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
In the morning I departed with my people to Wassaba, to fetch my family
and things; I staid there two days; but being uneasy in my mind, and
being afraid of something planning against me, and as I had good reason
to think so by the few words I heard at different times, I went back to
Giocha, presented myself to the King; and told him that before I left
his dominions, I had thought proper to come and swear fidelity and
friendship to him; and that whenever I should go backwards or forwards
from Senegal to Sego, I should always pass through his country and see
him; but that I should wish also at the same time that he would swear to
protect and treat me well, and be my friend; even should he be at war
with the King of Sego. He sent for Chiaman, the eldest son of the royal
family, who swore the same to me in his and the King's name. I likewise
swore before them what I related above. After swearing, Chiaman told me
to give him a handsome gun or a coussabi (shirt) by way of cementing our
oaths. I told him, I had none at present fit to present to him, but gave
him my word, that if I should go back to the white men's country, on my
return I would bring him one of those two objects.
I staid in the village until the next morning. I had in the mean while
wrote a prayer (Grisgris) or amulet, to a man who gave me a bullock,
which I carried to Wassaba; I slept there. Next morning I had the
bullock killed. The next day Iaque, Chiaman's brother, sent me word to
wait there for him. I immediately sent my family and things by another
road, and waited for Iaque. He came and presented me with an ass loaded
with kouskous to help me in my travels. I gave him half a piece of fine
white baft, five bottles of powder, two looking-glasses, and two
snuff-boxes. He then left me, and I went the same day to Giocha, to take
leave of the King, and beg he would let me have the promised conductor
(between Wassaba and Giocha there being seven rivulets to cross.) He
gave me a man named Mourocouro, who went on foot. He then shook hands
with me, saying, "Isaaco, I bear you no malice now; but did so once,
because you conducted white men to Sego; and never passed here to let me
have something from them, whilst every body else shared their
generosity." I took my leave of him and went to Chicouray, Chiaman's
village, where I met my family and things safe. I staid there two days.
Chaiman killed me a bullock, and I gave him one pagne, worth two pieces
of bafts, one bottle of powder, twenty flints, and one bar of scarlet
cloth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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