88 park's first journey. 



have perished on the road with thirst. He was therefore 

 obUffed to await the rainy season, however unfavourable for 

 travelling through the negro territories. 



Ali, on the 30th April, having occasion to move his quar- 

 ters, came to Bubaker, the residence of Fatima, and Park 

 was introduced to that favourite princess. The beauty of 

 a Moorish female is measured entirely by her circumference ; 

 and to bestow this grace on their daughters, the mothers 

 stuff them with enormous quantities of milk andkouskous, 

 the swallowing of which is enforced even with blows, till 

 they attain that acme of beauty which renders them a load 

 for a camel. The dimensions by which Fatima had capti- 

 vated her royal lover were very enormous ; she added to 

 them Arab features and long black hair. This queen at 

 first shrunk back with horror at seeing before her that mon- 

 ster, a Christian ; but after putting various questions, be- 

 gan to see in him nothing so wholly different from the rest 

 of mankind. She presented to him a bowl of milk, and 

 continued to show him the only kindness he met with during 

 this dreadful captivity. At length her powerful intercession 

 induced Ali to take Park with him to Jarra, where our tra- 

 veller hoped to find the means of proceeding on his journey. 



At Jarra a striking scene occurred. Ali, through ava- 

 rice, had involved himself in the quarrel between the mo- 

 narchs of Kaarta and Bambarra, and news arrived that 

 Daisy was in full march to attack the town. The troops, 

 who ought to have defended the place, fled at the first on- 

 set, and nothing remained for the inhabitants but to aban- 

 don it and escape from slaughter or slavery, the dreadfiil 

 alternatives of African conquest. The scene was affecting. 

 The local attachments of the African are strong ; and the 

 view of this disconsolate crowd quitting perhaps for ever 

 their native spot, the scene of their early life, and where 

 they had fixed all their hopes and desires, presented a strik- 

 ing picture of human calamity. Park would now very 

 gladly have presented himself before his fi-iend Daisy ; but 

 being afraid that in the confusion he would be mistaken for 

 a Moor, and killed as such, he thought it a safer course to 

 join the retreat. He found more difficulty in escaping than 

 he had expected, being seized by three Mohammedans, who 

 threatened to carry him back to Ali, but finally contented 

 themselves with robbing him of his cloak. In flying from 



