t. As it seldom rains there, this river, which waters the whole
country by its regular inundations, supplies that defect, by bringing, as
a yearly tribute, the rains of other countries; which made a poet say
ingeniously, "the Egyptian pastures, how great soever the drought may be,
never implore Jupiter for rain:"

Te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres,
Arida nec pluvio supplicat herba Jovi.(285)

To multiply so beneficent a river, Egypt was cut into numberless canals,
of a length and breadth proportioned to the different situations and wants
of the lands. The Nile brought fertility every where with its salutary
streams; united cities one with another, and the Mediterranean with the
Red-Sea; maintained trade at home and abroad, and fortified the kingdom
against the enemy; so that it was at once the nourisher and protector of
Egypt.

The fields were delivered up to it; but the cities that were raised with
immense labour, and stood like islands in the midst of the waters, looked
down with joy on the plains which were overflowed, and at the same time
enriched, by the Nile.

This is a general idea of the nature and effects of this river, so famous
among the ancients. But a wonder so astonishing in itself, and which has
been the object of the curiosity and admiration of the learned in all
ages, seems to require a more particular description, in which I shall be
as concise as possible.

1. _The Sources of the Nile._--The ancients placed the sources of the Nile
in the mountains of the moon (as they are commonly called), in the 10th
degree of south latitude. But our modern travellers have discovered that
they lie in the 12th degree of north latitude; and by that means they cut
off about four or five hundred leagues of the course which the ancients
gave that river. It rises at the foot of a great mountain in the kingdom
of Gojam in Abyssinia, from two springs, or eyes, to speak in the language
of the country, the same word in Arabic signifying eye and fountain. These
springs are thirty paces from one another, each as large as one of our
wells or a coach-wheel. The Nile is increased with many rivulets which run
into it; and after passing through Ethiopia in a very winding course,
flows at last into Egypt.

2. _The Cataracts of the Nile._--This name is given to some parts of the
Nile, where the water falls down from the steep rocks.(286) This river,
which at first glided smoothly along the vast deserts of