and unexplored
river, which may possibly be found to be connected with the Niger.

On the 27th, early in the morning, the Pasha commenced transporting the
army over the Bahar el Abiud, by means of nine small boats, which had
been able to pass the third Cataract, and follow the army. The country
on our side of the Bahar el Abiud, is uncultivated, and apparently
without inhabitants. The army is encamped by the side of the river, on
a beautiful plain of good soil, extending a considerable distance back
towards the desert. During the inundation, this plain becomes evidently
an island, as there is a channel worn by water, in the rear of it, at
this season dry. The tracks of the hippopotamus are found throughout
this plain.

By the 29th, in the afternoon, i.e. in two days and a half, the Pasha
had finished transporting into Sennaar the whole of his camp, consisting
of about six thousand persons, with the artillery, ammunition, tents,
baggage, horses, camels, and asses, by the aid of nine boats, none of
them large, an expedition, I believe, unparalleled in the annals of
Turkish warfare.[47]

During our stay on the other side of the Bahar el Abiud, it was reported
in the camp that some of the Mogrebin soldiers, gone out to shoot
gazelles, had killed in the desert which lies off from the river, an
animal, resembling a bull, except that its feet were like those of a
camel. I did not see this animal, but the story was affirmed to me by
several.

The army, on its crossing the Bahar el Abiud, encamped on the point of
land just below which the Bahar el Abiud and the Nile join each other.
The water of the Bahar el Abiud is troubled and whitish, and has a
peculiar sweetish taste. The soldiers said that "the water of the Bahar
el Abiud would not quench thirst." This notion probably arose from the
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
m