The country where we landed was, however, tolerably well cultivated by the inhabitants of several villages hereabouts. The soil, where it was not cultivated, was completely covered with trees, generally of no great height, and with bushes and long rank grass. The habitations of many of the inhabitants could with difficulty be found; they are frequently nothing but a rough arbor formed in the thickets. We had continual reason to be surprised, that a country naturally so rich should be so thinly populated and so carelessly cultivated. The people, however, appeared to be content with raising enough for their subsistence, and to desire nothing beyond this. Our money they did not value; they would give us nothing for money, but the flour of Egypt readily obtained what they could spare. 29th of Safa. At sunrise left the land with a fair and strong wind, and proceeded up the river with rapidity. In about two hours passed what appeared to be the ruins of a large fortified city, situated on a commanding eminence on the east bank of the river. Shortly after, put to shore on the west bank of the river, the wind having increased to a gale, and the east side towards the city, just mentioned, being inaccessible on account of the shoals that lined it. The violence of the wind forced the boat aground upon a shallow, at the entrance of a canal here, the only one I had seen for a month. After toiling for an hour, the boatmen at length succeeded in getting the boat water-borne. About an hour after noon the wind abated and the boat proceeded on her way under her foresail only. We went at a great rate till an hour before sunset, when we put to shore on the east bank of the river. The people informed us that we had passed Dongola, and, from their description of that place, we were convinced that the city we had seen this morning, upon the eminence on the east bank of the river, must have been the place we were bound to. The people said that all the boats that preceded us had followed the march of the army of the Pasha, who was encamped, they reported, at two days' distance from this place. We therefore determined to proceed to join him, and not to return to Dongola, where it was probable we should only receive directions to proceed to the Pasha. The country we saw to-day was not so uniformly fertile as that we have passed for several days past. Sand was in some places visible.