Volume 3 > Half-Volume 5

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while observing an eclipse of the moon in the month
of July, he was seized with fever, attended with
delirium, which brought him almost to the grave;
nor was he sufficiently recovered to commence his
journey till December. On the 2d of that month
he set out having for his escort a negro servant,
named Johnson, who had resided many years in
Great Britain and understood both the English and
Mandingo languages, as a guide and interpreter; a
negro boy belonging to Dr. Laidley, and whom that
gentleman promised to set free on his return, in the
event of his good conduct; with four others, not
immediately under his control, but who were made
to understand that their own safety depended upon
their fidelity to him. It may be interesting also to
notice the nature and value of his equipments for a
journey of such length, peril, and importance.
These consisted of a horse for himself, two asses for
his servants, provisions for two days, a small assort-
ment of beads, amber, and tobacco, a few changes
of linen and other apparel, an umbrella, a pocket-
sextant, a magnetic compass, a thermometer, two
fowling-pieces, two pairs of pistols, and a few other
trifling articles. Such were all the means of susten-
ance, comfort, and safety, with which this intrepid
man was provided for an expedition the duration of
which it was out of his power to calculate, but whose
route, he well knew, lay in some places through
pathless deserts, where neither tree grew nor water
ran, and beset with beasts of prey; in others, through
the territories of barbarous tribes, from whose in-
hospitality or savage dispositions he had scarcely less
to fear.
At the very outset an event occurred which seemed
to bode ill for the result of his journey. Dr. Laid-
ley, and a few other of the Europeans at Pisania,
having escorted him during the first two days, bade
him adieu, convinced that they would never see him
more; and scarcely were they out of sight when he
was surrounded by a horde of native banditti, from
whom he only got free by surrendering the greater
part of his small store of tobacco. Park, however,
was not a man to be depressed by evil auguries, and
he accordingly pushed on to Medina, the capital of
Woolli, where the king, a benevolent old man, re-
ceived him with much kindness, and furnished him
with a trusty guide to the frontiers of his dominions.
Our traveller then engaged three elephant-hunters
as guides and water-bearers through the sandy desert
which lay before him, where water was frequently
not to be found for several days together. He per-
formed the journey in safety, but after much fatigue,
and reached Fatteconda, the residence of the King
of Bondon, situated upon the very frontiers of his
dominions, adjoining the kingdom of Kajaaga. It
was at Fatteconda, and at the hands of the same
chief, that Park's predecessor in enterprise, Major
Houghton, had received such ill-usage, and was
plundered of almost everything he possessed; but ,
the only article he exacted from Park, and that not
by force but by such warm and animated expressions
of admiration as left our traveller no alternative to
choose, was his new blue coat, with gilt buttons, in
return for which he presented him with five drachms
of gold. From Fatteconda he proceeded to Joag,
the frontier town of Kajaaga, travelling in the night-
time for fear of robbers, and through thickets abound-
ing with wolves and hyenas, which glided across
their silent path in the clear moonshine, and hung
round the small party with yells and howlings, as if
watching an opportunity to spring upon them. At
Joag, and whilst preparing to proceed on his journey,
he was honoured by a visit from the king's son, who
plundered him of the half of his little stores, on pre-
tence of his having forfeited all his property by
entering the kingdom without leave. As a sort of
consolation for this disaster, and whilst appeasing
his hunger with a few ground-nuts which a poor
negro slave had given him in charity, he was waited
upon by the nephew of the King of Kasson, who
had been at Kajaaga on an embassy, and who,
taking pity on him, offered to escort him to his uncle's
capital, to which he was now returning, and which
lay in the line of our traveller's route. After cross-
ing the river Senegal, however, which was the
boundary of Kasson, his royal guide left him, having
first taken from him the half of the little property he
had left. A few days after this Park, for the first
time, had an opportunity of observing the manners
of the barbarous and untutored natives of Africa in
all their primitive simplicity and unchecked ardour.
They came to a village which was the birth-place of
one of his faithful escort, a blacksmith that had ac-
companied him from Pisania, and who was now
about to leave him, having amassed a considerable
deal of money in his profession on the coast, and
resolving to spend the rest of his days in ease and
independence amongst his family and friends. The
meeting which ensued was characterized by the most
extravagant demonstrations of joy and triumph, and
Park was convinced that, "whatever difference there
is between the negro and European in the conforma-
tion of the nose and the colour of the skin, there is
none in the genuine sympathies and characteristic
feelings of our common nature."
With these warm-hearted villagers our traveller
rested for a day or two, and then proceeded to
Kooniakary, where the king, a worthy old man who
was greatly beloved by his subjects, received him
with much kindness. From this point new perils
beset Mr. Park's further progress, in consequence of
war breaking out between the people of Bambarra,
to which kingdom his course was directed, and other
tribes, through whose territories he had to pass on his
way thither. He nevertheless persevered, although
even his faithful negro Johnson, who was aware of
the dangers he was running into, refused to accom-
pany him farther. They parted accordingly at Jarra,
in the kingdom of Ludimar (the people of which, as
well as of the neighbouring nations, were found to
be Mahometans), and Mr. Park, having intrusted
Johnson with a copy of his journal to carry back
with him to Pisania, set out for the camp of Ali at
Benowm, accompanied only by Dr. Laidley's slave-
boy and a messenger who had arrived from Ali to
conduct him thither. On the way he suffered great
privations, and was repeatedly beaten and robbed
by the fanatical Moors, to whom he was an object
of peculiar detestation as a Christian. All the suf-
ferings and insults which he had yet undergone, how-
ever, were nothing to what he was doomed to endure
while in the power of the tyrant Ali. His appear-
ance at Benowm excited the greatest astonishment
and consternation amongst the inhabitants, scarcely
one of whom had ever seen a white man before.
When taken before Ali, the latter was engaged in the
dignified occupation of clipping his beard with a
pair of scissors, and paid little regard to him; but
the ladies of the court fully maintained the character
of their sex for inquisitiveness, searched his pockets,
opened his waistcoat to examine his white skin, and
even counted his toes and fingers to make sure of his
being human. It would occupy far more space than
the limits of this memoir will allow, to detail the
innumerable and unremitting sufferings of our unfor-
tunate countryman during his detention at this place.
The unfeeling tyrant would neither permit him to
depart, nor grant him any protection from the per-