Travels in the Interior of Africa — Volume 01Park, Mungo
History
Travels in the Interior of Africa — Volume 01
Park, Mungo
Africa -- Discovery and exploration; Niger River
After their grief had subsided a little, I was desired to examine the
wound. I found that the ball had passed quite through his leg, having
fractured both bones a little below the knee: the poor boy was faint from
the loss of blood, and his situation withal so very precarious, that I
could not console his relations with any great hopes of his recovery.
However, to give him a possible chance, I observed to them that it was
necessary to cut off his leg above the knee. This proposal made every
one start with horror; they had never heard of such a method of cure, and
would by no means give their consent to it; indeed, they evidently
considered me a sort of cannibal for proposing so cruel and unheard-of an
operation, which, in their opinion, would be attended with more pain and
danger than the wound itself. The patient was therefore committed to the
care of some old bushreens, who endeavoured to secure him a passage into
paradise by whispering in his ear some Arabic sentences, and desiring him
to repeat them. After many unsuccessful attempts, the poor heathen at
last pronounced, “_La illah el Allah_, _Mahamet rasowl allahi_” (“There
is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet”); and the disciples of the
Prophet assured his mother that her son had given sufficient evidence of
his faith, and would be happy in a future state. He died the same
evening.
_February_ 17.—My guides informed me that in order to avoid the Moorish
banditti it was necessary to travel in the night; we accordingly departed
from Funingkedy in the afternoon, accompanied by about thirty people,
carrying their effects with them into Ludamar, for fear of the war. We
travelled with great silence and expedition until midnight, when we
stopped in a sort of enclosure, near a small village; but the thermometer
being so low as 68 degrees, none of the negroes could sleep on account of
the cold.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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