LIFE OF MUNGO PARK. 
xxiii 
temper, in support of a cause in which he was deeply 
embarked, and of the importance of which he felt the 
strongest conviction. The sentiments and conduct here 
imputed to him, arose naturally out of the situation in which 
he was placed ; and he probably did no more than would 
have been done under similar circumstances, by any par- 
tizan of the Abolition, equally able and zealous. 
A previous knowledge of these particulars is necessary 
for enabling the reader to form a judgment upon the two 
points connected with the publication of Park's Travels, 
which were before alluded to. With respect to the first of 
these questions, namely, that relative to Park's sentiments 
on the subject of the Abolition, the writer of this narrative, 
in consequence of information he has obtained from some 
of Park's nearest relations, is enabled to state with great 
confidence, that Park uniformly expressed a great abhor- 
rence of Slavery and the Slave Trade, whenever these sub- 
jects occurred in conversation. But the same persons 
farther represent, that he considered the Abolition of the 
Slave Trade as a measure of state policy; for which reason 
he thought it would be improper for him, in any work he 
might give to the public, to interpose his private opinion 
relative to a question of such importance, and which was 
then under the consideration of the Legislature. 
Whatever may be thought of the correctness of this 
opinion, it is necessary to observe that the rule which he 
thus prescribed for his own conduct, was not strictly ad- 
hered to ; or rather, that the system of neutrality which 
he professed, had, in a certain degree, the effect of a de- 
claration of opinion. From the time of the publication of 
