Posthumous Work of the late Col. Mark Beaufoy. 341 
The father and mother of Col. Beaufoy belonged to the respecta- 
ble society of Friends, and lived on the south side of the Thames, 
opposite to the centre of the city of London. 
Their eldest son, Mr. Henry Beaufoy, had a seat in the British 
House of Commons early in life; and remained a member of it dur- 
ing several parliaments, being often the chairman of a committee.— 
Having been educated in part among the English Protestant Dis- 
senters, he conducted for a time the concerns of these dissenters in 
parliament ; but his motion for a “‘ Repeal of the Sacramental Test 
Laws” failing, Mr. Fox afterwards became their parliamentary 
leader. Henry Beaufoy was very active also in forming the associa- 
tion established in London in 1788, for Promoting Discoveries in 
the Interior parts of Africa; and he even by general consent, com- 
piled their Memoirs; and in fact was usually employed to engage 
the persons who travelled in their employment. He was the first 
also who made the now celebrated Ledyard known in the United 
States, though Ledyard was a native of those states.* Mr. Henry 
Beaufoy was twice married, but he left no child. 
* The account of Ledyard, as collected from Ledyard himself and from Mr. 
Beaufoy, is picturesque and interesting in a high degree. (See Mr. Beaufoy’s 
Memoir, published in 1790.) Mr. Park also, in his-publication, quotes and con- 
firms Ledyard’s well known general remark on the superior sympathy of women 
towards strangers in distress, when compared with men. He even does more; 
for without noticing the application of the fact, he confirms the fact by his own 
personal experience. He had been refused admittance by men into various houses, 
and perhaps the caution on the part of some of these men had a natural foundation. 
But towards night, when the wind blew hard, and rain threatened, and wild beasts 
were soon to be expected to make their appearance; a woman passed by him, and 
seeing his distress, bid him follow her; and gave him not only shelter, but food, 
anda mattosleep upon. Inthe mean time, one of the female attendants of the 
woman sang over Park an extempore song, to which other female attendants join- 
ed in the chorus; andthe tenor of the song, which was precisely adapted to the 
case, and to the state of the weather, abundantly proves, that the feelings which 
Ledyard and Park had noted in their remarks, were habitual in the parties. Mrs. 
Barbauld has beautifully versified the whvle of what Ledyard affirmed as to wo- 
men in the Evenings at Home—while the well known duchess of Devonshire not 
only put the song applied to the case of Park into English verse, but got it set to 
pleasing music by an Italian composer, and she even added a verse to the song, 
(See Park’s Travels, p. 263 and p. 198, with the annexed postcript, second edition, 
in 4to. 1799.) 
It may be noticed here, to show the danger of error in geographical conjectures, 
that Major Rennell, who had arranged a map of the broader parts of the African 
continent to Mr. Beaufoy’s Memoir, added a fresh map of the same territories to 
Mr. Park’s Travels, with a memoir joined to the latter, in which he says that Mr. 
Park’s authority, founded on ocular demonstration, sets the question for ever at 
