his head of an enormous bigness; his eyes are small, his mouth
wide, with teeth half a foot long; he hath two tusks like those of a wild
boar, but larger; his legs are short, and his feet part into four toes.
It is easy to observe from this description that he hath no resemblance
of a horse, and indeed nothing could give occasion to the name but some
likeness in his ears, and his neighing and snorting like a horse when he
is provoked or raises his head out of water. His hide is so hard that a
musket fired close to him can only make a slight impression, and the best
tempered lances pushed forcibly against him are either blunted or
shivered, unless the assailant has the skill to make his thrust at
certain parts which are more tender. There is great danger in meeting
him, and the best way is, upon such an accident, to step aside and let
him pass by. The flesh of this animal doth not differ from that of a
cow, except that it is blacker and harder to digest.

The ignorance which we have hitherto been in of the original of the Nile
hath given many authors an opportunity of presenting us very gravely with
their various systems and conjectures about the nature of its waters, and
the reason of its overflows.

It is easy to observe how many empty hypotheses and idle reasonings the
phenomena of this river have put mankind to the expense of. Yet there
are people so bigoted to antiquity, as not to pay any regard to the
relation of travellers who have been upon the spot, and by the evidence
of their eyes can confute all that the ancients have written. It was
difficult, it was even impossible, to arrive at the source of the Nile by
tracing its channel from the mouth; and all who ever attempted it, having
been stopped by the cataracts, and imagining none that followed them
could pass farther, have taken the liberty of entertaining us with their
own fictions.

It is to be remembered likewise that neither the Greeks nor Romans, from
whom we have received all our information, ever carried their arms into
this part of the world, or ever heard of multitudes of nations that dwell
upon the banks of this vast river; that the countries where the Nile
rises, and those through which it runs, have no inhabitants but what are
savage and uncivilised; that before they could arrive at its head, they
must surmount the insuperable obstacles of impassable forests,
inaccessible cliffs, and deserts crowded with beasts of prey, fierce by
nature, and