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Welcome to Explorers.

Today we wrap up our series on Mungo Park.

In 1795, a Scottish explorer, Dr. Mungo Park, had set out on an epic journey to find the Niger River in the legendary city of Timbuktu. Park had overcome countless obstacles and in the end he had found the Niger, although

Timbuktu had alluded him. When he returned to England after more than two and a half years

abroad, everyone had thought him dead, the latest in the line of explorers lost in the African wilderness.

But Park had returned and the public had found a new hero.

Park's first task was to put his journey into words, both for his sponsor, the African Association, and the public.

Parks telling of his journey to the Niger region would be released in 1799.

The book was titled, Travels in the Interior Districts of of Africa and it would be a hit.

There would be three editions within the first year alone and the book has never gone out of print.

For many Europeans, Park had given them their first glimpse into the Interior of Africa.

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa had been written with the assistance of Brian Edwards, a member of the African Association. Edwards had helped turn Parks travels into an epic adventure, one man's struggle

against all odds in the most exotic and mysterious place in the world.

And while Park had glossed over some of the horrors of slavery, those in the abolitionist movement welcomed his candid and honest assessment of the African people, humanizing them in the eyes of many.

As I said, ultimately, it was a great hit in the book would be the standard for future explorers putting their story into written form.

In 1799 Park, at the age of 28, would marry Allison Anderson, the daughter of Dr. Thomas Anderson, who Park had apprenticed

under as a teenager. The couple would have their first child the following year. In 1800, Park

set up a medical practice near Selkirk, but would move to Peebles about 20 miles away in 1801.

He had his wife's family would grow and by 1805 there would be three boys and a girl in the Park

Clan. But while things seem pretty good for park, as we have seen with so many other explorers, the need to keep searching was in his blood. He grew bored and restless in the life of a country doctor. A friend of Parks, novelist Sir Walter Scott, later wrote that Parkwood, quote,

Rather Brave Africa and all its horrors than wear out his life in long and

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