_Death of Mungo Park_.
May, 1812.
The doubts which may have existed of the fate of this eminent man
are now removed, by the certain accounts lately received from
Goree, of his having perished, through the hostility of the
natives, on one of the branches of the Niger. The particulars have
been transmitted to Sir Joseph Banks, by Governor Maxwell, of
Goree, who received them from Isaco[236], a Moor, sent inland by
the Governor, for the purpose of enquiry. In a letter to Mr.
Dickson, of Covent-garden, brother-in-law to Mr. Park, Sir Joseph
thus writes:--
"I have read Isaco's translated journal; by which it appears, that
425 the numerous European retinue of Mungq Park quickly and miserably
died, leaving, at the last, only himself and a Mr. Martyn.
Proceeding on their route, they stopped at a settlement, from
which, according to custom, they sent a present to the chief whose
territory they were next to pass. This present having been
treacherously withheld, the chief considered it, in the travellers,
as a designed injury and neglect. _On their approaching, in a
canoe, he assembled his people on a narrow channel of rocks[237],
and assailed them so violently with arrows, that some of the rowers
were killed_. This caused Mr. Park and Mr. Martyn to make an effort
by swimming to reach the shore; in which attempt they both were
drowned. The canoe shortly afterwards sunk, and only one hired
native escaped. Every appurtenance also of the travellers was lost
or destroyed, except a sword-belt which had belonged to Mr. Martyn,
and which Isaco redeemed, and brought with him to Goree."
[Footnote 236: Isaco was a Jew, not a Moor.--J.G.J.]
[Footnote 237: There is a remarkable confirmation of this
quotation from Sir Joseph's letter in Mr. _Jackson's_
translation of the Arabic manuscript of Mungo Park's death, for
which see Bowdich's Account of a Mission to Ashantee, p. 480.;
also Annals of Oriental Literature, No. I.]
_Death of Mr. Rontgen, in an Attempt to explore the Interior of
Africa_.
May, 1812.
The young German gentleman of the name of Rontgen, who left England
426 about a twelve-month since for Africa, in order to prosecute
discoveries in the interior of that country, has, it is said, been
murdered by the Arabs, before he had proceeded any great distance
from Mogodor, where he spent some time perfecting himself in the
Arabic language. He was a promising young man, and an enthusiast in
the cause in which he was lost, and supposed to understand the
Arabic language better than any European who ever before entered
Africa. At an early age he formed the plan of going to that
country, and gave up his connections and a competency in Germany,
to prosecute his intentions. His father was a character well known
in Europe, who raised himself from obscurity to the greatest
celebrity by his talent for mechanics. He was at one time worth a
million, but was ruined by the French revolution.
_The following Letter from James Willis, Esq. late Consul to
Senigambia, is extracted from the Gentleman's Magazine for May,
1812_.