of Woolli's dominions, from | land on which to employ them whom the reader may recollect in raising corn and other proI received an hospitable recep- visions for their maintenance. tion in the beginning of Decem- With regard to himself, he deber 1795, in my journey east-clared that he would not quit ward (see p.402). I immediately me until my departure from inquired concerning the health Africa. We set out accordingly, of my good old benefactor, and Karfa, myself, and one of the learned with great concern that Foulahs belonging to the coffle, he was dangerously ill. As early on the morning of the Karfa would not allow the 9th; but although I was now coffle to stop, I could not approaching the end of my present my respects to the king tedious and toilsome journey, in person, but I sent him word, and expected in another day by the officer to whom we paid to meet with countrymen and customs, that his prayers for friends, I could not part, for my safety had not been un- the last time, with my unfortuavailing. We continued our nate fellow-travellers doomed, route until sunset, when we as I knew most of them to lodged at a small village a little be, to a life of captivity and to the westward of Kootacunda, slavery in a foreign landand on the day following ar- without great emotion. During rived at Jindey, where, eighteen a wearisome peregrination of months before, I had parted more than five hundred British from my friend Dr Laidley- miles, exposed to the burning an interval during which I had rays of a tropical sun, these not beheld the face of a Chris- poor slaves, amidst their own tian, nor once heard the delight- infinitely greater sufferings, ful sound of my native language. would commiserate mine, and Being now arrived within a frequently, of their own accord, short distance of Pisania, from bring water to quench my whence my journey originally thirst, and at night collect commenced, and learning that branches and leaves to prepare my friend Karfa was not likely me a bed in the wilderness. to meet with an immediate op- We parted with reciprocal exportunity of selling his slaves pressions of regret and beneon the Gambia, it occurred to diction. My good wishes and me to suggest to him that he prayers were all I could bestow would find it for his interest to upon them, and it afforded me leave them at Jindey until a some consolation to be told market should offer. Karfa that they were sensible I had agreed with me in this opinion, no more to give. and hired from the chief man of the town huts for their accommodation, and a piece of My anxiety to get forward admitting of no delay on the road, we reached Tendacunda in the evening, and were hospi- | tably received at the house of an aged black female called Seniora Camilla, a person who resided many years at the English factory, and spoke our language. I was known to her before I had left the Gambia, at the outset of my journey, but my dress and figure were now so different from the usual appearance of a European, that she was very excusable in mistaking me for a Moor. When I told her my name and country, she surveyed me with great astonishment, and seemed unwilling to give credit to the testimony of her senses. She assured me that none of the traders on the Gambia ever expected to see me again, having been informed long ago that the Moors of Ludamar had murdered me, as they had murdered Major Houghton. I inquired for my two attendants, Johnson and Demba, and learnt, with great sorrow, that neither of them was returned. Karfa, who had never before heard people converse in English, listened to us with great attention. Everything he saw seemed wonderful. The furniture of the house, the chairs, etc., and particularly beds with curtains, were objects of his great admiration, and he asked me a thousand questions concerning the utility and necessity of different articles, to some of which I found it difficult to give satis factory answers. On the morning of the 10th, Mr Robert Ainsley having learnt that I was at Tendacunda, came to meet me, and politely offered me the use of his horse. He informed me that Dr Laidley had removed all his property to a place called Kayee, a little further down the river, and that he was then gone to Doomasansa with his vessel to purchase rice, but would return in a day or two. He therefore invited me to stay with him at Pisania, until the doctor's return. I accepted the invitation, and being accompanied by my friend Karfa, reached Pisania about ten o'clock. Mr. Ainsley's schooner was lying at anchor before the place. This was the most surprising object which Karfa had yet seen. He could not easily comprehend the use of the masts, sails, and rigging, nor did he conceive that it was possible, by any sort of contrivance, to make so large a body move forwards by the common force of the wind. The manner of fastening together the different planks which composed the vessel, and filling up the seams so as to exclude the water, was perfectly new to him; and I found that the schooner, with her cable and anchor, kept Karfa in deep meditation the greater part of the day. About noon on the 12th, Dr. Laidley returned from Doomasansa, and received me with great joy and satisfaction, as one risen from the dead. Find ing that the wearing apr kooma, at Malacotta. He promised to carry up the goods along with his own; and Dr. Laidley assured him that he would exert himself in assisting him to dispose of his slaves to the best advantage the moment a slave vessel should arrive. These, and other instances of attention and kindness shown him by Dr. Laidley, were not lost upon Karfa. He would often say to me, 'My journey has indeed been prosperous !' But observing the improved state of our manufactures, and our manifest superiority in the arts of civilised life, he would sometimes appear pensive, and exclaim, with an involuntary sigh, Fato fing inta feng (“ Black men are nothing')! At other times he would ask me, with great seriousness, what could possibly have induced me, who was no trader, to think of exploring so miserable a country which I bal két under his care wis not sold or sent to England. I lost no time in resuming the English dress, and disrobing my chin of its venerable encumbrance. Karta surveyed me in my British apparel with great delight, but regretted exceed ingy that I had taken of my beard the loss of which, he sud, bad converted me from a man into a bor. D. Laidley ready undertook to discharge all the pecuniary engagements which I had entered into since my departure from the Gambia. and took my draft upon the Association for the amount. My agreement with Karia (as I have already related) was to pay him the value of one prime slave, for which I had given him my bill upon Dr. Laidley before we departed from Kamala; for in case of my death on the road. I was unwilling, that my benefactor should be a loser. But this good creature, as Africa? He meant by this had continued to manifest towards me so much kindness, that I thought I made him but an inadequate recompence when I told him that he was now to receive double the sum I had originally promised; and Dr. Laidley assured him that he was ready to deliver the goods to that amount whenever he thought proper to send for them. Karta was overpowered by this unexpected token of my gratitude, and, still more so, when, he heard that I intended to send a handsome present to the good old schoolmaster, Fan to signify that, after what I must have witnessed in my own country, nothing in Africa could in his opinion deserve a moment's attention. I have preserved these little traits of character in this worthy negro, not only from regard to the man, but also because they appear to me to demonstrate that he possessed a mind above his condition. And to such of my readers as love to contemplate human nature in all its varieties, and to trace its progress from rudeness to refinement, I hope the account I have given of PARK'S LIFE AND TRAVELS. this poor African will not be No European vessel had ar- 573 I embarked at Kayee on the Our passage down the river The number of slaves received on board this vessel, both on the Gambia and at Goree, was one hundred and thirty, of whom about twenty-five had been, I suppose, of free condition in Africa, as most of those, being bushreens, could write a little war between Abdulkader and Arabic. Nine of them had become captives in the religious Damel, mentioned in the latter part of the preceding chapter. as I passed through Bondou, Two of the others had seen me and many of them had heard of me in the interior countries. My conversation with them, in their native language, gave them great comfort; and as the surgeon was dead, I consented to act in a medical capacity in his room for the remainder of the to bestow; not that I observed voyage. They had in truth need of every consolation in my power any wanton acts of cruelty practised either by the master or the seamen towards them, but the mode of confining and securing negroes in the American slave ships (owing chiefly to the weak |