Bankes. The army halted on the western bank of the Nile, opposite Halfaia:
about five hours' march above this place the Bahr el Abiad, or White River,
flows into the Bahr el Azreck, or Nile of Bruce. In thirteen days from the
junction of these two rivers, the army, marching along the left, or western
branch of the Azreck, reached Sennaar.
In the year 1817, Delia Cella, an Italian physician, accompanied the army
of the bashaw of Tripoli as far as Bomba, on the route towards Egypt, and
near the frontiers of that country. He had thus an opportunity "of visiting
one of the oldest and most celebrated of the Greek colonies, established
upwards of seven hundred years before the birth of Christ; and in being the
first European to follow the footsteps of Cato round the shores of the
Syrtis, and to explore a region untrodden by Christian foot since the
expulsion of the Romans, the Huns, and the Vandals, by the enterprising
disciples of Mahomet." In this journey he necessarily passed the present
boundary between Tripoli and Bengaze, the same which was anciently the
boundary between Carthage and Cyrene; and our author confirms the account
of Sallust, that neither river nor mountain marks the confines. He also
confirms the description given by Herodotus of the dreadful storms of sand
that frequently arise and overwhelm the caravans in this part of the
Syrtis.
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