[Footnote 46: During the night of the 22d, I received an order from the Pasha to precede the march of the troops, and pick out a spot near Halfya to encamp his army on, in the European manner. Mr. Caillaud was requested to accompany me in this duty. Mr. Caillaud candidly told me that he was not a military man, and left the affair entirely to me. I chose a fine position on the river, about two miles above Halfya, in the rear of which was plenty of grass for the horses and camels. The Pasha, however, did not choose to come so far, but pitched his camp on the low sand flats before Halfya, near which there was no grass for the camels, who, during the five days following, perished in great numbers. He had undoubtedly his reasons for this, among which not the least important was, to be near enough to Halfya to have the town within reach of his cannon, as the Malek of Halfya had not as yet submitted. The Pasha, however, had like to have had serious cause to repent of having taken this position, when the river rose, and threatened to inundate his camp. Luckily it did not reach the ammunition, otherwise we should probably have been left without the means of defending ourselves. This overflowing of the Nile was occasioned by the rise of the Bahar el Abiud, which, this year at least, commenced its annual augmentation nearly a month sooner than the Nile.] [Footnote 47: The troops of Shouus and the Abbadies swam their horses and dromedaries over the river. Cogia Achmet, one of the chiefs of the army, in endeavoring to imitate the cavalry of Shageia, lost seventy horses and some soldiers. The rest of the horses and camels of the army were taken over by arranging them by the sides of the boats, with their halters held in hand by the people in the boats. Another large portion of our horses and camels was taken over by the Shageias and the Abbadies, who fastened at the breast of each horse, and over the neck of each camel of ours, so carried over, an empty water-skin blown up with air, which prevented the animal from sinking, while their guides swam by their sides, and so conducted them over.] [Footnote 48: The same day that the camp marched from the Bahar el Abiud, Mr. Caillaud and Mr. Frediani embarked in the boats to go to Sennaar, by the river, in order to have an opportunity of visiting the ruins of "Soba," which lie on the east side of the Nile, not far above from its junction with the Bahar el Abiud. When these gentlemen rejoined us at Sennaar, they informed me that almost the very ruins of this city have perished; they found, however, there some fragments of a temple, and of some granite, statues of lions: the city itself, they said, had been built of brick. This city of "Soba" probably takes its name from "Saba," the son of Cush, who first colonized this country, which is called, in the Hebrew Bible, "the land of Cush and Saba."--See Gen. x. 7. See the references in a Concordance to the Hebrew Bible, under the heads of "Cush," and "Saba."