202 Mr. Park's Journey into Africa. 



f oulah fhepherds. Perceiving an aged negro woman among 

 thofe who gazed at him with great earneftnefs, he tendered, 

 her his pocket handkerchief, and requefted in exchange a 

 little corn to eat. She gave him a kind anfwer, invited him 

 to her hut, and immediately produced a large wooden bowl 

 of koufcous read)' prepared. She procured likewife fome corn 

 and water for the horfe*, Thofe only who have fuffered 

 fimilar mifery can judge of his fenfibility at this unexpected 

 deliverance. But as the village belonged to the Moors, our 

 traveller had only a fliort time to reft. As he approached 

 the territories of the negroes, however, his apprehenfions 

 diminifhed, and his condition improved. 



Procuring precarious fupport in this manner from the 

 charity of the moft wretched of human beings, Mr. Park 

 wandered for the fpace of fifteen days, ftill however pro- 

 ceeding onwards in the accomplishment of his miflion. At 

 length, in the morning of the fixteenth day, having been 

 joined by fome Mandingo negroes, who were travelling to 

 Sego, he had the inexpreflible falisfaction to behold the great 

 object of his wjfhes — the long-fought majeflic Niger glitter- 

 ing to the morning fun, as broad as the Thames at Weft- 



* It is worthy of remark, and highly to the credit of the female fex, 

 that lV[r. Park feems. invariably to have met with companion and relief 

 from women. This perfectly accords with the account given by another 

 cnterprifing traveller, Mr. Lcdyard, who expreffes himfelf as follpws : 

 '.' I have always remarked that women in all countries are civil, obliging, 

 tender and humane ; that they are ever inclined to be gay and cheerful, 

 timorous and modcft ; and that they do not hefitate, like men, to perform 

 a generous achon. In wandering over the barren plains of inhofpifablt 

 D.enmark ; through bonefl Sweden, and frozen Lapland, rude and cburlijb 

 Finland, unprincipled Rujfia, and the ivide-fpread regions of the wandering 

 Tartar, if hungry, dry, cold, wet or fick, the women have ever been 

 friendly to me, and uniformly fo : and to add to this virtue, fo worthy the 

 appellation of benevolence, thefe a&ions have been performed in fo free 

 and fo kind a manner, that if I was dry I drank the fweeteft draught, and 

 if hungry I ate the coaife morfel with a double reliih.'' Edit. 



minfle^ 



