one waistcoat under another, they insisted that I should cast them both off; and at last, to make sure work, stripped me quite naked. Even my half-boots, though the sole of one of them was tied on to my foot with a broken bridle rein, were minutely inspected. While they were examining the plunder, I begged them with great earnestness to return my pocket compass; but when I pointed it out to them, one of the robbers, thinking I was about to pick it up, cocked his gun, and swore he would shoot me dead upon the spot if I dared to put my hand upon it. After this, some of them went away with my horse, and the remainder stood considering whether they should leave me quite naked, or allow me something to shelter me from the sun. Humanity at last prevailed; they returned me the most of two shirts, and a pair of trousers; and as they went away, one of them threw back my hat, in the crown of which I kept my memorandums, and this was probably the reason why they did not wish to keep it."

This was the most terrible misfortune which had hitherto befallen him, and at first his mind appeared to sink under the united influence of grief and terror. For a while he sat in sullen dejection, half persuaded that he had no alternative but to lie down and perish. Presently, however, reliance upon Providence succeeded this extreme dejection, and his mind gradually required its tone. "I was indeed, a stranger," he thought, "in a strange land; yet I was still under the protecting eye of that Providence who has condescended to call himself the stranger's friend. At this moment, painful as my reflections were, the extraordinary beauty of a small moss irresistibly caught my eye. I mention this to show from what trifling circumstances the mind will sometimes derive consolation; for though the whole part was not larger than the top of one of my fingers, I could not contemplate the delicate conformation of its roots, leaves and capsular without admiration. Can that being, thought I, who planted, watered and brought to perfection, in this obscure part of the world, a thing which appears of so small importance, look with unconcern upon the situation and sufferings of creatures formed after his own

image? Surely not! Reflections like these would not allow me to despair; I started up, and disregarding both danger and fatigue, traveled forward, assured that relief was at hand, and I was not disappointed."

On arriving at Sibidooloo, Park related to the Mausa, or Chief of the town, the misfortune which had befallen him. This humane and excellent man, having heard him patiently to an end, took the pipe from his mouth, and turning up the sleeve of his coat with an indignant air, "sit down," said he, you shall have everything restored to you; I have sworn it.” He then took the necessary measures for the recovery of the traveler's property, and invited him to partake of his hospitable fare until this should have been effected. After spending a few days at this place, without hearing any news of his horse or other property, our traveler removed to a distant village, where he remained until the whole was discovered and restored to him, with the exception of his pocket compass, which had been broken to pieces.

Having nothing else to bestow upon his hospitable landlords, he gave his horse to one, and his saddle and bridle to the other, and then taking his leave, proceeded on foot to Kamalia, where he arrived on the 16th of September. At this town, romantically situated at the foot of a lofty mountain, he found a slave merchant, who, intending to descend to the coast with a small caravan in the beginning of the dry season, offered the traveler an asylum until he should set out. Conceiving that it would be impossible to proceed during the rains, Park accepted his kind proposal, and promised in return to give him the price of a slave upon their arrival on the coast. Here a fever, which had for some time menaced him, manifested itself with great violence, and continued to torment him during the whole season of the rains. His landlord, meanwhile, exerted himself to keep up his hopes, and having by some means or another obtained possession of an English common Prayer Book, he communicated the use of it to Park, who was thus enabled to beguile the gloomy hours of his solitude and sickness. At length the rains became less frequent, and

r abated, so

that he could move out and enjoy the fresh air in the fields. On the 19th of April, after Park had remained seven months at Kamalia, Kaarfa, the slave merchant, having collected his slaves, and completed all necessary preparations, set out toward the coast, taking the traveler, to whom his behavior had always been marked by the greatest kindness, along with him. Their road led them across the Jallonka wilderness, where the sufferings of every member of the caravan, and more particularly of the slaves, were most acute; but affliction was far from having taught them commisseration, for a fine young female slave, fainting from fatigue, had no sooner signified her inability to go on, than the universal cry of the caravan was, "Cut her throat, cut her throat."

By the interposition of Kaarfa her life was spared, but she was abandoned on the road, where she was, no doubt, soon devoured by wild beasts. At length, after a long, toilsome journey, Kaarfa succeeded in fulfilling his promise, and conducted Park safely back to the King of Yam's land, which he reached on the 10th of June, and where the good old man was overwhelmed with the gratitude of his guest. Park now took his passage in an American vessel, and on arriving in the West Indies, quitted this ship for a packet bound for an English port, where he arrived on the 22d of December, 1797, after an absence of two years and seven months.

Immediately on his landing, he hastened to London, where he arrived before daylight on the morning of Christmas day. It being too early an hour to call on his brother-in-law, he strolled about for some time in the neighboring streets. At length, finding one of the entrances into the gardens of the British Museum accidentally open, he went in and walked about there for some time. It happened that Mr. Dickson, who had the care of these gardens, went there early that morning on some trifling business. What must have been his emotions on beholding, at that extraordinary time and place, the vision, as it must at first have appeared, of his long lost friend, the object of so many anxious reflections, and whom he had long numbered with the dead.