As Park had laid in a considerable quantity of provisions previous to his leaving Sansanding, he was enabled to proceed for several days without stopping at any place, which is the only circumstance that can account for his passing in safety through the country of so many hostile nations. At length, however, their wants compelled them to have some communication with the shore. “We came,” says Amadi Fatouma, “near a small island, and saw some of the natives; I was sent on shore to buy some milk. When I got among them, I saw two canoes go on board to sell fresh provisions, such as fowls, rice, &c. One of the natives wanted to kill me, and at last he took hold of me, and said I was his prisoner. Mr. Park, seeing what was passing on shore, suspected the truth. He stopped the two canoes and people; telling the latter, that if they should kill me, or keep me prisoner on shore, he would kill them all, and carry their canoes away with him. Those on shore, suspecting Mr. Park’s intentions, sent me off in another canoe on board; they were then released: after which we bought some provisions from them, and made them some presents. A short time after our departure twenty canoes came after us from the same place; on coming near, they hailed, and said, ‘Amadi Fatouma, how can you pass through our country without giving us any thing?’ I mentioned what they had said to Mr. Park, and he gave them a few grains of amber and some trinkets, and they went back peaceably. On coming to a narrow part of the river, we saw on the shore a great many men sitting down; coming nearer to them they stood up; we presented our muskets to them, which made them run off into the interior. A little farther on we came to a very difficult passage. The rocks had barred the river, but three passages were still open between them. On coming near one of them, we discovered the same people again, standing on the top of a large rock; which caused great uneasiness to us, especially to me, and I seriously promised never to pass there again without making considerable charitable donations to the poor. We returned, and went to a pass of less danger, where we passed unmolested.
“We came-to before Carmassee, and gave the chief one piece of baft. We went on, and anchored before Gourman. Mr. Park sent me on shore with forty thousand cowries to buy provisions. I went and bought rice, onions, fowls, milk, &c., and departed late in the evening. The chief of the village sent a canoe after us, to let us know of a large army encamped on the top of a very high mountain, waiting for us; and that we had better return, or be on our guard. We immediately came to an anchor, and spent there the rest of the day and all the night. We started in the morning; on passing the abovementioned mountain we saw the army, composed of Moors with horses and camels, but without any firearms. As they said nothing to us we passed on quietly, and entered the country of Haoussa, and came to an anchor. Mr. Park said to me, ‘Now, Amadi, you are at the end of your journey: I engaged you to conduct me here; you are going to leave me; but before you go you must give me the names of the necessaries of life, &c., in the language of the countries through which I am going to pass;’ to which I agreed, and we spent two days together about it without landing. During our voyage I was the only one who had landed. We departed, and arrived at Yaour. I was sent on shore the next morning with a musket and a sabre to carry to the chief of the village; also with three pieces of white baft for distribution. I went and gave the chief his present: I also gave one to Alhagi, one to Alhagibiron, and the other to a person whose name I forget; all Marabons. The chief gave us a bullock, a sheep, three jars of honey, and four men’s loads of rice. Mr. Park gave me seven thousand cowries, and ordered me to buy provisions, which I did; he told me to go to the chief, and give him five silver rings, some powder and flints, and tell him that these presents were given to the king by the white men, who were taking leave of him before they went away. After the chief had received these things, he inquired if the white men intended to come back. Mr. Park, being informed of this inquiry, replied that he could not return any more.[2] Mr. Park had paid me for my voyage before we left Sansanding: I said to him, ‘I agreed to carry you into the kingdom of Haoussa; we are now in Haoussa. I have fulfilled my engagement with you; I am therefore going to leave you here and return.’”
[2] These words occasioned his death; for the certainty of Mr. Park not returning induced the chief to withhold the presents from the king.
On the next day Park departed, leaving the guide at the village of Yaour, where he was put in irons by order of the king, from a supposition that he had aided the white men in defrauding him of the customary presents, which the chief of Yaour had in fact received, but retained for himself. “The next morning, early,” continues the guide, “the king sent an army to a village called Boussa, near the river-side. There is before this village a rock across the whole breadth of the river. One part of the rock is very high; there is a large opening in that rock in the form of a door, which is the only passage for the water to pass through; the tide current is here very strong. This army went and took possession of the top of this opening. Mr. Park came there after the army had posted itself; he nevertheless attempted to pass. The people began to attack him, throwing lances, pikes, arrows, and stones. Mr. Park defended himself for a long time; two of his slaves at the stern of the canoe were killed; they threw every thing they had in the canoe into the river, and kept firing; but being overpowered by numbers, and fatigued, and unable to keep up the canoe against the current, and no probability of escaping, Mr. Park took hold of one of the white men and jumped into the water; Martyn did the same, and they were drowned in the stream in attempting to escape. The only slave remaining in the boat, seeing the natives persist in throwing weapons at the canoe without ceasing, stood up and said to them, ‘Stop throwing now, you see nothing in the canoe, and nobody but myself; therefore cease. Take me and the canoe, but don’t kill me.’ They took possession of the canoe and the man, and carried them to the king.
“I was kept in irons three months; the king released me, and gave me a slave (woman). I immediately went to the slave taken in the canoe, who told me in what manner Mr. Park and all of them had died, and what I have related above. I asked him if he was sure nothing had been found in the canoe after its capture; he said nothing remained in the canoe but himself and a sword-belt. I asked him where the sword-belt was; he said the king took it, and had made a girth for his horse with it.”
Such is the narrative of Amadi Fatouma; and the information since obtained in the country by Captain Clapperton corroborates almost every important circumstance which it describes. It appears, however, that certain books (whether printed or manuscript does not appear) were found in Park’s canoe, some of which were still in the possession of the chief of Yaour when Clapperton made his inquiries; but the wily African, who no doubt expected a valuable present for these relics, refused to deliver them to our traveller’s messenger, and Clapperton himself, for some reason or another not stated, neglected to visit this chief in person. It should be remarked, that the Africans who were questioned by Clapperton seemed all exceedingly desirous of exculpating their countrymen, perhaps their own friends and relations, from the charge of having murdered Park and his companions: according to one narrator, the canoe was caught between two rocks, where the river, being obstructed in its course, rushed through its narrow channel with prodigious rapidity. Here the travellers, in attempting to disembark, were drowned in the sight of an immense multitude who had assembled to see them pass, and were too timid to attack or assist them. On another occasion, however, the same person confessed that his countrymen did indeed discharge their arrows at the travellers, but not until they had been fired upon from the canoe. But the sheriff of Bokhary, whose letter was found among the MSS. of Clapperton, asserts that the inhabitants of Boussa went out against the white men in great numbers, and attacked them during three successive days; after which Park and Martyn, who from this account would appear to have been the only European survivors, threw their papers and baggage into the water, and leaping in after them were drowned in the stream. It would answer no useful purpose to push these inquiries any further at present, as we in reality possess no sufficient materials for coming to any definite conclusion. There can be no doubt that Mungo Park perished on the Niger, near Boussa, or that the Africans were the cause, mediate or immediate, of his death. His character will be best understood by a careful examination of his life; but it may be useful to remark, in conclusion, that, although his natural prudence seems partly to have forsaken him during his second journey, few men have possessed in a higher degree the virtues of a traveller—intrepidity, enthusiasm, perseverance, veracity, prudence; his manners, likewise, though somewhat too stiff and reserved, must upon the whole have been agreeable, since he was able both in civilized and savage countries to gain and preserve many friends; among whom by far the most distinguished was Sir Walter Scott, with whom, during the interval between his two journeys, he lived on terms of the greatest intimacy.
PETER SIMON PALLAS.
Born 1741.—Died 1811.
This traveller, whose works are comparatively little known in England, was born at Berlin, September 22, 1741. His father, who was an able surgeon, entertained the design of educating him for his own profession; and at the same time caused him to learn several languages. At a very early age he was able, therefore, to write the Latin, the English, the French, and the German. His retentive memory rendered these acquirements so easy, that his great success in this department of knowledge scarcely at all interfered with his progress in others; so that he is said to have likewise maintained among his schoolfellows the pre-eminence in all their various studies. He was, in fact, by no means satisfied with what was taught him by his different masters, but employed his leisure hours in the study of natural history; and at the age of fifteen he had already imagined ingenious divisions of several classes of animals.
Having attended at Berlin the courses of Gleditsch, Mekhel, and Roloff, and those of Vogel and Rœderer at Göttingen, he proceeded to Leyden, to finish his studies under Albinus, Gaubins, and Musschenbroeck. The rarest productions of nature had been for two centuries accumulating in Holland by the commerce of the whole world; and it was therefore impossible that the ardent passion of Pallas for natural history should not be still further excited by living in the midst of them. But perhaps we attribute too much influence to the force of circumstances. The soul, with all its tastes and passions, is far more independent of external things than is generally supposed. Concomitance is not causation. The energy of the mind derives sustenance, as it were, from circumstances; but the effect of this nourishment is determined by its own original character, just as it is determined by the innate qualities of the scorpion, or the bee, whether the vegetable juices which they extract from the plants of the field shall be converted into poison or into nectar. However this may be, Pallas afterward visited England, where a commerce more extensive than had ever been carried on by any other nation, ancient or modern, must likewise have collected immense treasures in natural history, which afforded him a fortunate occasion for improving his knowledge. The sight of these scientific riches seems, in reality, to have determined him to waive all claim to professional emolument or honours, for the purpose of devoting himself entirely to natural history; and he obtained his father’s permission to settle at the Hague, with a view of continuing his studies.