On the 24th, we set out at half after five in the morning, and passed through several small villages of Cohala on the right and on the left, till at eleven we came to the river Dender, standing now in pools, but by the vast wideness of its banks, and the great deepness of its bed, all of white sand, it should seem that in time of rain it will contain nearly as much water as the Nile. The banks are everywhere thick overgrown with the rack and jujeb tree, especially the latter. The wood, which had continued mostly from Beyla, here failed us entirely, and reached no further towards Sennaar. These two sorts of trees, however, were in very great beauty, and of a prodigious size. Here we found the main body of Cohala, with all their cattle, living in perfect security both from Arabs and from the plague of the fly. They were as good as their word to us in supplying us plentifully with excellent milk, which we had scarcely ever tasted since we left Gondar. At six o'clock in the evening of the 24th we set out from a shady place of repose on the banks of the Dender, through a large plain, with not a tree before us; but we presently found ourselves encompassed with a number of villages, nearly of a size, and placed at equal distances in form of a semi-circle, the roofs of the houses in shape of cones, as are all those within the rains. The plain was all of a red, soapy earth, and the corn just sown. This whole country is in perpetual cultivation, and though at this time it had a bare look, would no doubt have a magnificent one when waving with grain. At nine we halted at a village of Pagan Nuba. These are all soldiers of the Mek of Sennaar, cantoned in these villages, which, at the distance of four or five miles, surround the whole capital. They are either purchased or taken by force from Fazuclo, and the provinces to the south upon the mountains Dyre and Tegla. Having settlements and provisions given them, as also arms put in their hands, they never wish to desert, but live a very domestic and sober life. Many of them that I have conversed with seem a much gentler sort of negro than those from Bahar el Aice, that is, than those of whom the Funge, or government of Sennaar, are composed.