M ungo Park. 467 
¢ do you suppose us so foolish as to part with so invaluable a trea- 
sure? If you go away, where are we to find another possessing 
so much knowledge, or who will do us so much good ? ?_-Pearce 
appeared to have been. resolutely, bent on endeavouring to reach 
Tombuctoo, but had for some time been labouring under severe 
illness.” ‘wv ae 4 
Happy should we be if Pearce’s statement should be found cor- 
rect, and the illustrious Park still in existence. That Pearce 
gave the above relation to the writer of the Jetter, we do not 
doubt; but we question the truth of that relation... There isa 
greater weight of evidence to prove the melancholy fate of Park, 
than there is to prove his being still in existence. No intelligence 
has been received from him since he left Sansanding: in the year 
1805 ; and this fact itself is a strong presumption that he is not 
now in existence, and a corroboration of the several accounts which 
have been published respecting the manner of his death, the most 
recent of which we lately noticed.. Pearce, we, SupPos?» ob- 
tained his intelligence respecting Park. in Abyssinia ; . but the 
distance of Tombuctoo from the eastern coast is so. great, and 
the intermediate regions so completely a terra incognita, that this 
consideration alone is sufficient to overthrow. the whole story.. 
But there is one fact which to us is decisive against the truth of 
Pearce’s relation. Many of our readers may have read the narra- 
tive of Robert Adams, a sailor, who was wrecked in the year 1810 
on the western coast of Africa, detained by the Arabs, of the Great 
Desert, and carried by them to Tombuctoo. He remained there 
several months, resided the whole period of his stay in the pa- 
lace of Woollo the king, and frequently walked about the town. 
Adams, from the uncommon degree of curiosity which he excited, 
believed that the people of Tombuctoo had never seen @ white 
man before.. Now, supposing Park to,have been then detained 
in that city (and he must have been there at that time, if Pearce’s 
story be true), engaged in explaining to the rude and. ignorant 
natives the sublime science of astronomy, is it at all probable, 
either that Adams would not have seen, or heard of so, wonderful 
a man, or that Park would not have found some means of com- 
munication with Adams?.. The writer of the letter states, that 
when he met him at Juddah, Pearce was endeavouring to make 
his way to Tombuctoo. This, in,our opinion, is as improbable 
as the story about Park. lor where is this Juddah ?. lt is, no 
doubt, the well known sea-port of Arabia Felix on the Red Sea. 
If it be so, and if Pearce were endeavouring to penetrate to the 
far famed Tombuctoo, is it not a little singular that he should 
endeavour to do so from Juddah, which is on the Asiatic side of 
the Red Sea, which, before he could commence his journey, he 
must cross to the African side ? STORM 
Gg2 
