insolence and brutality. He saw on the river here several large canoes loaded with merchandise, and covered over with mats. The kindness of his negro landlord compensated in some measure the insults of the Moors; the hospitable negro desired no better payment than a saphie or charm: "If a Moor's saphie is good," said he, "a white man's must needs be better." Mr. Park assented to his request, and wrote for him the Lord's Prayer on a thin piece of board.

Beyond this place part of the journey lay through a plain infested with wild beasts; and the sight of some large lions, crouching among the bushes, filled our traveller with dismay; but this anxiety and alarm gave way to feelings of calm delight at the sight of Modiboo, a beauteous village on the banks of the Niger. The river is here of a majestic breadth, encompassing numerous green islands, the peaceful retreat of Foulahs, whose cattle are secured by their situation from the depredations of wild beasts; and the view is altogether one of the most enchanting in the world. Having spent the night here, Mr. Park proceeded in the morning on his journey to Kea, being by this time robbed of all his clothes save what he carried on him, and these were now worn to rags. He was sick and weary; and while he was little able to walk, his horse was still less able to carry him. About six miles beyond Modiboo the poor animal fell from weakness, and it was found impossible to set him on his legs again. "I sat down for some time," says Mr. Park, "beside this worn-out associate of my adventures; but finding him still unable to rise, I took off the saddle and bridle, and placed a quantity of grass before him. I surveyed the poor animal as he lay panting on the ground, with sympathetic emotion; for I could not suppress the sad apprehension that I should, myself, in a short time, lie down and perish in the same manner, of fatigue and hunger. With this foreboding I left my poor horse.' At Kea, a fishing village, he experienced a surly reception from the dooty or chief magistrate; but he luckily met with a fisherman, who consented to carry him down the river in his canoe. Towards evening he arrived at Silla, a large town on the southern bank, where he was surrounded till dark by crowds of wondering negroes. Here he had a slight attack of fever; and when he considered that he was pennyless, ill clad, exposed to the insults of the Moors, and that he had a journey of many hundred miles to perform on foot, in order to reach the Gambia, his heart sank within him, and he almost despaired of ever being able to effect his return; but he determined at all events to proceed no further eastward. He endeavoured, therefore, to collect from the negro traders what information he could, respecting the countries further down the river. From them he learned that two days' journey from Silla is the town of Jenné

standing on an island in the Niger, and containing more inhabitants than Sego. At the distance of two days more, the river spreads into a great lake called Dibbie, or the Dark Lake, so large that canoes, in crossing it from west to east, lose sight of land for one whole day. In issuing from this lake the river divides itself into several branches; the two chief of which, after encircling a great island called Jinbala, meet again at Kabra, the port of Tombuctoo, from which it is one day's journey distant. The whole distance by land from Jenné to Tombuctoo Is ten days' journey.

From the information which Mr. Park received, it would appear that Tombuctoo is a Moorish city; but he learned that Houssa, the capital of the kingdom of the same name, situated further to the eastward, was larger and more populous than Tombuctoo: there, also, the government was in the hands of the Moors. None of the merchants whom he consulted could give him any account of the termination of the Niger. They described its great length in vague and hyperbolic terms, saying they believed "it ran to the world's end."

On his return from Silla, Mr. Park had the good fortune to recover his horse; but the difficulties that awaited him on his journey back were far greater than he had anticipated. The motives of his journey became more suspected. He was obliged to avoid Sego, and prosecute his journey along the banks of the Niger; often obliged to wade through deep marshes, with little food, and in constant apprehension from wild beasts. At Wonda he lay for several days in a fever, occasioned by fatigue, anxiety, exposure to the night air, with little food, and almost without clothes. On leaving this place, he repaid the lukewarm kindness of this landlord by presenting him with his horse. The country he afterwards passed through suffered severely from famine, and he wholly depended for subsistence on the harity of the negroes, who were themselves nearly starving. At length he joined a kafila, or caravan of slaves, proceeding to the Gambia, and the slatee, or slave merchant, willingly agreed to provide for him during the journey, on condition of receiving a suitable reward when they reached the coast. Among the slaves he recognised a man whose hospitality he had experienced at Karankalla. The poor negro observed, with a sigh, "The irons were not then upon my legs." On the 5th of June, Mr. Park arrived at Jindey, where he had parted from Dr. Laidley eighteen months before.

The sufferings which Mr. Park had experienced in his former journey did not at all shake his courage, or induce him to shrink from the dangers of African discovery. After his return to England, he became acquainted with a gentleman who had often visited, as a trader, the mouth of the river Congo, and the

coasts in its vicinity. They were mutually pleased at each other's discoveries; and, while each speculated on the great river he had seen, their views gradually came to coalesce, so that they at length arrived at the conclusion that the Niger, after a circuitous course through central Africa, discharges itself into the sea by the channel of the Congo. This supposition formed the basis of the plan of operations which Mr. Park proposed to follow, when, in 1804, he was appointed by government to command a new expedition to explore the course of the Niger. He proposed to enter Bambara by his former route. There he was to construct two boats, forty feet long and eight feet broad, with which he was to navigate down to Wangara, and thence reach the sea by Congo. He required, in order to carry his plan into execution, thirty-six Europeans, of whom six should be artificers and the rest soldiers; asses, to convey the baggage; tools, for constructing the boats; besides merchandise, and numerous articles to distribute in presents or for trade. Government liberally granted him all that he demanded, and an ample remuneration was secured to him in case of his ultimate

success.

Mr. Park arrived at Goree on the 28th of March, 1805; and some time being employed in preparations, he began his journey from Pisania, on the Gambia, on the 27th of April. To his impatience in thus setting forward on so arduous an undertaking at the commencement of the wet season, may, in a great measure, be ascribed his subsequent misfortunes, and the total failure of the expedition. In passing through the wilderness of Tenda, the people unfortunately disturbed a large swarm of bees, which, issuing forth, put their assailants completely to the rout. In the confusion which ensued, the fire spread through the dry grass, and threatened to consume the baggage; so that for half an hour the expedition appeared terminated by the attack of the bees. Some of the cattle died from the stings, and none escaped unhurt. On the 8th of June they experienced the first tornado, the usual forerunner of the periodical rains; and with this visitation began their train of sorrows. The ground was now covered with water, the heat intolerable and on the third day after the commencement of the rains, twelve men were on the sick list. The negroes, hearing that the white men who passed through their country were sickly and distressed, and that they carried with them immense riches, which they were unable to defend, lost no opportunity of trying to despoil them. In the mountainous country of Konkodoo, Mr. Park had the opportunity of visiting several gold pits, and of obserying the way in which the natives collect and prepare that precious metal. The country was richly cultivated, and the most picturesque he had ever seen; but the beauty of the landscape

could not win his mind from dwelling on the state of the expedition, which was now melancholy in the extreme. Half of the men were sick, and lay down on the road, refusing to proceed The natives, seeing their weakness, grew more bold and daring As the party proceeded, every day added to their distress Mr. Park himself was afflicted with a fever; but in the midst of all these sufferings his enthusiasm still supported him; and when, on the 27th of July, he had a distant view of the mountains to the south-east, "the certainty that the Niger washed the southern base of these mountains made him forget his fever and he thought of nothing but how to climb over their blue summits." Near this place died the last of the forty asses which they had brought with them from the coast. Every day some of the men were either buried or abandoned. On the 19th of August, Mr. Park reached the summit of the mountain ridge which separates the Niger from the remote branches of the Senegal; and from the brow of the hill "he once more saw the Niger rolling its immense stream along the plain." But the joy that he might have derived from this prospect was marred by the most melancholy reflections. Of thirty-eight men who had accompanied him from the Gambia, only seven remained; all sick, and almost all despairing of recovery. He hired a canoe to carry him down the river, which was from one to two miles broad, and flowing at the rate of five knots an hour. The Niger is here called by the natives the Joliba or Great River. Apprehensions were for some time entertained lest they should not be permitted to pass through the kingdom of Bambara. The natives, it appeared, were unable to comprehend the motives of those dangerous journeys, and viewed them with suspicion; but Park, by an ingenious address, completely removed the scruples of the king's prime minister. "You know," he said, "that the white people are a trading people, and that all the articles of value which the Moors and the people of Jenné bring to Sego are made by us. If you speak of a good gun; who made it? The white people. We sell them to the Moors; the Moors bring them to Tombuctoo, where they sell them at a higher rate: the people of Tombuctoo sell them to the people of Jenne at a still higher price; and the people of Jenné sell them to you." These arguments, seconded by a splendid present of two double-barrelled guns, and some other articles, secured our travellers the favour of the court, and permission to build a boat at Sansanding. Three old canoes were patched together, so as to form a boat of about forty feet long and six broad, which was named His Majesty's Schooner the Joliba. Before the boat was finished, however, Park met with a severe blow in the death of his relation and companion, Dr. Anderson. This, he says, was the first event during the journey which threw the small

est gloom over his mind. "He then felt himself left a second time lonely and friendless amidst the wilds of Africa."

On the 17th of November, 1805, this adventurous traveller left Sansanding on his voyage down the river. His party was now reduced to four Europeans besides himself, lieutenant Martin and three soldiers, one of whom was in a state of derangement. Isaaco, his negro attendant, brought back his letters and journal to the Gambia, but no further intelligence was received of himself.

From the information collected by captain Clapperton, it appears that Park and his companions descended the river from Tombuctoo to a town called Boussa. The sultan of Youri, to whom they sent presents from this place, offered to supply them with guides to conduct them through the rocks which impede the navigation of the river a little below the town; but they, instead of paying attention to this offer, set off at night, and the poat soon after struck on the rocks. The people on both sides of the river began to assail them with arrows, and the two white men jumped into the water and were drowned. Some books and papers, according to the same account, remained in the boat; and one of the books was said to be still in the possession of the sultan of Youri.

CHAP. XXIV.

DENHAM AND CLAPPERTON'S TRAVELS.

Hornemann.-His Fate.-Adams visits Tombuctoo.-Doubts as to his Journey.Expidition of Captain Tuckey.-Arrival at the Congo.-The Cataract of Yellal-Appearance of the River.-Fatal Termination of the Expedition.-Journeys of Major Peddie; Captain Campbell; Mr. Ritchie.-Their unhappy Results.-Denham and Clapperton cross the Great Desert.-Lake Tshad.-Arrival at Kouka.-The Sheikh el Kanemy.-Expedition to Mandara.-Angornou. -Death of Lieutenant Toole.-Clapperton goes to Kano.-Appearance of the Country.-Arrival at Sockatoo.-The Sultan Bello.-His Suspicions of the English. His Promises.-His Map of the Niger.-Information respecting Park.-Return of Denham and Clapperton.-Death of Mr. Tyrwhit.-Clapperton's second Journey.-He reaches Sockatoo from Benin.-Ill received. His Death.-Results of his Travels.-Major Laing reaches Tombuctoo. Assassinated.-Travels of Caillié.-His Account of Tombuctoo.-Expedition of the two Landers, and the Discovery of the Debouchement of the Niger.

THE calamitous termination of Park's second journey might have been thought sufficient to damp the ardour of even the most enterprizing; but the impulse of curiosity, and the encouragement of hope, still prompted many to face the dangers of a tropical climate, and of a journey through suspicious and bigoted nations. In 1798, Frederick Hornemann, a German of good education, was engaged by the African Association to 23

VOL. III.