and of its final issue. The party, it would appear, had purchased three slaves, who, with the five Europeans and Fatouma, increased their number to nine. They passed Silla and Jenne in a friendly manner; but at Rakbara (Kabra) and Timbuctoo several armed parties came out to attack them, who were repelled only by a smart and destructive fire. No particulars are given of any of those important places; nor of Kaffo, Gotoijege, and others, which the discoverers are represented as having afterwards passed. At length they came to the village (more properly city) of Yaour, where Amadi Fatouma left the party, his services having been engaged only to that point. He had, however, scarcely taken his leave, when he was summoned before the king, who bitterly complained that the white men, though they brought many valuable commodities with them, had passed without giving him any presents. He therefore ordered that Fatouma should be thrown into irons, and a body of troops sent in pursuit of the English. These men reached Boussa, and took possession of a pass, where rocks, hemming in the river, allow only a narrow channel for vessels to descend. When Park arrived, he found the passage thus obstructed, but attempted, nevertheless, to push his way through. "The people began to attack him, throwing lances, pikes, arrows, and stones. He defended himself for a long time; when two of his slaves at the stern of the canoe were killed. The crew threw every thing they had into the river, and kept firing; but being overpowered by numbers and fatigue, and unable to keep up the canoe against the current, and seeing no probability of escaping, Mr Park took hold of one of the white

men, and jumped into the water. Martyn did the same, and they were all drowned in the stream in attempting to escape. The only slave that remained in the boat, seeing the natives persist in throwing weapons into it without ceasing, stood up and said to them, Stop throwing now; you see nothing in the canoe, and nobody but myself; therefore cease. Take me and the canoe, but don't kill me.' They took possession of both, and carried them to the king."

These sad tidings, conveyed in course to England, were not for a long time received with general belief. The statement, being sifted with care, was thought to contain inconsistencies, as well as such a degree of improbability as left some room for hope. But, as year after year elapsed, this hope died away; and Denham and Clapperton, in their late expedition, received accounts from various quarters which very nearly coincided with those of Amadi Fatouma. Park's adventures, they found, had excited the deepest interest throughout Africa. Clapperton in his last journey even saw the spot where he perished, which, allowing for some exaggeration, did not ill correspond with the description just given. Nay, he received notice, as we shall hereafter see, that Park's manuscripts were in the possession of the king or chief of Yaour or Youri, who offered to deliver them up on condition that the Captain would pay him a visit, which he unfortunately was never able to perform.

CHAPTER X.

Various Travellers-Horneman, Nicholls, Roentgen, Adams, Riley.

IT has been thought advisable to trace without interruption the interesting career of Park from its commencement to its close. Between his two expeditions, however, there intervened another, which appeared to open under very favourable auspices. Frederic Horneman, a student of the university of Gottingen, communicated to Blumenbach, the celebrated professor of natural history, his ardent desire to explore the interior of Africa under the auspices of the Association. Blumenbach transmitted to that body a strong recommendation of Horneman, as a young man, active, athletic, temperate, knowing sickness only by name, and of respectable literary and scientific attainments. Sir Joseph Banks immediately wrote,-“ If Mr Horneman be really the character you describe, he is the very person whom we are in search of." On receiving this encouragement, Horneman immediately applied his mind to the study of natural history and the Arabic language, and otherwise sought to fit himself for supporting the character, which he intended to assume, of an Arab and a Moslem, under which he hoped to escape the effects of that ferocious

bigotry which had opposed so fatal a bar to the progress of his predecessors.

In May, 1797, Horneman repaired to London, where his appointment was sanctioned by the Association; and having obtained a passport from the Directory, who then governed France, he visited Paris, and was introduced to some leading members of the National Institute. He reached Egypt in September, spent ten days at Alexandria, and set out for Cairo, to wait the departure of the Rashna caravan. The interval was employed in acquiring the language of the Mograbin Arabs, a tribe bordering on Egypt. While he was at Cairo, tidings arrived of Bonaparte's having landed in that country, when the just indignation of the natives vented itself upon all Europeans, and among others on Horneman, who was arrested and confined in the castle. He was relieved upon the victorious entry of the French commander, who immediately set him at liberty, and very liberally offered money and every other supply, which might contribute to the success of his mission.

It was the 5th of September, 1798, before Horneman could find a caravan proceeding to the westward, when he joined the one destined for Fezzan. The travellers soon passed the cultivated land of Egypt, and entered on an expanse of sandy waste, such as the bottom of the ocean might exhibit if the waters were to retire. This desert was covered with the fragments as it were of a petrified forest; large trunks, branches, twigs, and even pieces of bark, being scattered over it. Sometimes these stony remains were brought in by mistake as fuel. When the caravan halted for the night, each individual dug

a hole in the sand, gathered a few sticks, and prepared his victuals after the African fashion of kouskous, soups, or puddings. Horneman, according to his European habits, at first employed the services of another; but finding himself thus exposed to contempt or suspicion, he soon followed the example of the rest, and became his own cook.

There are as usual oases, or verdant spots, in this immense waste. Ten days brought the caravan to Ummesogeir, a village situated on a rock, with a hundred and twenty inhabitants, who, separated by such immense deserts from the rest of the world, pass a peaceful and hospitable life, subsisting on dates, the chief produce of their arid soil.

Another day's journey brought them to Siwah, a much more extensive oasis, the rocky border of which is estimated by Horneman to be fifty miles in circumference. It yields, with little culture, various descriptions of grain and vegetables; but its wealth consists chiefly in large gardens of dates, baskets of which fruit form here the standard of value. The government is vested in a very turbulent aristocracy of about thirty chiefs, who meet in council in the vicinity of the town-wall, and, in the contests which frequently arise, make violent and sudden appeals to arms. The chief question in respect to Siwah is, whether it does or does not comprise the site of the celebrated shrine of Jupiter Ammon-that object of awful veneration to the nations of antiquity, and which Alexander himself, the greatest of its heroes, underwent excessive toil and peril to visit and to associate with his name. This territory does in fact contain springs, a small edifice with walls six feet thick, partly painted and adorned with hiero