PARK S FIRST JOURNEY. 83 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Parle's First Journey. 



As soon as the Association were informed of the fate of 

 Major Houghton, they accepted the offered services of Mr. 

 Mungo Park, a native of Scotland, regularly bred to the 

 medical profession, and just returned from a voyage to 

 India. The committee were satisfied that Mr. Park pos- 

 sessed the requisite qualifications, though they could not 

 yet be aware of the full extent of his courage and perse- 

 verance, nor of the unrivalled eminence to which, as a tra- 

 veller, he was destined to rise under their auspices. 



He set sail from Portsmouth on the 22d May, 1795, and 

 on the 21st June arrived at Jillifree on the Gambia. He 

 then proceeded to Pisania, in the fertile kingdom of Yani, 

 where he was detained five months by illness under the hos- 

 pitable roof of Dr. Laidley. While suffering from the fever 

 of the climate, he acquired the Mandingo language, and ob- 

 tained considerable information from the negro traders re- 

 specting the interior countries. The Gambia at this station 

 was deep and muddy, overshadowed with impenetrable 

 thickets of mangrove, and the stream filled with crocodiles 

 and river-horses. 



On the 2d of December, Mr. Park took his departure, 

 attended only by a few negro servants. On the 5th, he ar- 

 rived at Medina, where the good old king received him with 

 the same hospitality he had so liberally shown to Major 

 Houghton ; but earnestly exhorted him to take warning 

 from the fate of that too adventurous traveller, and go no 

 farther. Mr. Park was not to be thus discouraged ; but im- 

 mediately proceeded to enter the gr^at forest or wilderness 

 which separates this country from Bondou. He conformed 

 to the example of his companions in hanging a chann or 

 shred of cloth upon a tree at its entrance, which was com- 

 pletely covered with those guardian symbols. In two days 

 he had passed the wood, and found Bondou a fine cham- 

 paign country, watered by the Faleme. He had soon, how- 

 ever, to encounter the perils which cannot but await every 



