546 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
Tue Tacazzé is here about a quarter of a mile broad, ex- 
ceedingly deep, and they have chofen the deepeft part for 
the ferry. It is clear as in Abyflinia, 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’ 
adefert and barren country. I reflected with much fatif- 
faction 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 Tacazzé 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 brutifh, and lefs expert than 
thofe at Halifoon, vet the fuppofed fantity 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, feemed to truft to that rather 
than to addrefs or flight. We 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. The 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 Mirtfab. - 
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 now changed to white, whereas all the reft we 
had before feen were yellow. At one o’clock we left the 
wood, and at 4o minutes paft three we came to Gooz, a 
{mall village, which neverthelefs is the capital of Barbar. 
| The 
¥ 
' 
4 
