Within the outer gate of the church, below the steps, are three small square inclosures, all of granite, with small octagon pillars in the angles, apparently Egyptian; on the top of which formerly were small images of the dog-star, probably of metal. Upon a stone, in the middle of one of these, the king sits, and is crowned, and always has been since the days of Paganism; and below it, where he naturally places his feet, is a large oblong slab like a hearth, which is not of granite, but of free stone. The inscription, though much defaced, may safely be restored. ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ ΕΥΕΡΓΕΤΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ Poncet has mistaken this last word for Basilius; but he did not pretend to be a scholar, and was ignorant of the history of this country. Axum is watered by a small stream, which flows all the year from a fountain in the narrow valley, where stand the rows of obelisks. The spring is received into a magnificent bason of 150 feet square, and thence it is carried, at pleasure, to water the neighbouring gardens, where there is little fruit, excepting pomegranates, neither are these very excellent. The present town of Axum stands at the foot of the hill, and may have about six hundred houses. There are several manufactures of coarse cotton cloth; and here too the best parchment is made of goats skins, which is the ordinary employment of the monks. Every thing seemed later at Axum, and near it, than at Adowa; the teff was standing yet green. On the 19th of January, by a meridian altitude of the sun, and a mean of several altitudes of stars by night, I found the latitude of Axum to be 14° 6´ 36´´ north. The reader will have observed, that I have taken great pains in correcting the geography of this country, and illustrating the accounts given us by travellers, as well ancient as modern, and reconciling them to each other. There are, however, in a very late publication, what I must suppose to be errors, at least they are absolutely unintelligible to me, whether they are to be placed to the account of Jerome Lobo, the original, or to Dr Johnson the translator, or to the bookseller, is what I am not able to say. But as the book itself is ushered in by a very warm and particular recommendation of so celebrated an author as Dr Johnson, and as I have in the course of this work spoke very contemptibly of that Jesuit, I must, in my own vindication, make some observations upon the geography of this book, which, introduced into the world by such authority, might else bring the little we know of this part of Africa into confusion, from which its maps are as yet very far from being cleared.