Constantly advancing, on the 16th they arrived at Herbagi, a large, pleasant village; and Bruce immediately waited upon Wed Ageeb, an hereditary prince of the Arabs, subject to the government of Sennaar. He had never before seen a European, and testified great surprise at our traveller's complexion. After resting two days at Herbagi, Bruce proceeded along the river. "Nothing," he says, "could be more beautiful than the country we passed that day, partly covered with very pleasant woods and partly in lawns, with a few fine scattered trees." After travelling three days, they came, on the 21st, to the passage of the Nile, which river they crossed. The manner of passing the camels at this ferry is by fastening cords under their hind quarters, and then tying a halter to their heads. Two men hold on to these cords, and a third the halter, so that the animals, by swimming, carry the boat on shore. One is fastened on each side of the stem and stern. These useful beasts suffer greatly by such rude treatment, and many die in the passage, with all the care that can be taken; but they still oftener perish through the tricks of the boatmen, who privately put salt in the camel's ears, which makes him desperate and ungovernable, till, by fretting and plunging his head constantly in the water, he loses his breath, and is finally drowned; they have then gained their object, and feast upon the flesh. Having thus crossed the Nile, they proceeded to Halfaia, where the tropical rains terminate. A very important change was about to take place in the character of the country, and Bruce, in bidding adieu to the wet portion of Africa, was now entering on the confines of the deserts. Here there are palm-trees, but no dates. The people eat cats, the hippopotamus, and the crocodile. Having remained at Halfaia a week, they set out on the 29th, and soon reached the village of Wed Hojila, where the great Bahar el Abiad, or White river, falls into the Bahar el Azergue, or Blue river; and here, with great frankness, Bruce acknowledges that the Abiad "_is larger than the Nile_." "The Abiad," he says, "is a very deep river; it runs dead, and with little inclination, and preserves its stream always undiminished; because, rising in latitudes where there are continual rains, it therefore suffers not the decrease the Nile does by the six months' dry weather." This confession certainly reflects no little credit on Bruce's character, and it should put to silence those who have so unfairly insinuated that he always endeavoured to conceal the fact that the Bahar el Abiad was a much larger branch of the Nile than the Abyssinian river, the sources of which it had cost him so much to visit.