PARK, MUNGO (1771-1806?), Scottish explorer of the Niger, was born in Selkirkshire, Scotland, on Sept. 20, 1771, at Foulshiels on the Yarrow. He was apprenticed to a surgeon, Thomas Anderson, and took his surgeon's diploma at Edinburgh. By his brother-in-law, James Dickson, he was introduced to Sir Joseph Banks, then president of the Royal Society, and through his good offices obtained the post of assistant-surgeon on board the "Worcester" East Indiaman. He made the voyage in 1792 to Benkulen, in Sumatra, and on his return in 1793 he contributed a description of eight new Sumatran fishes to the Transactions of the Linnean Society.
Park in 1794 offered his services to the African Association, then looking out for a successor to Major Daniel Houghton, who had been sent out in 1790 to explore the Niger. On June 21, 1795, he reached the Gambia and ascended that river 200M. to a British trading station named Pisania. On Dec. 2, he started for the unknown interior, crossing the upper Senegal basin and the semi-desert region of Kaarta. The journey was full of diffi culties, and at Ludamar he was imprisoned by a Moorish chief for four months. He escaped, alone and with nothing save his horse and a pocket compass, on July 1, 1796, and on the 21st of the same month reached the long-sought Niger at Segu. He followed the river down stream 8om. to Silla, where he was obliged to turn back, being without means and utterly exhausted. On his return journey he took a route more to the south keeping close to the Niger as far as Bamako, tracing the course of that stream in all for some 30o miles. He reached Pisania again on June io, 1797. An account of his journey was drawn up for the African Asso ciation by Bryan Edwards, and a detailed narrative from his own pen appeared in 1799 (Travels in the Interior of Africa). Abun dance of incident and an unaffected style rendered the work ex tremely popular, and it still holds its place as an acknowledged classic in this department of literature.
Settling at Foulshiels, Park in August 1799 married a daughter of his old master, Thomas Anderson. In Oct. i8oi Park removed to Peebles, where he practised as a doctor. In the autumn of 1803 he was invited by the government to lead another expedition to the Niger. Park accepted the offer, but the starting of the expedi tion being delayed, part of the waiting time was occupied in the perfecting of his Arabic. In May 1804 Park went back to Foul shiels where he made the acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott, then living near by at Ashestiel. In September he was summoned to London to leave on the new expedition. Park had adopted the theory that the Niger and the Congo were one. He sailed from Portsmouth for the Gambia on January 31, 1805, having been given a captain's commission as head of the government expedi tion. Alexander Anderson, his brother-in-law, was second in com mand, and on him was bestowed a lieutenancy. George Scott, a
fellow Borderer, was draughtsman, and the party included four or five artificers. At Goree (then in British occupation) Park was joined by Lieut. Martyn, R.A., thirty-five privates and two sea men. The expedition did not reach the Niger until the middle of August, when only eleven Europeans were left alive; the rest had succumbed to fever or dysentery. From Bamako the journey to Segu was made by canoe. Having received permission from the ruler of that town to proceed, at Sansandig, a little below Segu, Park prepared for his journey down the still unknown part of the river. He converted two canoes into one tolerably good boat, 4oft. long and 6ft. broad. This he christened H.M. schooner "Joliba" (the native name for the Niger), and in it, with the surviving members of his party, he set sail down stream on Nov. 19. At Sansandig on Oct. 28, Anderson had died, and in him Park lost the only member of the party—except Scott, already dead—who had been of real use. Those who embarked in the "Joliba" were Park, Martyn, three European soldiers (one mad), a guide and three slaves.
To his wife he wrote stating his intention not to stop nor land anywhere till he reached the coast, where he expected to arrive about the end of Jan. 1806. No more was heard of the party until reports of disaster reached the settlements on the Gambia. At length the British government engaged Isaaco to go to the Niger to ascertain the fate of the explorer. At Sansandig Isaaco found the guide who had gone down stream with Park, and the substantial accuracy of the story he told was later confirmed by the investigations of Hugh Clapperton and Richard Lander. This guide (Amadi) stated that Park's canoe descended the river to Yauri, where he (the guide) landed. In this long journey of about i,000m. Park, who had plenty of provisions, stuck to his resolu tion of keeping aloof from the natives. At the Bussa rapids, not far below Yauri, the boat struck on a rock and remained fast. On the bank were gathered hostile natives, who attacked the party with bow and arrow and throwing spears. Their position being untenable, Park, Martyn and the two soldiers who still survived, sprang into the river and were drowned. The sole survivor was one of the slaves, from whom was obtained the story of the final scene. Isaaco, and later Lander, obtained some of Park's effects, but his journal was never recovered. In 1827 his second son, Thomas, landed on the Guinea coast, intending to make his way to Bussa, where he thought his father might be detained a prisoner, but after penetrating some little distance inland he died of fever. Park's widow died in 1840.
J. Thomson's Mungo Park and the Niger (London, 2890) contains the best critical estimate. See also the Life (by Wishaw) prefixed to Journal of a Mission into the interior of Africa in 5805 (London, 1815) and H. B., Life of Mungo Park (Edinburgh, 2835).