4i6 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
On the 21ft of April we kftBeyla at three o'clock in the afternoon, our diredion foiuh-weR, through a very plea- fanr,fiat countr}', but without water ; there had been none in our way nearer than the river Rahad. About eleven at night we al ghted in a wood : The place is called Bahene, as near as we could compute, nine miles from Bey la.
On the 22d, at half paft -five o'clock in the morning we left Baherie, iiill continuing weftward, and at nine we came to the banks of the Rahad. The ford is called Tchir Chaira. The river itfelf was now Handing in pools, the water foul, {linking, and covered with a green mantle ; the bottom foft and muddy, but there was no choice. The water at Bcyla was fo bad, that we took only as much as was ab- folutely necelTary till we arrived at running water from the Rahad. We continued half an hour travelling along the river at N. W. and W. N. W. till three quarters pail ten. At noon we agaia met the river Rahad, which now had turned to the wellward of north, and by its fides we pitch- ed our tents near the huts of the Arabs, called Cohala, a ilationary tribe, that do not live in tents, but are tributary to the Mek, and regularly pay all the taxes and exadlions the government of Sennaar lays upon them, and from thefe, therefore, we were not under any apprehenfion.
On the 23d, at fix o'clock in the morning we left the Co- hala, continuing along the river Rahad, wiuch here rins a very little to the eallward of north. At three o'clock we alighted at Kumar, another ftacion of the fame Arabs of Co- hala, on the river fide. This river, here called Rahad, or Thunder, winds the moll of any ftream in Abyffinia, It begins not far fiom Tchclga, pajQTes between Kuara and 2 Sennaar,
