430 SKETCH OF AFRICAN DISCOVERY. 



of that character to avoid a heavier calamity. My dis 

 tresses have been greater than I have ever owned, or evei 

 will own, to any man. Such evils are terrible to bear ; but 

 they never yet had the power to turn me from my purpose." 

 Such was the indomitable energy of this man, the first of 

 a long list of victims in the cause of African discovery. 

 Mr. Lucas, who was despatched by the Association to sup- 

 ply the place of Ledyard, was compelled to return home 

 in consequence of several of the countries through which 

 he would have to pass being engaged in hostilities. In 

 1790, Major Houghton, an officer who was acquainted with 

 the customs of the Moors and Negroes, proceeded to Africa 

 under the auspices of the Association, and had made con- 

 siderable progress in the interior, when, after having been 

 treacherously plundered and left in the Desert, where he 

 endured severe privations, he reached Jarra, and died there 

 in September, 1791, it being strongly suspected that he was 

 murdered. The next individual on whom the Association 

 fixed was Mungo Park, who proceeded to the river Gambia 

 in 1795 and thence set out into the interior. The great 

 object accomplished during his journey was that of suc- 

 cessfully exploring the banks of the Niger, which had pre- 

 viously been considered identical with the river Senegal 

 In 1804, Park set out upon his second journey, which was 

 undertaken at the expense of the Government. The plan 

 of former travellers had been to accompany the caravans 

 from one part of the country to another; but in this ex- 

 pedition Park required a party of thirty-six Europeans, 

 six of whom were to be seamen and the remainder soldiers, 

 it being his intention, on reaching the Niger, to build two 

 vessels, and to follow with his party the course of the river. 

 If the Congo and the Niger were the same stream, as was 

 then supposed, he anticipated little difficulty in his enter- 

 prise ; but if, as was also maintained, the Niger terminated 

 in swamps and morasses, many hardships and dangers were 

 expected in their subsequent progress. Park at length 

 reached the Niger, accompanied only by seven of his party 



