The New Student's Reference Work/Park, Mungo

Park, Mungo, an African traveler, was born in Scotland, Sept. 20, 1771. He became assistant surgeon on the Worcester and on his return offered his services to the African Association and sailed from England, May 22, 1795. After learning the Mandingo language at Pisania he set out, but soon fell into the hands of a Moorish king, who made him prisoner, but from whom he escaped in 1796. He wrote an account of his travels in a work, Travels in the Interior of Africa. In 1799 he married at Selkirk, but the life of a country surgeon was too quiet for him, so in 1805 he sailed for the Niger country, in Africa, on behalf of the government. His account of the second voyage was published in 1815, and has been of much value to subsequent explorers. See Joseph Thomson's Mungo Park.