Travels in the Interior of Africa, vol 1

Travels in the Interior of Africa,
vol 1

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Volume 1
by Mungo Park (#1 in our series by Mungo Park)
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Title: Travels in the Interior of Africa - Volume 1
Author: Mungo Park
Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5266] [Yes, we are more than one

year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 20, 2002]
[Most recently updated: June 20, 2002]
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TRAVELS
IN AFRICA - VOLUME 1 ***

Transcribed from the 1893 Cassell & Company edition by David Price,
email [email protected]

TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA--VOLUME 1

INTRODUCTION

Mungo Park was born on the 10th of September, 1771, the son of a
farmer at Fowlshiels, near Selkirk. After studying medicine in
Edinburgh, he went out, at the age of twenty-one, assistant-surgeon in a
ship bound for the East Indies. When he came back the African Society
was in want of an explorer, to take the place of Major Houghton, who
had died. Mungo Park volunteered, was accepted, and in his
twenty-fourth year, on the 22nd of May, 1795, he sailed for the coasts
of Senegal, where he arrived in June.
Thence he proceeded on the travels of which this book is the record. He
was absent from England for a little more than two years and a half;
returned a few days before Christmas, 1797. He was then twenty-six
years old. The African Association published the first edition of his
travels as "Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, 1795-7, by Mungo
Park, with an Appendix containing Geographical Illustrations of Africa,
by Major Rennell."
Park married, and settled at Peebles in medical practice, but was
persuaded by the Government to go out again. He sailed from

Portsmouth on the 30th of January, 1805, resolved to trace the Niger to
its source or perish in the attempt. He perished. The natives attacked
him while passing through a narrow strait of the river at Boussa, and
killed him, with all that remained of his party, except one slave. The
record of this fatal voyage, partly gathered from his journals, and
closed by evidences of the manner of his death, was first published in
1815, as "The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa in 1805, by
Mungo Park, together with other Documents, Official and Private,
relating to the same Mission. To which is prefixed an Account of the
Life of Mr. Park."
H. M.

CHAPTER I
--JOURNEY FROM PORTSMOUTH TO THE GAMBIA

Soon after my return from the East Indies in 1793, having learned that
the noblemen and gentlemen associated for the purpose of prosecuting
discoveries in the interior of Africa were desirous of engaging a person
to explore that continent, by the way of the Gambia river, I took
occasion, through means of the President of the Royal Society, to
whom I had the honour to be known, of offering myself for that service.
I had been informed that a gentleman of the name of Houghton, a
captain in the army, and formerly fort-major at Goree, had already
sailed to the Gambia, under the direction of the Association, and that
there was reason to apprehend he had fallen a sacrifice to the climate,
or perished in some contest with the natives. But this intelligence,
instead of deterring me from my purpose, animated me to persist in the
offer of my services with the greater solicitude. I had a passionate
desire to examine into the productions of a country so little known, and
to become experimentally acquainted with the modes of life and
character of the natives. I knew that I was able to bear fatigue, and I
relied on my youth and the strength of my constitution to preserve me
from the effects of the climate. The salary which the