Ixxxvi 
ACCOUNT OF THE 
of doubt with regard to the fact either of Park's death or 
of its having happenv. J in the manner described in Isaaco's 
Journal. The first of these may be considered as morally 
certain, the latter as highly probable. But the exact time 
when this event took place and the circumstances attend- 
ing it, are left in great obscurity ; partly from a general 
want of distinctness and precision in the narrative ; but 
principally because the particulars related, depend alto- 
gether upon the unsupported testimony of a slave, (repre- 
sented as the only survivor of those who were with Park at 
the time of his death,) from, whom the information was ob- 
tained at an interval of three months after the transaction. 
It is obvious that no reliance can be placed on a narrative 
resting upon such authority ; and we must be content to 
remain in ignorance of the precise circumstances of Park's 
melancholy fate. But that he was attacked by the natives 
on his voyage from Sansanding eastwards, that he was 
overpowered by numbers, and that he perished on his 
passage down the Niger, cannot reasonably be doubted. 
The leading parts of Mungo Park's character must have 
been anticipated by the reader in the principal events and 
transactions of his life. Of his enterprising spirit, his in- 
defatigable vigilance and activity, his calm fortitude and 
unshaken perseverance, he has left permanent memorials 
in the narrative of his former travels and in the Journal 
and Correspondence now published. In these respects 
few travellers have equalled, none certainly ever surpassed 
him. Nor were the qualities of his understanding less 
