soo 
TRAVELS IN THE 
ward reason to believe, that Mansong would willingly have 
admitted me into his presence at Sego; but was apprehensive 
he might not be able to protect me, against the blind and 
inveterate malice of the Moorish inhabitants. His conduct, 
therefore, was at once prudent and liberal. The circumstances 
under which I made my appearance at Sego, were undoubtedly 
such as might create in the mind of the king, a well warranted 
suspicion that I wished to conceal the true object of my journey. 
He argued, probably, as my guide argued ; who, when he was 
told, that I had come from a great distance, and through many 
dangers, to behold the Joliba river, naturally inquired, if 
there were no rivers in my own country, and whether one 
river was not like another. Notwithstanding this, and in spite 
of the jealous machinations of the Moors, this benevolent 
prince thought it sufficient, that a white man was found in 
his dominions, in a condition of extreme wretchedness; and 
that no other plea was necessary to entitle the sufferer to his 
bounty. 
