MR PARK'S FIRST JOURNEY 
379 
©f his horse, and of almost all his clothes, hy some 
marauding inhabitants of Fooladoo. Mr Park sup- 
posed them to be elephant-hunters, but was soon 
undeceived ; he begged earnestly for his pocket- 
compass, but could only obtain from them the worst 
of his two shirts, and a pair of trowsers. The rob- 
bers took his hat, but returned it when they per- 
ceived the papers in the crown of it. Robbed, and 
left naked and solitary in the wilderness, in the 
midst of the rainy season, above 500 miles from the 
nearest European settlement, he began to despond, 
and it seemed to him that no alternative remained, 
but to lie down and perish. In this forlorn situa- 
tion, he was solely supported and animated by the 
consolations of religion. At the moment when his 
mind was agitated by emotions of the most exqui- 
site pain, when memory represented his friends and 
native country, only to increase his sufferings, by 
the torture of vain regret, the beauty of a small 
moss, in fructification, irresistibly attracted his at- 
tention ; and though the whole plant was not 
larger than the tip of his finger, he could not con* 
template the delicate conformation of the root, 
leaves, and capsula, without admiration. He then 
thought — Can the Being who planted, watered, 
and brought to perfection, in this obscure part of 
the world, a thing which appears of so small im 
portance, look with unconcern on the situation and 
sufferings of beings formed after his own image ? 
