LIFE OF MUNGO PARK. 
Ixxxvii 
valuable or conspicuous. He was distinguished by a 
correctness of judgment, seldom found united with an 
ardent and adventurous turn of mind, and generally deemed 
incompatible with it. His talents certainly were not bril- 
liant, but solid and useful, such as were peculiarly suited 
to a traveller and geographical discoverer. Hence, in his 
accounts of new and unknown countries, he is consistent 
and rational; he is betrayed into no exaggeration, nor 
does he exhibit any traces of credulity or enthusiasm. His 
attention was directed exclusively to facts; and except 
in his opinion relative to the termination of the Niger 
(which he supported by very plausible arguments) he 
rarely indulged in conjecture, much less in hypothesis or 
speculation. 
Among the characteristic qualities of Park which were 
so apparent in his former travels, none certainly were more 
valuable or contributed more to his success than his admi- 
rable prudence, calmness and temper; but it has been 
doubted whether these merits were equally conspicuous dur- 
ing his second expedition. The parts of his conduct which 
have given occasion to this remark, are, his setting out from 
the Gambia almost at the eve of the rainy season, and his 
voyage down the Niger under circumstances so apparently 
desperate. On the motives by which he may have been 
influenced as to the former of these measures, something 
has been said in the course of the foregoing narrative.* 
With regard to his determination in tlie latter instance, 
justice must allow that his situation was one of extreme 
diflaculty, and admitted probably of no alternative. In 
* See p. Ixvi. 
