ADVERTISEMENT. 
the intended expedition into Africa ; together with the 
Official Instructions which he received for his guidance ; 
and two letters addressed by him to the Secretary of State, 
one, written shortly after his arrival at the Coast of Africa, 
and the other, at the time of transmitting his Journal, pre- 
viously to his final embarkation on the Niger. 
4. Several private letters of Mr. Park, principally writ- 
ten during the time he was engaged in this mission ; which, 
together with the docaments included under the last men- 
tioned head, have been incorporated into the Account of 
Mr. Park's Life, which is prefixed to the Journal. 
It has before been stated, that the official papers are 
published under the authority of the Directors of the Afri- 
can Institution. It may be proper to add, that the indivi- 
dual, wbo has undertaken to prepare this work for the 
press, is alone responsible for the publication of the private 
letters, and for whatever else is contained in this volume, 
besides the official documents. 
Of the papers before enumerated, the most important, 
and the only one which calls for any particular observation, 
is Mr. Park's own Journal ; respecting which, it may be 
necessary to apprize the reader that it was written without 
the slightest view to publication, being intended only (as 
he informed the Secretary of State, by his letter of the 17th 
of November, 1805) " to recall to his own recollection other 
particulars illustrative of the manners and customs of the 
natives, which would have swelled the communication to 
a most unreasonable size." The work, therefore, which is 
now submitted to the public, can be considered in no other 
light than as the mere outline of a much more extended 
