our going out we were but nine. And so
we wisten never whether that our fellows were lost or turned again for
dread.

But we came through that vale whole and living for that we were very
devout, for I was more devout then than ever I was before or after, and
all for the dread of fiends, that I saw in diverse figures. And I
touched none of the gold and silver that meseemed was there, lest it
were only there of the subtlety of the devils, and because I would not
be put out of my devotions. So God of His grace helped us, and so we
passed that perilous vale, without peril and without encumbrance,
thanked be Almighty God.

These things have I told, that men may know some of all those marvellous
things that I have seen in my way by land and sea. And now I, John
Mandeville, Knight, that have passed many lands and many isles and
countries, and searched many full strange places, and have been in many
a full good honourable company, and at many a fair deed of armes--albeit
that I did none myself, for mine unable insuffisance--now I am come
home--mawgree myself--to rest. And so I have written these things in
this book. Wherefore I pray to all the readers and hearers of this book
that they would pray to God for me. And I shall pray for them, and
beseech Almighty God to full fill their souls with inspiration of the
Holy Ghost, in saving them from all their enemies both of body and soul,
to the worship and thanking of Him that in perfect Trinity liveth and
reigneth God, in all worlds and in all times; Amen, Amen, Amen.

MUNGO PARK

Travels in the Interior of Africa

_I.--Up the Gambia_

Mungo Park, who was born Sept. 20, 1771, on a farm near
Selkirk, Scotland, and died in 1806 in Africa, will for
ever be regarded as the most distinguished pioneer of the
illustrious procession of African explorers. Trained as a
surgeon at Edinburgh, in 1792 he undertook an adventurous
exploration in the East Indies. In 1795 the African
Association appointed him successor to Major Houghton, who
had perished in seeking to trace the course of the Niger
and to penetrate to Timbuctoo. He disappeared in the
interior for eighteen months, and was given up for lost,
but survived to tell the romantic story of his
experiences. Returning to Scotland, Mungo Park married,
but his passion for travel was irrepressible. In May,
1805, he set out on another expedition, with an imposing
party of over forty Europeans. The is