Travels in the Interior of Africa [Paperback]

Personally, I don't like Amazon's 5 star rating system, in my opinion too many people rate books 5 star, which in my mind would be a book 100% perfect in every category. To me this is practically unattainable. So I give this book a 5 star rating with reservations, I would prefer a 4 3/4 rating if this were possible. There should be a 7 star rating system, with 7 stars being practically unattainable.
Having said this, this is the greatest work of travel and exploration I have ever read. And I have read the greatest, all the African greats; Burton, Baker, Stanley, Livingston, Mary Kingsley & etc., etc. Also the North American giants; Lewis & Clark, Champlain, La Salle, Jedediah Smith and the rest; and most of the South Americans of fame, Spruce, Bates, Humbolt, Dr. Richard Schultes et.al. And last but not least the the Asian explorers, such as Doughty, Thessiger, Hedin and many more. I say this so you know where I'm coming from. But "Travels into the Interior of Africa" by Mungo Park is my favorite. Read it and you may agree with me, I don't know why this book is so ignored, especially after reading so many rave reviews on Amazon on Mary Kingsley's, "Travels in West Africa" {but she deserves it}.There are heart touching as well as humorous scenes in this book especially in his encounters with African women. Park's courage, perseverance, humility, humanity and his empathy for the African peoples he encounters as well as his informative account of the exotic makes this book a great read. The "good, the bad, and the ugly" are all here, and it is written in a straightforward and manly style.To me he was truly one of the greatest explorers of all times!
I have a more expensive edition of this work but it sure looks like this "Wordsworth" edition is a good buy!I've got to check out more of their titles on African exploration if any are available!

The first journey is a pretty well-written account (polished by a ghost-writer) that compares favorably to any true-life adventure story. Park provides many sociological and economic details of the different villages and groups he encounters, along the Gambia and Niger, during his unsuccessful treck to find the source of the latter. Though he is often robbed and ill-treated, he also, at times, encounters compassion and friendship. As a result, his account is probably more humanistic than some others. Of course, there were no cannibals in the part of the continent he explored.

Many will be surprised by Park's account of slavery. Park estimated that about two-thirds of the Africans he encountered along his trip were slaves to other blacks. He also thought that human trafficking in Africa was not substantially exacerberated by encounters with Europeans.

The second journey is shorter, much drier and unpolished: essentially it is Park's mostly unannotated diary. Delays led to the men undertaking the journey during the wet-season, and the deathcount due to disease is staggering. Out of the forty white men who initially set out, only three, including Park himself, survived their maladies to meet a violent end. The author adds a short account of some of the rumors that escaped Africa when the expedition was well overdue. The guide of the second leg of the trip was later tracked down and able to provide a non-eyewitness account of Mr. Park's untimely end.

Anyone interested in the pre-colonial history of Africa would be well-advised to read this book.

Incredible account of his travels. It does drag a bit toward then end, though.

It certainly doesn't paint a very nice picture of the Blacks in their own native country. Park bends over backwards to try and understand and empathize with the Blacks he travels through and he certainly meets some outstandingly good individuals. But in general, they tend to be pretty unpleasant characters: greedy, selfish, belligerent. The worst of the people he encounters are the Moors, the Moslem Africans. They're really despicable. But the other Blacks are pretty miserable, too, not just to the defenseless Park, but to each other, continually waging war and enslaving each other. And it's this same tendency to belligerence and greediness that causes Park's ultimate demise.

This picture of the Africans in their native land was completely unexpected and left a real bad taste in my mouth. This is just one man's experiences so I probably shouldn't place too much weight on it. Park does compare his bad treatment to what he could have expected in his own country if he'd been traveling alone and carrying great treasure, i.e., he couldn't have expected any better.

A Frenchman, Rene Cailllie, actually made it through to Timbucktoo 20 years later and wrote a long book about it. Unfortunately, it's no longer in print, although it's available from Google in PDF. Don't know when I'll make time to read it, I don't own an eReader.

I guess the best thing you can say about this whole ugly business is that it just shows how over-populated Africa had become and how advanced the African Blacks had become towards civilization.

I really can't recommend this book highly enough. This Wordsworth edition is really excellent, too.