THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. gts 
_ Tue command of Mahomet Wed Ageeb is very extenfive. 
It reaches from this paffage of the river at Halifoon on the 
fouth, as far as Wed Baal a Nagga on the north, and to the 
eaftas far as the Red Sea, though a great part of thofe Arabs 
have been in rebellion, and have not paid their tax for fome 
years. His command on the weftward of the river reaches 
to Korti, all over the defert of Bahiouda, though lately the 
Beni Gerar, Beni-Faifara, and Cubba-beefh, have expelled the 
ancient Arabs of Bahiouda, who pretend now only to be the’ 
fubjects of Kordofan. He has alfo the charge of levying the 
tribute of horfes from Dongola, in which confifts the great 
ftrength of Sennaar. ) 
Hatrata is the limit of the rains, and is fituated upon 
a large circular peninfula furrounded by the Nile from S. 
W. to N. W. that is, at all the points of W. It is half a mile, © 
or fomething more, from the river. This peninfula con- 
tains all their fown land, and is not watered by the river, 
but by what is raifed from the ftream by wheels turned by 
oxen. Halfaia confifts of about three hundred houfes ; their 
principal gain is from a manufacture of very coarfe cotton 
cloth, called Dimour, which ferves for fmall money through 
all the lower parts of Atbara. There are palm-trees at Hal- 
faia, but they produce no dates. The people here eat cats, 
alfo the river-herfe and the crocodile, both of which are 
in great plenty. Halfaia, by many altitudes of the fun and 
ftars, was found to be in lat. 15° 45’ 54”, and in long. 32° 
49 15” eaft from the meridian of Greenwich. 
On the 20th; ‘at fix o’clock in the morning we left Hal- 
faia, and continued our journey about 3 miles and a half 
further, when we came to two villages, a fmall one to the 
: he! She: north 
