circumstance that they were never tired of drinking it, it is so light
and sweet. The water of the Nile is at present perfectly pure and
transparent, but by no means so agreeable to the palate as that of the
Bahar el Abiud, as I experimented myself, drinking first of the Bahar
el Abiud, and then walking about two hundred yards across the point,
and drinking of the Nile, the water of which appeared to me hard and
tasteless in comparison.

Nothing of the kind could be easier than to ascend the Bahar el Abiud
from the place where we are. A canja, well manned and armed, and
accompanied by another boat containing provisions for four or six
months, and both furnished with grapnels to enable them at night to
anchor in the river, might, in my opinion, ascend and return securely:
as the tribes on its borders have great dread of fire-arms, and will
hardly dare to meddle with those who carry them.

We stayed on the Sennaar side of the Bahar el Abiud till the 1st of
Ramadan, when the army commenced its march for Sennaar, the capital,
proceeding by the bank of the Nile.[48]

The army reached Sennaar in thirteen days. The signal for striking the
tents and loading the camels was generally fired about two hours after
midnight. One hour was allowed for loading the baggage, when a second
cannon was fired, and the march of the army commenced, and was continued
each day till about two or three hours before noon, when the camp
reposed till about two hours after midnight of the same day. The army
suffered severely during this march; nothing was given to the troops for
subsistence but durra, unground, which the soldiers were frequently in
great distress to obtain the means of making into meal, in order to bake
a little miserable bread, which was all they had to eat.[49] For myself,