Life and Travels of Mungo Park

by Mungo Park

"To Mrs. Park.

"Sansanding 19th November 1805.

"It grieves me to the heart to write any thing that gives you uneasiness, but such is the will of Him who doeth all things well! Your brother Alexander, my dear friend, is no more! He died of the fever at Sansanding, on the morning of the 28th of October; for particulars, I must refer you to your father. I am afraid that, impressed with a woman's fears, and the anxieties of a wife, you may be led to consider my situation as a great deal worse than it really is. It is true, my dear friends Mr. Anderson and George Scott have both bid adieu to the things of this world, and the greater part of the soldiers have died on the march during the rainy season; but you may believe me, I am in good health. The rains are completely over, and the healthy season has commenced; so that there is no danger of sickness, and I have still a sufficient force to protect me from any insult in sailing down the river to the sea.

"We have already embarked all our things, and shall sail the moment I have finished this letter. I do not intend to stop, nor land anywhere, till we reach the coast, which I suppose will be sometime in the end of January. We shall then embark in the first vessel for England. If we have to go round by the West Indies, the voyage will occupy three months longer, so that we expect to be in England on the 1st of May. The reason for our delay since we left the coast was the rainy season, which came on us during the journey, and almost all the soldiers became affected with the fever.

"I think it not unlikely but I shall be in England before you receive this. You may be sure that I feel happy at turning my face towards home. We this morning have done with all intercourse with the natives, and the sails are now hoisting for our departure for the coast."

These were the last accounts received from Park and his brave companions. Isaaco, who brought the two preceding letters, along with Park's Journal, departed from Sansanding on the 17th November, and arrived at Pisania with the intelligence, that Park, along with three white men (all of the Europeans that had survived the journey,) three slaves, and Amadi Fatouma, his new guide, set sail in their little vessel down the Niger. In the following year unfavourable reports reached the British settlements on that coast, brought by native merchants from the interior, who declared that they had heard that Park and his companions had perished. But as these accounts were vague, no credit was for some time attached to them. But when months and years glided away without any information concerning the expedition, it was feared that the tidings of disaster were too true. The anxieties of the British public had followed Park on his way, and they demanded that the mystery which hung over the subject should be cleared up. At length, in the year 1810, Colonel Maxwell, the governor of Senegal despatched Isaaco, Park's guide, upon a mission into the interior, to collect all the information that he could upon the matter. After twenty months' absence, Isaaco returned with full confirmation of the reports concerning the fate of Park and his companions. He brought with him a journal, containing a full report of his proceedings, which bears internal evidence of fidelity and truth. His information was derived from an unexceptionable quarter,—from Amadi Fatouma, whom Park had hired to be his guide from Sansanding to Kashua. Isaaco met this person at Modina, a town upon the banks of the Niger, a little beneath Sansanding. Upon Isaaco's asking him if he knew what had become of Park, he burst into tears, and said, "They are all dead!" On Isaaco's inquiring the particulars, Amadi Fatouma, whom Park had, in his letter to Sir Joseph Banks, described as a man of intelligence and acuteness, produced a journal, written in Arabic, containing a narrative of all he knew upon the subject. We shall give a summary of the principal facts contained in this document, the veracity of which has been amply confirmed by the researches of subsequent travellers.

Amadi Fatouma accompanied Park, Lieutenant Martyn, three soldiers, and three slaves, in the vessel, which had been built for the purpose of descending the Niger; and which, though clumsy, was not ill-adapted for inland navigation, being flat-bottomed, narrow, and schooner-rigged, so that she could sail with any wind. After two days voyage, they arrived at Jenne, to the chief of which place Park gave a present. They sailed on in perfect safety till they came to the lake Dibbe, where three armed canoes attacked them, but were beaten off. They were again attacked at Kabra or Rakbara, the port of Tombuctoo, and also at Gouramo. In these encounters several of the natives were slain. About this time one of the three soldiers, who had been suffering under mental derangement, died. Their course lay towards the kingdom of Haussa, and they were obliged to keep constantly on their guard against the natives, who frequently sailed up to them in armed canoes, and molested them from the banks of the river. But fortunately they were not only well provided with arms and ammunition, but had also laid in a large stock of provisions, before leaving Bambarra, so that they were able to sail on without touching upon the shore, so long as they dreaded the hostility of the inhabitants. At Caffo some of the people on shore called out to the guide, "Amadi Fatouma, how can you pass through our country without giving us anything?" Accordingly, a few trifling articles were thrown to them. After they had passed this place, the navigation became difficult and intricate, the course of the little vessel being interrupted by shallows, and by rocks almost closing up the river, and dividing it into narrow channels. At length they anchored before Goronmo, where Amadi Fatouma landed to purchase provisions. The chief of this place seemed well disposed towards Park, for he warned him that a body of armed men were posted on a high rock commanding the river, to cut off his little party. Here Park remained all night; upon passing the place next morning he saw a number of Moors, with horses and camels, but unarmed, from whom he experienced no molestation. The guide was engaged to accompany them no farther than the kingdom of Haussa. Before he departed, Park said to him, "Now, Amadi, you are at the end of your journey. I engaged you to conduct me here. You are going to leave me; but before you go, you must give me the names of the necessaries of life, &c. in the language of the countries through which I am going to pass." Amadi accordingly remained two days longer, till they arrived at the kingdom of Yaour, where he landed, with a musket and sabre for the Dooty, and some other presents; and also some silver rings, flints, and gunpowder, as a present for the king of Yaour, who resided at a little distance. The Dooty asked Park, through Amadi, "Whether the white men intended to return to that place?" Park answered that "he could not return any more." The Dooty acted in a covetous and dishonourable manner, keeping back the king's present, and retaining it for his own use. Amadi's narrative proves that this actually caused Park's murder. After the schooner had gone on her way, Amadi slept on shore, and then went to do homage to the king. When he entered the king's residence, he found that the treacherous Dooty had already sent two messengers to the court, to say that the white men had passed down the river without giving any thing either to the Dooty or to the king, and that Amadi was in league with them. The guide was immediately thrown into prison. The king then dispatched an armed band to attack Park as he passed the town of Boussa; a place peculiarly fitted for the murderous deed, as there a ridge of rock almost entirely blocks up the river, leaving only one channel, which Lander, who saw the spot, describes as "not more than a stone-cast across." Upon this rock the king's force was stationed. No sooner did Park and his companions attempt to pass this point, than they were received with a shower of stones, lances, pikes, and arrows. They defended themselves bravely, in spite of the overwhelming numbers opposed to them. At length their efforts became feebler, for they were soon exhausted. Two of the slaves at the stern of the canoe were killed; nevertheless they threw every thing in the canoe into the river, and kept firing. But as the canoe could no longer be kept up against the current, they endeavoured to escape by swimming; Park took hold of one of the white men and jumped into the river; Lieutenant Martyn did the same, and they were all drowned in their attempt to reach the land. The natives still discharged missiles at the remaining black in the canoe; but he cried out for mercy, saying, "Stop throwing now, you see nothing in the canoe, and nobody but myself, therefore cease. Take me and the canoe, but don't kill me." He was accordingly carried, with the canoe, to the king. Amadi Fatouma was detained in irons three months, at the expiry of which period he learned these facts from the slave.

As a proof of the truth of this narrative, Isaaco brought with him the only relic of Park which he was able to procure—a sword-belt, which the king of Yaour had converted into a girth for his horse. This he obtained through the instrumentality of a Poule, who bribed one of the king's female slaves to steal it for him.

When Isaaco's narrative first reached this country, many of its statements were thought to be unwarranted by facts; but his veracity has been fully proved by the researches of subsequent travellers. The accuracy of his account of the spot where the melancholy catastrophe took place is acknowledged by Captain Clapperton, who, in 1826, visited Boussa. With some difficulty he drew from the natives an account of the circumstances, which, however, they ascribed to the men of Boussa, supposing Park to be a chief of the Felatahs, who had made a hostile incursion into Soudan, and whom they shortly expected to attack themselves. In 1830, John and Richard Lander saw the place, and thus described it; "On our arrival at this formidable place, we discovered a range of black rocks running directly across the stream, and the water, finding only one narrow passage, rushed through it with great impetuosity, overturning and carrying away every thing in its course." They also discovered a tohe or cloak, a cutlass, a double-barrelled gun, a book of logarithms, and an invitation-card, which had belonged to Park. They heard at one time that his journal was still in existence; but it turned out that this was only a feint used by the king of Yaour to entice them into his dominions, and fleece them of some of their property; and there appeared no reason to doubt that the journal, the loss of which there is much reason to regret, sunk in the waters of the Niger.

It seems unnecessary to enter into a lengthened estimate of the character of Mungo Park. The biographical details which we have given, with his own narrative of his first expedition, and the summary of the leading events of his second, will have sufficiently enabled our readers to judge for themselves. But we cannot quit the subject without a few brief remarks, having frequently, while writing these pages, had our attention called off from the events themselves to him who was the principal actor in them. Amongst the numerous adventurers whose spirit of research has led them into unknown countries, it would be difficult to find one better qualified in every way than Park was. His frame was admirably adapted for enduring toil. He was tall and muscular, and possessed great strength and agility. In his first African journey he traversed three thousand miles, for the most part on foot, through an unknown and barbarous country, exposed to continued unremitting toil, to the perils of the way, to storm, hunger, pestilence, and the attacks of wild beasts and savage natives, supported by a dauntless spirit, and by a fortitude which never forsook him. Amply did he possess the indispensable qualities of a traveller, keenness of observation, mental energy, unflinching perseverance, an ardent temperament, corrected and restrained by a cool and sagacious judgment. Amid danger and disaster his character shone with great lustre. It only remains to be added, that he was an exemplary model in his faithful discharge of all the relative duties—a good son, husband, and parent.