Mungo Park

Park, Mungo, 1771-1806.

Travels in the interior districts of Africa: performed under the direction and patronage of the African Association, in the years 1795, 1796, and 1797; by Mungo Park, surgeon: with an appendix, containing geographical illustrations of Africa ...-- 2d ed. London : Bulmer and Co., 1799.

Mungo Park, one of the most famous of early European explorers of Africa, was a Scottish surgeon who traveled to Africa with the sponsorship of the African Association to explore the Niger River. His small expedition encountered many obstacles: illness, robbery, and even captivity.

Park eventually returned to Africa as part of a British government expedition which ended in disaster: none of the forty-four Europeans who set out to further explore the Niger ever returned.