“ when he conducted him into his hut, spread a mat upon
“ the floor, and laid a rope upon it, saying, ‘ if you are a
“ ‘ Mussulman you are my friend,—sit down; but if you
“ ‘ are a Kafir you are my slave; and with this rope I will
“ ‘ lead you to market/ The present King of Tombuetoo
“ is named Abu Abrahima; he is reported to possess
“ immense riches. His wives and concubines are said to
“ be clothed in silk, and the chief officers of state live in
“ considerable splendour. The whole expence of his go-
“ vernment is defrayed, as I was told, by a tax upon mer-
|§ chandize, which is collected at the gates of the city.”
To this account Major Ilennell adds (doubtless on the
verbal authority of Park), that the greatest proportion o f
»the inhabitants were, nevertheless, Negroes. (Appendix,
p. xc.)
We are now to examine under what circumstances- the
information contained in this description was procured. Of
his arrival and residence at Silla, Park gives us very minute
details Mis journey thither from Sego had been hurried,
and his situation extremely distressing during its whole
course ; until, on the 29th July, at four o'clock in the afternoon,
he arrived ai Moorzan, a fishing fown on the northern
bank of the Niger, “ from whence," he says, “ I was
“ conveyed across the river to Silla, a large town, where I
“ remained until it was quite dark under a tree surrounded
“ by hundreds of people. Their language was very dif-
“ ferent from [that of] the other parts of Bambarra. With
“ a great deal of entreaty the Dooty allowed me to come
“ into his balloon to avoid the rain; but the place was
“ very damp, and I had a smart paroxysm of fever during
“ the night. Worn down by sickness and exhausted with
“ hunger and fatigue, I was convinced by painful experi-
“ ence that the obstacles to my further progress were
“ insurmountable.” Happily for himself, and for that
science whose limits his return was so widely to extend,—
this determination was no sooner adopted than executed;
and at eight o’clock the next morning he stepped into a
canoe, and commenced his painful return to the westward ;
having only spent at Silla one wretched night in ‘sickness
and despondency.
It is impossible for any of our readers to view the unquenchable
zeal and intrepidity of Park with higher admiration
than we do ; and merely to express our belief that
before he thus resolved to return he “ had made,” as he
states, “ every effort to proceed which prudence could
“ justify,” would be to render, in our opinion, very imperfect
justice to his unparallelled ardour of enterprise and
enduring perseverance. Joining to these higher qualifica