I Passed The River Within Two Days' Journey
Of Its Head, Near A Wide Plain, Which Is Entirely Laid Under Water
When It Begins To Overflow The Banks.
Its channel is even here so
wide, that a ball-shot from a musket can scarce reach the farther
bank.
Here is neither boat nor bridge, and the river is so full of
hippopotami, or river-horses, and crocodiles, that it is impossible
to swim over without danger of being devoured. The only way of
passing it is upon floats, which they guide as well as they can with
long poles. Nor is even this way without danger, for these
destructive animals overturn the floats, and tear the passengers in
pieces. The river horse, which lives only on grass and branches of
trees, is satisfied with killing the men, but the crocodile being
more voracious, feeds upon the carcases.
But since I am arrived at the banks of this renowned river, which I
have passed and repassed so many times; and since all that I have
read of the nature of its waters, and the causes of its overflowing,
is full of fables, the reader may not be displeased to find here an
account of what I saw myself, or was told by the inhabitants.
Chapter X
A description of the Nile.
The Nile, which the natives call Abavi, that is, the Father of
Waters, rises first in Sacala, a province of the kingdom of Goiama,
which is one of the most fruitful and agreeable of all the
Abyssinian dominions.
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