iJ 
426 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
were not much pleafed with the king’s fervant going be- 
fore, as we had every reafon to think he was difaffected to- 
wards us. 
On the 26th, at fix o’clock in the morning, we fet out 
from this village of Nuba, keeping fomething to the weft- 
ward of S, W. our way being ftill acrofs this immenfe plain. 
All the morning there were terrible ftorms of thunder and 
lightning, fome rain, and one fhower of fo large drops 
that it wet us to the fkin in an inftant. It was quite 
calm, and every drop fell perpendicularly upon us. Ithink 
I never in my life felt fo cold a rain, yet it was not difa- 
greeable ; for the day was clofe and hot, and we fhould 
have wifhed every now and then to have had fo- moderate 
a refrigeration; this, however, was rather too abundant. 
The villages of the Nuba were, on all fides, throughout this 
plain. At nine o’clock we arrived at Bafboch, which is a 
large collection of huts of thefe people, and has the ap- 
pearance of a town. 
Tue governor, a venerable old man of about feventy, whe 
was fo-feeble that he could fcarcely waik, received us with 
great complacency, only faying, when J took him by the 
hand, “ O Chriftian! what doft thou, at fuch a time, im 
fach a country?” Iwas furprifed at the politenets- of his 
fpeech, when he called me Nazarani, the civil term for 
Chriftian in the eaft; whereas Infidel is the general tern: 
among thefe brutifh people; but it feems he had been fe- 
veral times at Cairo. I had here a very clean and comfort- 
able hut to lodge in, though we were fparingly fupplied 
with provifions all the time we were there, but never were 
fuffered to faft a whole day together, sD 
| BASBOCH 
4 
A 
