_BACK TO THE GAMBIA AND HOME._
At Malacotta, Park could look forward with a considerable degree of
confidence to his safe return to the coast. He was once more within
the sphere of influence of coast trade, where the European was better
known, and the hostile agency of the Moor was of small account. There
were no more jungles to cross, and he was unaware of obstructing wars
on the route. Through good and evil report Karfa had remained his
staunch friend, and it was certain that now that his promised reward
was coming nearer and nearer attainment, he would not alter in his
honourable fidelity to his engagements. It was now only a question of
so many more days’ journey till the Gambia would be reached, and all
Park’s cares and troubles be at an end.
On the 7th of May the slave caravan left Malacotta, and resumed its
journey to the coast. The Bali, a branch of the Senegal, was crossed,
and Bintingala entered in the evening.
In the afternoon of the 12th the Falemé River was forded about 100
miles south of Park’s fording point on his inland journey. At this
place and time of year the river was only two feet deep, flowing over a
bed of sand and gravel.
On the same day the caravan halted at the residence of a Mandingo
merchant, who had his food served up in pewter dishes in the European
fashion. Next morning they were joined by a Serawuli slave caravan.
These traders had the reputation of being infinitely more cruel in
their treatment of slaves than the Mandingoes. Park was soon to see
a sample of their ways. The caravan was travelling with great speed
through the dense woods, when one of the slaves began to show signs
of exhaustion, and let his load fall from his head. A smart flogging
proved a temporary stimulant to the unhappy victim, but hardly a mile
was passed before nature once more asserted itself, and again the load
fell. A double dose of the lash proved a second time effectual, and
once more the slave struggled painfully forward. At last the limits of
his powers were reached, and it became clear that flog as they might he
would remain immovable.
The caravan could not wait till he recovered, and accordingly one of
the Serawulis undertook to wait and bring him to camp in the cool of
the evening. When the slave dealer did arrive in camp he came alone. No
questions were asked, but every one knew that either the unfortunate
man had been killed, or was left to be devoured by wild beasts.
Other examples of the slave dealers’ methods were almost daily
exhibited before Park’s eyes. At one place a Mandingo, having a slave
torn from a neighbouring district, agreed with Karfa to exchange him
for another from a more distant country, to which he could not run
away. The slave to be taken by Karfa was called on a trivial pretext to
come into the house. The moment he entered the gate was shut, and he
was told to sit down. At once he saw the danger of his situation--not
only the more horrible fate of transportation across the seas, but
the loss of all chance of escape to his native country. He would at
least make one effort for liberty. With the wild leap of a hunted deer
he cleared the fence of the court and bolted for the woods. But it
was useless. His enemies were too many. A few minutes of wild flight,
spurred on by wolfish cries, and then he was hunted down and brought
back in irons to be handed over to Karfa.
At another place one of the male slaves in the caravan was found to
be too exhausted to proceed further in spite of the usual physical
stimulants. A townsman was found willing to exchange him for a young
girl. No hint was given her of her approaching doom till the last
moment. Along with her companions she had come to see the caravan
depart, when all at once her master seized her by the hand and
delivered her to the slave dealer. “Never was a face of serenity more
suddenly changed into one of the deepest distress. The terror she
manifested on having the load put upon her head and the rope round her
neck, and the sorrow with which she bade adieu to her companions, were
truly affecting.”
Incidents like these were what chiefly characterised Park’s journey
to the Gambia. At times the curious as well as the horrible side of
African life peeped out to entertain him, as, for instance, when one of
the slatees, on returning for the first time to his native place after
an absence of three years, was met at the threshold of his door by his
bride-elect, who presented him with a calabash of water in which to
wash his hands. This done, “the girl, with a tear of joy sparkling in
her eye, drank the water,” in token of her fidelity and attachment.
Another of the slatees turned out to be an African Enoch Arden. For
eight long years he had stayed away from his wife, during which time
she heard nothing from him. Concluding after three years that he was
either dead or not likely to return, she seemingly without reluctance
gave her heart and hand to another, by whom she had two children. The
first husband now claimed her as his. The other objected on the ground
that a three years’ absence annulled a marriage. For four days a public
palaver was held to settle this knotty point, ending in the decision
that the husbands had equal rights, and that the wife had best settle
the matter by making her own choice. The lady asked time to consider,
but Park could perceive that not love but wealth would gain the day.
On the 20th of May the caravan entered the Tenda Wilderness, where
for two days they traversed dense woods. With what pleasure must Park
have noticed that the country shelved towards the south-west--that in
fact he had entered the basin of the Gambia. At sunset of the first
day a pool was reached after a very hot and trying march. To avoid the
burning heats of the day a night march was determined on. At eleven
o’clock the slaves were released from their irons and driven forward
in close order, as much to prevent them escaping as to save them from
wild beasts. In this fashion they travelled till daybreak, after a rest
continuing the march to Tambakunda, the place almost reached by Jobson
nearly 170 years before, and which he believed to be Timbuktu itself.
From Tambakunda the road led over a wild and rocky country, everywhere
rising into hills, and abounding with monkeys and wild beasts. During
the next two marches the reception everywhere met with by the caravan
was far from being hospitable, and they were even in some danger of
being plundered.
On the 30th of May the Nerico, a branch of the Gambia, was reached. As
soon as it was crossed the singing men began to chant a song expressive
of their delight at having got safe into the “land of the setting sun.”
Next day, to his infinite joy, Park found himself on the banks of the
Gambia, at a point where it was navigable, though lower down there were
shallows.
Three days later, Medina, the capital of Wulli, was reached, where Park
had been so hospitably received seventeen months before. The caravan
did not halt here; but Park, mindful of the old king’s prayer on his
behalf, sent word to him that his prayers had not been unavailing.
Next day Jindeh was reached, where the parting with Dr. Laidley had
taken place. Here Karfa left his slaves till a better opportunity of
selling them had arrived; but determined not to leave his white friend
till the last, he accompanied him on his way to Pisania.
Park at this point remarks: “Although I was now approaching the end
of my tedious and toilsome journey, and expected in another day to
meet with countrymen and friends, I could not part for the last time
with my unfortunate fellow-travellers, doomed as I knew most of them
to be to a life of captivity and slavery in a foreign land, without
great emotion.... We parted with reciprocal expressions of regret and
benediction. My good wishes and prayers were all that I could bestow
upon them, and it afforded me some consolation to be told that they
were sensible I had no more to give.”
On the 10th, Park once more shook hands with one of his countrymen. He
found that it was universally believed that he had met the same fate
as Major Houghton in Ludamar. He also learned with sincere sorrow that
neither Johnson, who had deserted him, nor Demba, who had been enslaved
by the Moors, had returned.
On the 12th, Dr. Laidley joined the long-lost traveller, and greeted
him as one risen from the dead. Park was soon, under his hospitable
hands, divested of his ragged Moorish garments. With them went the
luxuriant beard which had been the delight and admiration of natives
and Moors alike, among whom nothing is more envied, and he stood forth
once more the handsome young Scotchman his portrait shows him to be.
Karfa was now paid off, the stipulated reward being doubled, and Dr.
Laidley’s interest also promised in getting his slaves disposed of to
advantage.
Karfa was never tired expressing his wonderment at all he saw, though
nothing surprised him more than the incomprehensible madness of a
person in Park’s condition in life leaving all and suffering so
many hardships and dangers merely to see the river Niger. “I have
preserved,” says Park, “these little traits of character in this worthy
negro, not only from regard to the man, but also because they appear
to me to demonstrate that he possessed a mind above his condition,
and to such of my readers as love to contemplate human nature in all
its varieties, and to trace its progress from rudeness to refinement,
I hope the account I have given of this poor African will not be
unacceptable.”
Looking back on his long and terrible journey, Park could afford to
take a lenient view of all the people who had plundered, ill-used,
or inhospitably treated him, except the Moors, of whom he carried a
deep-rooted horror and hatred to his dying day. For the Mandingoes
and kindred tribes he could ever find an excuse for all he suffered
at their hands, and as a people he found them gentle, cheerful in
their dispositions, kind-hearted, and simple, with a natural sense of
justice which only very great temptation could overcome. He could not
find words strong enough to describe the disinterested charity and
tender solicitude shown by many of them, especially the women, whom he
found to be universally kind and compassionate, sympathising with his
sufferings, relieving his distresses, and contributing to his safety.
Reviewing what he had seen commercially, he found that slaves, gold,
and ivory, beeswax and honey, hides, gums, and dye woods, constituted
the whole catalogue of exportable commodities. Of other products, such
as tobacco, indigo, and cotton, sufficient only was raised for native
consumption. He concluded, nevertheless, that “it cannot, however,
admit of a doubt that all the rich and valuable productions both of
the East and West Indies might easily be naturalised and brought to
the utmost perfection in the tropical parts of this immense continent.
Nothing is wanting to this end but example to enlighten the minds of
the natives, and instruction to enable them to direct their industry
to proper objects. It was not possible for me to behold the wonderful
fertility of the soil, the vast herds of cattle, proper both for
food and labour, and a variety of other circumstances favourable to
colonisation and agriculture, and reflect withal on the means which
presented themselves of a vast inland navigation, without lamenting
that a country so abundantly gifted and favoured by nature should
remain in its present savage and neglected state. Much more did
I lament that a people of manners and dispositions so gentle and
benevolent should either be left as they now are, immersed in the gross
and uncomfortable blindness of Pagan superstition, or permitted to
become converts to a system of bigotry and fanaticism which, without
enlightening the mind, often debases the heart.” And yet which of
the representatives of the two religions, Islam and Christianity,
were doing the most good among the heathen according to Park’s own
showing--the Mohammedans, battling against the inrushing tide of rum
and gin, encouraging education, and spreading a knowledge of Allah the
One God; or the Christian merchants, fomenting and deepening all the
horrors of native barbarism that their trade in slaves might be kept
up, and adding to the degradation of the land by the drink and firearms
they gave in exchange for its people?
As there was no ship in the river when Park arrived, he expected
to have to wait for some months. In this, however, he was happily
disappointed, for an American slave ship, the _Charlestown_, arrived on
the 15th. Slaves were plentiful, and in a couple of days the cargo of
human flesh and blood for the plantations of South Carolina was made up
in exchange for rum and tobacco.
Though the route by America was excessively circuitous, it was such a
chance as Park could not afford to neglect. Accordingly, on the 17th of
June he bade farewell to all his English friends, and took passage in
the American vessel.
He had now reason to suppose that all his cares, anxieties, and dangers
were over, and nothing but rest and good treatment before him. Once
more, however, he was dogged by his usual ill-luck. The passage down
the river was tedious and fatiguing, the weather being exceedingly hot,
moist, and unhealthy. The result was that before Goree was reached,
four of the seamen, the surgeon, and three of the slaves had died of
fever. At Goree, owing to the difficulty of obtaining provisions,
the vessel was detained four weary months, so that it was the end of
October before she eventually set sail for America.
The _Charlestown’s_ cargo consisted of 130 slaves, of whom twenty-five
had been free Mohammedans, able to read and write a little Arabic. Some
of the others had seen Park _en route_, and many had heard of him in
their distant villages. But though he had not a word to say against the
slave trade, Park had a feeling heart for the miseries of those whom,
with his Calvinistic ideas, he believed predestined to a life of shame
and suffering. Being able to speak to them in their native language,
he did his best as a man and a doctor to comfort them. And in truth
they had need of all the consolation he could bestow. The manner in
which they were crowded, confined, and chained in the hold of the ship
produced terrible sufferings, while the foul air, the wretched sanitary
conditions, and the want of exercise brought on general sickness.
“Besides the three who died on the Gambia, and six or eight at Goree,
eleven perished at sea, and many of the survivors were reduced to a
very weak and emaciated condition.”
To make matters worse for all concerned, the _Charlestown_ sprang a
leak three weeks from Goree, and threatened to founder in mid-ocean. To
avoid this, the ablest of the negroes were taken from their chains and
kept at the pumps till they could be hounded on no longer, and sank
down exhausted and half dead. In spite of everything, however, the leak
continued to gain, and the misery of all on board was indescribable. As
affording the only chance of safety, the _Charlestown_ was turned from
its course and steered for Antigua, which was reached thirty-five days
out from Goree. But even in sight of harbour the ship narrowly escaped
destruction by striking on a sunken rock.
Park remained at Antigua for two days, when on the 24th November he was
taken up by a passing mail ship. After a short but tempestuous voyage
he arrived at Falmouth on the 22nd December, having been absent from
England two years and nine months.