One
Seized The Serjeant's Horse, But On A Pistol Being Presented, Quitted His
Hold.
Others tried to drive away the asses with their loads.
But the
soldiers stood firm, loaded their pieces with ball, and fixed bayonets;
upon which the natives hesitated, and the soldiers having placed the
asses in safety on the other side of a rivulet, returned. Park then
demanded of the Dooty that he should be suffered to proceed in peace. To
this after a little he consented, in consequence of the determined front
shown by the British, and to avoid farther molestation, Park deemed it
prudent to present him with four bars of amber. Near Sullo, the eyes of
the jaded and weary travellers were a little revived by the
picturesqueness of the scenery, which presented all the possible
diversities of rock, towering up like ruined castles, spires, and
pyramids. One place bore a very striking resemblance to a ruined Gothic
abbey, - the niches, windows, and staircase, having all counterparts in
the natural rock. Mr. Park describes the banks of the Ba-Fing and Ba-Lee,
two tributaries of the Senegal, to be rugged and grand beyond any thing
he had seen.
In crossing the Ba-Fing the canoe was upset, with three men in it, one of
whom was drowned. Park's efforts to restore animation were unavailing,
and he was buried on the banks of the river. The people on the banks were
a set of thieves, and endeavoured to make off with the medicine-chest.
Not a day now passed but one or other of the soldiers died of fever, or
was left behind.
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