On The Following Day, A Messenger Arrived From The King, Who Inquired If Mr. Park Had Brought Any Present, And Seemed Much Disappointed, On Being Told That He Had Been Robbed Of All His Effects By The Moors.

When Mr. Park proposed to go to court, he said he must stop until the afternoon, when the king would send for him.

It was the afternoon of the next day, however, before another messenger arrived from Mansong, who told Mr. Park, it was the king's pleasure he should depart immediately from the environs of Sego, but that Mansong, wishing to relieve a white man in distress, had sent five thousand kowries [*] to him to continue his journey, and if it were his intention to proceed to Jenne, he (the messenger) had orders to guide him to Sansanding. Mr. Park concludes his account of this adventure in the following words: -

[Footnote: Kowries are little shells, which pass current as money, in many parts of the East Indies as well as in Africa. Mr. Park estimates about 250 kowries equal to one shilling. One hundred of them would purchase a day's provision for himself and corn for his horse.]

"I was at first puzzled to account for this behaviour of the king, but from the conversation I had with the guide, I had afterwards reason to believe, that Mansong would willingly have admitted me into his presence at Sego, but was apprehensive he might not be able to protect me against the blind and inveterate malice of the moorish inhabitants. His conduct, therefore, was at once prudent and liberal. The circumstances, under which I made my appearance at Sego, were undoubtedly such as might create in the mind of the king a well-warranted suspicion, that I wished to conceal the true object of my journey. He argued, probably as my guide argued, who, when he was told that I was come from a great distance, and through many dangers, to behold the Joliba (Niger) river, naturally inquired if there were no rivers in my own country, and whether one river was not like another? Notwithstanding this, and in spite of the jealous machinations of the Moors, this benevolent prince thought it sufficient, that a white man was found in his dominions in a condition of extreme wretchedness, and that no other plea was necessary to entitle the sufferer to his bounty."

Being thus obliged to leave Sego, Mr. Park was conducted the same evening to a village, about seven miles eastward, where he and his guide were well received, as Mr. Park had learned to speak the Bambarra tongue without difficulty. The guide was very friendly and communicative, and spoke highly of the hospitality of his countrymen; but he informed Mr. Park, that if Jenne was the place of his destination, he had undertaken a very dangerous enterprise, and that Timbuctoo, the great object of his search, was altogether in possession of the Moors, who would not allow any Christians to reside in it.

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