Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa | Page 6

Tripoli, and a memoir from his notes was drawn up by Mr. Beaufoy, which, though in many respects imperfect and erroneous, nevertheless threw a little additional light upon the condition of Africa. No correct information was obtained concerning the Niger.
Enough of knowledge, however, was possessed to show that the districts along the Gambia, stretching into the interior, afforded the most direct method of reaching the Niger, and the countries through which it rolled. Accordingly this was the route taken by the next adventurer, Major Houghton, who seemed qualified for the task by the most ardent courage, and by a considerable acquaintance with the manners both of the Moors and negroes during his residence as consul at Morocco, and afterwards as fort-major at Goree. But it would appear that this gallant officer was strikingly deficient in the prudent and calculating temper which such an arduous journey demanded. Having set out early in 1791, he speedily reached Medina, the residence of the king of Wooli, who gave him information respecting the best route to Timbuctoo, and promised to furnish him with guides. During his residence Medina was entirely destroyed by a conflagration, and Major Houghton was forced, along with the inhabitants, to flee into the fields, carrying with him only a few such articles as he could hastily snatch up. Thence he journeyed on to Bambouk, and after crossing the Faleme arrived at Ferbanna, where the king sent a guide along with him, and likewise furnished him with money to defray the expenses of the journey. He was imprudent enough to carry with him a quantity of merchandise, and thereby excited the cupidity off the natives, with whom he was engaged in constant disputes. After a complication of difficulties, he took a northern route, intending to penetrate through Ludamar. The last intelligence received from him was dated from Simbing, the frontier village of this state, and was merely comprised in the following brief note, addressed to Dr. Laidley of Pisania:--"Major Houghton's compliments to Dr. Laidley, is in good health, on his way to Timbuctoo; robbed of all his goods by Fenda Bucar's son." Soon after this, rumours of his death reached Pisania; but the particulars were not known till Mr. Park's return, who brought certain intelligence. It appeared that at Jarra he had engaged some Moorish merchants to accompany him. They persuaded him to go to Tisheet, a place frequented for its salt mines, without informing him that it was much out of the direct road to Timbuctoo, intending to rob him by the way. In a few days he suspected their treachery, and resolved to return to Jarra, but, upon refusing to advance, he was stripped of every article, and then deserted. He wandered about the desert, alone, and famishing, till, utterly exhausted, he lay down under a tree and expired.
The next person who offered his services to the Association was Mungo Park, who has acquired such celebrity by the important acquisitions which he made to African Geography. As introductory to the narrative of his first expedition, we present our readers with a brief sketch of his early life.
PARK'S EARLY LIFE.
Mungo Park, the celebrated African traveller, was born at Fowlshiels, near the town of Selkirk, on the 10th September 1771. His father was a respectable farmer on the Duke of Buccleuch's estate; and his mother, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer of the name of Hislop, a woman of great good sense and prudence, who anxiously and faithfully discharged the duties which she owed to a large family of thirteen children, of whom Mungo, the subject of this memoir, was the seventh. Park's father died before his son had won that renown which so honourably distinguishes his name, though not without the satisfaction of witnessing a fair promise of his future distinction; but his mother, after hearing with much pride of her offspring's early achievements, had to lament his untimely fate; consoled, however, by the recollection of his unblemished character, and virtuous conduct, and by the thought of the legacy of fame which he had bequeathed, not to his family alone, but to his country.
With a solicitude for the education of his children, then by no means common among the Scottish farmers, Mr. Park hired a tutor to superintend their education, being anxious not to leave them to such chance instruction as they might receive before they were of a proper age for going to school; thus shewing that he was alive to the advantage of early habits of application and study. The boyhood of Mungo Park was not distinguished by any marks of peculiar talent, though he appears, when sent to Selkirk school, to have paid more than an average share of attention to his studies. Of a thoughtful and reserved disposition, he seldom took a share in the mirthful