use of these inundations so great and so
regular. Their observations inform us that Abyssinia, where the Nile
rises and waters vast tracts of land, is full of mountains, and in its
natural situation much higher than Egypt; that all the winter, from June
to September, no day is without rain; that the Nile receives in its
course all the rivers, brooks, and torrents which fall from those
mountains; these necessarily swell it above the banks, and fill the
plains of Egypt with the inundation. This comes regularly about the
month of July, or three weeks after the beginning of a rainy season in
AEthiopia. The different degrees of this flood are such certain
indications of the fruitfulness or sterility of the ensuing year, that it
is publicly proclaimed in Cairo how much the water hath gained each
night. This is all I have to inform the reader of concerning the Nile,
which the Egyptians adored as the deity, in whose choice it was to bless
them with abundance, or deprive them of the necessaries of life.

CHAPTER XI

The author discovers a passage over the Nile. Is sent into the province
of Ligonus, which he gives a description of. His success in his mission.
The stratagem of the monks to encourage the soldiers. The author
narrowly escapes being burned.

When I was to cross this river at Boad, I durst not venture myself on the
floats I have already spoken of, but went up higher in hopes of finding a
more commodious passage. I had with me three or four men that were
reduced to the same difficulty with myself. In one part seeing people on
the other side, and remarking that the water was shallow, and that the
rocks and trees which grew very thick there contributed to facilitate the
attempt, I leaped from one rock to another, till I reached the opposite
bank, to the great amazement of the natives themselves, who never had
tried that way; my four companions followed me with the same success: and
it hath been called since the passage of Father Jerome.

That province of the kingdom of Damot, which I was assigned to by my
superior, is called Ligonus, and is perhaps one of the most beautiful and
agreeable places in the world; the air is healthful and temperate, and
all the mountains, which are not very high, shaded with cedars. They sow
and reap here in every season, the ground is always producing, and the
fruits ripen throughout the year; so great, so charming is the variety,
that the whole region seems a garden laid o