both sides; and the king of Kaarta made it a constant practicę, tỏ put all the able men that fell into his hands to immediate death; deriding, as mean and avaricious, the conduct of the king of Kasson, who, hearing of the French traders on the Senegal river, sent all the prisoners made on his part, in large caravans, to be sold at Fort Louis. If this opportunity of disposing of them to advantage, had not offered, it can hardly be doubted that these unfortunate captives would have been sacrificed as well as the former.. Of the religious institutions of the countries which Mr. Park visited, the few observations that have incidentally arisen in the course of this narrative, must satisfy the reader, until a more copious and detailed account can be given. It may be noticed however, on our traveller's authority, that, contrary to the general opinion, the votaries of Mahomet do not always trust to the sword only in the propagation of their tenets: they have introduced among the Pagans of Africa, a system of proselytism, much more efficacious and extensive. By establishing schools wherever it is practicable, in which the Negro children are taught to read, and instructed in the tenets of the Koran; they fix a bias on the minds, and form the character of their young disciples, which no accidents of life can ever afterward remove or alter. Mr. Park saw many of these schools in his progress, and could not but lament that none of the European governments (the laudable establishment at Sierra Leone being a private concern only) have introduced a similar system among these poor people, for inculcating the doctrines of Christianity: a measure which, in his opinion, many circumstances concur to render practicable. To the mode of education established by the Moors, may perhaps be imputed the universal adoption, among all the African nations, of the law of polygamy; for it is probable that many who reject or deride those precepts of the Koran, which inculcate the virtues of temperance in other cases, make no scruple to appeal to it, whenever the criminal indulgence of their passions can be justified by its authority. To the same source however cannot be ascribed the introduction of the rite of circumcision, which also prevails universally in this part of Africa; for it is known to prevail in many of the Negro nations, by whom the religion of Mahomet has never been received. The Jaloffs alone confine it to the males: the Mandingoes, both Soninkees and Bushreens, extend the ceremony to both sexes, as the ancient Egyptians did before them; and the operation is performed at the commencement of puberty. It did not indeed appear to Mr. Park, that the Negroes in general, consider this painful rite as an act of religious duty, and, as such, essential to their future salvation; but rather as an operation of physical necessity; without which the marriage state could not, in their opinion, be prolifick. That they firmly believe however in a life beyond the grave, and a state of retribution after death, wherein good men will be rewarded, and bad men punished, Mr. Park has not the shadow of a doubt. He conversed with the natives of all descriptions on this important subject, and pronounces, without the smallest hesitation, that a conviction of this great truth among the Negroes, is entire, hereditary and universal. Such are the few observations which it has been thought proper to select, in a cursory manner, from the materials in Mr. Park's possession; and from oral communications had with him personally. Nothing now remains, but to accompany him to the end of his journey; and on this head a few words will suffice. In the latter end of April, 1797, the coffie, or caravan, being at length completed, and our traveller's health perfectly re-established, he set out from Kamalia, in company with seventy persons, of whom thirty-seven only were slaves for sale: the whole, under the direction of Karfa. In nine days they came to Maana, bordering on a branch of the Senegal. In ten days more, they reached the small, but fertile, state of Dentilla, and crossed in their journey some of the streams that contribute to the great river of the Gambia. On the 4th of June they fell in with that river, about two days journey above the falls of Baraconda; to which place it is navigable for canoes from its mouth. In six days more, on the 10th day of June, Mr. Park, to his infinite satisfaction, (having undergone in his journey, from the heat of the weather, from fatigue, and from hunger, more than he can find words to describe) entered the hospitable mansion of Dr. Laidley, from which he had set out eighteen months before. On the 15th of the same month, he embarked in a slave ship bound to America; which being driven, by stress of weather, into the island of Antigua, Mr. Park took his passage from thence, in a vessel bound to Great Britain, and on the 25th day of December, arrived safely in London. |