leak continuing to gain upon us, notwithstanding our utmost
exertions to clear the vessel, the seamen insisted on bearing away
for the West Indies, as affording the only chance of saving our
lives. Accordingly, after some objections on the part of the
master, we directed our course for Antigua, and fortunately made
that island in about thirty-five days after our departure from
Goree. Yet even at this juncture we narrowly escaped destruction,
for on approaching the north-west side of the island we struck on
the Diamond Rock and got into St. John's Harbour with great
difficulty. The vessel was afterwards condemned as unfit for sea,
and the slaves, as I have heard, were ordered to be sold for the
benefit of the owners.

At this island I remained ten days, when the Chesterfield packet,
homeward bound from the Leeward Islands, touching at St. John's for
the Antigua mail, I took my passage in that vessel. We sailed on
the 24th of November, and after a short but tempestuous voyage
arrived at Falmouth on the 22nd of December, from whence I
immediately set out for London; having been absent from England two
years and seven months.



NOTE



The following passage from James Montgomery's poem, "The West
Indies," published in 1810, was inspired by "Mungo Park's Travels in
the Interior of Africa." It enshrines in English verse the