The Same Eye Was As Quick To Recognise The
Diverse Characters Of Men.
In Mungo Park shrewd humour and right
feeling went together.
Whatever he had to say he said clearly and
simply; and it went straight home. He had the good fortune to be
born before "picturesque writing" was invented. When we return to
the Gambia with Mungo Park under the same escort with a coffle of
slaves on their way to be shipped for the use of Christians, from
the strength of his unlaboured narrative we get clear knowledge
unclouded by a rainbow mist of words. He is of one blood with the
sailors in whom Hakluyt delighted.
CHAPTER XVI - VILLAGES ON THE NIGER - DETERMINES TO GO NO FARTHER
EASTWARD
Being, in the manner that has been related, compelled to leave Sego,
I was conducted the same evening to a village about seven miles to
the eastward, with some of the inhabitants of which my guide was
acquainted, and by whom we were well received. {1} He was very
friendly and communicative, and spoke highly of the hospitality of
his countrymen, but withal told me that if Jenne was the place of my
destination, which he seemed to have hitherto doubted, I had
undertaken an enterprise of greater danger than probably I was
apprised of; for, although the town of Jenne was nominally a part of
the king of Bambarra's dominions, it was in fact, he said, a city of
the Moors - the leading part of the inhabitants being bushreens, and
even the governor himself, though appointed by Mansong, of the same
sect.
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