Sultan Sequed
has since built a stone bridge of one arch, in the same place, for which
purpose he procured masons from India. Here the river alters its course,
and passes through various kingdoms, such as Amhara, Olaca, Choaa,
Damot, and the kingdom of Goiama, and, after various windings, returns
within a short day's journey of its spring. To pursue it through all its
mazes, and accompany it round the kingdom of Goiama, is a journey of
twenty-nine days. From Abyssinia, the river passes into the countries of
Fazulo and Ombarca, two vast regions little known, inhabited by nations
entirely different from the Abyssins. Their hair, like that of the other
blacks in those regions, is short and curled. In the year 1615, Rassela
Christos, lieutenant-general to sultan Sequed, entered those kingdoms in
a hostile manner; but, not being able to get intelligence, returned
without attempting any thing. As the empire of Abyssinia terminates at
these descents, Lobo followed the course of the Nile no farther, leaving
it to rage over barbarous kingdoms, and convey wealth and plenty into
Aegypt, which owes to the annual inundations of this river its envied
fertility[f]. Lobo knows nothing of the Nile in the rest of its passage,
except that it receives great increase from many other rivers, has
several cataracts like that already described, and that few fish are to
be found in it: that scarcity is to be attributed to the river-horse,
and the crocodile, which destroy the weaker inhabitants of the river.
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