Meseemeth that since in this last chapter I have spoken of how our caravels arrived at the river of Nile, I ought now to tell you something of its marvels, so that our Prince may receive the greater honour for his mandate to our men to make booty upon the waters of the most noble river of the world. And about the greatness of this river there are marvellous testimonies, for these have spoken of it, to wit: Aristotle and Ptolemy, Pliny and Homer, Isidore, Lucan, and Paulus Orosius,[N145] and many other learned men; but not even they knew how to give a full recital of its marvels. And in the first place, Paulus Orosius saith, that the river appeareth to issue from the coast where the Red Sea beginneth, at the point which the Greeks call Mossylon Emporion;[N146] and thence, he saith, it goeth towards the west and passeth through many lands, and maketh in the midst of its waters an isle called Meroë. And this city is in the lordship of Ethiopia, in which Moses was by command of Pharaoh with all the power of Egypt, even as Josephus Rabanus[N147] and Master Peter write; and he saith that it was anciently called Saba, and, was the head of the kingdom of Ethiopia, but that after a long time Cambyses, who was king of that land, gave to that city the name of Meroë,[N148] for love of one of his sisters, as Master Peter relateth. But Master Gondolfo[N149] saith, in the ninth part of the book he wrote called _Pantheon_, that before it had that other name this place was called Nadabet, and that this was the first name the city had immediately after its foundation. And so the Nile, winding at this island, maketh its course toward the north, and thence turneth toward the south,[AY] and according to the description that he[AZ] hath, it overfloweth its banks at certain times of the year, and watereth all the plains of Egypt. [Footnote AY: Lit., the midday.] [Footnote AZ: Gondolfo.] But Pliny relateth the story in another fashion, for he saith that the founts whence riseth this river of Nile are not certainly known to any man, and that the river goeth for a very long way through desert countries and through lands so hot that they would take fire and blaze up if it were not for the river; and he saith also that many have toiled much to get to the knowledge of the place where this stream doth rise, but he who gained most knowledge of the same was the King Juba, who left it written that he had found that the river of Nile rose in a mountain called Atlas, which is in the land of Mauritania, at the furthest extremity of Africa towards the west, not very far from the great sea,[BA] and that it riseth from a fountain where it maketh a great pool called Nullidom, in which breed certain fish, some called _Allaltetes_, and others _Coracinus_, and others _Sillurus_; and it is said moreover that the crocodiles breed there too. [Footnote BA: Atlantic.]