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1. Approaching the source of the Nile |
James Bruce
3. Another discovery of the source of the Nile
Here's another narrative from someone claiming to have discovered the source
of the Nile--Father Peter Paez, who says he stumbled on the two fountains on
April 21, 1618.
Paez's narrative had been anthologized by Athanasius Kircher,
and Bruce translates from Kircher's book into English.
In a way, the tale re-enforces Bruce's own description, with water forcing
itself out with great violence, and land floating dangerously above water,
with fountains.
Text
Bruce, translating Father Peter Paez, S. I, Historia Aethiopiae, Rome, 1905,
II, 256 ff.
The second fountain lies about a stone-cast west from the first: the
inhabitants say that this whole mountain is full of water, and add, that the
whole plain about the fountain is floating and unsteady, a certain mark that
there is water concealed under it; for which reason, the water does not
overflow at the fountain, but forces itself with great violence out at the
foot of the mountain. The inhabitants…maintain that that year it trembled
little on account of the drought, but other years, that it trembled and
overflowed so as that it could scarce be approached without danger. Bruce,
III p. 619-620 |
 Other sources
William Bartram |