Before finally agreeing with the terms proposed to him, on the part of government, by Lord Hobart, whom he had hastened to meet, Park requested liberty to return home, and deliberate the matter with his friends. He returned accordingly, and consulted a few of them ; but his reso lution was easy to anticipate. Now at last he felt himself upon the brink of that vast enterprise on which he had longed so much to embark, and, compared with such ex citements as it offered, the disquieting obstructions of his actual situation appeared insupportable. When his bro ther represented to him the hazard of a second African expedition, the almost certain destruction connected with it; he replied, that a few inglorious winters of country practice at Peebles would kill him as effectually as the most formidable occurrence he could meet with in the de serts of Africa.
Yet his heart' was not insensible to those tender ties, which he now felt himself called upon to break asunder. He parted from his family with the most profound emo tions, which he tried to enliven with the hopes of soon meeting again,—a hope, resulting more from his own vi gorous determination than from any estimate of the diffi culties he had to strive with. This hope was indeed fulfilled sooner than even his friends could have wished, if they looked beyond the feelings of the moment. On ar riving at London, Park was appointed to sail in the month of February, 1804; but the change of ministry, already contemplated, and finally brought about by Mr. Adding ton's resignation, produced among its other alterations an alteration of the enterprize in question. Lord Cam den, now secretary of state, gave notice that the expedi tion could not sail before September, if it sailed at all ; and it was suggested to Park, impatient of this delay, yet obliged to acquiesce in it, that the intervening period might be profitably employed in acquiring the habit of making astronomical observations, and gaining a know ledge of the Arabic language. Accordingly, having en gaged Sidi Ombac, a native of Mogadore, for the latter purpose, and taking proper instruments with him for the former, he returned to Scotland in the latter end of Sep tember. This period of leisure was employed by him in his mother's house at Fowlshiels, from which, however, he was shortly summoned ; and avoiding the bitterness of a second formal separation, under pretence of a journey to Edinburgh, lie quitted the paternal roof, under which so many calm and peaceful days had passed over him, and to which he was destined never more to return.
The main object proposed by Park in this second expe dition. was ascertain the course and termination of the river Niger, which, according to his own opinion, was identical with the river Congo, in the southern hemis phere. Several distinguished geographers, among others Major Rennel, had adopted the supposition that the Ni ger terminates in a series of lakes in the interior of the continent, and is there evaporated by the heat of the sun. The Major was so persuaded of this, and on other grounds, so impressed with the forlornness and peril of the pro jected expedition, that when Park, before undertaking it, was directed to consult him, the Major laboured earnestly to dissuade his friend from embarking in such an enter prize. His arguments produced a transient effect ; yet it was but transient ; and Park, on returning to town, was still inflexibly determined to set his life on the risk of proving the Niger and Congo to be the same, or of find ing means to traverse the African desert, should the Ni ger be discovered not to terminate at the ocean. For effecting his intentions, it was finally agreed that he should take with him forty soldiers from the garrison of Goree, having first procured fifty asses at the island of St. Jago, to transport their provisions and baggage ; that in com pany with these men, he should penetrate as speedily as to Sego on the Niger ; and then construct a yen sel, with' which it was proposed that lie should proceed along the course of the river as far as it was navigable. A commission of brevet captain was bestowed on him ; his brother-in-law, Mr. Anderson, as second in command, and his countryman, Mr. Scott, as draughtsman, with some carpenters and mechanics, were appointed to attend him : and he left Portsmouth in the Crescent transport on the 30th of January, 1805.
The voyage to St. Jago, and then to Goree roads, was
prosperous; and thirty-five soldiers, with a lieutenant be longing to the garrison, and Isaaco, a native priest and travelling merchant, were easily induced to accompany him. But here the prosperity of the enterprize may be said to have come to an end. The year was unluckily too far advanced for allowing them to reach the Niger before the rainy season began ; but as Park preferred the alter native of setting out immediately, even with such a chance against him, to that of continuing seven months in a state of inaction, they lost no time in taking their departure. Having assembled at Kayee on the 27th April, they pro ceeded eastward without material difficulty to Badoo, where Park had an opportunity of writing to his friends; but long before they reached the Niger, the fatal rainy season had set in. In half an hour after its commence ment, the whole troop were affected with a certain degree of sickness; and, in a few days, a horrible dysentery at tacked them, and committed the most painful ravages in this little party. On arriving at Macaboo, on the banks of the Niger, no more than eleven of the forty-five Euro peans who had left Goree, remained alive; and before they reached Sansanding, and concluded their negocia titans with Alansong, the king of that country, for a free passage through his dominions, the number was reduced to Park himself, lieutenant Martyn, and three soldiers, one of them in a state of insanity. Yet even here, Park, on whom the chief toil and anxiety of a journey, obstructed by so much misfortune, had devolved, never allowed his mind for a moment to misgive him. Though finally seiz ed with the disorder himself, he expelled it immediately by the action of powerful medicines on a vigorous consti tution ; and having at length adjusted the discussions with Mansong, in a manner which does equal credit to his pru dence and firmness, he prepared to embark the remainder of his stores and attendants in a vessel constructed prin cipally the labour of his own hands, and named " his majesty's schooner Joliba," in reference to the stream which he proposed to explore by means of it. The let ters which he m rote from this place to England, display well his inflexible yet modest courage, in circumstances which might have daunted the stoutest and most ardent heart. To his wife, he expressed the strong and cheerful hope of being in England next May ; and to Lord Cam den, with whom he had less inducement to palliate his difficulties, he thus states his determination : " My dear friend Mr. Anderson, and likewise Mr. Scott, are both dead ; but though all the Europeans who are with me should die, and though I were myself half dead, I would still persevere; and, if 1 could not succeed in the object of my journey, 1 would at last die on the Niger." This was on the 17th November, 1805. On the 19th, having first dispatched lsaaco with his letters, and a jour nal containing notes of the principal occurrences which had taken place, and the principal observations that had been made, during the previous journey, Park set sail ;— and here all knowledge of his history or fortune leaves us. He proceeded down the Niger, but where or how his voy age ended, is, and perhaps may long continue, a point about which conjecture is all we have to offer. It is true, some years after, when nothing was heard of Park but un favourable though vague reports from the interior, the governor of Goree sent Isaaco to discover, if possible, the truth or falsehood of those statements which daily reached the coast in a more decisive tone; and Isaaco re turned with a journal of his proceedings, to which was attached a narrative from the mouth of Amadoo Fatima, the guide with whom Park sailed down the river; but though this Amadoo pretended to give an account of the exact circumstances attending Park's death, his report was such as by no means to gain general credit. He stated, that after proceeding for about a month on their voyage, he himself having left Park under the guidance of another pilot, some dispute occurred with a native chief, and, in consequence, the European party were at tacked at a place called Boussa, where the stream is much interrupted by rocks; and all his attendants but one being killed, Park seized this person, and sprung with him into thh river, where both quickly expired.