On the "Retreat to Corunna" fatigue, wet and bitter cold, combined with the sense of an enforced retreat, shook the discipline of Moore's army; but he reached Corunna on the 11th of January 1809, where he took up a position across the road from Lugo, with his left on the river Mero.
The country enclosed by the Nile, the Atbara and the Blue Nile, the so-called Island of Mero, consists of very fertile soil, and along the eastern frontier, by the upper courses of the rivers named, is a district of rich land alternating with prairies and open forests.
Portions (including a harbour) of the site of the city of Meroe, at Begerawia, not far from the pyramids named, were excavated in1909-1910(see Mero?.).
