Mungo Park By H. S. Anderson, M.D. 301 



Mungo Park is a son of ** The Forest," having been born and 

 brought up at Foulshiels on the banks of the Yarrow, opposite 

 Newark. He was educated as a surgeon, and was the appren- 

 tice of my grandfather Dr. Anderson of Selkirk, whose daughter 

 he afterwards married. He went first to India, but returned 

 soon, and being strongly impressed with a desire to travel and 

 explore unknown regions, he selected Africa, and set out alone 

 to that country in 1795, under the auspices of the African 

 Association. He landed on the "West Ooast of Africa near the 

 mouth of the Gambia, and then started eastward. At first he 

 encountered considerable difficulties and opposition, but the 

 natives were on the whole very friendly, till he came among 

 Moors by whom he was taken prisoner and brutally treated. 

 But he escaped, though at the greatest risk, and persevered on 

 his journey, still proceeding eastward, until at last he reached 

 the banks of the Niger. With what infinite pleasure he must 

 have gazed on the great object of his mission, the long looked 

 for majestic Niger glittering in the sun, as broad as the Thames 

 and flowing to the east. After this he still travelled eastward, 

 following the Niger in hopes of determining its course, and finding 

 its termination in the ocean ; but again he fell in with cruel and 

 inhospitable natives, suffered much from hunger and thirst, and 

 was often in the greatest danger of his life, being stripped naked 

 and left entirely without food. 



Eeduced by fever, and destitute of the means of procuring the 

 mere necessaries of life, he was at last driven to abandon his 

 enterprise, and resolved, but with the deepest regret, to retrace 

 his steps homewards. After again encountering great dangers 

 and difficulties he gained the coast, where he fell in with an 

 American vessel, and reached England by way of the West 

 Indies, having been absent two years and seven months. 



In 1799 he published the Journal of his Travels, which was 

 received with much favour by the public, and is still a favourite 

 book. 



After his return to this country he married and settled in 

 Peebles as a|medical practitioner,but the drudgery of a country doc- 

 tor's life, and the long dreary rides up Tweedsmoor and over Tala 

 Linns to Meggat head were more irksome to him than the dan- 

 gers of Africa ; so he resolved once more to return there, and 

 make out the course and termination of the Niger. 



Accordingly under the auspices of the British Government, 



