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
My anxiety to get forward admitting of no delay on the road, we reached
Tendacunda in the evening, and were hospitably received at the house of
an aged black female called Seniora Camilla, a person who resided many
years at the English factory and spoke our language. I was known to her
before I had left the Gambia at the outset of my journey, but my dress
and figure were now so different from the usual appearance of a European
that she was very excusable in mistaking me for a Moor. When I told her
my name and country she surveyed me with great astonishment, and seemed
unwilling to give credit to the testimony of her senses. She assured me
that none of the traders on the Gambia ever expected to see me again,
having been informed long ago that the Moors of Ludamar had murdered me,
as they had murdered Major Houghton. I inquired for my two attendants,
Johnson and Demba, and learnt with great sorrow that neither of them was
returned. Karfa, who had never before heard people converse in English,
listened to us with great attention. Everything he saw seemed wonderful.
The furniture of the house, the chairs, &c., and particularly beds with
curtains, were objects of his great admiration, and he asked me a
thousand questions concerning the utility and necessity of different
articles, to some of which I found it difficult to give satisfactory
answers.
On the morning of the 10th Mr. Robert Ainsley, having learned that I was
at Tendacunda, came to meet me, and politely offered me the use of his
horse. He informed me that Dr. Laidley had removed all his property to a
place called Kayee, a little farther down the river, and that he was then
gone to Doomasansa with his vessel to purchase rice, but would return in
a day or two. He therefore invited me to stay with him at Pisania until
the doctor’s return. I accepted the invitation, and being accompanied by
my friend Karfa, reached Pisania about ten o’clock. Mr. Ainsley’s
schooner was lying at anchor before the place. This was the most
surprising object which Karfa had yet seen. He could not easily
comprehend the use of the masts, sails, and rigging; nor did he conceive
that it was possible, by any sort of contrivance, to make so large a body
move forwards by the common force of the wind. The manner of fastening
together the different planks which composed the vessel, and filling up
the seams so as to exclude the water, was perfectly new to him; and I
found that the schooner, with her cable and anchor, kept Karfa in deep
meditation the greater part of the day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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