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TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



Sometime before I left Gondar I had been threatened 

 with an attack of the dyfentery. At my arrival at Hor- 

 Cacamoot it grew worfc, and had many unpromifmg fymp- 

 toms, when I was cured by the advice and application of a 

 common Shangalla> by means of a llirub called Wooginoos* 

 growing very common in thofe parts, the manner of ufing 

 which he taught me. 



The country^ from Tcherkin to Ras el Feel, or Hor-Caca- 

 moot, is all a black earth, calledMazaga, which fome authors 

 have taken for the name of the province. However, the 

 word Mazaga, in the language of the country, fignifies far, 

 loofe, black earth, or mold, fuch as all that flripe of land 

 from 13" to 16" cf latitude is compofed of, at leaft till you 

 reach to the deferts of Atbara, where the rains end. Ras 

 cl Feel is, I fuppofe, one of the hottell countries in the 

 known world. On the ill day of March, at three o'clock in 

 the afternoon, Fahrenheit'^ thermometer, in the fliade, was 

 1 14% which was at 61" at fun-rife, and 82° at fun-fet. And 

 yet this excelTive heat did not make a proportional impref- 

 fion upon our feelings. The evenings, on the contrary, ra- 

 ther feemed cold, and we could hunt at mid- day. And this 

 I conftantly obferved in this fultry country, that, what was 

 hot by the glafs, never appeared to carry with it any thing 

 proportionate in our fenfations. 



Ras el Feel formerly paid 400 ounces of gold, which is 

 4000 crowns ; Sancaho paid 100. But trade having decrea- 

 fed, fmce the expedition of Yafous II. to Sennaar, without 



the 



* See the article Wooginoos in the Appendix. 



