When Mr.Park proposed to go to court, he said he must stop until the afternoon, when the king would send for him.

It was the afternoon of the next day, however, before another messenger arrived from Mansong, who told Mr.Park, it was the king's pleasure he should depart immediately from the environs of Sego, but that Mansong, wishing to relieve a white man in distress, had sent five thousand kowries [*] to him to continue his journey, and if it were his intention to proceed to Jenne, he (the messenger) had orders to guide him to Sansanding.

Mr.Park concludes his account of this adventure in the following words:-- [Footnote: Kowries are little shells, which pass current as money, in many parts of the East Indies as well as in Africa.

Mr.Park estimates about 250 kowries equal to one shilling.

One hundred of them would purchase a day's provision for himself and corn for his horse.] "I was at first puzzled to account for this behaviour of the king, but from the conversation I had with the guide, I had afterwards reason to believe, that Mansong would willingly have admitted me into his presence at Sego, but was apprehensive he might not be able to protect me against the blind and inveterate malice of the moorish inhabitants.