ACCOUNT OF THE 
man was travelling through the country, whom he ima- 
gined to be Park, took a journey of six days to meet him ; 
and joining the caravan at Bambakoo, was highly gratified 
by the sight of his friend.* 
There being still a space of five hundred miles to be 
traversed (the greater part of it through a desert) before 
Park could reach any friendly country on the Gambia, he 
had no other resource but to wait with patience for the first 
caravan of slaves that might travel the same track. No 
such opportunity occurred till the latter end of April, 1797; 
when a coftle, or caravan, set out from Kamalia under the 
direction of Karfa Taura, in whose house he had continued 
during his long residence of more than seven months at 
that place. 
The cofile began its progress westwards on the 17th of 
April, and on the 4th of June reached the banks of the 
Gambia, after a journey of great labour and difficulty, 
which afforded Park the most painful opportunities of 
witnessing the miseries endured by a caravan of slaves in 
their transportation from the interior to the coast. On the 
10th of the same month Park arrived at Pisania, from 
whence he had set out eighteen months before ; and was 
received by Dr. Laidley (to use his own expression) as one 
risen from the grave. On the 15th of June he embarked 
in a slave ship bound to America, which was driven by 
stress of weather to the West Indies ; and got with great 
difficulty, and under circumstances of considerable danger, 
into the Island of Antigua. He sailed from thence on the 
24th of November, and after a short, but tempestuous 
* See Journal, p. 137. 
