They lodged that night at a small village, where Mr.Park procured victuals for himself and corn for his horse, in exchange for a button, and was told that he should see the Niger, which the negroes call Joliba, or the Great Water, early on the following day.

The thought of seeing the Niger in the morning, and the buzzing of the mosquitoes, kept Mr.Park awake the whole of the night, he had saddled his horse, and was in readiness before daylight, but as the gates of the village were shut on account of the wild beasts, he was obliged to wait until the people were stirring.
At length, having departed, they passed four large villages, and in a short time saw the smoke over Sego.
On approaching the town, Mr.Park was fortunate enough to overtake the fugitive Kaartans, to whose kindness he had been so much indebted in his journey through Bambarra.

They readily agreed to introduce him to the king, and they rode together through some marshy ground, where, as he was anxiously looking round for the river, one of them exclaimed, "_Geo affili_" see the water! and looking forwards, Mr.
Park says, "I saw, with infinite pleasure, the great object of my mission, the long sought for majestic Niger, glittering to the morning sun, as broad as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing _slowly to the eastward_.

[*] I hastened to the brink, and having drank of the water, lifted up my fervent thanks in prayer to the great Ruler of all things, for having thus far crowned my endeavours with success." [Footnote: We cannot reconcile this statement of Park with the subsequent discovery of Lander, who established the fact, that the Niger empties itself into the Bight of Benin.

The Niger, flowing to the eastward, could not possibly have the Bight of Benin for its estuary, nor is it laid down in any of the recent maps as having an easterly direction.] Mr.Park now proceeded towards Sego, the capital of Bambarra, which consists of four distinct towns; two on the northern bank of the Niger, called Sego Korro and Sego Koo, and two on the southern bank, called Sego Soo Korro and Sego See Korro.