CHAPTER IX. 
park's second journey. 
Plan of a netv Expedition to the Niger. — Undertaken hy Mr 
Park. — His arrival at Goree. — Departure. — Beginning of ihe 
rainy season. — Alarming sickness. — Washing for gold. — De- 
predations of the Natives. — Arrival on the Niger. — Interview 
with Mansongs Prime Minister, — Residence at Sansanding, 
— Builds a boat, and sets sail. — -Reports of his death. — Par- 
ticulars^ as narrated by Amadi Fatouma. 
Splendid as the first discoveries of Park had 
been, they had tended rather to excite than to 
gratify the ardent curiosity by which his mission 
had been prompted. The Niger had been viewed 
by European eyes, and the direction of its stream 
fully ascertained. But this direction, stretching 
from the ocean, and into the unknown depths of 
interior Africa, only tended to envelop in stitl 
deeper mystery the progress of that celebrated 
stream. All, besides, which Park observed or 
learned, respecting the nations which extended 
along its banks, was calculated to heighten the 
interest with which they had always been viewed. 
These feelings were now become general through 
