AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 67 
“ Upon tlie morning of the 7th of July, as I was 
about to depart, my landlord, with a great deal of diffi¬ 
dence, begged me to give him a lock of my hair. He 
had been told, he said, that white men’s hair made a 
saphic (talisman) that would give the possessor all the 
knowledge of the white man. I had never before heard 
of so simple a mode of education, but I at once com¬ 
plied with the request; and my landlord’s thirst for 
learning was so great that he cut and pulled at my hair 
till he had cropped one. side of my head pretty closely, 
and would have done the same with the other had I not 
signified my disapprobation, assuring him that I wished 
to reserve some of this precious material for a future 
occasion.” 
First Gallon and then Mourja, a large town, famous 
for its trade in salt, were passed, after fatigues and in¬ 
credible privations. Upon nearing Sego, Mungo Park 
at last perceived the Djoliba. “ Looking forward,” he 
says, “ I saw, with infinite pleasure, the great object of 
my mission-—the long-sought-for, majestic Niger, glit¬ 
tering in the morning sun, as broad as the Thames at 
Westminster, and flowing slowly to the eastward. I 
hastened to the brink, and, having drunk of the water, 
lifted up my fervent thanks in prayer to the Great 
Ruler of all things for having thus far crowned my 
endeavours with success. 
“ The fact of the Niger flowing towards the east did 
not, however, excite my surprise ; for, although I had 
left Europe in great hesitation on this subject, and rather 
believed it ran in the contrary direction, I had made 
frequent inquiries during my progress, and had received 
from negroes of different nations such clear and decisive 
assurances that its course was towards the rising sun as 
scarce left any doubt in my mind, more especially as I 
knew that Major Houghton had collected similar infor¬ 
mation in a similar manner. 
“ Sego, the capital of Bambara, at which I had now 
arrived, consists, properly speaking, of four distinct 
towns ; two on the northern bank of the river, called 
Sego Korro and Sego Boo, and two on the southern bank, 
F 2 
