Accordingly he sailed up the Gambia to Pisania, and thence he proceeded to
Medina, the capital of the Mandingo kingdom. His course from this city was
north-east, which led him beyond the limit of European discovery, to the
uninhabited frontier which separates Bondou and Mandingo. After some time
spent in endeavouring to ingratiate himself with the king of the latter
country, but in vain, he resolved to proceed into Bambouk. On arriving at
Firbanna, the capital, he was hospitably treated by the king. Here be
formed a plan to go with a merchant to Tombuctoo; but on his way he was
robbed, and either perished of hunger, or was murdered: the exact
particulars are not known. To Major Houghton we are indebted for our first
knowledge of the kingdom of Bondou; and for the names of several cities on
the Niger, as well as the course of that river.
Mr. Park was next employed by the African Association; and what he learnt,
observed, did, and suffered, fully justified them in the choice of such a
man. "His first journey was unquestionably the most important which any
European had ever performed in the interior of Africa. He established a
number of geographical positions, in a direct line of eleven hundred miles
from Cape de Verde: by pointing out the positions of the sources of the
Senegal, Gambia, and Niger, he has given a new aspect to the physical
geography of this continent; he has fixed the boundaries of the Moors and
Negroes; unfolded to us the empire of Ludamar; and described, from personal
observation, some important towns on the banks of the Niger, or Joliba.
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