PARK'S FIRST JOURNEY. 95 



path. The king of Bambarra had been at last so worked 

 upon by Moorish counsellors, that, repenting even his for- 

 mer stinted kindness, he had sent messengers to appreJiend 

 Park, and to bring him a prisoner to Sego ; from which fate 

 he escaped only by the retrograde direction he had taken. 

 Thenceforth every door was resolutely shut against him ; 

 at Sansanding his best friend CountiMamadi privately paid 

 him a visit, and advised him to leave the city early next 

 morning, and to make no delay in the vicinity of the capital. 

 Accordingly, at a village near that city, he obtained a con- 

 firmation of the above tidings, and was exhorted to lose no 

 time if he wished to get safe out of Bambarra. He then 

 quitted the road, and struck off through fields and swamps. 

 He once intended to swim across the Niger, and push to- 

 wards the Gold Coast, but afterward resolved to pursue his 

 course westward along the river, and thus ascertain its pre- 

 cise line. He had now nothing to subsist on except what 

 charity bestowed, which was only an occasional handful 

 of raw com. There was also the greatest difficulty in find- 

 ing a way through the swampy and inundated grounds. 

 Once his horse and he sunk together to the neck in mud, 

 and came out so completely besmeared, that they were com- 

 pared by the natives to two dirty elephants. At another 

 time, when he had stripped, and was leading his horse 

 through a river that took him up to the neck, a friendly 

 African called out, that he would perish if he went on, and 

 undertook to procure a canoe ; but when he came out, and 

 his white skin was distinctly seen, the stranger put his 

 hand to his mouth, exclaiming, in a low tone of amazement, 

 " God preserve me ! what is this 1" He continued his 

 kindness, however, and at Taffaro, where our traveller was 

 shut out from every house, and obliged to sleep under a tree, 

 brought him some supper. One of his most disagreeable 

 encounters was at Souha, where the dooty, after a surly 

 refusal of every refreshment, called upon a slave, whom he 

 ordered to dig a pit, uttering, at the same time, expressions 

 of anger and vexation. The hole became always deeper 

 and deeper, till it assumed the appearance of a grave ; and 

 Park, who saw no one but himself likely to be put into it, 

 began to think it was high time to be moving off. At 

 length the slave went away, and returned, holding by the 

 leg and arm the naked corpse of a boy about nine years old, 



