Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805 (ed John Whishaw) | Page 5

of scientific books obtained from thence. In process of
time he acquired great knowledge and became eminent among the
English Botanists; and is now known in Europe among the proficients
in that science as one of its most successful cultivators, and the author
of some distinguished Works. At an advanced period of life he is still
active in business, and continues to pursue his botanical studies with
unabated ardour and assiduity. [Footnote: Mr. Dickson is a Fellow of
the Linnæan Society, of which he was one of the original founders: and
also Fellow and Vice President of the Horticultural Society. Several
communications from him, appear in different volumes of the Linnæan
Transactions; but he is principally known among Botanists by a work
entitled, "Fasciculi Quatuor Plantarum, Cryptogamicarum Britanniæ."
_Lond._ 1785-93; in which he has described upwards of four hundred
plants not before noticed. He has the merit of having directed the
attention of the Botanists of this country to one of the most abstruse
and difficult parts of that science; to the advancement of which he has
himself, very greatly contributed.]
Such an instance of successful industry united with a taste for
intellectual pursuits, deserves to be recorded; not only on account of its
relation to the subject of this narrative, but because, it illustrates in a
very striking and pleasing manner, the advantages of education in the
lower classes of life. The attention of the Scottish farmers and
peasantry to the early instruction of their children has been already
remarked, and is strongly exemplified in the history of Mr. Park's

family. The diffusion of knowledge among the natives of that part of
the kingdom, and their general intelligence, must be admitted by every
unprejudiced observer; nor is there any country in which the effects of
education are so conspicuous in promoting industry and good conduct,
and in producing useful and respectable men of the inferior and middle
classes, admirably fitted for all the important offices of common life.
[Footnote: See Appendix, No. I.]
* * * * *
In consequence of the appointment which Mungo Park had obtained as
surgeon in the East India Company's service, by the interest of Sir
Joseph Banks, he sailed for the East Indies in the Worcester in the
month of February, 1792; and having made a voyage to Bencoolen, in
the island of Sumatra, returned to England in the following year.
Nothing material occurred during this voyage: but he availed himself of
all the opportunities which it afforded to obtain information in his
favourite scientific pursuits, and appears to have made many
observations, and collected many specimens, in Botany and Natural
History. Several of these were the subjects of a communication made
by him to the Linnæan Society, which was afterwards published in their
printed Transactions. [Footnote: In the Third Volume of the Linnæan
Transactions, p. 83, is a paper by Park, read Nov. 4,1794, containing
descriptions of eight new fishes from Sumatra; which he represents to
be the fruit of his leisure hours during his stay on that coast.]
It does not sufficiently appear, whether Mr. Park, after his return from
the East Indies, came to any final resolution with regard to his
continuing as a surgeon in the Company's service. But whatever might
be his intention in this respect, new prospects now opened upon him,
and a scene of action far more congenial to his taste and feelings, was
presented to his ambition.
Some years prior to this period, a few distinguished individuals,
induced by a very liberal spirit of curiosity, had formed themselves into
an Association for promoting discoveries in the Interior of Africa, and
were now prosecuting their researches with great activity and success.
In the course of a few years they had investigated, and placed in a
clearer point of view than had hitherto been done by geographers, some
of the leading facts relative to the Northern part of that Continent; the
characteristic differences of the principal tribes, their commercial

relations, the routes of the great caravans, the general diffusion of the
Mahomedan religion, and the consequent prevalence of the Arabic
language throughout a considerable part of that vast continent.
[Footnote: See Vol. I. of the Proceedings of African Association.
London, 1810.] With the assistance of their distinguished Associate,
Major Rennell, they were now proceeding to trace the principal
geographical outlines of Northern Africa; and were endeavouring to
ascertain the course of the great inland river Joliba or Niger, and to
obtain some authentic information concerning Tombuctoo, a principal
city of the interior and one of the great marts of African commerce.
In the course of these enquiries, the Association, since their first
establishment in 1788, had employed several persons, well qualified for
such undertakings, upon missions into various parts of the African
Continent. Several of these were known to