"
On going to dinner, I found a party of officers and their ladies. "Mine
host," Mr. Johnston, with his fine and frank Belfast hospitality, does
the honors of his table with grace and ease. Nothing appears to give him
half so much delight as to see others happy around him. I read, in the
evening, the lives of Akenside, Gray, and Littleton. What a perfect
crab old Dr. Johnson was! But is there any sound criticism without
sternness?
_21st_. I finished the reading of Mungo Parke, the most enterprising
traveler of modern times. He appears to me to have committed two errors
in his last expedition, and I think his death is fairly attributable to
impatience to reach the mouth of the Niger. He should not have attempted
to pass from the Gambia to the Niger during the rainy season. By this,
he lost thirty-five out of forty men. He should not have tried to
_force_ a passage through the kingdom of Houssa, without making presents
to the local petty chiefs. By this, he lost his life. When will
geographers cease to talk about the mouth of the Niger? England has been
as indefatigable in solving this problem as she has been in finding out
the North West Passage, and, at present, as unsuccessful.
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