HOUGHTON. 81* 



boldest undertakings, but without that cool and calculating 

 temper which is necessary for him who endeavours to mako 

 his way amid scenes of peril and treachery. He began his 

 journey early in 1791, and soon reached Medina, the ca- 

 pital of Woolli, where the venerable chief received him 

 with extreme kindness, promised to furnish guides, and as- 

 sured him that he might go to Tunbuctoo with his staff in 

 his hand. The only evil that befell him at Medina arose 

 from a fire which broke out there, and spreading rapidly 

 through buildings roofed with cane and matted grass, con- 

 verted in an hour a town of a thousand houses into a heap 

 of ashes. Major Houghton ran out with the rest of the 

 people into the fields, saving only such few articles as could 

 be carried with him. He writes, that by trading at Fatta- 

 tenda a man may make 800 per cent., and may live in plenty 

 on ten pounds a-year. Quitting the Gambia, he took the 

 road through Bambouk, and arrived at Ferbanna on the 

 Faleme. Here he was received with the most extraordi- 

 nary kindness by the king, who gave him a guide and 

 money to defray his expenses. A note was afterward re- 

 ceived from him, dated Simbing, and which contained 

 merely these words, — " Major Houghton's compUments to 

 Dr. Laidley ; is in good health on his way to Timbuctoo ; 

 robbed of all his goods by Fenda Bucar's son." This was 

 the last communication from hun ; for soon afterward tho 

 negroes brought down to Pisania the mda'hcholy tidings of 

 his death, of which Mr. Park subsequently learned the par- 

 ticulars. Some Moors had persuaded the Major to accom- 

 pany them to Tisheet, a place in the Great Desert, fre- 

 quented on account of its salt-mines. In alluring him 

 thither, their object, as appears from the result, was to rob 

 him ; for it was very much out of the direct route to Tim- 

 buctoo. Of this in a few days he became sensible, and in- 

 sisted upon returning ; but they would not permit him to 

 leave their party until after they had stripped him of every 

 article in his possession. He wandered about for some 

 time through the Desert without food or shelter, till, at 

 length, quite exhausted, he sat down under a tree and ex- 

 pired. Mr. Park was shown the very spot where his re- 

 mains were abandoned to the fowls of the air. 



