- cients as contributing to form the ifland of Meroe. The firll is the Aftufafpes, or the river Mareb, fo called from hiding itfelf under ground in the fand, and again im- merging in the time of rain, and running to join the Ta- cazze.

The next is the Tacazze, as I have faid, the Siris of the ancients, by the natives called Aftaboras, which forms, as Pliny has faid, the left channel of Atbara, or, as the Greeks have called it, the ifland of Meroe.

On the weft, or right hand, is another confiderable river, called by the name of the White River, and by the ancients Aftapus, and which Diodorus Siculus fays comes from large lakes to the fouthward, which we know to be truth. This river throws itfelf into the Nile, and together with it makes the' right-hand channel, inclofing Mcroc or Atbara. The Nile here is called the Blue River; and Nil, in the language of the country, has precifely that fignification. This too was known to the ancients, as the Greeks have called it' the Blue River, and tliefe being ail found to inclofe Meroe, nei-

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