lived many years.
From this person Clapperton obtained the following information
respecting the death of Mr. Park, and which confirmed the previous
reports which had been obtained respecting him. Gomsoo said he was at
Youri when the English came down in a boat from Timbuctoo, and were
lost, which circumstance he related in the following manner:--They
had arrived off a town called Boosa, and having sent a gun and some
other articles as presents to the sultan of Youri, they sent to
purchase a supply of onions in the market. The sultan apprised them
of his intention to pay them a visit, and offered to send people to
guide them through the ledges of rock, which run quite across the
channel of the river a little below the town, where the banks rise
into high hills on both sides. Instead of waiting for the sultan,
they set off at night, and by daybreak next morning, a horseman
arrived at Youri, to inform the sultan that the boat had struck upon
the rocks. The people on both sides of the river then began to assail
them with arrows, upon which they threw overboard all their effects,
and _two white men,_ arm and arm, jumped into the water, two slaves
only remaining in the boat, with some books and papers, and several
guns. One of the books was covered with wax-cloth, and still remained
in the hands of the sultan of Youri. Gomsoo also told Clapperton, and
his account was confirmed by others, that the sultan of Youri was a
native of Sockna, in the regency of Tripoli, and prided himself
extremely on his birth, but that he was such a drunkard, whenever any
person of consequence came to visit him, that nothing proved so
acceptable a present as a bottle of rum.

On Clapperton's return home from Gomsoo's, he found a message had
been left for him to wait upon the sultan, which he complied with
immediately after breakfast. He received him in an inner apartment,
attended only by a few slaves. After asking Clapperton how he did,
and several other chit chat questions, he was not a little surprised,
without a single question being put to him on the subject, to hear,
that if he wished to go to Nyffee, there were two roads leading to
it, the one direct, but beset by enemies; the other safer, but more
circuitous; that by either route he would be detained during the
rains, in a country at present in a state of rebellion, and therefore
that he ought to think seriously of these difficulties. Clapperton
assured the sultan that he had already take