T H E S O U R C E F T H E N T L E. 47m 



principalities of Negroes that live within the reach of tlie 

 tropical rams. 



At Sehma they provided water for five days ; and, on 

 the 26th of Odober, having turned their courfe a httle to 

 the eallward, came to Mofcho, or Machou, a large village 

 on the weftern banks of the Nile, which Poncet flill mif- 

 takes for the eallern, and which is the only inhabited place 

 fmce the leaving El-Vah, and the frontiers of the kingdom 

 of Dongola, dependent upon that of Sennaar, The Nile 

 here takes the fartheil turn to the weflward, and is rightly 

 delineated in the French maps. 



PoNCET very rightly fays, this is the beginning of the 

 country of the Barabra, or Berberians, (I fuppofe it is a mif- 

 take of the printer when called in the narrative Barauras). 

 The true figniiication of the term is the land of the Shepherds^. 

 a name more common and better known in the lirll dynaf- 

 ties of Egypt than in more modern hiflories. The Erbab 

 (or governor) of this province received him hofpitably, and 

 kindly invited him to Argos, his place of refidence, on the 

 eaftern or oppofitefide of the Nile, and entertained him there, 

 upon hearing from Poncet that he was fent for by the king 

 of Abyffinia. 



After refrefliing themfelves eight days at Mofcho, they 

 left it on the 4th of November 1698, and arrived at Dongola 

 on the 13th of the fame month. The country wliich he 

 pafTed along the Nile is very pleafant, and is defcribed hj 

 him very properly. It does not owe its fertility to Ujc 

 overflowing of the Nile, the banks of that river being 

 conliderably too high. It is watered, however, by tlie in- 



duiir.y 



