From both sides, the Nile receives a number of tributary streams, the Muga, Gammala, Abea, Aswari, and Mashillo, from the mountains of Gojam; and the Bashilo, Boha, and Geeshem from those of Begemder and Amhara; it then passes below Walaka. The river now has a course near the southward, passes Upper and Lower Shoa. From these countries, on the east of the Nile, come the great rivers Samba, Jemma, Roma, with some others, and the Temsi, Gult, and Tzul from the high country of the Agows, and Amid Amid to the northward. From Shoa the Nile winds to the S. W. to the W. N. W. nearly inclosing all the south of Gojam. Immediately adjoining to it, turning still more northerly, is the province of Bizamo, bordering on the river Yabous, which, coming from the southward, and terminating this province, falls into the Nile.
The Nile, now turned almost due north, approaches its source so as to be distant from it only about 62 miles; it is here very deep and rapid, and is only fordable at certain seasons of the year. The Galla, however, when they invade Abyssinia, cross it at all times without difficulty, either by swimming, or on goats skins blown up like bladders: other means of passing are in small rafts, placed upon two skins filled with wind; or, twisting their hands round the horse’s tail, they are drawn over by them; this last is the way that the women, who follow the armies of Abyssinia, cross unfordable rivers, a case that always occurs in late campaigns. Crocodiles abound exceedingly in this part of the Nile; but the people, who live on the banks of the river, have or pretend to have charms which defend them from the most voracious of these animals.
Adjoining to the Gongas, and bounding them on the north, arises a vast chain of very high mountains; the south side of this is inhabited by tribes of Gongas and others, but on the north-east side, nearest Abyssinia, is a nation of perfect blacks, called Guba. The Nile seems to have forced its way through a gap in this prodigious barrier, and falls down a cataract of about 280 feet. This is immediately followed by two others in the same ridge of mountains, both very considerable, if not compared with the first. This high ridge runs west far into the continent of Africa, where it is called Dyre and Tegla; the east end (that is east of the Nile) joins the mountainous country of Kuara, and is there called the Mountains of Pazuclo. These mountains, as far as I could learn, are all very fully inhabited throughout by many powerful clans, or nations, mostly Pagans. It is, however, a country the least known of any in Africa, but a very large quantity of gold is brought from thence, as well as many slaves; the gold is washed down by the torrents in the time of the tropical rains, and, upon these ceasing, they search after that metal found in small pellets entangled among roots, branches, tufts of grass, hollows, or in any thing that can imprison and detain it. This is the fine gold of Sennaar, called Tibbar.
The Nile now runs close by Sennaar, in a direction nearly north and south; it then turns sharply toward the east, is brim-full and vastly pleasant in the fair season, being indeed the only ornament of this bare and flat, though cultivated country. From Sennaar it passes many large towns inhabited by Arabs, all of them white people. The Nile then passes Gerri, and runs N. E. to join the Tacazzè, passing in its way a large and populous town called Chendi, probably the ancient metropolis of Candace[130].
If we are not to reject entirely the authority of ancient history, the island of Meroë, so famous in the first ages, must be found somewhere between the source of the Nile and this point, where the two rivers unite; for of the Nile we are certain, and it seems very clear that the Atbara is the Astaboras of the ancients. Pliny[131] says, it is the stream which incloses the left side of Meroë as the Nile does the right; and we must consider him to be looking southward from Alexandria, when he uses the otherwise equivocal terms of right and left, and, after this junction of these two rivers, the Nile receives or unites itself with no other till it falls into the sea at Alexandria.
Much inquiry has been made about this island, once a most distinguished spot on our globe, the cradle of science and philosophy, which spread itself from this to enlighten other nations, we are now full of uncertainty, searching in a desert for the place of its existence; such is the miserable instability of all human excellence. Nothing but confusion has followed this inquiry, because they who were engaged in it rather substituted vain systematical prejudices of their own, than set themselves to consider those lights which were immediately before them.
The Jesuits, and a French writer, who is a constant champion of their errors, have fixed the peninsula of Gojam to be the Meroë of the ancients. M. le Grande (the compiler alluded to) having in vain endeavoured to answer the objections against Gojam being Meroë, at last declares, in a kind of literary passion, that the ancients have spoken so differently about Meroë, that Gojam is as likely to be the place as any other.
I have a proper esteem for the merit of M. le Grande, where he forms his conjectures from his own opinion, and I have also a due deference to that learned Order the Jesuits; it is to their labours, that learning in general, and geography in particular, has been more indebted than to those of any other set of men whatever. Yet still I can never believe, either that Gojam is Meroë, or that there is any difficulty in finding its true situation, or that the ancients have written confusedly about it. On the contrary, I find it described by its latitude, its distance from places known, the produce of its soil, colour of its inhabitants, and several other circumstances which peculiarly belong to it, with greater accuracy and precision than many other disputed situations.
I shall begin by giving my reasons why Gojam is not Meroë: and, first, Diodorus[132] tells us, this island had its name from a sister of Cambyses, king of Persia, who died there in the expedition that prince had undertaken against Ethiopia. Now, Cambyses’s army perished in the desert immediately to the southward, after he had passed Meroë, consequently he never was in Gojam, nor within 200 miles of it; his mother, therefore, could not have died there, nor would his army have perished with hunger if he had arrived in Gojam, or near it, for he would then have been in one of the most plentiful countries in the world.
The next reason to prove that Gojam is not Meroë, is, that that island was inclosed between the Astaboras and the Nile, but Gojam is surrounded entirely by the Nile; there is no other river than it that can, or ever did, pass for the Astaboras, whose situation was distant, and which, retaining its ancient name, cannot be mistaken, for it is at this day called Atbara. Again, as the ancients knew Meroë, if Gojam had been Meroë, they must have known the fountains of the Nile; and this we are sure they did not.