itinerant traders, which are paid in kind (the only system of taxation) are levied. His office is considered as hereditary, and the son, if arrived at years of discretion, succeeds to his father's authority.

The lower orders, or that class which constitutes the bulk of the people, are in a state of slavery, or vassallage, to individual proprietors ; but the power of the master is by no means unlimited. He may punish his slave corporally; but cannot deprive him of life for any offence, nor even sell him to a stranger, without first bringing him to a publick trial (termed a Palaver) before the chief-men of the town. On these occasions, the native Mahometans are generally desired to give their advice; and it is remarkable, that there are a sort of professional advocates, who offer their services to the party accused, and are allowed to plead in his behalf. These indulgences indeed extend only to native or domestick slaves: captives taken in war, and those unfortunate beings who are obtained in traffick, may be sold at pleasure, and treated as the owner thinks proper.

It were easy, from the notices which Mr. Park has collected, to enlarge on these and others of their publick institutions and customs; but of various particulars, common to all the African nations which our traveller visited, something will be said hereafter; and a more copious and detailed account given by himself, in the work which he is preparing. We shall therefore now follow him in his journey, and shall presently have the mortification to find him in a hopeless and austere captivity, among a barbarous race; in whom all the fierce and selfish passions of savage life, are inflamed and urged into action by a blind and remorseless fanaticism: but this will be the subject of a separate Chapter.

CHAPTER II.

Mr. Park is taken Captive by the Moors-bis ill Treatment-some Particulars concerning Major Houghton's Death-Park receives Information concerning different Routes from the Mediterranean into the Interior of Africa-his Negro Boy sold into Slavery-bis own Danger, and Escape from the Moors.

THE town of Jarra, at which Mr. Park had now arrived, is situated in the kingdom of Ludamar, a Moorish country; of which it is not known that any account has ever been given in any of the languages of Europe. The town itself is extensive; and the houses are built of clay and stone intermixed, the clay answering the purpose of mortar; but the major part of the inhabitants are Negroes, from the borders of the southern states; who prefer a precarious protection under the Moors, which they purchase by a tribute, rather than continue exposed to their predatory hostilities. The tribute they pay is considerable; and they manifest towards their Moorish superiors the most unlimited obedience and submission, and are treated by them with the utmost indignity and contempt.

The Moors of this, and the other states adjoining the country of the Negroes, resemble in their persons the Mulattoes of the WestIndies, to so great a degree, as not easily to be distinguished

from them: and in truth, the present generation seem to be a mixed race, between the Moors (properly so called) of the North, and the Africans of the South; possessing many of the worst qualities of

both nations.

Of the origin of these tribes, as distinguished from the inhabitants of Barbary, from whom they are divided by the Great Desert, nothing more seems to be known than what is related by John Leo, the African, whose account may be abridged as follows :

Before the Arabian conquest, about the middle of the 7th century, all the inhabitants of Africa, whether they were descended from Numidians, Phoenicians, Carthagenians, Romans, Vandals, or Goths, were comprehended under the general name of Mauri, or Moors. All these nations were converted to the religion of Mahomet during the Arabian empire under the Kaliphs.

Among the Numidians were certain tribes, who, preferring a pastoral life to a fixed place of residence, retired southward across the Desert: " and by one of those tribes, (says Leo,) that of Zenhaga, "were discovered and conquered the Negro nations on the Niger." By the Niger, is here undoubtedly meant, the river of Senegal ; which in the Mandingo language is called Bafing, or the Black

river.

To what extent these people are now spread over the African continent it is difficult to ascertain. There is reason to believe that their dominion stretches from west to east, in a narrow line or belt, from the mouth of the Senegal (on the northern side of that river) to the confines of Abyssinia.

They are divided into petty tribes; the chief or king of each, exercising absolute jurisdiction over his own horde, without acknowledging any allegiance to a common sovereign. In their usual intercourse with each other, all distinctions of rank seem however to be forgotten the king and his camel driver frequently eat out of the same bowl, and sleep in the same bed. Such of the tribes as live constantly in camps, pursue no sort of agriculture, but purchase of the Negroes corn and other necessaries of life, and even their clothing. Their chief medium of barter is rock salt, which they procure from the salt pits of the Great Desert.

The country affords sufficient herbage for black cattle, sheep, and goats; and the Moors possess an excellent breed of horses; but their usual beasts of burthen are the camel and the bullock. With the slaves which they obtain in their predatory excursions against the inland African nations, their traders purchase arms and gunpowder, of the Europeans: and their chief commerce of this kind, is with the French on the Senegal river. Their only manufacture is a coarse haircloth, of which they make their tents. It is spun from the hair of goats, by the women: but of these, and other particulars in their domestick economy, it is only necessary to observe that in their apparel, manners, and general habits of life, they resemble the roving Arabs, of whom many accounts have already been given. Being removed from all intercourse with civilized nations, and having to boast an advantage over the Negroes, by possessing, though in a very limited degree, the knowledge of letters, they are at once the vainest and proudest, and perhaps the most bigotted, ferocious and intolerant, of all the nations on the earth; combining in their character the blind superstition of the Negro, with the savage cruelty and treachery of the Arab. It is not probable that many of them had ever beheld a Euro

pean before Major Houghton's arrival among them: but they had all been taught to regard the Christian name with inconceivable abhorrence, and to consider it nearly as lawful to murder a European as it would be to kill a dog.

Our traveller was not long in perceiving the dangerous situation into which he was unhappily brought; for the Negro, who had hitherto accompanied him from the Gambia as interpreter, after a few days residence in Jarra, desired earnestly to be discharged, and sent back to Pisania; expressing a strong apprehension that the Moors would seize on him, and sell him for a slave.

During his stay in Jarra, Mr. Park resided at the house of a Slatee trader named Daman, who was known to Dr. Laidley. By him Park was informed that he could proceed no further on his way to Bambara, without leave from Ali, the Moorish chieftain, or king of the country, who was then encamped at a place called Benowm; and that it was absolutely necessary a present should accompany the application, by which permission was to be obtained. Five garments of country cloth were accordingly purchased, by the sale of one of Mr. Park's fowling-pieces; and Daman undertook to negotiate the business. At the end of a fortnight permission arrived from Benowm. It was brought to Jarra by one of Ali's own slaves; who said, he was ordered to serve Mr. Park as a guide to Bambara. This had a favourable appearance; and although our traveller afterwards found that the permission to pass through the country, was nothing more than a feint to draw him onwards, in the view of preventing his escape back to Kaarta, and that Ali's slave was sent purposely to be a spy upon his motions, he had no suspicion of the treachery that was intended: and on the 27th of February took his departure from Jarra. He was