THE COURSE OF THE WHITE NILE. 345 CHAPTER XVIII.

information concerning the course op the bahr-abiad (whitb Nile).—antiquities op kordofan.—bandanianiam.* During my residence in Kordofan, I enjoyed the opportunity of coming in contact with persons who had travelled over the greater part of the South-east and South-west of Africa, and who were able to give me information on many points hitherto subjected to doubt. These were in part Djelabi (merchants), in part Takruri (pilgrims). My chief object in making these inquiries, was to obtain an authentic account of the course of the White Nile, but I was unable to gain satisfactory information for a length of time, and nearly despaired of ever arriving at my end ; for the men who travelled in the countries through which this river flows, were • The infonnation I was able to collect was communicated to the celebrated French traveller, Antoine d'Abbadie, who laid it before the Academy in Paris and the Geographical Society in London; by the latter it was subsequently published in the Athenaeum, of 18th January 1840. As regards the White Nile, more accurate information may now have been obtained through the expedition sent in the year 1 840, for the third time, by Mehemed Ali, to trace the river to its source.