It Is Clear, Therefore, That It Would Have Been Prudent To Remain At Goree Or Pisania, Till That Season Had Passed; But In Mr. Park's Enthusiastic State Of Mind, It Would Have Been Extremely Painful To Linger So Long On The Eve Of His Grand And Favorite Undertaking.

He hoped, and it seemed possible, that before the middle of June, when the rains usually began, he might reach the Niger, which could then be navigated without any serious toil or exposure.

He departed, therefore, with his little band from Pisania, on the 4th May, and proceeded through Medina, along the banks of the Gambia. With so strong a party, he was no longer dependent on the protection of the petty kings and mansas, but the Africans seeing him so well provided, thought he had now no claim on their hospitality; on the contrary, they seized every opportunity to obtain some of the valuable articles which they saw in his possession. Thefts were practised in the most audacious manner; the kings drove a hard bargain for presents; at one place, the women, with immense labour had emptied all the wells, that they might derive an advantage from selling the water. Submitting quietly to these little annoyances, Mr. Park proceeded along the Gambia till he saw it flowing from the south, between the hills of Foota Jalla and a high mountain called Mueianta. Turning his face almost due west, he passed the streams of the Ba Lee, the Ba Ting, and the Ba Woollima, the three principal tributaries of the Senegal. His change of direction led him through a tract much more pleasing, than that passed in his dreary return through the Jallonka wilderness. The villages, built in delightful mountain glens, and looking from their elevated precipices over a great extent of wooded plain, appeared romantic beyond any thing he had ever seen. The rocks near Sullo, assumed every possible diversity of form, towering like ruined castles, spires and pyramids. One mass of granite so strongly resembled the remains of a gothic abbey, with its niches: and ruined staircase, that it required some time to satisfy him of its being composed wholly of natural stone. The crossing of the river, now considerably swelled, was attended with many difficulties, and in one of them Isaaco, the guide, was nearly devoured by a crocodile.

It was near Satadoo, soon after passing the Faleme, that the party experienced the first tornado, which marking the commencement of the rainy season, proved for them the "beginning of sorrows." In these tornadoes, violent storms of thunder and lightning are followed by deluges of rain, which cover the ground three feet deep, and have a peculiarly malignant influence on European constitutions. In three days twelve men were on the sick-list; the natives, as they saw the strength of the expedition decline, became more bold and frequent in their predatory attacks. At Gambia attempts were made to overpower by main force the whole party, and seize all they possessed; but, by merely presenting their muskets, the assault was repelled without bloodshed.

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