Mungo Park and the River Niger

The Royal African Society

Mungo Park and the River NigerAuthor(s): Davidson NicolSource: African Affairs, Vol. 55, No. 218 (Jan., 1956), pp. 47-50Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/718972 .

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47

Mungo Park and the River Niger By DAVIDSON NICOL

\ /[UNGO Park was a Surgeon of Seottish farrning stock who, under the 1v1 patronage of the African Association and, later, the British Government, undertook two remarkable expeditions in the interior of Africa in 1795 and in 1805. The puipose of these were to investigate the possibilities of eom- merce and next, to solve the problem of the great river Niger. His last despatehes were from the banks of the upper reaches of that river on Novem- ber 16, a hundred and fifty years ago. The Niger was known to the ancient geographers as the Asana (Pliny) or Asanaga, and to the Arabian geographers variously as Hued Nigar, Neel Abeed or Neel Kibbeer. Along its course of some two thousand five hundred miles, the river is given various names by the different tribes bordering on it. Thus, starting as the Tembi, it is joined by other streams to become the Babaa, Issa, Mayo Balleo and Ujimini Fufu before entering the Bight of Benin by a delta system eighty miles from the coast. The more well-known African names were the Kworra (Kowara or Quorra) and Joliba (or Jaliba); other names being Guin or Jin. The word " Niger" itself appeared to originate from the Latin word " black " as the river was sometimes known to the ancients as the Black or Egyptian Nile; later it was for a while thought to be an underground branch of the Nile reappearing as a different river. A reeent scholar has traeed its meaning to a word of Sudanic origin meaning " water." The course of the river Niger in Western Africa is now well known. It arises from the mountains of the north east region of the territory of Sierra Leone, a few hundred miles from the sea. Because it is on the eastern side of a mountain range, it flows inwards towards the desert instead of proceeding directly to the sea near Sierra Leone. Its inward flow takes it about 800 miles into the desert and then takes a right angle bend near Timbuktu, proeeeding south eastwards into Nigeria, and emptying into the Gulf of Guinea on the coasts of Nigeria. It is joined by the river Benue, half way through its course in Nigeria. The true course of the Niger has only been known for just over one hundred years, but for centuries before, it had been put down conjecturally in various forms in maps of Africa. The most popular description from the 16th to 18th century was one in which the river rose from a lake near the Equator in the centre of Africa, the Lacus Niger. From this point it was supposed to flow northwards almost in a straight line to reach another large lake, the Lacus Bornu. Before reaching this, it was said to flow underground for a distance variously given as being between 18 and 60 miles. After Lake Bornu, it took a bend of 90 deg. and flowed westwards through another lake, Sigisma, or Guarde, to break eventually after another lake system into four rivers, amongst which were the Senegal and the Gambia, which all emptied into the Atlantie at the westem-most point of Africa. There were variations on this theme; some,

D



48 AFRICAN AFFAIRS

as Mercator in 1613, started the river from Lake Bornu. Others, like Ogilby, 1670, Speed in the 17th century and Senex in the 103th century, gave the orthodox representationJ but Hasius, in 1750, stops the river just beyond Timbuktu. It will be noticed that in all these, the flow of the river is exactly opposite to its true one. There were some, however, who had heard of the belief, largely from Arabian sources, that the river flowed eastwards, but the authority of Leo Africanu was quoted by the majority of the geographers to show that the river must flow in the western direction, which we now know to be wrong.

This was the position when the African Association was formed in 1788 for the commercial and geographical exploration of the continent. Sir Joseph Banks was one of its influential members.

Park set sail in the year 1795 for the Gambia. He was then not quite 25 years of age. He spent about six months with a well known figure, Dr. Laidley, at Pisania, some way up the river Gambia. He learnt the Mandingo language and familiarized himself with the customs of the people. He had previously learnt the use of geographical instruments in London. Since, because of trade jealousy, he could not find a caravan to travel with, he set out on horseback with two servants, and four other Africans. He started off in December, at the end of the rainy season and, during the first part of his travels, all went relatively well.

Eventually, however, not very far from where Houghton, his predecessor, was murdered, he was captured by the Moors and badly illtreated by them.

He escaped, however, and after great privation, he reached the river Niger about seven months after leaving the Gambia, and about a year after leaving Portsmouth. In his own words:

" I saw, with infinite pleasure, the great object of my mission; the long sought for, majestic Niger, glittering in the morning sun, broad as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing slowly to the eastward{. I hastened to the brink and, having drunk of the water, lifted up my fervent thanks in prayer, to the Great Ruler of all things, for having thus crowned by endeavours with success." He was now at Sego in the kingdom of the Bambarras, some distance

from the source of the river. He sailed down the river for a while and then thought it prudent to return as he was getting near the fanatical Moors again; but before leaving, he tried to discover as much about the Niger as possible. Park travelled back to the Gambia in the rainy season under conditions of appalling hardship. He was greatly helped by a Negro slave trader who helped to nurse him back to health after a long illnessX and who included him in his caravan, consisting mainly of slaves being taken to the coast. This experience gave him, in addition, first hand experience of the slave trade at the source. He reached the Gambia safely, and then travelled to England by way of the West Indies.

He found on arrival that he had been given up for dead. His return after two and a half years was greeted with triumph by the members of the African AssociatioIl, who supported him whilst he wrote his remarkable



49

MUNGO PARK AND RIVER NIGER

book " Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa," which was published in 1799, and received a warm and overwhelming reception. The book gives a straightforward account of his journeyings, and of the difficulties which he had encountered. It is remarkable for its complete lack of self-pity. It ran into three editions in three months. Mungo Park then returned to Scotland, married the daughter of his old tutor, Dr. Anderson of Selkirk, and settled down to the busy and arduous life of a general practitioner in the country; but his heart was in Africa as he told his friend and neighbour, Walter Scott, who was afterwards to become the most distinguished poet and novelist of his day. After the peace of Amiens, in 1801, Banks revived the question of the Niger, and it was not until 1805, a century and a half ago, that the expedition was under way. This time it was under Government auspices, and was more elaborate. Park was accompanied by his brother-in-law, Dr. Anderson, and he had under his leadership 30 soldiers from the British (now French) Fort at Goree, with Lieutenant Martyn commanding them. He had also carpenters and naval ratings and a draughtsman with him. His intention was to reach the Niger and sail down it to its destination, wherever that was. They had only one African, a Mandingo called Isaaco. They left in April and reached the Niger, near Bamako, in August. By the time they reached the river, there were only ten Europeans left. It had been a terrible journey and only the courage and single-mindedness of its leader had ensured their reaching the Niger at all. The soldiers had died of fever and dysentry.

Sketch showing Mungo Park's journeys



50 AFRICAN AFFAIRS

Isaaco had nearly been devoured by a crocodile but had escaped. The party had been attacked by thieves on the way. However, in his journals, Park presents his usual phlegm, and only exhibited any sign of emotion at the death of Anderson, his brother-in-law, on the banks of the Niger.

On November 17, he set sail on a schooner which they had built and fortified. He wrote from his boat, H.M. Schooner, Jolliba, at anchor off Sansanding, his last letter. In it he says:

" But though all the soldiers who are with me should die, and though I were myself half dead, I should still persevere; and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at least die on the Niger." With the British flag proudly hoisted, they set sail down the Niger. By

this time Parks own opinion that the Niger emptied into the Congo may have changed, and he was fairly certain that it emptied into the sea. To his wife he wrote: " I do not intend to stop nor land anywhere till we reach the coast . . . I feel happy at turning my face towards home . . ." He was never seen alive again.

Isaaco, who left them at Sansanding, brought the letters to the Gambia from where they were sent home. Soon afterwards it was rumoured that Park had died.

Five years later, his faithful guide was commanded to try to find out what had happened. He managed to contact Amadi Fatoumi the guide and interpreter who had been in the boat. The latter reported that the schooner had travelled as far as Houssa. There he had left, but he said that further along, around Boussa, now in Northern Nigeria, Park and his companions had been attacked by a large force of warriors and had drowned trying to escape. In their journey down the river, they had carried on a running battle with the Moors and neighbouring inhabitants. It may be that customary tribute which they had sent for the monarch near Boussa had not been delivered by a treacherous chief; or they may have been mistaken for Fulani, or that they may have aroused accumulated hostility in their passage down the river.

About tsventy years after his disappearance, Thomas Park, the explorer's son, set out to reach Boussa, but died before he could get there. In the twenty five years following Park's death, other names came in: Caillie, the Frenchman, Clapperton, Oudney, Denham and the Lander Brothers. It was to the last-named, in November 1830, that the honour was reserved to sail down from Boussa to the mouth of the river in the Bight of BeninX and so discover finally its termination.

About one hundred years later, in the closing years of the l9th century, the wheel moved full circle, and the actual source of the Niger was discovered. It is a spring rising from moss covered rocks to form a small pool in a shady, haunted bower. This formed the source of the Tembi, the largest tributary of the Niger. It was visited by Zweifel and Moustier in 1879, Brouet a French officer in 1895 and soon after by Trotter and Tyler, British Officers engaged in marking the boundaIy between British Sierra Leone and the French territory.



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Mungo Park and the River Niger