Travels in the Interior of Africa — Volume 02Park, Mungo
History
Travels in the Interior of Africa — Volume 02
Park, Mungo
Africa -- Discovery and exploration; Niger River
About noon I came to the village of Kaimoo, situated upon the bank of the
river, and as the corn I had purchased at Sibili was exhausted, I
endeavoured to purchase a fresh supply, but was informed that corn was
become very scarce all over the country, and though I offered fifty
kowries for a small quantity, no person would sell me any. As I was
about to depart, however, one of the villagers (who probably mistook me
for some Moorish shereef) brought me some as a present, only desiring me
to bestow my blessing upon him, which I did in plain English, and he
received it with a thousand acknowledgments. Of this present I made my
dinner, and it was the third successive day that I had subsisted entirely
upon raw corn.
In the evening I arrived at a small village called Song, the surly
inhabitants of which would not receive me, nor so much as permit me to
enter the gate; but as lions were very numerous in this neighbourhood,
and I had frequently, in the course of the day, observed the impression
of their feet on the road, I resolved to stay in the vicinity of the
village. Having collected some grass for my horse, I accordingly lay
down under a tree by the gate. About ten o’clock I heard the hollow roar
of a lion at no great distance, and attempted to open the gate, but the
people from within told me that no person must attempt to enter the gate
without the dooty’s permission. I begged them to inform the dooty that a
lion was approaching the village, and I hoped he would allow me to come
within the gate. I waited for an answer to this message with great
anxiety, for the lion kept prowling round the village, and once advanced
so very near me that I heard him rustling among the grass, and climbed
the tree for safety. About midnight the dooty, with some of his people,
opened the gate, and desired me to come in. They were convinced, they
said, that I was not a Moor, for no Moor ever waited any time at the gate
of a village without cursing the inhabitants.
_August_ 16.—About ten o’clock I passed a considerable town, with a
mosque, called Jabbee. Here the country begins to rise into hills, and I
could see the summits of high mountains to the westward. About noon I
stopped at a small village near Yamina, where I purchased some corn, and
dried my papers and clothes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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