Abstract
Park’s work in Sumatra had impressed Banks who was interested in promoting African exploration. In 1794, Banks presented Park with the opportunity to discover the course of the Niger River. The prospect of a “great river” that lay beyond the vast desert in northern Africa excited Europeans for many years. Park was instructed to get to the Niger by the most expeditious route and explore its course, from its point of origin to its terminus, by visiting the major towns and cities located in the vicinity, especially Timbuctoo. When Park was captured by Ali, a cruel tyrant, he was humiliated while imprisoned in Ali’s camp in Benown. While Ali was distracted by an attack from a former ally, Park escaped but without the rest of his possessions, except his compass and horse. Park was able to set a course, east-southeast, south of the route he had taken going across Ludamar, prior to his capture. Barely able to slake his thirst or give his weary horse enough water to keep going in the arid conditions of Ludamar, Park finally reached the greener territory of Segu. He received better treatment in villages along his route, receiving enough food and drink so he was able to go at a fairly brisk pace, averaging close to 30 miles a day. At a small village, Park learned from the locals that the Niger was nearby. On or about July 21st, 1796, Park arrived at the Niger, the great object of his journey. Park proceeded down the Niger along the northern bank, likely by horseback and foot. After learning that another tribe of people (the Maniana) were cannibals, and because he already was in a feverish state, he decided to return to the region of Gambia and then home. He reached Falmouth in Devon on December 22nd, 1797, after being away from England for over two and a half years. People had given him up for dead or at least lost with little hope of survival. Upon his return to England, Park was greeted as a hero for his miraculous survival.
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Notes
- 1.
National Library of Scotland, MS. No. 107 82, f. 180. A copy is in Lupton, Mungo Park, The African Traveler, p. 17.
- 2.
Because the Endeavour was a brig, and the ship Captain James Cook and Banks sailed on in 1769 was a barque it was unlikely the same vessel. It was common at the time to have a number of sailing ships bearing the same name. The Endeavour that Cook sailed on was sold by the Admiralty to the French Government in 1790 and was renamed the La Liberté. Its eventual fate is unknown although there are reports that it lies at the bottom of Newport Harbor in Rhode Island while a contrary report indicated that years ago it was at anchor in the Thames, between Woolwich and Greenwich, having spent its last days as a home for female convicts. Cook’s Log (Published by Captain Cook Society), vol. 19, no. 2 (1996), p. 1273.
- 3.
Kenneth Lupton in Mungo Park, The African Traveler indicated that Banks was interested in the continent’s rich natural resources, including gold, but “the botanist … was also interested in the natural products growing, or capable of being introduced and grown …” p. 25.
- 4.
Park, Travels in the Interior District of Africa (London: W. Bulmer and Co., 1799, Third Edition), pp. 1–3.
- 5.
Park, Travels in the Interior District of Africa, p. 26.
- 6.
Park’s sketchbook, containing the drawings and watercolors he made while in Pisania, is preserved today in the Library of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.
- 7.
Park, Travels in the Interior District of Africa, p. 34.
- 8.
Ibid., p. 37.
- 9.
Ibid., p. 41.
- 10.
Park, Travels in the Interior District of Africa, p. 85.
- 11.
Lupton speculated that Ali might have lost interest in kee** Park any longer and made a rather half-hearted attempt to continue holding him in captivity. It is difficult to determine the accuracy of this account, and Park’s memoirs (Travels) do not provide a definitive answer, Mungo Park, the African Traveler, p. 71.
- 12.
Mungo Park, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa (Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2002), pp. 178–79. Reprint of Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa (London: W. Bulmer and Co., 1799) with additional material, p. 194. Park indicated that it was on the 20th when he first saw the Niger. Modern accounts such as Lupton’s in Mungo Park, the African Traveler have calculated it more accurately, i.e., it was the 21st of July.
- 13.
Ibid., p. 180.
- 14.
Ibid.
- 15.
Ibid., p. 182.
- 16.
Ibid., p. 183.
- 17.
Ibid., p. 195.
- 18.
Park wrote, “The vessel in which I had taken a passage for America was obliged to come in distress, and I have this day taken a passage in the Chesterfields packet for England, in consequence of which I have been under the necessity of Drawing on you in favour of Sherrington & Dixon, for the sum of forty Pounds ….” Letter from Park to Banks, Antigua, November 13, 1797, in the collection of copies of the correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks made for Dawson Turner, Fellow of the Royal Society in 1833–1834. Dawson Turner Collection (D.T.C.) 10 (1): 209.
- 19.
The London Chronicle, from Thursday January 4 to Saturday, January 6, 1798, No. 6061, p. 17.
- 20.
The Niger River, as Park observed, flows eastward for a considerable distance before reversing direction, and then it travels in a southwesterly direction to the Atlantic. See Glyn Williams, Naturalists at Sea, From Dampier to Darwin (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2013). p. 6.
- 21.
The London Chronicle from Thursday, January 4, to Saturday, January 6, 1798, Volume LXXXIII, No. 6061, Thursday, January 5, 1798, p. 17c.
- 22.
The London Chronicle from Thursday, January 25, to Saturday, January 27, 1798, Volume LXXXIII, No. 6070, Saturday, January 27, 1798, p. 96c.
- 23.
St. James’s Chronicle (British Evening Post) No. 6247, Tuesday January 2 to Thursday January 4, 1798, January 4 (p. 4, last page).
- 24.
The True Briton, No. 1591, Monday. January 29, 1798 (p. 4, last page of issue).
- 25.
Letter from Mungo Park to Banks, September 14, 1798 [in a collection of autograph letters compiled by Kenneth A. Webster] Webster Collection <13>; D.T.C. 11: 71–72. Also copy in Sir Joseph Banks, The Indian & Pacific Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, ed. Neil Chambers, vol. 4, letter #348 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), pp. 548–549.
- 26.
Letter from Park to Banks, September 20, 1798, D.T.C. 11: 79. Also, copy in Sir Joseph Banks, The Indian & Pacific Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, ed. Neil Chambers, vol. 4, letter #350 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), pp. 549–550.
- 27.
Letter from Banks to Park, September 21, 1798, D.T.C. 11: 80. Also, copy in Sir Joseph Banks, The Indian & Pacific Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, ed. Neil Chambers, vol. 4, letter #352 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), p. 551.
- 28.
Letter from Banks to Robert Moss, September 21, 1798, copy in Sir Joseph Banks, The Indian & Pacific Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, ed. Neil Chambers, vol. 4, letter #351 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011). p. 550.
- 29.
Letter from Moss to Banks, September 24, 1798, The Indian & Pacific Correspondence, letter # 354, p. 552.
- 30.
Letter from Banks to Park, September 25, 1798, D.T.C. 11: 86–87. Also, copy in The Indian & Pacific Correspondence letter # 355, pp. 552–553.
- 31.
Letter from Park to Banks, September 26, 1798, D.T.C. 11: 88–89. Also copy in The Indian & Pacific Correspondence, letter # 356, p. 553. Privately, Banks was a good deal harsher in criticizing Park’s rejection. He wrote to Moss on September 28th (1798), explaining that if Park “had his Enthusiasm continued, he wou’d have made an excellent Instrument in the hands of a good Director, as that is gone, he is no longer worth a farthing,” The Indian & Pacific Correspondence, letter # 357, p. 554.
- 32.
Park’s marriage is the reason often cited as why Park refused Banks’s offer. But Park’s marriage never impeded his daring adventures later on so it seems that it was not the chief reason for his refusal. Mark Duffill, in his fascinating biography, Mungo Park, West African Explorer, makes it clear that it was Park’s hurt pride that led him to turn down the opportunity Banks presented him. But even this explanation is insufficient. Park turned down Banks because he wanted to return to Africa to continue the exploration of the Niger, something he was unable to do on his first trip there (Edinburgh: Royal Museum (National Museum of Scotland), 1999).
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Schwartz, J. (2021). Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa. In: Robert Brown and Mungo Park. Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden, vol 122. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74859-3_4
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