546' TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



The Tacazze is here about a quarter of a mile broad, ex- 

 ceedingly deep, and they have chofen the deeped part for 

 the ferry. It is clear as in Abyffinia, where we had often 

 feen it. It rifes in the province of Angot, in about lat. 9°, 

 but has loft all the beauty of its banks, and runs here thro' 

 a dcfert and barren country. I reflcdlcd with much fatif- 

 facflion upon the many circumftances the fight of this river 

 recalled to my mind ; but ftill the greateft was, that the 

 fcenes of thefe were now far diftant, and that I was by fo 

 much the more advanced towards home. The water of 

 the Tacazze is judged by the Arabs to be lighter, clearer, 

 and wholefomer than that of the Nile. About half a mile 

 after this ferry it joins with that river. Though the boats 

 were fmaller, the people more brutilh, and lefs expert than 

 thofe at Halifoon, yet the fuppofed fan(5tity of our charac- 

 ters, and liberal payment, carried us over without any diffi- 

 culty. Thefe fons of Mahomet are very robuft and ftrong, 

 and, in all their operations, feemcd to truft to that rather 

 than to addrefs or flight. Wq left the paflage at a quarter 

 after three, and at half paft four arrived at a gravelly, wafte 

 piece of ground, and all round it planted thick with large 

 trees without fruit. Tlie river is the boundary between At- 

 bara and Barbar, in which province we now are. Its inha- 

 bitants are the Jaheleen of the tribe of Mirifab. 



On the 26th, at fix o'clock, leaving the Nile on our left 

 about a mile, we continued our journey over gravel and 

 fand, through a wood of acacia-trees, the colour of whofe 

 flowers was no^v changed to white, whereas all the reft we 

 had before feen were yellow. At one o'clock we left the 

 wood, and at 40 minutes paft ^hree we came to Gooz, a 

 fmall village, which neverthelefs is the capital of Barbar. 



The. 



