[Footnote 151: Ludolph. Hist. Aethiopic. et Comment. l. i.
c. 8. Renaudot Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 480, &c. This
opinion, introduced into Egypt and Europe by the artifice of
the Copts, the pride of the Abyssinians, the fear and
ignorance of the Turks and Arabs, has not even the semblance
of truth. The rains of Aethiopia do not, in the increase of
the Nile, consult the will of the monarch. If the river
approaches at Napata within three days' journey of the Red
Sea (see D'Anville's Maps,) a canal that should divert its
course would demand, and most probably surpass, the power of
the Caesars.]