The Royal Society of Edinburgh a Good Man in Africa: Mungo Park
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The Royal Society of Edinburgh A Good Man in Africa: Mungo Park, the Niger and Late Enlightenment Exploration Professor Charles Withers FRSE Tuesday 26 May 2015, Selkirk Victoria Hall, Selkirk Report by Kate Kennedy In the late 18th Century, the Niger Problem was a 2000-year-old two-part geographical problem. The first part was simple: which way did the river run? West to east, or east to west? The second was far from simple: where did the river end? In a central African lake? Did it join the Congo? Numerous theories abounded. This mattered as a problem in geography. And it mattered in terms of commerce, for if proven right, one theory – that the Niger bisected Africa to join the Nile – would have allowed for commerce through the heart of Africa. The Scots explorer Mungo Park was the first to solve, by personal and direct observation, the first part of the Niger Problem and to live to tell others about it. He died unsuccessfully trying to solve the second. This illustrated talk examined Park’s travels and the making of his highly successful 1799 book and considered evidence that, at the time, others had already solved the second part of the problem. Need Park have gone to Africa a second time? Scottish explorer Mungo Park was the first European to return home safely, having observed for himself the west to east course of the River Niger in western Africa. His enduring fame stems from this fact. Two books recount the detail of his expeditions. The first, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, was published in 1799 and tells the story of a largely successful mission. The second, Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, published posthumously by London solicitor John Murray in 1815, is both a biography of Park’s life and an account of the second ill-fated 1805 expedition which resulted in his death. Professor Withers commented that, in addition to his acclaim at the time, Park has experienced a “worldly afterlife” through the numerous biographies, statues, plays, films and books that have continued to be produced, commemorating his life, since his death in 1805. Furthermore, Park and his achievements ‘travel’ differently throughout the world; in the United States his 1799 text is read as an anti-slavery tract; in Britain as an account of exploration; and in France it is read in terms of Enlightenment sympathy. Park was born near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders in 1771 to a farming family. He was educated at home and at Selkirk Grammar School before studying Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. By 1791, Park had secured a Surgical Diploma but, similarly to many graduates, had no employment upon leaving university. In association with his brother-in-law James Dickson, the distinguished botanist, Park spent the summer of 1792 undertaking botanical excursions in the Highlands of Scotland. Dickson’s connections with Joseph Banks, one of the most important patrons of late-Enlightenment science and exploration, led to Park securing the position of Assistant Surgeon on board the East Indian Company’s ship the Worcester. He sailed to Sumatra in 1793, charged with collecting botanical and zoological specimens. He presented his findings to Banks upon his return in 1794. This work, and experience of foreign travel, led to Banks advancing Park’s name to the African Association in London, with a view to him taking part in west African exploration, particularly with regard to the Niger Problem. Professor Withers asked “why is the Niger significant?” The founding resolution of the 1 African Association proclaimed: “no species of information is more ardently desired or more generally useful, than that which improves the science of Geography; and as the vast continent of Africa, notwithstanding the efforts of the ancients, and the wishes of the moderns, is still a great measure unexplored…”. The 2000-year-old Niger Problem was a question of two parts: the first concerning the course of the river and whether it flowed east to west or vice-versa; the second relating to where the river ended. Over the centuries, nobody had agreed or confirmed either of these points and many different texts and maps were produced supporting differing theories. Banks agreed with many leading geographers in Britain, who purported that the Niger flowed across Africa and joined the Nile. The Niger Problem was of interest to Joseph Banks and his contemporaries for two main reasons: geographical curiosity and the potential commercial opportunities if circumnavigation of Africa from Senegal in the west to Cairo in the east via the Niger and Nile were possible. Thus, Park’s first Niger expedition had the support of the British Government, a principal patron, and the desire to solve unanswered questions at its heart. Park sailed for west Africa in May 1795, accompanied by two servants, and arrived a month later. He was ill with fever for first two months and spent his convalescence learning the local language and customs. His accounts of his travels are a mixture of personal adventure, commentaries on the trading networks of the region and ethnographic descriptions of the locals. He also describes how he is seen as an object of ethnographic wonder and regarded with suspicion by some, due to his Christian beliefs. Others simply refused to believe that a white man in Africa could be there simply to observe the course of a river. Indeed, Park was imprisoned and threatened with death on more than one occasion. In July 1796, Park accomplished one of the principal aims of his expedition, to determine the course of the Niger: “I saw with infinite pleasure the great object of my mission; the long sought for, majestic Niger, glittering to the morning sun, as broad as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing slowly to the eastward”. Following this breakthrough, he turned west, initially intending to explore the southern Niger, but lost his horse by inadvertently backing it down a well, requiring him to make his return journey on foot. Park survived this journey largely due to the kindness of an Arabic slave trader who fed and sheltered him in return for the fee of one slave that Park would provide in the event of his own safe return. In effect, Park enslaved himself to ensure his own safe passage. He remained with the slave trader for about seven months before returning to the Gambia in May 1797; whereupon his return was greeted with great joy and satisfaction as “one returned from the dead”. Park returned to London and was reunited with his brother-in-law, Dickson, in the gardens of the British Museum on Christmas Day in 1797. Upon his return to Britain, Park published his experiences in his 1799 Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa to great acclaim; selling all 1500 copies immediately, with further editions and translations subsequently produced. He was commended for answering the first part of the Niger Problem, with the European Magazine remarking, “a considerable portion of Africa is now known, which hitherto has been impervious to every traveller; and to no one has the world been so much obliged as to [this] gentleman”. Professor Withers cautioned, however, that the initial reviews of Park’s work were based not on his text but on a published abstract of it prepared by Bryan Edwards, a member of the African Association under Joseph Banks’ direction. Indeed, it was Edwards who assisted Park in revising his notes and improving his style; in effect, Park wrote his account when back in Britain rather than whilst on his expedition. Furthermore, the manuscript’s maps and geographical observations were produced by the leading Geographer and Surveyor, James Rennell. Park comments, “Major Rennell was pleased also to add a map of my route, constructed in conformity to my own observations and sketches, freed from those errors which the Major’s superior knowledge and distinguished accuracy in geographical researches enabled him to discover and correct”. Thus, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa is not wholly Park’s book; the final version reflects a move away from field journal to published book and incorporates the influence of others. 2 Park’s first expedition did not solve the second part of the Niger Problem; where did the river end? Rennell’s maps within Park’s 1799 book give a clear indication of his own and Joseph Banks’ thoughts regarding the outstanding Niger Problem. They argued that it flowed east to west and culminated in an inland lake. They believed this to be most likely because they held to the classical notion that a chain of mountains bisected Africa from west to east. These appear on Rennell’s map and are known as the ‘Mountains of Cong’ in the west and the ‘Mountains of the Moon’ in the east of the continent. These mountains did not, do not and have never existed! Professor Withers considers that what is important is not just that the mountains did not exist but that Rennell and his contemporaries thought that they did. Indeed, these fictitious mountains continued to appear in some atlases until 1911. In the minds of Rennell and Banks, because of these mountains, there was no possibility that the Niger could flow south. This unsolved issue, and its importance to commerce, meant that the question of solving the second part of the Niger Problem remained uppermost on the geographic agenda following Park’s return, prompting his second expedition in 1805. Between the expeditions, Park married and considered different career paths, before setting up his medical practice in Peebles in 1801. During this period, he met and struck up a friendship with Sir Walter Scott.