THESOURCE OF THE NILE. 445 



any money I fl^.ould need at Sennaar. He welcomed me 

 with great kindnefs, and repeated teftimonics of joy and 

 wonder at my fafe arrival. He had been down in Atbara 

 at Gerri, or Ibme villages near it, with merchandize, and 

 had not yet feen the king fince he came home, but gave 

 me the very worft defcription poiUble of the country, info- 

 much that there feemed to be not a fpot, but the one I then 

 Hood on, in which I was not in imminent danger of deftruc- 

 tion, from a variety of independent caufes, which it feemed 

 not pofllbly in my pow^er to avoid. He fent me in the even- 

 ing fome refrefhments, which I had long been unaccuftom- 

 ed to; fome tea, excellent coffee, fome honey and brown 

 fugar, feveral bottles of rack, likewife nutmegs, cinnamon,, 

 ginger, and fome very good dates of the dry kind which? 

 he had brought from Atbara. 



Hagi Belal was a native of Morocco. He had been at 

 €airo, and alfo at Jidda and Mocha. He knew the Englifh 

 well, and profeffed himfelf both obliged and attached to 

 them. It was fome days before I ventured to fpeak to him 

 upon money bufmefs, or upon any probability of finding, 

 affiftance here at Sennaar. He gave me little hopes of the 

 latter, repeating to me what I very well knew about the dif- 

 agreement of the king and Adelan. He feemed to place all 

 his expectations, and thofe were but faint ones, in the co- 

 ming of Shekh Abou Kalec from Kordofan. He faid, no- 

 thing could be expected from Shekh Adelan without going 

 to Aira, for that he would never trull: himfelf in Sennaar,, 

 in this king's lifetime, h\n that the miniller was abfolute 

 the. moment he affembled his troops without the town. 



©NE 



