Background
Mungo Park was born on September 11, 1771 in Selkirkshire, Scotland. He was the seventh child in a large family.
(In 1795 Mungo Park, a twenty-four year old surgeon, set o...)
In 1795 Mungo Park, a twenty-four year old surgeon, set out from the Gambia to trace the course of the Niger, a river of which Europeans had no first-hand knowledge. Travels in the interior districts of Africa is his Journal of that extraordinary journey. He travelled on the sufferance of African rulers and soon came to depend for his survival on the charity of African villagers. Before he reached the Niger, he endured months of captivity in the camp of a Moorish chief. Yet throughout his travels, Park maintained a remarkable empathy for African societies and beliefs. He recorded what he saw as accurately as he could, and without presuming European superiority.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1840226013/?tag=2022091-20
( Mungo Parks Travels in the Interior Districts of Afric...)
Mungo Parks Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa has long been regarded as a classic of African travel literature. In fulfilling his mission to find the Niger River and in documenting its potential as an inland waterway for trade, Park was significant in opening Africa to European economic interests. His modest, low-key heroism made it possible for the British public to imagine themselves as a welcomed force in Africa. As a tale of adventure and survival, it has inspired the imaginations of readers since its first publication in 1799 and writers from Wordsworth and Melville to Conrad, Hemingway, and T. Coreghessan Boyle have acknowledged the influence of Parks narrative on their work. Unlike the large expeditions that followed him, Park traveled only with native guides or alone. Without much of an idea of where he was going, he relied entirely on local people for food, shelter, and directions throughout his eventful eighteen month journey. While his warm reaction to the people he met made him famous as a sentimental traveler, his chronicle also provides a rare written record of the lives of ordinary people in West Africa before European intervention. His accounts of war, politics, and the spread of Islam, as well as his constant confrontations with slavery as practiced in eighteenth-century West Africa, are as valuable today as they were in 1799. In preparing this new edition, editor Kate Ferguson Marsters presents the complete text and includes reproductions of all the original maps and illustrations. Parks narrative serves as a crucial text in relation to scholarship on the history of slavery, colonial enterprise, and nineteenth-century imperialism. The availability of this full edition will give a new generation of readers access to a travel narrative that has inspired other readers and writers over two centuries and will enliven scholarly discussion in many fields.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0822325373/?tag=2022091-20
Mungo Park was born on September 11, 1771 in Selkirkshire, Scotland. He was the seventh child in a large family.
Park received a good education. He studied at Selkirk grammar school and from 1788 to 1792 he was educated as a surgeon at the University of Edinburgh, studying medicine and botany.
In 1792 Park was appointed a medical officer on the Worcester, which sailed for Sumatra. During this journey he made many important observations about Sumatran plant and animal life, winning the respect of many British naturalists. This was sufficient to earn him command of a small expedition into Africa, which had the aim of following the Niger River as far as possible.
Park left Britain in May 1795 and, upon his arrival in Gambia, studied the local language for several months before setting out in December with an interpreter and a slave. By later standards, he had woefully little equipment for navigation, exploration, or scientific discovery. In fact, he left with a sextant, a compass, a thermometer, a few guns, and some pistols. In spite of his relative lack of equipment and lack of knowledge of Africa, Park managed to make his way to the Niger and to ascend it for over 200 miles (322 km) into the African interior. During this part of his trip, he was forced to deal with thieves, obstinate village leaders, fearful Arab traders, and more. He was imprisoned for four months by an Arab chief. Exhaustion, following Arab captivity, and a lack of resources forced him back to England in late 1797.
He wrote a book on his travels. This book, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, became an instant success and earned him no small degree of fame. Unfortunately, he was not very polished socially in addition to being a poor public speaker, which kept him from acceptance as either a public lecturer or in the society of the times.
In 1799 Park established a medical practice in Scotland until asked by the government to head a second expedition to the Niger. This time he was commissioned as a Captain in the Army and was given 40 men to lead on the expedition. Unfortunately, this trip was even more difficult than the first, and only 11 men even reached the Niger River, finding it near what is now the city of Bamako (in Mali). The survivors set off in canoes, after obtaining permission from a local ruler, reaching the village of Sansanding, slightly down-river from Segou. Here they rested, then set out again in November 1805. No expedition members were seen again. In 1812 it was learned that when the explorers reached the rapids at Bussa, about 1, 000 miles below Sansanding, they were attacked by local inhabitants, and Park was drowned.
(In 1795 Mungo Park, a twenty-four year old surgeon, set o...)
( Mungo Parks Travels in the Interior Districts of Afric...)
(Hard to find book)