On the west, or right hand, is another considerable river, called by the name of the White River, and by the ancients Astapus, and which Diodorus Siculus says comes from large lakes to the southward, which we know to be truth. This river throws itself into the Nile, and together with it makes the right-hand channel, inclosing Meroë or Atbara. The Nile here is called the Blue River; and Nil, in the language of the country, has precisely that signification. This too was known to the ancients, as the Greeks have called it the Blue River, and these being all found to inclose Meroë, neither Gojam, nor any place that is not so limited, can ever be taken for that island.
I will not pretend to say that any positive proof should be founded upon the astronomical observations of the ancients, unless there are circumstances that go hand in hand with, and corroborate them; but we should be at a very great loss indeed, notwithstanding all the diligence of modern travellers, were we to throw the celestial observations of the ancients entirely behind us. We have, from various concurring circumstances, fixed our Meroë at Gerri, or between that town and Wed Baal a Nagga, that is about lat. 16° 10´ north; and Ptolemy, from an observation of the Solstice, fixes it at 16° 26´, so that the error here, if any, seems to be of no consequence, as the direction of the city might extend to the northward. The observations mentioned by Pliny are not so accurate, nor do they merit to be put in competition with those of Ptolemy, for very obvious reasons; yet still, when strictly examined, they do not fail, inaccurate as they are, to throw some light upon this subject. He says the sun is vertical at Meroë twice a-year, once when he enters the 18° of Taurus, and again when he is in the 14th degree of the Lion.
Here are three impossibilities, which plainly shew that this error is not that of Pliny, but of an ignorant transcriber; for if the zenith of Meroë answered to the 18th degree of Taurus, it is impossible that the same point should answer to the 14th degree of the Lion; and if Syene was 5000 stadia from the one, it is impossible it could be no more from the other which was south of it, if they were all three under the same meridian; let us then confess, as we must, that both these observations are erroneous.
But let us suppose that the first will make the latitude of Meroë to be 17° 20´, and the second 16° 40´; taking then a medium of these two bad observations, as is the practice in all such cases, we shall find the latitude of Meroë to be 16° 30´, only 4´ difference from the observation of Ptolemy.
Vosius[48], among a multitude of errors he has committed relating to the Nile, denies that there are any islands in that river. The reader will be long ago satisfied from our history, that this is without foundation, seeing that from the island of Rhoda, where stands the Mikeas, to the island of Curgos, which we have just now mentioned, we have described several. He would indeed insinuate, that Meroë, or Atbara, is not an island, but a peninsula, though it is well known in history these words are constantly used as synonimous; but were it not so, Meroë scarcely stands in need of this excuse. If the reader will cast his eye upon the map, he will see two rivers, the Rahad and Tocoor, that almost meet in lat. 12° 40´ north. Across the peninsula, left by these rivers, is a small stripe called Falaty, running in a contrary direction from the general course of rivers in this country, that is from east to west, though part of it in dry weather is hid in the sand, and this river makes Atbara a complete island in time of rain.
Simonides the Less staid five years in Meroë; after him, Aristocreon, Bion, and Basilis[49]. It is not then probable that men of their character omitted to ascertain the fact whether or not the place where they lived was an island. Diodorus Siculus has said, that Meroë was in the form of a shield, that is, in the figure of that triangular shield called Scutum, pointed at the bottom, and growing broader towards the top where it is square. Nothing can be more exact than this resemblance of the lower part of Atbara, that is, from Gerri to the Magiran, the part we suppose Diodorus was acquainted with, and it is scarcely possible that he could have fixed upon this resemblance without having seen some figure of it delineated upon paper.
As this must suppose a more than ordinary knowledge in Diodorus, we shall examine how the measures he has given us of the island correspond with the truth. He says, that the island is 3000 stadia long, and 1000 stadia broad. Now taking 8 stadia for a mile, we have 375 miles, and measuring with the compass from the river Falaty, where, as I have said, Atbara becomes an island by the confluence of the rivers, I find that distance to be 345 miles, of 60 miles to a degree, so that without making any allowance for the disadvantages of the country, it is impossible at this day to have a more accurate estimation. As for the breadth, it is scarcely possible to guess at what part Diodorus means it was measured, on account of the figure of the shield, as I have already observed, as constantly varying. But suppose, as is most probable, that the breadth of the island was referred to the place where the city stood, then, in place of 125 miles, the produce of 1000 stadia, I find it measures 145 miles, a difference as little to be regarded as the other.
Let us now examine what information we can learn from the report of the centurions sent on purpose by Nero to explore this unknown country, whose report has been looked upon as decisive of the distances of places through which they passed.
These travellers pretend, that between Syene and the entrance into the island of Meroë was 873 miles, and from thence to the city 70 miles; the whole distance then between Syene and the city of Meroë will be 943 miles, or 15° 43´. Now Syene was very certainly in 24°, a few minutes more or less; and from this if we take 15°, there will remain 9° of latitude for the island of Meroë, according to the report of these centurions, and this would have carried Meroë far to the southward of the fountains of the Nile, and confounded every idea of the geography of Africa. The parallel which marks 11° cuts Gojam very exactly in the middle, and this peninsula may be said to resemble the shield called Pelta; but very certainly not the Scutum, to which Diodorus has very properly likened it. Besides, their own observation condemns them, for it is about Meroë where they first saw an appearance of verdure; the reason of which is very plain, if the latitude of that city was in 16°, upon the verge of the tropical rains, where, as an eye-witness, I who have passed that dreary distance on foot can testify, those green herbs and shrubs, though they begin, as is very properly and cautiously expressed, to appear there, seem neither luxuriant nor abundant.