Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa (Physician Travelers Series) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Robert M. Goldwyn (Editor) "Park's instructions were the same as those given to Major Daniel Houghton, whose route Park followed in beginning his search for the Niger from the..." (more)
Key Phrases: geographical illustrations, geographic miles, dry provisions, Major Houghton, West Indies, Demba Sego (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This edition is well analyzed, with a lengthy introduction and voluminous footnotes that significantly add to an understanding of the original document. Important for any collection on Africa ..."--Library Journal "Western Sudan ... means for me an episode in Mungo Park's life. It means for me the vision of a young, emaciated, fair-haired man, clad simply in a tattered shirt and worn-out breeches, gasping painfully for breath and lying on the ground in the shade of an enormous African tree (species unknown), while from a neighboring village of grass huts a charitable black-skinned woman is approaching him with a calabash full of pure cold water, a simple draught which, according to himself, seems to have effected a miraculous cure." - Joseph Conrad, from Geography and Some Explorers "In a time when the world has grown tame and we have to manufacture our adventures, Mungo Park's Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa is both an education and a delight. The Africa he entered was uncharted and unknown, the farthest outpost of a truly wild and richly mysterious planet. He was the first European to go there and come back again, and he rewarded his society - and ours - with a geographical and anthropological marvel of a book, an adventure story to cap them all." - T. Coraghessan Boyle --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: eHAP. XXIII. Of Gold Dust, and the mnnner in which it is collected—Of Ivory—Mode of Hunting the Elephant. Gold is found in small grains through every part of Manding, as well as in other districts of the interior of Africa, but it never occurs in veins, imbedded in quantities of'sand or clay. The grains are about the size of peas. Those vho please themselves by extending a few particular facts into an universal law of nature, have sometimes assured us, that gold is not found any where but in mountainous and barren regions. Nor are they without what they consider a reason tor this circumstance; nature, in their opinion, having refused other commodities to the regions in which it has placed so precious a metal. But though gold be precious in the sight of an European, or Asiatic merchant, or rather in the sight of any merchant, it is not necessarily precious in the sight of nature. Such tribes as are still in a state rf na ture, and have no knowledge except what she can furnish, place gold in a very inferior department of their scale of excellence. The natives of the South-Sea islands, reckon the common necessaries of life, and even iron itself, much more valuable than gold. Nature, in the establishment of its laws, could not have regard to a maxim far from being universally true. In that part of Africa which Mr. Park visited, gold is found in many districts; and though these be in general hilly, yet they are neither mountainous nor barren. The hills are scarcely more than small eminences; the country every where produces the necessaries of life in abundance ; and it is capable of being made to produce them still more plentifully. The districts in this part of Africa where gold is produced most abundantly, are Manding, and the territory named Jallonkadoo. Mr. Park was inf... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: Arno Press; Fine Facsimile Reprint from the copy in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. Series: Physician travelers. edition (1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0405017189
• ISBN-13: 978-0405017186
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,394,937 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Intrepid Mungo Park, July 27, 2003

By	events3 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa (Paperback)

Kate Ferguson Marsters' edition of Mungo Park's TRAVELS is an excellent example of the travel narrative - easily comparable with the Journals of Lewis & Clark or Francis Parkman's OREGON TRAIL. The book is broken into three parts: Park's travel narrative , Marsters' Introduction & Major Rennell's Geographical Illustrations Of Mr. Park's Journey (which is rather dry and dated).

The main work is a narrative of Park's travels from Barra, on the West African coast, to the town of Silla, just west of Jenne and his return to the western coast. Park provides many interesting details and asides, including that of Mumbo Jumbo (also mentioned by Francis Moore) for disciplining wayward wives. Park also spends a fair amount of time explaining local governments and social norms. Throughout, the account attempts some degree of neutrality while noting acts of kindness and avarice by various individuals and rulers; although, not surprisingly, he explicitly criticizes the Moors who continually interfered with his progress and those who robbed and stripped him. Perhaps his most disturbing account is of the female slave who becomes too sick to continue traveling with the coffle. The entire work puts black slaves and their families in a very sympathetic light and shows the slave trade at its worst; although, due to the continuing conditions of slavery and internal conquest pre-dating major European involvement in the trade, Park stated that the termination of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade would not provide as great a benefit to the populace in Africa as many hoped.

The Introduction is important in providing the history of Park's early years, the important role of the African Association and its leader, Sir Joseph Banks. More importantly the Introduction deals with the Bryan Edwards controversy. Richard Burton and Orlando Patterson's criticisms have held that internal African slavery and slave trading was not nearly so prevalent as suggested by Park. In light of this, Marsters' statement that Joseph Banks, a critic of slavery, had to approve every piece of Edward's editing becomes extremely important. In addition, it is made clear that the reason for the stylistic differences is that the original TRAVELS was a book derived from Park's notes whereas the published work of his second, ill-fated journey was merely a compilation of those notes retrieved from the dead man's party!

All-in-all, an excellent and informative read!

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mungo Park is one of the overlooked adventurers., July 20, 1997

By A Customer

Mungo Park (1771-1806?) was the first European to visit the Niger River basin in 1796. He resolved, once and for all, a debate that had European cartographers and geographers confused for centuries.

His initial journey (1795-1797) was a tale of tremendous personal hardship and suffering, but triumph in the end. After returning to Scotland in 1798, he became acquainted with Sir Walter Scott. They became close friends, and it was Sir Walter Scott who convinced him to return to Africa to encover the secret of the mouth of the Niger River.

In 1805 he convinced the British government, in the middlle of a war against Napoleon, to send another expedition to seek out the mouth of the Niger. With 100 officers and men he set out, retracing his earlier steps. The journey was filled with personal tragedy and heroism. After arriving on the Niger, he built a boat, named the Joliba, and travelled down the river. During the course of his journey he met and traded with the many kingdoms that lined the river. However, he also incurred the wrath of many local kings and chiefs who believed that he was cheating them.

Near the town of Bussa (now covered by a huge dam), Mungo Park met his unexpected end. For many years it has been assumed that he was attacked by hostile natives seeking to rob him. In fact it may have been due to the fact that he just failed to navigate the river

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating journey to old Africa, June 7, 2008

By	Amy Nicolai "amos_the_turtle" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have just finished reading the Kindle version of this book, and found it fascinating reading. Mr. Park is an amazing explorer. The story of his initial adventures is amazing and humbling. He really was a persistent guy!

Worth reading for the insights to slavery as it existed in those days, as well as traveling both as a priveleged white man and later as a fugitive.

The Kindle version works well and was cheap. I doubt I could have found this book readable or affordable in its initial form.