* * * * * [Illustration: Map Of Park's Travels In Africa With The Course Of The Niger.]

* * * * * TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA.

CHAPTER I.

_The author's motives for undertaking the voyage - his instructions and departure - arrives at Jillifree, on the Gambia River - proceeds to Vintain, - Some account of the Feloops. - Proceeds up the river for Jonkakonda - arrives at Dr. Laidley's. - Some account of Pisania, and the British factory established at that place. - The Author's employment during his stay at Pisania - his sickness and recovery - the country described - prepares to set out for the interior._

Soon after my return from the East Indies, in 1793, having learned that the noblemen and gentlemen, associated for the purpose of prosecuting Discoveries in the Interior of Africa, were desirous of engaging a person to explore that continent by the way of the Gambia River, I took occasion, through means of the President of the Royal Society, to whom I had the honour to be known, of offering myself for that service; I had been informed, that a gentleman of the name of Houghton, a captain in the army, and formerly fort-major at Goree, had already sailed to the Gambia, under the direction of the association, and that there was reason to apprehend he had fallen a sacrifice to the climate, or perished in some contest with the natives; but this intelligence, instead of deterring me from my purpose, animated me to persist in the offer of my services with the greater solicitude. I had a passionate desire to examine into the productions of a country so little known, and to become experimentally acquainted with the modes of life and character of the natives.

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