have perished on the road with thirst. He was therefore obliged to await the rainy season, however unfavourable for travelling through the negro territories.

Ali, on the 30th April, having occasion to move his quarters, came to Bubaker, the residence of Fatima, and Park was introduced to that favourite princess. The beauty of a Moorish female is measured entirely by her circumference; and to bestow this grace on their daughters, the mothers stuff them with enormous quantities of milk and kouskous, the swallowing of which is enforced even with blows, till they attain that acme of beauty which renders them a load for a camel. The dimensions by which Fatima had captivated her royal lover were very enormous; she added to them Arab features and long black hair. This queen at first shrunk back with horror at seeing before her that monster, a Christian; but after putting various questions, began to see in him nothing so wholly different from the rest of mankind. She presented to him a bowl of milk, and continued to show him the only kindness he met with during this dreadful captivity. At length her powerful intercession induced Ali to take Park with him to Jarra, where our traveller hoped to find the means of proceeding on his journey.

At Jarra a striking scene occurred. Ali, through avarice, had involved himself in the quarrel between the monarchs of Kaarta and Bambarra, and news arrived that Daisy was in full march to attack the town. The troops, who ought to have defended the place, fled at the first onset, and nothing remained for the inhabitants but to abandon it and escape from slaughter or slavery, the dreadful alternatives of African conquest. The scene was affecting. The local attachments of the African are strong; and the view of this disconsolate crowd quitting perhaps for ever their native spot, the scene of their early life, and where they had fixed all their hopes and desires, presented a striking picture of human calamity. Park would now very gladly have presented himself before his friend Daisy; but being afraid that in the confusion he would be mistaken for a Moor, and killed as such, he thought it a safer course to join the retreat. He found more difficulty in escaping than he had expected, being seized by three Mohammedans, who threatened to carry him back to Ali, but finally contented themselves with robbing him of his cloak. In flying from

savage man, he soon found himself involved in a danger still more alarming. He was in the midst of an immense desert, in which was neither food nor a drop of water. Having ascended the loftiest tree within his reach, he could see no boundary to the scene of desolation. The pangs of thirst became intolerable, a dimness spread over his eyes, and he felt as if this life, with all its mingled joys and miseries, was about to close,-as if all the hopes of glory by which he had been impelled to this adventurous career had vanished, and he was to perish at the moment when a few days more would have brought him to the Niger. Suddenly he saw a flash of lightning, and eagerly hailed it as a portent of rain; the wind then began to blow among the bushes, but it was a sand-wind which continued for an hour to fill the air. At last there burst forth a brighter flash, followed by a refreshing shower, which being received upon his clothes, and the moisture wrung out, gave him new life. He travelled onwards, passing, but carefully shunning, a village of the Moors, when thirst, imperfectly satisfied, began again to torment him. Then he heard a heavenly sound the croaking of frogs; and soon reached the muddy pools which they inhabited, when the thirst both of himself and his horse was thoroughly quenched. He came to a Foulah village, called Sherillah, where the dooty, or chief magistrate, shut the door in his face, and refused him a handful of corn; however, in passing the suburbs, a poor woman, who was spinning cotton in front of her hut, invited him to enter, and set before him a dish of kouskous. Next day he was hospitably received by a negro shepherd, who regaled him with dates and boiled corn; but happening to pronounce the word Nazarani (Christian), the wife and children screamed and ran out of the house, to which nothing could induce them to return.

At Wawra, Park considered himself beyond the reach of the Moors; and, being kindly received, determined to rest two or three days. When he was known to be on his way to Sego, the capital, several women came and besought him to ask the king about their sons, who had been taken away to the army. One had neither seen nor heard of hers for several years; she declared he was no heathen, but said his prayers daily, and that he was often the subject of her dreams. Leaving this place he came to Dingyee, where

he seemed invested with a sacred character,-a man ear nestly entreating a lock of his hair to be used as a saphie or charm; and receiving permission to cut it off, he contrived to crop completely one side of the head. Proceeding towards Sego, he joined on the road several small negro parties; but, as the country became more populous, hospi tality was less common. In Moorja, however, though mostly peopled by Mohammedans, he found gayety and abundance. He next passed through several towns and villages, which, in the late war, had been systematically destroyed; the large bentang tree under which the inhabitants used to meet had been cut down, the wells were filled up, and every thing done which could render the neighbourhood uninha bitable. He passed also a cofle, or caravan, of about seventy slaves tied together by the neck with thongs of bullocks' hide, seven slaves upon each thong. His horse was now so completely worn out, that, instead of attempting to ride, he was content to drive it before him. Being also barefooted, and in the most miserable plight, he afforded a subject of merriment to the natives, who asked if he had been travelling to Mecca, and made ironical proposals for the purchase of his horse; even the slaves were ashamed to be seen in his company.

At length, the near approach to Sego was indicated by crowds hastening to its market; and Mr. Park was told that on the following day, the 21st July, that primary object of his search, the Joliba or Great Water, would appear before him. He passed a sleepless night, but, starting before daybreak, he had the satisfaction, at eight o'clock, to see the smoke rising over Sego. He overtook some former fellowtravellers, and, in riding through a piece of marshy ground, one of them called out, geo affilli (see the water), and looking forwards, "I saw," says he, "with infinite pleasure, the great object of my mission, the long-sought-for majestic Niger, glittering to the morning sun, as broad as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing slowly to the eastward. I hastened to the brink, and having drunk of the water, lifted up my fervent thanks in prayer to the Great Ruler of all things, for having thus far crowned my endeavours with

success.'

Mr. Park now saw before him Sego, the capital of the kingdom of Bambarra. It consisted of four separate towns,

two on each side of the river, surrounded with high mudwalls, the houses, though only of clay, neatly whitewashed, the streets commodious, with mosques rising in every quarter. The place was estimated to contain about thirty thousand inhabitants. The numerous canoes on the river, the crowded population, and the cultivated state of the surrounding country, presented altogether an appearance of civilization and magnificence little expected in the bosom of Africa. The traveller sought a passage to Segosee-Korro, the quarter where the king resided; but, owing to the crowd of passengers, he was detained two hours; during which time his majesty was apprized that a white man, poorly equipped, was about to pass the river to seek an audience. A chief was immediately sent, with an express order that the traveller should not cross without his majesty's permission, and pointed to a village at some distance, where it was recommended that the stranger should pass the night. Park, not a little disconcerted, repaired to the village; but as the order had not been accompanied with any provision for his reception, he found every door shut. Turning his horse loose to graze, he was preparing, as a security from wild beasts, to climb a tree and sleep among the branches, when a beautiful and affecting incident occurred, which gives a most pleasing view of the negro character. An old woman, returning from the labours of the field, cast on him a look of compassion, and desired him to follow her. She led him to an apartment in her hut, procured a fine fish, which she broiled for his supper, and spread a mat for him to sleep upon. She then desired her maidens, who had been gazing in fixed astonishment at the white man, to resume their tasks, which they continued to ply through a great part of the night. They cheered their labours with a song which must have been composed extempore, since Mr. Park, with deep emotion, discovered that he himself was the subject of it. It said, in a strain of affecting simplicity,-"The winds roared, and the rains fell. The poor white man, faint and weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him milk, no wife to grind his corn.-Chorus-Let us pity the white man, no mother has he," &c. Our traveller was much affected, and next morn. ing could not depart without requesting his landlady's acceptance of the only gift he had left, two out of the four brass buttons that still remained on his waistcoat.

He remained two days in this village, during which he understood that he was the subject of much deliberation at court, the Moors and slave-merchants giving the most unfavourable reports of his character and purposes. A messenger came and asked if he had any present, and seemed much disappointed on being told that the Moors had robbed him of every thing. On the second day appeared another envoy, 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 suddenly wheeled his horse round, cailing 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 traveler then saw a very large red lion, with the head couched between the fore-paws. His eyes were fixed as by fascination on this soverein of the beasts, and he