The first of the two volumes which contain Mungo Park's "Travels in
the Interior of Africa" brought him through many perils to the first
sight of the Niger, and left him sick and solitary, stripped of
nearly all that he possessed, a half-starved white man on a half-
starved horse. He was helped on by a bag of cowries from a kindly
chief; but in this volume he has not advanced far before he is
stripped of all.
There is not in the range of English literature a more interesting
traveller's tale than was given to the world in this book which this
volume completes. It took the deeper hold upon its readers, because
it appeared at a time when English hearts began to be stirred by the
wrongs of slavery. But at any time there would be strong human
interest in the unconscious painting of the writer's character, as
he makes his way over far regions in which no white man had before
been seen, with firm resolve and with good temper as well as courage
and prudence, which bring him safe through many a hair-breadth
escape. There was a true kindness in Mungo Park that found
answering kindness and brought out the spirit of humanity in those
upon whose goodwill his life depends; in the negroes often, although
never in the Moors. There was no flinching in the man, who, when
robbed of his horse, stripped to the shirt in a forest and left upon
a lion's track, looked down with a botanist's eye on the beauty of a
tiny moss at his feet, drew comfort from it, and laboured on with
quiet faith in God. The same eye was as quick to recognise the
diverse characters of men. In Mungo Park shrewd humour and right
feeling went together. Whatever he had to say he said clearly and
simply; and it went straight home. He had the good fortune to be
born before "picturesque writing" was invented. When we return to
the Gambia with Mungo Park under the same escort with a coffle of
slaves on their way to be shipped for the use of Christians, from
the strength of his unlaboured narrative we get clear knowledge
unclouded by a rainbow mist of words. He is of one blood with the
sailors in whom Hakluyt delighted.
CHAPTER XVI - VILLAGES ON THE NIGER - DETERMINES TO GO NO FARTHER
EASTWARD
Being, in the manner that has been related, compelled to leave Sego,
I was conducted the same evening to a village about seven miles to
the eastward, with some of the inhabitants of which my guide was
acquainted, and by whom we were well received. {1} He was very
friendly and communicative, and spoke highly of the hospitality of
his countrymen, but withal told me that if Jenne was the place of my
destination, which he seemed to have hitherto doubted, I had
undertaken an enterprise of greater danger than probably I was
apprised of; for, although the town of Jenne was nominally a part of
the king of Bambarra's dominions, it was in fact, he said, a city of
the Moors - the leading part of the inhabitants being bushreens, and
even the governor himself, though appointed by Mansong, of the same
sect. Thus was I in danger of falling a second time into the hands
of men who would consider it not only justifiable, but meritorious,
to destroy me, and this reflection was aggravated by the
circumstance that the danger increased as I advanced in my journey,
for I learned that the places beyond Jenne were under the Moorish
influence in a still greater degree than Jenne itself, and
Timbuctoo, the great object of my search, altogether in possession
of that savage and merciless people, who allow no Christian to live
there. But I had now advanced too far to think of returning to the
westward on such vague and uncertain information, and determined to
proceed; and being accompanied by the guide, I departed from the
village on the morning of the 24th. About eight o'clock we passed a
large town called Kabba, situated in the midst of a beautiful and
highly cultivated country, bearing a greater resemblance to the
centre of England than to what I should have supposed had been the
middle of Africa. The people were everywhere employed in collecting
the fruit of shea trees, from which they prepare the vegetable
butter mentioned in former parts of this work. These trees grow in
great abundance all over this part of Bambarra. They are not
planted by the natives, but are found growing naturally in the
woods; and in clearing woodland for cultivation every tree is cut
down but the shea. The tree itself very much resembles the American
oak, and the fruit - from the kernel of which, being first dried in
the sun, the butter is prepared by boiling the kernel in water - has
somewhat the appearance of a Spanish olive. The kernel is enveloped
in a sweet pulp, under a thin green rind; and the butter produced
from it, besides the advantage of its keeping the whole year without
salt, is whiter, firmer, and, to my palate, of a richer flavour,
than the best butter I ever tasted made from cow's milk. The growth
and preparation of this commodity seem to be among the first objects
of African industry in this and the neighbouring states, and it
constitutes a main article of their inland commerce.
We passed, in the course of the day, a great many villages inhabited
chiefly by fishermen, and in the evening about five o'clock arrived
at Sansanding, a very large town, containing, as I was told, from
eight to ten thousand inhabitants. This place is much resorted to
by the Moors, who bring salt from Berroo, and beads and coral from
the Mediterranean, to exchange here for gold dust and cotton cloth.
This cloth they sell to great advantage in Berroo, and other Moorish
countries, where, on account of the want of rain, no cotton is
cultivated.
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