LIFE OF MUNGO PARK. 
xxxiii 
went to reside at that town in the month of October, 1801, 
and betook himself in good earnest to the exercise of his 
profession. Within no great length of time he acquired a 
good share of the business of the place and its neighbour- 
hood ; but this being very limited, his profits were at no 
time considerable. He was however very fully employed ; 
for he was greatly distinguished by the kindness which he 
shewed towards the poor, and by that disinterested attention 
to the lower classes, which is one of the great virtues of the 
medical profession. 
Under these circumstances, it cannot be thought sur- 
prising that he was dissatisfied with his situation, and 
looked anxiously forward to some other establishment. 
His former habits of life had indeed in a great measure 
disqualified him for his present humble occupations. The 
situation of a country practitioner in Scotland, attended 
with great anxiety and bodily fatigue, and leading to no 
distinction or much personal advantage, was little calcu- 
' lated to gratify a man, whose mind was full of ambitious 
views, and of adventurous and romantic undertakings. His 
journies to visit distant patients — his long and solitary rides 
over " cold and lonely heaths" and " gloomy hills assailed 
by the wintry tempest," seem to have produced in him 
feelings of disgust and impatience, which he had perhaps 
rarely experienced in the deserts of Africa. His strong 
sense of the irksomeness of this way of life broke out from 
him upon many occasions ; especially, when previously to 
his undertaking his second African mission, one of his 
nearest relations expostulated with him on the imprudence 
of again exposing himself to dangers which he had so very 
VOL, II. f 
