the name of a celebrated river, which, as it has been described in the *Encyclopaedia*, should not have been introduced into this place, did we not think ourselves bound candidly to confess that, in our opinion, its sources, at least those sources which were the objects of ancient curiosity, have never yet been seen by any European. This seems to be proved, beyond the possibility of controversy, by Major Rennel in the Appendix to Mr Park's Travels, and by Mr Browne in his account of the *Bahr-el-abiad*, and *Dar-Fur* or *Soudan*. See SOUDAN in this Supplement.

Mr Bruce himself acknowledges that the Nile, which waters Egypt, is the confluence of two streams, and that the western stream, which he, with others, calls *Bahr-el-abiad*, or the white river, is the largest of the two. Were a man therefore to travel from Cairo up the banks of the Nile in quest of its source, he would, doubtless, when he should arrive at the division of the river into two channels, continue his journey up the greater of these; for what could induce him to turn aside with the less? Not the name; for neither the less nor the greater has by itself the name which, in Egypt, is given to both when united. The former, which undoubtedly has its source in Abyssinia, is there called the Abay or Abavi; and, in other countries through which

(4) This is the negro name of the river, and signifies the great water. which it runs, the Bahr-el-Afrik; the latter is, from its source to its junction with the Abay, called the Bahr-el-abiad. Pliny believed that the Nile came from the well; and Ptolemy says expressly that its remote source is in the mountains of the moon. But this Nile must be the White River, which certainly rises to the westward of Abyssinia, and, according to Aulofeda, in the mountains of Komri or Kummeri; which, in Arabic, signifies lunar, being the adjective of Kummer, the moon.

In perfect conformity with this ancient account of the source of the Nile, Mr Ledyard was told at Cairo by certain persons from Dar-Fur, that this celebrated river has its fountains in their country, at the distance of 55 days' journey to the westward of Senaar, which brings them to the Komri mountains of Aulofeda, who, as well as Ptolemy and Edrili, places the head of the Nile in a quarter far removed from Abyssinia. Ptolemy has indeed mentioned both branches; and while he describes the eastern in such a way as that it cannot be taken for any other than the Abyssinian branch, or the Nile of Bruce and the Portuguese Jesuits, speaks of a larger branch flowing from a more distant source, situated to the south-west. But this can be no other than Bruce's white river, the Bahr-el-abiad of Ledyard and Browne. It is true, there is an apparent difference in the account given by these two last mentioned travellers of the country in which the Bahr-el-abiad rises; but it is a difference only apparent. Ledyard was told at Cairo that it rises in Dar-Fur; Mr Browne, who resided long in Dar-Fur, was there told, that the sources of the river are near to a place called Donga, the residence of the chief or king of an idolatrous nation to the southward of Dar-Fur. It is to be observed, however, that the slave-merchants who trade between Donga and Cairo are always attached to the Soudan or Dar-Fur caravan; and that therefore the persons who told Ledyard that the Nile rises in their country were probably from Donga, though he took them for Furians from the name of their caravan. Mr Browne informs us, that the country about Donga is very mountainous, and that in the spot where the river rises there are said to be forty distinct hills, which are called Komri. From them issues a great number of forings, that, uniting into one great channel, form the Bahr-el-abiad, which suffers the famine periodical increase and diminution as the Nile in Egypt. The people of Donga are quite naked; black, and, as we have already observed, idolaters. Major Rennel places the mountains of the moon between 5° 40' and 8° 10' N. Lat. and between 22° 30' and 30° 25' E. Long. Their latitude and longitude, as laid down by Mr Browne, are somewhat, tho' very little, different; whilst Geeth, the source of Bruce's Nile, lies between the 10th and 11th degree of N. Lat. and in about the 37th degree of E. Long.