XX INTRODUCTION.

reduced to little more than a degree of latitude, or about seventy miles ; but it is seventy miles of a mountainous country. By our occupation of the beautiful and fertile island of Fernando Po, and the extension of African commerce which may be anticipated in consequence thereof, there can be little doubt that this question of their identity or otherwise will ere long be decided.

From a variety of notices obtained byClapperton, it is pretty clear, that the particulars of the death of Mungo Park, and the spot where the fatal event happened, are not very different from what was originally reported by Amadoo Fatima, and has since been repeated in various parts of the continent. The following correspondence, which was found in one of Clapperton’s memorandum books, and translated from the Arabic by Mr. Abraham Salami, is highly interesting; and the more important, from the avowal of an individual, that he is in possession of the books of that enterprising traveller, and is ready to deliver them up to any person duly authorised by the sovereign of England to receive them.

TRANSLATION OF SOME DOCUMENTS RELATIVE 1 O MUNGO PARK’S DEATH AND PAPERS.

No. 1.

“ Praise is due to God alone !—As to the subject of the Christians who were drowned in the river of Boossy, they consisted of two freemen, and two slaves, their own property. The event thus happened in the month of Rajab : As their ship or vessel w ras proceeding down the river, it came to a narrow place or creek, into which they pushed it, and remained there three days ; but the people of Boossy, having observed them, assembled, and went and fought them for three days. When the fight became severe, they (the Christians) began to take up their goods, and throw them into the river, till they had thrown a great quantity ; and on the fight becoming still more severe (desperate), one of them got out, and threw himself into the river, and died ; and, in the same manner, the other followed him, leaving their two slaves imprisoned in the ship ; so that the hands of the people of Boossy did not reach so far as to kill them (i. e. they died in drowning, and were not murdered). Thus I have heard, and do herein write it myself. “ The Sharif of Bokhara.”