* 414 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



or robe, for himfelf. " He is a poor wretch, fays the Shekh 

 of Beyla ; he has fpent two years of the king's revenues 

 from Atbara, and nobody has fupported him except Shekh 

 Adelan, whofe daughter he married, but he now has 

 given him up fmce he has fully known him ; and, if our 

 troubles do not follow quickly, I fuppofe one of thefe days 

 I lliall have him here in his way to Sennaar, never to re- 

 turn ; for everybody knows now that it was in hatred to 

 him, and for the many faithlefs and bad adions he was 

 guilty of, that the Arabs have deftroyed all that part of 

 the country, though they have not burnt a flraw about 

 Beyla." 



We had again a large and plentiful dinner, and a quan- 

 tity of bouza ; venifon of feveral different fpecies of the 

 antelope or deer-kind, and Guinea-fowls, boiled with rice, 

 the beft part of our fare, for the venifon fmelled and tail- 

 ed ftrongly of mufk. This was the provifion made by the 

 Shekh's two fons, boys about fourteen or fifteen years old, 

 who had got each of them a gun with a match-lock and 

 whofe favour I fecured to a very high degree, by giving 

 them fome good gunpowder, and plenty of fmall leaden 

 bullets. 



In the afternoon we walked out to fee the village, 

 which is a very pleafant pne, fituated upon the bottom of 

 a hill, covered with wood, all the refl flat before it. 

 Through this plain there are many large timber trees, 

 planted in rows, and joined with high hedges, as in Eu- 

 rope, forming inclofures for keeping cattle ; but of thefe 

 we faw none, as they had been moved to the Dender for 

 ifear of the flies. There is no water at Beyla but what is 



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