26 MEMOIR OF BURCKIIARDT. 



Lucas, who Lad instructions to take the most direct 

 route from Tripoli into the interior; but the re- 

 bellious state of the Arabs obliged him to return, 

 and he made no farther efforts to prosecute his 

 journey. The expedition of Major Houghton, who 

 undertook the attempt to reach the Niger by travel- 

 ling along the banks of the Gambia, was not more 

 fortunate ; and on being informed of his death, the 

 Association accepted the proffered services of Mungo 

 Park, one of the most courageous and persevering 

 adventurers that ever set foot in Africa. He set out 

 on his first journey in May 1795, and returned in 

 the beginning of 1798, with the reputation of hav- 

 ing made more splendid discoveries than any of his 

 predecessors. His second attempt, which was in 

 1805, was on a larger scale ; but it proved his last, 

 and several years elapsed before any certain tidings 

 of his fate reached Europe. 



Meantime, however, the field of African explora- 

 tion had been occupied with other adventurers, 

 under the auspices of the Association. Frederic 

 Horneman, a student of the University of Gottingen, 

 having been strongly recommended to Sir Joseph 

 Banks by Professor Blumenbach, was despatched 

 in 1797 to Egypt, having previously qualified liim- 

 self by a competent knowledge of the Arabic lan- 

 guage, and acquiring such other accomplishments as 

 were fitted to support the character which he in- 

 tended to assume, of an Arab and a Mussulman, 

 tinder which disguise he hoped to elude the effects 

 of that ferocious bigotry which had opposed so 



