202 
TRAVELS m AFKICA. Chap, LXXVII. 
ing attitude* ; and having lost some of their tribe by 
his well-directed balls, they kept at first at some dis- 
tance from me, viewing me with a rather suspicious and 
malevolent eye. But when they observed that I had 
entered into cheerful conversation with some of their 
party, they convinced themselves that I did not belong 
to the class of wild beasts, or " tawakast ; " for such, 
from the reception they had met with from Park, they 
had supposed all Europeans to be. I even, to my great 
astonishment, found here, with one of the Kel Suk, 
the life of Bruce, published by Murray in 1835, and 
v/hich most probably had been the property of David- 
son, the Kel e' Siik having brought it from A^zawad, 
where it had been taken by Hamma, a younger 
brother of El Bakay, who, about the time of David- 
son's journey, had paid a visit to Tawat and the 
country of the 'Arib. It was almost complete, only 
ten leaves being wanting, and I bought it for three 
* It was this policy of Mungo Park, which he no doubt adopted 
much against his own inclination, that inspired Major Laing, 
when he heard of it in Tawat, v/ith such ominous dread of the 
fate which might await himself. In one of his letters which 
I had the opportunity of inspecting through the kindness of 
General Sabine, he exclaims, after having mentioned that he met 
a Tarki who had been wounded by Mungo Park : — " How impru- 
dent, how unthinking ! I may even say how selfish was it in Park, 
to attempt to make discoveries in this country at the expense of the 
blood of the inhabitants, and to the exclusion of all after commu- 
nication ; how unjustifiable was such conduct !" It was on this ac- 
count that Major Laing sent back the sailors whom he had with 
him, and almost gave up his design of navigating the river below 
Timbuktu. 
