is in the capture o f the capital thereof b y Moses,
1400 years before our era, and 90 or 100 years
before the departure o f the Israelites from Egypt.
Josephus calls it Saba, and states that it was
v e ry strong, situated on the River Astosabos,
and that the name was changed to Meroe, b y
Cambyses, in honour o f his sister Meroe. There
were known to ancient writers three great tributaries
to the Nile in Ethiopia, namely, the
Astaboras (Tacazze), the Astosabos (Blue River),
and the Astapus (White River). Herodotus says
the source o f the Nile, Astosabos, was twenty
d ay s ’ journey to the south o f Meroe, which will
bring it to Lake Dembea or Tzana. According
to Ptolemy, the position o f Meroe was inT 6 °
25' N. lat., but the ancient astronomer Hipparchus
has placed it in 160 5 1 ', which may be
taken as the most correct. Cailiaud found the
vast ruins in 160 56 . Under Psammeticus, the
first Egyptian king that reigned after the final
expulsion o f the Ethiopian kings from E g yp t,
240,000 emigrants from E g y p t settled in an island
south o f the island o f Meroe, that is beyond Khar- I
toum, between the Blue and the White Rivers, and
at eight d ay s ’ journey east o f the Nubae, or Nuba-
tae. Subsequently the Roman arms extended to
those parts. Petronius, the Roman general under
Augustus, thirty years before our era, to ok and
destroyed Napata, the ancient capital o f Tirha-
k a , situated on the great northern bend o f the
Nile at Mount Barkhall, where vast ruins are
still found. Meroe certainly, the capital o f Queen
Candace, mentioned in the New Testament
(Acts viii. 27), also fell under the Roman yo k e .
Nero, early in his reign, sent a remarkable e x ploring
party, under two centurions, with military
force, to explore the source o f the Nile
and the countries to the west o f the Astapus
or White, River, at that early day considered to
; be the true Nile. Assisted b y an Ethiopian
' sovereign (Candace, no doubt), th ey went through
T h e district now known as Upper Nubia, to a
| distance of 890 Roman miles from Meroe. In
|the last part o f their journey th ey came to im-
mense marshes, the end o f which no one seem-
ed to know, amongst which the channels were
; so narrow that the light boat or canoe in use
[was barely sufficient to carry one man across
them. Still th e y continued their course south
| till th ey saw the river tumbling down or issuing
out between the rocks, when th ey turned back,
carrying with them a map o f the regions through
which they had passed: for Nero’s guidance and
information. This, it may be remarked, is exactly
the case still. T he Dutch ladies told us last
y e a r that th ey found the channels amongst these
niarshes so thick that the lightest canoe, made
o f bulrushes, scarcely fit to carry one man, could
not find room to pass on them or across them.
After this, Pliny, Strabo, and other Roman authors