C38.0 Mr. Park's Travels in Afnc(t;^c. 



From the condu(£l and cruelty of the wars between the petty and independent dates qf 

 Africa, it appears that thofe who do not make flaves of their captives put them to death. 

 With regard to religion, the Mahometans fhew much zeal in teaching the Negro children 

 to read, and avail thCmfclves of this means to convert them from Paganifm. Circumcifion, 

 (Whidh is notorioiifly more ancient and extenfive in its prevalence than the religion of Ma- 

 .homet, is pra£tifed alfo by the Negroes, who confider it rather as an operation of phyficil 

 than religious neceflity. The convi(ftion of a future ftate of rewards and punifhments was 

 univerfally prevalent in every diflrlfl vifited by our traveller. 



In the latter end of April 1797, the caravan being completed, and Mr. Park's health 

 perfe£l:ly re-eftablifhed, he fet out from Kamalia, in company with feventy perfons, of 

 whom thirty-feven only were flaves for fale. On the 4th of June they fell in with the 

 river Gambia ; and in fix days more, namely on the loth, Mr. Park had the fatisfaiStion to 

 enter the hoiife of Dr. Laidley, from which he had fet out eighteen months before. On 

 Uie isth of the fame month, he embarked in a flave-(hip for America ; which being driven 

 By ftrefs of weather into the ifland of Antigua, Mr. Park took his paffage from thence in 

 a veffel bound to Great Britain, and on the 25th of December arrived fafely in London. 



*4t* The refpedlable Writer of a Paper on the Secondary Foci of Lenfes, is informedi 

 that a bad fort of concave Refle£lors has long fince been conftru£ted and fold in London by 

 filvering one furface of a convex lens ; and that it is probable thefe foci (which are eafdy 

 determined from the curvatures and refractive powers) may have been neglc£led by op« 

 tical writers, becaufe the images are in every cafe more dilute and indiftindl than fuch as are 

 produced either by refradion, or refledion alone. That the efFed has not been difregard- 

 ed as a fource of imperfeftion in lenfes, may be feen by confulting our Journal, IL 233. 



