The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805: Together with Other Documents, Official and Private, Relating to the Same Mission, to Which Is Prefixed an Account of the Life of Mr. ParkPark, Mungo
History
The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805: Together with Other Documents, Official and Private, Relating to the Same Mission, to Which Is Prefixed an Account of the Life of Mr. Park
Park, Mungo
Africa -- Discovery and exploration
We proceeded without further molestation till about three o'clock in the
afternoon, when it came on a tornado. During the rain one of the sick
had fallen a little behind, and four people seizing him, stripped off
his jacket. He followed them at a distance; and when they came up to Mr.
Anderson and myself, he called out to us to shoot one of them, as they
had taken his jacket. I had my pocket handkerchief on the lock of my gun
to keep the priming dry. When they observed me remove it, one of them
pulled out the jacket from under his cloak, and laid it on one of the
asses. Mr. Anderson followed them on horseback, and I kept as near him
as I could on foot, my horse being loaded. After following them about
three miles, they struck into the woods; and suspecting that they had a
mind to return and steal some of the loads from the fatigued asses in
the rear, I returned with Mr. Scott, and found that one of the soldiers
had lost his knapsack, and another his jacket. But from their
description, the robbers were not the same as had formerly passed.
Continued in the rear. When we came within a mile of the town of
Nummaboo, the road passes near some high rocks. The asses being a little
way before us, two of the robbers first seen came from amongst the
rocks, and were going towards the asses; but when they observed us
coming up, they attempted to slide off unobserved among the rocky. When
I called to one of them to stop and tell me what they were looking
after, they came near us; but as they had nothing of ours in their
possession, we could not stop them, and they accordingly passed to the
westward. Mr. Scott and I went and examined that part of the rocks where
we observed them come out, and were lucky enough to find a soldier's
coat, a camp kettle, and a number of other articles, which had probably
been their share of the booty; for I learned on my arrival at the town,
that the ass which carried the muskets belonging to the sick, had been
stopped by four people near these rocks, and six muskets, a pair of
pistols, and a knapsack taken away. To complete the business, J. Bowden,
one of the sick, did not come up; and we had little doubt but that he
had been stripped and murdered by these very people in the woods. We
likewise had a very good ass stolen during the night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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