652 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER ,
Gojam, a country deluged with fix months rain, this tree would not grow ; though fo much farther fouth it is near two Englifh miles higher than Atbara, and is therefore too cold. Such are my reafons for believing that Gojam cannot be Meroe. In my return through the defert I mall confirm this, by proving that Atbara is Meroe, and that we are to look for it about lat. i6° 29', near the end of the tropical rains.
The Nile, now united with the Aftaboras, takes its courfe flraight north for more than two degrees of the meridian; it then makes a very unexpected turn W. by S. confiderably more than that fpace in longitude, winding very little till it arrives at Korti, the nrfl town in the Barabra, or kingdom of Dongola. The river by this time, with three fides, inclofed the great deferts of Bahiouda the road through this from Dereira to Korti (before it was cut off by the Arabs, as it now con- tinues to be) made the fourth fide of the fquare which bound this defert ; by this route it was that Poncet and the unfortunate M. du Roule went to AbyfTinia.
From Korti the Nile runs almofl S. W. where it pafTes Dongola, a country of the Shepherds, called alfo Beja, the capital of Barabra, and comes to Mofcho, a confiderable town, and welcome place of refrefliment to the weary tra- veller, when the caravans were fuffered to pafs from Egypt into Ethiopia, who, after traverfing the dreary defert of Seli- raa for near 500 miles, found himfelf at Mofcho, in repofe, in the enjoyment of plenty of frefh water, long ago become to him an indulgence more delicious than ever he had be- fore conceived. From Mofcho the Nile turns gradually to the N. E, and in lat. 22 15' it meets with a chain of moun- 3 tains,
