Park, Mungo

Mungo (1771-1806), an African explorer. He was born near Selkirk, Scotland, on the banks of the Yarrow. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh. He was fond of tramping and had a liking for natural history. In 1792 he received an appointment as a medical officer on one of the East India Company's lines plying to Sumatra. He pleased Sir Joseph Banks and other scientific men of Great Britain by bringing home a number of plants and eight fishes new to science. In 1795 he received from the African Association of London a coveted commission to explore Senegambia. He was the first modern European to reach the Niger, a river of which much was heard and nothing known. His privations, adventures, encounters with the lion, hippopotamus, and gorilla, and descriptions of the natives, rivers, and jungles were given to the public in 1799 in a famous volume, Travels in the Interior of Africa. It was long a favorite book of adventure and ran through many editions. In 1803 he again set out, this time with a government commission, to trace the Niger to its ultimate source. He ascended the river for over one thousand miles. At the village of Boussa, above Timbuctoo, he fell into a contest with hostile natives. He and his entire party, with the exception of one attendant, were killed or drowned. His name is linked with that of Livingstone, not only as a great explorer, but as a scientific observer as well.