CHAP. XIII.
Attempts of the Ancients to discover the Source of the Nile—No Discovery made in latter Times—No Evidence of the Jesuits having arrived there—Kircher’s Account fabulous—Discovery completely made by the Author.
Far in antiquity as history or tradition can lead us, farther still beyond the reach of either, (if we believe it was the first subject of hieroglyphics) begins the inquiry into the origin, cause of increase, and course, of this famous river. It is one of the few phænomena in natural history that ancient philosophers employed themselves in investigating, and people of all ranks seemed to have joined in the research with a degree of perseverance very uncommon; but still this discovery, though often attempted under the most favourable circumstances, has as constantly miscarried; it has baffled the endeavours of all ages, and at last come down, as great a secret as ever, to these latter times of bold and impartial inquiry.
Though Egypt was not created by the Nile, it was the first part that received benefit from it; it was there, in the time of its overflowing, that it appeared in all its beauty, and Egypt measured its prosperity or desolation by the abundance or scantiness of this stream. It was not, however, in Egypt the inquiries into the time and cause of its inundation began; all these were settled and reduced to rule before a city was built within the reach of the inundation.
Man, that knew not the cause, was also ignorant of the limits of that inundation, having only in his mind a tradition of deluges that had destroyed the earth, traces of which appeared on every hill. He was with reason astonished to see, that, wild and wide as the torrent appeared, it was subject to the controul of some power that prohibited it from irregularity in the time of its coming, and forbade it to destroy the land it was destined to enrich; they saw it subside within its banks, and overflow no more after it had afforded to husbandry the utmost advantage it could receive. But what the controuling power was they knew not, consequently could never divine whether this regularity was transitory or perpetual; whether it was not liable, at some time, to break its bonds, and sweep both man and his labours together into the ocean.
Whether the Nile was constant to its time of rising, whether it did not revolve in some cycle or period, or whether, arrived at a certain number of inundations, it was not to stop and overflow no more, was what could only be determined by the investigation of the cause, and the observations of a series of years. Before this was thoroughly settled and known, the farmer might perhaps cultivate the plain of Egypt, but would not build there; he would fix his dwelling on the mountain in defiance of the flood; and that this was so, is evident from what we saw at Thebes, which the Aborigines did not build, as we see thousands of caves dug out of solid rock that were the dwellings of the first inhabitants, the Troglodytes, beyond Meroë.
The philosophers of Meroë seem therefore to have been the first that undertook the compiling a series of observations, which should teach their posterity the proper times in which they could settle in, and cultivate Egypt, without fear of danger from the Nile. That island, full of flocks and shepherds, under a sky perpetually cloudless, having a twilight of short duration, was placed between the Nile and Astaboras, where the two rivers collect the waters that fall in the east and the west of Ethiopia, and mix together in a latitude where the tropical rains cease; this land was too high to be overflowed by the Nile, but near enough to behold every alteration in that river’s increase from the instant it happened.
Sirius, the brightest star in the Heavens, probably the largest, perhaps the nearest to us, in either case the most obvious and useful for the present purpose, was immediately vertical to Meroë; and it did not long escape observation, that the heliacal rising of the dog-star was found to be the instant when all Egypt was to prepare for the reception of a stranger-flood, without which the husbandman’s labour and expectation of harvest were in vain. The fields were dusty and desert, the farms without tenants, the tenants without feed, the houses perhaps situated in the middle of the inundation, when, at a stated time, this most brilliant sign shone forth to warn the master to procure a peasant for his field, the peasant to procure feed for his tenement, and the stranger to remove his habitation from a situation soon destined to be laid wholly under water.
Nothing could be more natural than the inquiries how the encrease of the flood was thus connected with the rising of the dog-star; many useful discoveries were therefore probably made in search after this, but the cause of the inundation remained still undiscovered; at last the effects being found regular, and the efficient cause inscrutable, no wonder if gratitude transferred to the star a portion of respect for the benefits they were persuaded they received from its influence. Though these observations were such as concerned Egypt and Nubia alone, yet from Egypt they passed as objects proper for inquiry, as problems of the greatest consequence to philosophers, and as phænomena worthy the attention of all that studied nature.
A great step towards the accounting for these phænomena was believed to be the discovery of the Nile’s source, and this, as it was attended with very considerable difficulties, was thought therefore to be a proper object of investigation, even by kings, who discovered nations by conquering them, and by their power, revenue, and armies, removed most of those obstacles which, succeeding each others in detail, weary the diligence, overcome the courage, and baffle the endeavours of the most intrepid and persevering travellers.
Sesostris, one of the earliest and greatest conquerors of antiquity, is mentioned, amidst all his victories, earnestly to have desired to penetrate to the head of the Nile, as a glory he preferred to almost universal monarchy:—