ADDENDA. 
xxiii 
of this controversy, that subsequently to the appearance of Park's Work, there 
was no writer on Africa whose facts and opinions were so much referred to, 
or the subject of such frequent discussion. As a proof of the light in which 
tlie opinions of this traveller were then considered, the editor will content 
himself with adverting to The Concise Statement of the Argument regarding 
the Abolition, one of the most popular and successful of the Tracts circulated 
by the Opponents of the Slave Trade; in which Park's Travels are staled 
(page 98) to have been published under the immediate inspection of Mr. 
Edwards; and Park himself is described as " a decided Advocate of the 
Slave Trade."* In the same publication, and in others of a similar kind, 
many facts related by this traveller were stated and much insisted on as 
important evidence in favour of the Abolition ; but his evidence was always 
considered by these writers as being that of an unwilling witness, and entitled, 
on this account, to greater credit and consideration. This unquestionably was 
taking an unfavourable and exaggerated view of Park's conduct with respect 
to the Slave Trade ; but it marks the state of public opinion. 
That an enemy of slavery, as Park certainly was, should have been univer- 
sally considered, at an important period of the controversy regarding the 
Slave Trade, as favourable to that system, can only be accounted for by 
the general tenor of his work and the spirit in which it is composed. For, 
however extraordinary it may be thought by some of Park's friends that his 
hostility to the Abolition should have been inferred from his general silence on 
that subject, it is certain that this inference was very generally made by Park's 
readers at that timet and when the true object and intention of a writer is to 
be ascertained, there can be no fairer criterion than the unbiassed judgment 
of contemporaries. Nor was the public judgment in this case uncandid or 
unreasonable. It was naturally to be expected that some observations on a 
traffic, which forms so conspicuous a feature in the history of Africa, would 
have found their due place in a Book of Travels, which was not a mere journal 
or narrative of events, or collection of geographical details, but undertook 
to discuss subjects of the most general interest respecting that continent ; the 
pursuits and occupations of the inhabitants, the state of their arts and manu- 
factures, the condition of their domestic slavery and the nature and causes of 
their Wars. This expectation, in Park's readers, was the more reasonable ; 
because there were several distinct periods during Park's journey, when the 
* He might also refer to the Edinburgh Review, vol. xx, p. n, note, where it is ex- 
pressly stated, " that Park's TraVels were edited, and in part written by Mr. Edwards." 
