esert, called
Timbuctoo, said to possess palaces, temples and numberless public
buildings, to be surrounded by lofty walls and glittering everywhere
with gold and precious stones, to rival the ancient cities of Mexico and
Peru in splendour and those of Asia in the amount of its population.

A century and a half before, two sea captains, Thompson and Jobson, sent
out by a company for the purpose, had made their way some distance up
the Gambia in boats, and early in the eighteenth century Captain Stibbs
had gallantly sailed up the same river to a considerable distance, but,
his native crew refusing to proceed, he was compelled to return without
having gained much information.

As a wide sandy desert intervened between the shores of the
Mediterranean and the centre of Africa, it was naturally supposed that
the unknown region could be more easily reached from the west coast than
over that barren district, and, soon after the return of Lucas, Major
Haughton, a high-spirited, gallant officer who had lived some time in
Morocco, volunteered to make his way along the bank of the Gambia
eastward, under the belief that a journey by land was more likely to
succeed than one by water. Some way up that river is the the town of
Pisania, where an English factory had been established, and a few
Europeans were settled, with a medical man, Dr Laidley. Leaving this
place, he proceeded to Tisheet, a place in the Great Desert, hoping from
thence to reach Timbuctoo; but, robbed by a Moorish chief, of everything
he possessed, he wandered alone through the desert, till, exhausted by
hunger and thirst, he sat down under a tree and died. The news of his
fate was brought to Dr Laidley soon afterwards by some negroes.

These expeditions threw no light on the interior of the continent. A
fresh volunteer, however, Mungo Park, then unknown to fame, was soon to
commence those journeys which have immortalised his name, and which
contributed so greatly to solve one of the chief African problems--the
course of the Niger.

CHAPTER TWO.

TRAVELS OF MUNGO PARK.

PARENTAGE--RETURNS FROM INDIA--SENT OUT BY THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION--
SAILS FOR AFRICA--ARRIVES AT PISANIA--STARTS WITH A COME EASTWARD--MUMBO
JUMBO--ARRIVES AT KOOJAR--REACHES CAPITAL OF BONDOU--WELCOMED AT THE
CAPITAL OF KAARTA BY KING DAISY--SEIZED AT THE TOWN OF DALLI BY MOORISH
SOLDIERS, AND CARRIED CAPTIVE TO BENOWM--BARBAROUSLY TREATED BY ALI--
TAKEN TO VISIT ALI'S WIFE FATIMA--SH