He departed from Doolinkeaboo in company with two negroes, who were going to Sego.  They stopped at a small village, where an acquaintance of one of the negroes invited them to a public entertainment.  They distributed with great liberality a dish called sinkatoo, made of sour milk, meal, and beer.  The women were admitted into the society, a circumstance which had never come under Mr. Park’s observation before; every one drank as he pleased; they nodded to each other when about to drink, and on setting down the calabash, commonly said berha (thank you.) Both men and women were in a state of intoxication, but were far from being quarrelsome.

Mr. Park and the two negroes then resumed their journey, and passed several large villages, where the former was constantly taken for a Moor, and with his horse, which he drove before him, afforded much mirth to the Bambarrans.  “He has been at Mecca,” says one; “you may see that by his clothes.”  Another asked him if his horse was sick?  A third wished to purchase it, &c., and even the negroes at last seemed ashamed of his company.  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.]