Before the middle of November, every thing was ready for departure; and he was only detained at Sansanding by waiting the return of Isacco from the capital, in order to put in his hand the journal, now under our consideration, and several letters to his friends in Britain. These deposits Isaaco was charged to carry to the Gambia, from whence they were transmitted to England; and on the 19th of the month now mentioned, Mr. Park and his little party weighed anchor, and directed their course down the stream of the Niger. It is justly remarked by the writer of Park's life, that fancy can hardly picture a situation more perilous, nor an enterprize more utterly hopeless, than that which he was now to undertake. Of the Europeans who had accompanied him from the Gambia, Lieutenant Martyn and three soldiers (one of them deranged in his mind) were all who now sur'vived. He was about to embark on a vast and unknown river, which might possibly terminate in some great lake or inland sea, at an immense distance from the coast; but which he hoped and believed would conduct him to the shores of the Atlantic, after a course of considerably more than three thousand miles, through the midst of savage nations, and probably also after a long succession of rapids, lakes, and cataracts. This voyage, one of the most formidable ever attempted, was to be undertaken in a crazy and ill appointed vessel, manned by a few negroes and four Europeans!

Among the letters entrusted to Isaaco, was one to Mrs. Park, which, although it has already appeared in several public prints, we cannot resist the temptation of transcribing, as it contains probably the last sentences which its enterprizing author ever

wrote.

"It grieves me to the heart to write any thing that may give you uneasiness; but such is the will of Him who doeth all things well. Your brother Alexander, my dear friend, is no more! He died of the fever at Sansanding, on the morning of the 28th of October : for particulars I must refer you to your father.

"I am afraid, that impressed with a woman's fears, and the anxieties of a wife, you may be led to consider my situation as a great deal worse than it really is. It is true, my dear friends, Mr. Anderson and George Scott, have both bid adieu to the things of this world; and the greater part of the soldiers have died on the march during the rainy season; but, you may believe me, I am in good health. The rains are completely over, and the healthy season has commenced, so that there is no danger of sickness: and I have still a sufficient force to protect me from insult in sailing down the river to the sea.

"We have already embarked all our things, and shall sail the moment I have finished this letter. I do not intend to stop or land any where, till we reach the coast, which, I suppose, will be some

time in the end of January. We shall then embark in the first vessel for England. The reason of our delay since we left the coast, was the rainy season, which came on us during the journey, and almost all the soldiers becaine affected with the fever

"I think it not unlikely that I shall be in England before you receive this. You may be sure that I feel happy at turning my face towards home. We this morning have done with all intercourse with the natives; and the sails are now hoisting for our de parture for the coast."

At this point all authentic information respecting Park's mis sion unfortunately closes. In the course of the following year, the native traders who frequent the British settlements near the mouths of the Señegal and Gambia, carried with them from the interior the most unpleasant rumours relative to the fate of the expedition. Lieutenant-colonel Maxwell, in order to ascertain the truth of these reports, solicited permission from government to send a person into the kingdom of Bambarra; and he was fortunate enough to engage Isaaco, the guide who had lately accompanied our countrymen, to go upon this mission.

"Isaaco, we are told, left Senegal in January, 1810, and was absent about twenty months. He returned on the first of September, 1811, with a full confirmation of the reports respecting Park's death. As the result of his enquiries into this subject, he delivered to the governor a journal of his whole proceedings, kept by himself in the Arabic language, including another journal, or rather narrative, which he had received from Amadi Fatourna, the guide who had accompanied Park from Sansanding down the Niger. A translation of this singular document was made at Senegal, by the direc tions of Colonel Maxwell, and transmitted by him to the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department."

Amadi Fatouma's narrative is abundantly concise, and we regret to add, that, although his evidence is not altogether unobjectionable, it leaves no doubt as to the fact of poor Park's death. He had agreed to attend the travellers only as far as the western boundaries of the kingdom of Haoussa, and had actually left thein to return home, when the catastrophe, which he relates, took place. The king being deceived by the chief of Yaour, who kept back the gift Park had sent through him to his majesty, marched an army to a village called Boussa, near the river side.

"There is," according to Amadi, "before this village a rock across the whole breadth of the river. One part of the rock is very high; there is a large opening in that rock in the form of a door, which is the only passage for the water to pass through: the tide current here is very strong. The army went and took possession of the top of this opening. Mr. Park came here after the

c 2

army

stones.

army had posted itself; he nevertheless attempted to pass. The people began to attack him, throwing lances, pikes, arrows, and Mr. Park defended himself a long time; two of his slaves, at the stern of the canoe, were killed; they threw every thing they had in the canoe into the river, and kept firing; but being overpowered by numbers and fatigue, and unable to keep up the canoe against the current, and seeing no probability of escaping, Mr. Park took hold of one of the white men, and jumped into the water. Martyn did the same, and they were drowned in the stream, attempting to escape. The only slave remaining in the boat, seeing the natives persist in throwing weapons at the canoe without ceasing, stood up, and said to them: Stop throwing now, ye see nothing in the canoe, and nobody but myself, therefore cease. Take me and the canoe, but don't kill me.' They took possession of the canoe and the man, and carried them to the king."

It was from this surviving slave that Amadi received the details now given. There is, no doubt, something of a romantic air in the recital; and the story which Isaaco adds, of bribing a girl to steal from the king Mr. Park's sword-belt, found in the canoe, after his majesty had put himself to the pains of converting it into a saddle-girth, partakes decidedly of the same suspicious character. But the length of time which has now elapsed-the deep silence of ten long years-will not permit us for a moment to cherish the hope, that Park is among the number of living men. Indeed we should think it must be more solacing to the feelings of his relatives, to believe that he is at rest from his unparalleled labours, than to imagine that he may yet be drawing out a wretched existence as a captive and a slave, in the dreary wastes of Africa.

Two questions naturally present themselves as connected with journies of discovery into the interior of the African continent; namely, to what extent are such undertakings either practicable or secure; and, in the next place, what are the principal objects which ought to be kept in view in exploring that extensive portion of the globe.

As to the first, scarcely any judgment can be formed from the failure of Mr. Park; because, as we have already mentioned, he set out in circumstances which rendered success extremely improbable; and, we may add, with attendants not the best calcu lated for the service on which they were employed. He should have taken his departure from the Gambia in November, instead of April, and thus secured for himself the five months of fine weather, which never fail to succeed that period of the year; during which he would in all probability have reached the Niger with the loss of very few lives, and would consequently have been able to defend himself against almost any force which the natives

could

could oppose, either to prevent his progress, or to practise extor tion. Il provided, as Park was, with the means of defence, he was able to proceed in safety beyond 'Tombuctoo; and as it is understood that the Moors do not inhabit the banks of the river below that city, it is by no means unlikely that he would soon have entered among a more gentle people than those ferocious disciples of Mahomet, and descended the Niger so far at least as to decide the question relative to its course eastward of Bambarra. From the misfortunes of this distinguished traveller, however, his successors will learn wisdom; and in the expeditions lately fitted out for African discovery, we are happy to find that all possible means have been used to prevent the recurrence of a similar disaster.

Our readers are aware that two parties have recently left this country, with the view of exploring the continent of Africa, on the lines of the Niger and Congo rivers; the one instructed and equipped under the direction of General Gordon; and the other. under that of the eastern traveller, Mr. Barrow. In the royal African corps now serving at the settlement of Sierra Leone, there are three companies of black men, natives of Tombuctoo, Haoussa, Bornow, and other inland countries still more distant, inured, of course, to the climate, accustomed to hardship, and capable of the greatest exertion. It is intended, we are told, in the work now before us, that a proper and a well-selected detachment of these troops should form the basis of the expedition from the Gambia, commanded by the able persons who have been appointed to the charge of the government here, and supplied, besides, with two or three intelligent characters, each properly qualified to assist in the direction of the principal concern, and, in case of emergency, to undertake the chief management of the expedition. The number of troops to be employed has of course been regulated by a due regard to the probable means of subsistence but it was proposed that they should be sufficiently numerous to enable the leaders, in cases where it might be expedient, to separate with small detachments, taking distinct lines of march, as local circumstances, and other occasions, might require. The great advantage of using native soldiers, instead of Europeans, must be very obvious to those who have paid the smallest attention to the effects of climate on the constitution of our countrymen in the army. Their habits indeed are not always the most temperate; but even upon the most cautious and abstemious, a tropical sun, with its violent rains and damps, produces in the course of a few years a striking degree of debility in mind as well as body, and utterly incapacitates them for those higher exercises of intrepidity and perseverance, so indispensible in a mission of discovery. All this was unfortunately exemplified in

the

the last expedition of Mungo Park, the soldiers sickened and drooped immediately upon the commencement of the rainy season; whereas Isaaco, habituated to the rage of the tornado, and the feverish influence of the swamp, felt little inconvenience.

The leading object of the two expeditions now in Africa, is to trace the course of the Niger, to ascertain how and where it terminates, and thus to settle the long disputed question, whether it reaches the Atlantic, or mixes its waters with a great inland sea. To open up new communications with the Moorish states in the interior, and thus to create a market for English manufactures, is, we should imagine, but a secondary motive with Government. The kingdoms of Bambarra and Haoussa are situated so remotely from the western shores, and are withal so uninformed · in the principles of commerce, that many generations will pass away, before the trade of the rivers Senegal, Gambia, or Congo, can be imagined to stimulate the industry of Birmingh..m or Manchester; but, in the mean time, as an obj. ct of liberal curiosity, and, in some degree, of Christian benevolence, our rulers have very properly availed themselves of the return of peace, to extend our acquaintance with the men and things that lay south of the Great African Wilderness

The question regarding the termination of the Niger, is one of the most doubtful and obscure in modern geographs; and, in the present defective state of our information with respect to the interior of Africa, seems hardly to admit of a satisfactory solution. Various and even opposite opinions are entertained by those most competent to form a clear judgment on this subject; and we hope it will prove not uninteresting to our readers to have before them a summary view of the whole, and of the principal arguments by which they are respectively supported.

The only opinion on this subject, transmitted from the Ancients, is, that the Niger falls into a great lake, or series of lakes, somewhere in the eastern part of Africa; o, spreading over a vast extent of level ground, is either lost in the sand, or evaporated by the heat of the sun. This notion has been adopted by D'Anville and Rennell, and supported by both with great ingenuity and learning. As an additional argument in their favour too, we may mention that the particular district of Africa where the river is supposed to disappear, has been represented by a great variety of concurrent testimonies as an alluvial country of very considerable extent, having several permanent lakes, and as being annually overflowed for three months during the rainy

season.

The principal objection which is urged against the opinion that the Niger has an inland termination, rests on the difficulty of conceiving how a river of such magnitude as it must attain to,

after