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The party rested a day at Shrondo, but the distressing circumstances in which they were involved did not prevent Park from visiting the gold mines in the neighbourhood, and he gives in his journal a curious account of the method in which the gold is obtained. He was guided by a woman to a meadow where there were dug about thirty pits.
At Shrondo, in the kingdom of Dentila, where the caravan shortly afterwards arrived, there are considerable gold mines; and the journal contains a minute and interesting description both of the manner of collecting the metal, and of the country in which it is found.
They left Sadadoo at sunrise, journeying over a hard rocky soil, towards the mountains, and the advanced party reached Shrondo at sunset; but Park did not come up to the place till eight o'clock, having mounted one of the sick men on his horse, and assisted in driving in the wearied asses, four of which he was compelled to leave in the woods.
Left Shrondo early in the morning; the sick being unable to walk, I gave them all the horses and spare asses. Travelled slowly along the bottom of the Konkodoo mountains, which are very steep precipices of rock, from eighty to two or three hundred feet high.
The front of the coffle reached Shrondo at sunset; but being in the rear I had to mount one of the sick men on my horse, and assist in driving the fatigued asses: so that I did not reach the halting place till eight o'clock, and was forced to leave four asses in the woods. Shrondo is but a small town.
Went into the town in the evening, and presented the Dooty with six bars, requesting a guide to Shrondo, which he readily granted. Satadoo is walled round, and contains about three hundred huts: it was formerly much larger. Observed mer. alt. sun 160 deg. 6'; observed mer. alt. Jupiter 116 36'.
The pits are dug exactly in the same manner as at Shrondo; a section of the pit would have this appearance. The notches in the side of the pit serve as a ladder to descend by. The gravel here is very coarse; some round stones larger than a man's head, and a vast number larger than one's fist were lying round the mouths of the pits, which were near twenty in number.
At Dindikoo beyond Shrondo, Park was much struck with the beauty and magnificence of that mountainous tract of country, as well as with the degree in which it was cultivated and the comparatively happy condition of the inhabitants.
After quitting Shrondo, Park mentions that on the 12th of June, in consequence of a very sudden tornado, they were forced to carry their bundles into the huts of the natives, being the first time that the caravan had entered a town since leaving the Gambia.
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