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I immediately sent a Poule to Yaour to get me the belt by any means and at any price, and any thing else he could discover belonging to Mr. Park. I left Madina and went to Sansanding, and from thence to Sego. On my arrival I went to Dacha, the King, and related to him the above facts. He said he would have gone himself to destroy that country, if it had not been so far.
Alarmed by these, and feeling a deep interest in his fate, Governor Maxwell, of Sierra Leone, engaged Isaaco, the guide, who had been sent to the Gambia with despatches from the Niger, to undertake a fresh journey to inquire after him. At Sansanding he was so far fortunate as to meet Amadi Fatouma, who had been engaged to succeed himself as interpreter.
From repeatedly hearing the same story I had no doubt of the truth of it; but as there was no alternative I determined to proceed, and a little before sunset I arrived at Sansanding. My reception was what I expected. Counti Mamadi, who had been so kind to me formerly, scarcely gave me welcome.
In order to give a just idea of the trade and profits on different articles sold at Sansanding, I have annexed a list of European and African articles, with their respective values in cowries, the great medium of exchange and the general currency of Bambarra. Value in Cowries. A musket 6 to 7000 A cutlass 1500 to 2000 A flint 40 Gunpowder, one bottle 3000 Amber No. 1. 1000 Ditto No. 2. 800
It is obvious that no reliance can be placed on a narrative resting upon such authority; and we must be content to remain in ignorance of the precise circumstances of Park's melancholy fate. But that he was attacked by the natives on his voyage from Sansanding eastwards, that he was overpowered by numbers, and that he perished on his passage down the Niger, cannot reasonably be doubted.
Early in the morning, before the Moors were assembled, I departed from Sansanding, and slept the ensuing night at a small town called Sibili; from whence, on the day following, I reached Nyara, a large town at some distance from the river, where I halted the 27th, to have my clothes washed, and recruit my horse. The Dooty there has a very commodious house, flat roofed, and two stories high.
He told me it was the king's pleasure that I should depart forthwith from the vicinage of Sego; but that Mansong, wishing to relieve a white man in distress, had sent me five thousand kowries, to enable me to purchase provisions in the course of my journey: the messenger added, that if my intentions were really to proceed to Jenne, he had orders to accompany me as a guide to Sansanding.
One of Park's principal objects at Sansanding was to provide a proper vessel for his farther navigation down the Niger; and it was with great difficulty that he procured two indifferent and decayed canoes; from which by the labour of his own hands, with some assistance from one of the surviving soldiers, he constructed a flat-bottomed vessel, to which he gave the magnificent title of His Majesty's schooner the Joliba.
It appears also that many rumours unfavourable to the mission were industriously circulated; and that great jealousies, stimulated both by religious bigotry and the apprehension of commercial rivalship, were excited against Park among the Moorish inhabitants of Sego and Sansanding.
After much negociation and many difficulties with Mansong's ministers, he was at first permitted to go to Samee in the neighbourhood of Sego, and afterwards to Sansanding; in order to build a vessel and make preparations for his voyage down the Niger. In this negociation, which is fully detailed in the Journal, Park appears to much advantage.
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