_MUNGO PARK._
To continue our narrative of exploration we must now leave the
sweltering suns and miasmatic atmosphere of Western Africa for
the temperate climate and bracing breezy hillsides of southern
Scotland--turning from the river dear to the geographer to the stream
loved of the poet--from the Niger to the Yarrow.
The man whose mission it was to break through the isolating barriers
reared by savagery and a deadly climate between the land of the
negro and all outside humanising influences, must needs have an
heroic cradle, and come of an heroic race. His must be the nurture
of the Spartan, physically equipping him to battle with hardship and
privation--his the education and upbringing which tend to all forms of
noble discontent and deeds of high emprise.
Such a cradle and such a race were Ettrickdale and its peasantry.
Theirs was the life of honest toil and constant self-restraint, and
theirs the direct and indirect education which in the right man
develops romantic instincts, and weds to a perfervid imagination stern
religious convictions, intense practicality, and prosaic tenacity of
purpose. Theirs were the surroundings fitted alike to mould the poet or
the hero--him who should sing of the chivalry of the past, or him who
should be of the chivalry of the present, in whatever field is scope
for praiseworthy ambition and highest aspiration--clear-sighted vision
and undaunted courage, dogged persistence and untiring perseverance,
fortitude under reverses, and physical powers to endure privation.
This, then, was the heritage which Ettrickdale had to offer to her
sons; and this, as one of them, the heritage of Mungo Park, the first
of the knight errantry of Africa.
[Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF MUNGO PARK.]
Of the early life of him who was destined to partially unveil the
face of Africa we know but little, though that little is sufficiently
significant and satisfactory.
Mungo Park was born on the 10th September 1771 in the cottage of
Foulshiels, some four and a half miles from Selkirk. Foulshiels stands
in the very centre of the loveliest scenery of the glen of Yarrow,
facing on the opposite side of the valley the stately tower of Newark.
Eastward it commands a view over the woods and groves and “birchen
bowers” of the widening dale to where it merges in the valley of the
Ettrick near Selkirk. Westward it fronts a magnificent panorama of hill
and dale, through which curves the Yarrow in broken gleaming reaches,
from the wild romantic scenery of its loch and mountain sources. To
front and rear rise stately hills, their bases separated and washed by
the rushing streams, their lower slopes clad with oak and fir, their
upper with grass and heather, over which the winds sweep unopposed.
But if the surroundings of Park’s birthplace were grand, the cottage,
of which the ruins still exist, was humble in the extreme. It was
neither better nor worse than might be tenanted by shepherds of the
present day in out-of-the-way places, being built substantially of
whinstone and lime, and containing at the most three apartments. The
building presents not a trace of ornament, not a relieving cornice,
thus fitly expressing the character of its occupants, their extreme
practicality, their plain honest soundness and indifference to all
external graces. From such a cottage sprang a Burns, and later on a
Carlyle.
Mungo was the seventh child of a family of thirteen, of whom, however,
only eight reached the age of maturity. By unremitting care and
hard work his father had raised himself to the position of a small
farmer--how small his cottage sufficiently shows. In him, however, we
have undoubtedly one of that type of Scottish fathers who will pinch
his own body and double the slavery of his life in order that his
children may receive a better education than he himself had, and that
their minds at least may not be starved and stunted. As Park’s first
biographer puts it, writing in 1816, “The attention of the Scottish
farmers and peasantry to the early instruction of their children is
strongly exemplified in the history of Park’s family. The diffusion
of knowledge among the natives of that part of the kingdom and their
general intelligence must be admitted by every unprejudiced observer;
nor is there any country in which the effects of education are so
conspicuous in promoting industry and good conduct, and in producing
useful and respectable men of the inferior and middle classes admirably
fitted for all the important offices of common life.”
It would seem that there was no school near enough to Foulshiels
for the Park children in the earlier years of their life to be able
to attend, since we find a resident teacher engaged to impart the
necessary rudiments of education.
With maturer years Mungo was transferred to the Selkirk Grammar School,
to which he probably walked each morning.
From this time we begin to get glimpses of his peculiar personality
and character. It does not appear that he showed any special talent
while at school, though constant in his attendance, and studious in
application. We gather that he was dreamy and reserved, a great reader,
a lover of poetry, and passionately fond of the quaint lore and simple
minstrelsy so markedly associated with the border counties of Scotland.
His, clearly, was not the temperament which would receive its
guiding impulses from the routine work of school or the precepts and
instruction of schoolmasters. Such conventional influences would never
have led him to Africa. His inspirations were derived from the ballads
that were sung and the tales that were told by every country fireside.
For him the rushing Yarrow, Newark’s ruined towers, the spreading
field, the swelling hillside, and the mountain top were teachers, each
with a tale to tell of bold adventure or of deadly strife.
The whole country was redolent with the romance of the half-forgotten
past, with a hundred memories dear to a patriotic heart. In all around
him there was something to throw a glamour over his young eager mind,
something to fire his imagination and arouse eager longings to be up
and doing deeds undefined, yet ever great and noble. From the stately
castle, which now looked down on him in melancholy ruined majesty,
brave knights of bygone days had ridden forth to fight for king and
country or for love. Their day was past, but might not he in other
guise emerge from his lowly cottage, and with other weapons win his
golden spurs.
In what way all these vague ambitions and this spiritual fermentation
was to end there was but small indication. It is given only to the few
to realise in after life the romantic dreams of their youth.
At first it seems Mungo was destined by his father for the ministry,
but he himself preferred medicine, to which choice no objection appears
to have been made.
To acquire the rudiments of his medical education, when fifteen years
of age he was placed, as was the custom of the time, as apprentice
to Dr. Thomas Anderson, a surgeon in Selkirk, a gentleman whose
descendants still practise the healing art in the same town. For three
years he remained with the Doctor, not only acquiring a knowledge of
medicine, but still further grounding himself in the classics and
other branches of education at the Grammar School.
Further than this we know nothing of his life in the Anderson family,
though that his time was agreeably spent we may deduce from the fact
that, as we shall see later on, he some years after married Dr.
Anderson’s eldest daughter.
In the year 1789 Park left Selkirk for the University of Edinburgh to
complete his medical studies. Three successive sessions seems to have
been all that was necessary to qualify in these days.
We are told that he was an ardent student, and distinguished among his
fellows. Botany was his favourite subject, this fact being doubtless
largely due to the inspiring influence of his brother-in-law, Mr.
James Dickson, who from being a gardener had raised himself by his own
exertions to be no common botanist and the author of some valuable and
important works.
It was while still a medical student that Park came more directly in
contact with Dickson, and with him he went a botanical tour in the
Highlands.
Dickson did more for his young brother-in-law than inspire him with a
love of botany. He was on a footing of considerable intimacy with Sir
Joseph Banks, one of the chief managers of the African Association,
and when Park left the University he introduced him to his influential
friend, and so brought him in contact with the influences which were to
make Mungo Park the first of famous African travellers.
But the time was not yet. Park had still to prepare himself practically
for his great mission by widening his experience of life and
travel--had still to get further bitten with the fever of unrest. Hence
in 1792 we find him sailing not to Africa, but to the East, as surgeon
in the East India Company’s service.
At this point he supplies us with an admirable and characteristic
glimpse of himself in a letter addressed to his teacher in surgery
and future father-in-law, Dr. Anderson of Selkirk. The letter is
dated London, 23rd January 1793, and the following is an interesting
portion:--
“I have now got upon the first step of the stair of ambition.
Here’s a figure of it. (A pen and ink sketch is here given of a
flight of steps with a man on the lowest.) It very nearly resembles
one of Gordon’s traps which he uses in the library. Now, if I
should run up the stair, you see the consequence. I must either
be mortified by seeing I can get no further, or, by taking an
airy step, knock my brains out against the large folio of some
succeeding author. May I use my little advantage in height to
enable me to perform the office of a watchman to the rest of
mankind, and call to them, ‘Take care, sirs! Don’t look too high,
or you’ll break your legs on that stool. Open your eyes; you are
going straight for the fire.’
“Passed at Surgeons’ Hall! Associate of the Linnean Society! I
walked three or four times backwards and forwards through the hall,
and had actually begun to count the panes of glass in the large
window, when the bell rang, and the beadle roared out, ‘Mr. Park!’
Macbeth’s start when he beheld the dagger was a mere jest compared
to mine....
“I have purchased Stewart’s Philosophy to amuse me at sea. As
you are in Edinburgh, you will write to me what people say of
its religious character. You told me in Sandy’s (his brother
Alexander presumably, who was at the time following the medical
course he himself had just completed) letter that you would write
me next week. I have too much to say, and therefore must speak by
halves.
“The melancholy, who complain of the shortness of human life, and
the voluptuous, who think the present only their own, strive to
fill up every moment with sensual enjoyment; but the man whose soul
has been enlightened by his Creator, and enabled, though dimly,
to discern the wonders of salvation, will look upon the joys and
afflictions of this life as equally the tokens of Divine love. He
will walk through the world as one travelling to a better country,
looking forward with wonder to the author and finisher of his
faith....
“_P.S._--I sail in about a month.”
[Illustration: EXTRACT OF LETTER FROM MUNGO PARK TO DR. ANDERSON.]
It was in this buoyant mood of the young conqueror-to-be that Park
looked forth upon the field of enterprise opened up to him, and with
Stewart’s Philosophy to amuse him, and his deeply rooted religious
convictions to sustain him, left England for the Indies.
As showing the force of these convictions, we may quote another letter,
written to Dr. Anderson when on the point of departure:--
“I have now reached that height that I can behold the tumults of
nations with indifference, confident that the reins of events
are in our Father’s hands. May you and I (not like the stubborn
mule, but like the weaning child) obey His hand, that after all
the troubles of this dark world in which we are truly strangers,
we may, through the wonders of atonement, reach a far greater and
exceeding weight of glory. I wish you may be able to look upon the
day of your departure with the same resignation that I do on mine.
My hope is now approaching to a certainty. If I be deceived, may
God alone put me right, for I would rather die in the delusion than
wake to all the joys of earth. May the Holy Spirit dwell for ever
in your heart, my dear friend, and if I never see my native land
again, may I rather see the green sod on your grave than see you
anything but a Christian.”
Nothing noteworthy marked this voyage to Sumatra, but his stay there
was by no means wasted time, since it afforded him an excellent
opportunity of indulging his scientific tastes, not as the collector
merely, but also and chiefly as the accurate observer.
A paper in the Linnean Transactions on eight new fishes from Sumatra
is sufficient evidence both of his industry and of his scientific
attainments.
Park returned to England after a year’s absence, and was now ripe
for the work in store for him. It nowhere appears that so far he had
even once thought of Africa as a possible field for his ambition and
energies. His natural temperament, however, had been a fertile soil
for the romantic ideas which his early environment had planted. His
medical education had further fitted him for the work of exploration,
besides bringing him more sympathetically in contact with his
botanical brother-in-law, who again was to bring him within the sphere
of influence of Sir Joseph Banks, and through him of the African
Association. Following these various determining influences came the
first taste of travel, the wider experience, and the knowledge of the
good and evil of the wanderer’s life. All that remained wanting was
the golden opportunity to prove in action his potential capacity for
heroic service in the fields of geographical research.
The return of Park from his first voyage was the turning point in his
career. At the moment there was a crisis in the affairs of the African
Association. Everything they had attempted had ended disastrously,
and news had just reached them of the sad death of Major Houghton.
Should the task now be given up, or was it to be resumed with renewed
zeal and ardour? There could be but one answer. The work begun must be
continued. Surely in the end it must be crowned with success. Meantime,
who was to take it up?
While the Association was thus inquiring for the man fitted to entrust
with their perilous venture, Park was still undecided as to what
course in life he was to pursue. With Sir Joseph Banks as a link
between, there could not fail to be a speedy understanding and a
mutual settlement of the questions at issue for both. The projects of
the Association speedily came to Park’s ears. Here was the very work
he wanted, promising opportunities to indulge in his love of travel
and natural history far transcending his wildest dreams. A splendid
prospect of a great work accomplished and glory won, of difficulties
surmounted and fame achieved, opened up before him. Before such a
chance there could be no irresolution, no doubting, no fears. His
course was clear, and at once he volunteered his services, which were,
on the part of the Company, as promptly and eagerly accepted as they
had been offered.
Mungo Park was then twenty-four years of age.