Fortunately the information thus acquired has not been entirely lost to the world; a few particulars, the fruit of his active and intelligent curiosity, still remain. The view which Park has given of the trade and population of Sansanding, must be considered as the most original and valuable part of his Journal. The information which he has collected concerning _prices_, is new in its kind, and in several points of view, highly curious and important. But there are other circumstances, which must strike every intelligent reader as being more peculiarly interesting and instructive; the existence of regular markets; the division of labour, appearing from the establishment of distinct branches of trade; the variety of articles exposed to sale; and the great extent of commercial transactions. These facts imply that industry is protected, and property in a certain degree secure; and fully confirm Park's former statements with regard to the comparative civilization and improvement of the _interior_ of Africa. One of Park's principal objects at Sansanding was to provide a proper vessel for his farther navigation down the Niger; and it was with great difficulty that he procured two indifferent and decayed canoes; from which _by the labour of his own hands_, with some assistance from one of the surviving soldiers, he constructed a flat-bottomed vessel, to which he gave the magnificent title of His Majesty's schooner the Joliba. Previously to this time, Park had received intelligence of the death of Mr. Scott, whom he had been obliged to leave at Koomikoomi, on his march towards the Niger; and now whilst he was employed in building his vessel, he had to lament the loss of his friend Mr. Anderson, who died on the 28th of October, after a lingering illness of four months. He speaks of this severe blow in his Journal very shortly, but in a strain of natural eloquence, flowing evidently from the heart, "No event," he says, "during the journey, ever threw the smallest gloom over his mind till he laid Mr. Anderson in the grave; he then felt himself as if left a second time lonely and friendless amidst the wilds of Africa." [Footnote: Journal, p. 163.]