LIFE OF MUNGO PARK. 
Ixxxv 
accounted for, by supposing either that he is actually dead 
or detained in Africa as a captive ; and when we consider 
the nature of the enterprise in which he was engaged, his 
personal character, and the resistance he was likely to 
make in case of any hostile attack, we must acknowledge 
that of the two suppositions, the former is by far the most 
probable. 
To this it may be added, that since the time of the ori- 
ginal reports respecting Park's death in 1806, no circum- 
stance has occurred to bring that fact into doubt ; if we 
except a few transient rumours relative to white men stated 
to be in remote parts of the interior of Africa, which have 
led some persons to suppose that Park may be still in 
existence. Several surmises of this kind (for they are en- 
titled to no higher appellation) have from time to time 
been circulated, and have found their way into newspapers 
and ptiblic journals ; although the slightest enquiry would 
have shewn that they were entitled to no credit or atten- 
tion. They would commonly be found to originate from 
loose and indistinct communications received from some 
of the settlements on the African coast, to which very slight 
and insignificant circumstances might originally have 
given occasion. A Moor or an Asiatic, the colour of whose 
skin differs by a few shades from that of the native Africans, 
would be described by them as a stranger ar white man. 
The hearsay accounts of the appearance of such a person 
m the interior of Africa would afford ample materials for 
credulity and exaggeration ; and might easily give rise to 
reports and assertions the most unfounded and extravagant. 
Upon the whole there seems to be no reasonable ground 
