[92]Mr. Bruce reckoned 44½ hours of the caravan (with camels) between Kosire and Kuft (that is Coptos), near Ghinna: Mr. Irwin 46 from Kosire to Banute, situated at the Nile, at five hours above Ghinna. The camel’s rate is 2½ British miles by the road: consequently less than two G. miles in direct distance.
M. Savary had much the same idea of the distance; for he reckons it 33 French leagues. (Vol. ii. letter 2.) But his map has 70 G. miles only: Pocock’s 90.
Mr. Irwin reckons the bearing WNW from Kosire to Ghinna; doubtless by compass. The variation might be 13 to 14 degrees; whence Ghinna would bear W 9° N from Kosire: Banute, which is stated to be about five hours to the south of Ghinna, will therefore by this account bear 1°½ N of W from Kosire. Mr. Irwin was certainly very near the mark; though a little too much northerly. It appears that Banute is in lat. 25° 47′ 30″ in D’Anville, and is 8 min. N of Negada; at which place, Mr. Bruce observed the latitude to be 25° 53′ 30″. Consequently D’Anville is 14 min. too far south in this part. Apply this to Banute, and we have 26° 1′ 30″. Kosire lies in 26° 8′, and Banute is then to the south of it, in reality, by several minutes. At Syene, Mr. Bruce’s latitude is 11 min. north of D’Anville’s. Not to go into extremes, I have taken Banute at 5 min. S of Kosire, Ghinna 3 min. N of it; or 26° 11′. D’Anville places Ghinna in 26° 1′. It was of importance that these parallels of the places should be adjusted.
[93]The principal authorities are the following:
| M. Niebuhr reckoned between Suez and the Lake of the Pilgrims, situated at 6,9 G. miles E 38 N from Cairo, | 28h | 40m |
| M. Volney, | 29 | — |
| Dr. Pocock, | 29 | 15 |
| mean | 28 | 58 |
| Add from the Lake to Cairo, as it is usually reckoned, | 3 | — |
| or say 32 hours | 31 | 58 |
But as there are (besides the just mentioned 3 hours, in a direction of about 40° from the general line of direction) 3¼ hours more between Suez and Ajerud, at much the same angle, a considerable reduction of the direct distance must take place, probably about 1¾ hour: whence there remains 30¼. And as Dr. Shaw states the general report of the distance to be 30 hours, it may be conceived that this is the actual distance, by the shortest route, which leaves the Lake and Ajerud to the north. And for these, 59 G. miles direct may be allowed. M. D’Anville allowed 60.
[94]That is, M. D. places it 36 min. west of Cairo: Mr. B. 42 min. east of it.
[95]This must not be confounded with the Neel Abeed, the name applied by the Arabs, to the Niger.
[96]See Mr. Ledyard’s communications in African Association, for 1790,-91. He says 55 journies, or four or five hundred miles. There must, of course, be an error, either in the number of the journies, or of the miles.
[97]Mr. Bruce has fallen into an error, which may mislead those who do not attend to his map. He says, Vol. iii. p. 720, that “the ground declines southward, from the parallel of five degrees north:” but in the map at the end of Vol. v. the waters, as we have just said, begin to flow southward, from the latitude of 8° north. I believe, with him, that farther to the west, the southern slope may not begin short of the 5th degree of latitude.