bearing an injunction from Mansong that the stranger should not enter Sego, but proceed forthwith on his journey; to defray the expenses of which, a bag, containing 5000 cowries, was delivered to him. Mr Park estimates this sum at only twenty shillings; but according to the rate of provisions it was worth much more, being sufficient to maintain, for fifty days, himself and his horse.

Two days brought our traveller to Sansanding, a large town with 10,000 inhabitants. He hoped to enter unnoticed, finding himself mistaken by the negroes for a Moor. Being taken, however, before Counti Mamadi, the dooty, or chief magistrate, he found a number of Mohammedans, who denied the supposed national connexion, and regarded him with their usual hatred and suspicion. Several even pretended they had seen him before, and one woman swore that she had kept his house three years at Gallam. The dooty put a negative on their proposition of dragging him by force to the mosque; but they climbed over in great numbers into the court where he had taken up his quarters for the night, insisting that he should perform his evening devotions, and eat eggs. The first proposal was positively declined; but the second he professed his utmost readiness to comply with. The eggs were accordingly brought, but raw, as the natives imagined it a part of European depravity to be fond of them in that state. His reluctance to eat raw eggs exalted him in the eyes of his sage visitants; his host accordingly killed a sheep, and gave him a plentiful supper.

His route now lay through woods, grievously infested with all kinds of wild animals. His guide sud

denly wheeled his horse round, calling out "Wara billi billi!—a very large lion!" Mr Park's steed was ill fitted to convey him from the scene of danger; but, seeing nothing, he supposed his guide mistaken, when the latter exclaimed "God preserve me!" and the traveller then saw a very large red lion, with the head couched. between the fore-paws. His eyes were fixed as by fascination on this sovereign of the beasts, and he expected every moment the fatal spring; but the savage animal, either not pressed by hunger, or struck with some mysterious awe, remained immoveable, and allowed the party to pass unmolested. Real misery arose from a meaner cause, namely, the amazing swarms of musquitoes which ascend from the swamps and creeks, and to whose attack, from the ragged state of his garments, he was exposed at every point. He was covered all over with blisters, and at night could get no rest. An affecting crisis next arrived. His horse, the faithful and suffering companion of his journey, had been daily becoming weaker. At length, stumbling over some rough ground, he fell: all his master's efforts were insufficient to raise him, and no alternative remained but to leave the poor animal; which, after collecting some grass and laying it before him, Mr Park did, not without a sad presentiment that, ere long, he himself might in like manner lie down and perish with hunger and fatigue.

He now resolved to hire a boat, in which he was conveyed up the river to Silla, another large town, where his reception was so inhospitable that the dooty reluctantly permitted him to take shelter from the rain in a damp shed. Half-naked, worn down by

fatigue and sickness, and foreseeing the approach of the rains by which the whole country would be inundated, Mr Park began seriously to contemplate his situation. All the obstacles now stated were small, when compared to the fact, that, in proceeding eastward, he would still be within the range of Moorish influence. He learned, that at Jenne, though included in Bambarra, the municipal power was chiefly in the hands of these savage and merciless fanatics, who, at Timbuctoo also, held the entire sway. On these grounds he felt convinced that certain destruction awaited him in his progress eastward; that all his discoveries would perish with himself; and that his life would be sacrificed in vain. His only hope, and it was but faint, of ever reaching England, depended upon his return westward, and on his proceeding by the most direct route to the coast. On this course he determined,a decision which was fully approved both by his employers and by the public.

During his stay at Silla, he used every effort to obtain information respecting the more eastern countries, particularly the kingdom of Timbuctoo, and the course of the Niger. He was told that the next great city along that river was Jenne, which was represented as very flourishing, and larger than Sego or any other place in Bambarra. Lower down, the river spread into an expanse, called Dibbie or the Dark Lake, so extensive that, in crossing it, the canoes for a whole day lost sight of land. On the eastern side the Niger issued out of this lake in two large branches, enclosing the alluvial country of Jinbala, when they again united in one channel, which flowed on to Kabra, the port of Timbuctoo. That

town, situated a day's journey north from the Niger, was described to Mr Park as the great centre of the commerce carried on between the Moors and negroes, by means of which the former people had filled it with Mohammedan converts; it was added, that the king and his principal officers belonged to this faith, which was professed there with even more than the usual bigotry. An old negro related, that, on his entering a public inn, the landlord laid on the floor a mat and a rope, saying, "If you are a Mussulman, you are my friend, sit down on this mat; if not, you are my slave, and with this rope I will lead you to market." The king, named Abu Abrahima, was clothed in silk, lived in great pomp, and possessed immense riches. There has since appeared reason to suspect that, in these reports, both the bigotry and the splendour of Timbuctoo were somewhat exaggerated. Beyond this city, eastward, there was said to be a great kingdom called Houssa, with a capital of the same name, situated on the Niger. This also was somewhat inaccurate. There is no city called Houssa; and the term is applied, not to a kingdom, but to an extensive region comprehending many principalities, and through which the Niger does not pass.

Having formed his resolution, he forthwith began his return to the westward, and at Modiboo met with an unexpected and rather pleasing occurrence. While he was conversing with the dooty, a horse was heard to neigh; upon which the magistrate asked, smiling, if he knew who was speaking to him and presently going out, led in the traveller's own horse, greatly recruited by rest. Mr Park at first drove the animal before him, but after

wards mounted, and found him of great benefit in passing the swamps and swollen rivulets which obstructed his route. He soon learned that dangers, even greater than he was aware of, had beset his path. The King of Bambarra had been at last so worked upon by Moorish counsellors, that, repenting even his former stinted kindness, he had sent messengers to apprehend Park, and to bring him a prisoner to Sego; from which fate he escaped only by the retrograde direction he had taken. Thenceforth every door was resolutely shut against him; at Sansanding his best friend Counti Mamadi privately paid him a visit, and advised him to leave the city early next morning, and to make no delay in the vicinity of the capital. Accordingly, at a village near that city, he obtained a confirmation of the above tidings, and was exhorted to lose no time if he wished to get safe out of Bambarra. He then quitted the road, and struck off through fields and swamps. He once intended to swim across the Niger, and push towards the Gold Coast, but afterwards resolved to pursue his course westward along the river, and thus ascertain its precise line. He had now nothing to subsist on except what charity bestowed, which was only an occasional handful of raw corn. There was also the greatest difficulty in finding a way through the swampy and inundated grounds. Once his horse and he sunk together to the neck in mud, and came out so completely besmeared, that they were compared by the natives to two dirty elephants. At another time, when he had stripped, and was leading his horse through a river that took him up to the neck, a friendly African called out, that he would perish if he went on, and undertook to pro