Intelligence has been received from Sir Humphry and Lady Davy, but not till very lately, though they must have reached Paris nearly two months ago. The letters came by the post, and of course are quite
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| Mungo Park |
Upon the whole there is a tone of disappointment, as I understand, through the whole of this letter, and the journey to Paris appears not to have answered their expectations. On their arrival at Morlaix they were very rigorously searched by the Custom House officers, and probably had a tedious and disagreeable journey, in a rainy season, and through bad roads to Paris, where they must have arrived at a time of great public anxiety and disaster, and when every Englishman must have been regarded by the police with great jealousy and suspicion. The same circumstances have continued during the whole time of their residence, and must have spread a great gloom over the Parisian society.
I am looking over Mungo Park’s Journal, which I suppose will soon be published. It contains little new information, but is altogether curious and interesting. He was well qualified by his ardour and intrepidity, to be an explorer of new countries; but seems to have been no great observer. Indeed, his principal motive was the geographical ambition of ascertaining the course of the Niger, and he seems to have cared about little besides. He committed
| 43 |
| The Allies |
