486 
PARK'S SECOND JOURNEY. 
sion, however, could possess extremely little inte- 
rest, now that the long period of time which has 
elapsed must have extinguished almost every hope 
of the return of this illustrious and lamented tra- 
veller. We may here, however, mention the 
report which Mr Bowdich lately collected in 
Ashantee from some Moorish merchants, who 
had been formerly at Haoussa, and mentioned, 
that during their residence there, a white man 
was seen going down the Niger in a large 
canoe, in which all the rest were blacks. This 
*' circumstance being reported to the king, he 
" immediately despatched some of the people to 
advise him to return, and to inform him that, if 
he ventured to proceed much farther, he would 
be destroyed by the cataracts of the river ; the 
" wdiite man, however, persisted in the voyage, 
" mistaking apparently the good intention of 
*' those sent by the king to warn him of his dan- 
** ger. A large party was then despatched with 
orders to seize and bring him to Haoussa, which 
** they effected after some opposition. Here he 
"was detained by the king for the space of two 
** vears, at the end of which he took a fever and 
died. These Moors declared, that they had 
" themselves seen this white man at Haoussa."* 
* Quart. Review, June 1818, p. 379, 
