T h e Tacazze is here about a quarter o f a mile broad, exceedingly
deep, and they have ehofen the deepeft part for
the ferry. It is clear as in Abyilinia, where we had often,
feen it. It rifes in the province o f Angot, in about lat. 9°,
but has loft all the beauty o f its banks, and runs'- here thro’
a defert and barren country.. I reflected with much fatif-
faftion upon rite many eircumftances the fight o f this river
recalled to my m in d ; but ftill the greateft was, that the
ftenes o f thefe were now far diftant, and that I was- by fa
much the more advanced towards home. The water o f
the Tacazze is judged by the Arabs to be lighter, clearer,,
and wholefomer than that o f the Nile. About h a lf a. mile
after this ferry it joins with that river. T h o u gh the boats
were fmaller, the people more brutiih, and lefs.expert than
thofe at Ha-lifoon, yet the fuppofed' fanetity of1 our characters,
and liberal payment, carried us over without any#difti-
culty. Thefe ions o f Mahomet are very robuft and ftrong,
and, in a ll their operations, feemed to truft to that rather,
than to addrefs or flight. We left the paffage at ai quarter
after three, and at h a lf paft four arrived at a gravelly, wafle
piece o f ground, and all round it planted thick with large
trees w ithout fruit. The river is. the boundary between At-
bara and Barbar, in which province we now are. Its inhabitants
are the Jaheleen o f the tribe o f M irifab.
On the 26th, at fix o’clock, leaving the Nile on our left
about a mile, we continued our journey over gravel and
fa n d , through a wood o f acacia-trees, the colour o f 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 40 minutes paft three we came to Qooz, a
fmalL village,, w h ich neverthelefs is the capital o f Barbar.
The
The village o f G ooz is a collection o f miferable hovels com-
pofed o f clay and canes. There are not in it above 30 houfes,
but there are fix or feven different villages. The heat
feemed here a litrle abated, but everybody complained o f
a difeafe in their eyes they call Tifhafh, w hich often terminates
in blindnefs. I apprehend it to be owing to the
iimoom and fine fand blowing through the defert. Here a
misfortune happened to Idris our Hybeer, who was arrefled
for debt, and carried to prifon. As we were new upon the
very edge o f the defert, and to fee no other inhabited place
till we ihould reach Egypt, I was not difpleafed to have it
in my power to la y him under one other obligation before
we trufted our lives in his hands, which we were immediately
to do. I therefore paid his debt, and reconciled him
with his creditors, who, on their part, behaved very moderately
to him. ■
W h e n trade flouriflied here, and the caravans went re»
gularly, Gooz was o f fome confideration, as being the firft
place where they flopped, and therefore got the firft offer
o f the m a rk e t; but now no commerce remains, nor is it
worth whjle for ftated guides to wait there to conduit the
caravans through the defert, as they did formerly. Gooz
is fituated fifteen miles from the junftion o f the two rivers,
the Nile and Tacazze. - By many obfervations o f the fun
and ftars,and by a mean o f thefe, I found it to be in lat. 17•
57' 22"; and by an immerfion o f the firft fatellite o f Jupiter
obferved there the 5th o f November, determined its longitude
to be 340 20' 30" eaft o f the meridian o f Greenwich.
The greateft height o f Fahrenheit’s thermometer
was, a t Gooz, the 28th day o f October, at noon, 1 n °.
3 Z 2 H a v s n g