This Produced A
Complication, Of Miseries Not Easily To Be Described.
We were, however,
relieved much sooner than I expected; for the leak continuing to gain
upon us, notwithstanding our utmost exertions to clear the vessel, the
seamen insisted on bearing away for the West Indies, as affording the
only chance of saving our lives.
Accordingly, after some objections on
the part of the master, we directed our course for Antigua, and
fortunately made that island in about thirty-five days after our
departure from Goree. Yet even at this juncture we narrowly escaped
destruction; for on approaching the north-west side of the island, we
struck on the Diamond Rock, and got into St John's harbour with great
difficulty. The vessel was afterwards condemned as unfit for sea, and the
slaves, as I have heard, were ordered to be sold for the benefit of the
owners.
At this island I remained ten days; when the Chesterfield Packet,
homeward bound from the Leeward Islands, touching at St John's for the
Antigua mail, I took my passage in that vessel. We sailed on the 24th of
November; and after a short but tempestuous voyage, arrived at Falmouth
on the 22d of December; from whence I immediately set out for London;
having been absent from England two years and seven months.
[Here terminates Mr. Park's own narrative. The following chapters contain
an account of his life from his return to England, in 1797, to his death
on the Niger, in 1805; and also of the discoveries and adventures of
succeeding travellers.]
CHAPTER XXVII.
_Attempts of Horneman, Nicholls, Roentgen, and Adams._
During the interval which elapsed between Park's first and second
journey, several attempts were made to explore Central Africa. The first
traveller was Frederick Horneman, a student of Gottingen, who was
recommended by Professor Blumenbach to the patronage of the African
Association. After spending some time in the study of Natural History,
and the Arabic language, he went to Cairo, intending to join some
caravan, under the assumed character of an Arab or Moslem. It was not
till the following year, 1798, that he was enabled to find a caravan
proceeding westward, and bound for Fezzan. On the 8th September, they
left Egypt, entering upon a wide expanse of sandy desert, resembling what
might be supposed to be the bed of the ocean after the waters had left
it. It was covered with fragments of petrified wood, of a lightish grey
colour and bearing a strong resemblance to natural wood. The Arabs
travelled all day, and when they halted at night, each gathered a few
sticks and prepared his own victuals. There were a few _oases_ in this
waste. In ten days they came to Ummesogeir, a village containing one
hundred and twenty inhabitants, who lived on a rock, subsisting on dates,
and separated by immense tracts of sand from all intercourse with the
rest of the world. In twenty-four hours they came to Siwah, an extensive
oasis, about fifty miles in circumference, and the only inhabited spot of
any considerable extent on the route to Fezzan.
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