Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 24.9

24.9

Moreover I have carefully inquired of several Rays, or masters of boats who have ascended the Nile to the extremity of the plains of Egypt, as far as the rocks and cataracts. They assured me that when the river overflows the Egyptian plains, the soil of which is represented as nitrous and fermentative, the Nile is greatly increased between the mountains of the cataracts, which it inundates in a surprising manner, although the soil upon those mountains is not apparently impregnated with nitre. I was also very particular in making the necessary inquiries of the Sonnar negroes who repair to Cairo for employment, and whose country, tributary to the King of Ethiopia, is situated on the Nile among the mountainous tracts to the south of Egypt, These negroes all agreed in asserting, that at the time when the Nile inundates the plains of Egypt, it is swollen and impetuous in their own country, because of the rains which then fall, not only in their mountains, but higher up, in the region of Habeche or Ethiopia.