To Add To Park's
Difficulties, All The Carpenters Whom He Had Brought With Him From
England Had Died, Before Their Services Were Needed.
But undismayed at
this most untoward occurrence, he determined to make the most of his
scanty materials.
With the aid of a single soldier, by patching together
all the three, after eighteen days, he constructed a boat, forty feet in
length, and six in breadth, which he termed the schooner Joliba. Before
he left Sansanding, he met with a more severe misfortune than any he had
before experienced. His relation Mr. Anderson died, after a lingering
illness of four months. Park passes no studied eulogium upon his merits,
but speaks of him simply and sincerely, in a manner which shows the high
sense he felt of his merits. "October 28th, at a quarter past five
o'clock in the morning, my dear friend Mr. Alexander Anderson died, after
a sickness of four months. I feel much inclined to speak of his merits;
but as his worth was known only to a few friends, I will rather cherish
his memory in silence, and imitate his cool and steady conduct, than
weary my friends with a panegyric in which they cannot be supposed to
join. I shall only observe, that no event which took place during the
journey ever threw the smallest gloom over my mind, till I laid Mr.
Anderson in the grave. I then felt myself as if left, a second time,
lonely and friendless amid the wilds of Africa." Mr. Anderson was buried
near one of the principal mosques at Sansanding, and the Dooty of the
place was present, as a mark of respect, at the interment.
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