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Ludwig Gottlieb Portman (engraver), 'Mr. M. Park', stipple engraving, 1787-1828. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, RP-P-1910-440 (Public Domain). Cropped and downscaled. · Stipple-engraved oval portrait of Mungo Park by Ludwig Gottlieb Portman, captioned 'Mr. M. Park.' under the oval and signed 'Portman, sc.', held by the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (object number RP-P-1910-440, 'Portret van de Schotse arts Mungo Park'), dated by the museum 1787 - 1828 (the engraver's working span; the plate is not more closely dated, and the record does not name the drawing it was made after). Rights review: the museum's own linked-art record (opened live 2026-11-05) carries the Public Domain Mark 1.0 on the image and a CC0 right on the record, names the printmaker as mentioned on the object, and links the visual item to Mungo Park's Wikidata identifier; the print was made no later than 1828 (public domain by age). The file is the oval and caption cropped from the museum's 3882 x 6318 pixel scan and downscaled to 886 x 1200 pixels (no upscaling). · Public Domain Mark 1.0 and CC0 as stated in the Rijksmuseum's own record; an engraving made before 1829 (public domain by age)
explorer · 19th Century
Mungo Park
1771–1806
Known For
historicalscientific
Not yet included in personality matching — the documented evidence doesn't yet cover enough of the personality model. Everything else on this page is fully available.
Trait Constellation
Key Achievements
Scottish surgeon and explorer sent by the African Association in 1795 to find the Niger; he reached it at Segu in 1796, followed it about 80 miles downstream, and returned in 1797 as, per the sources, the first European to see the upper Niger.
His 1799 'Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa' became a best-selling classic of travel writing; he had earlier collected plants in Sumatra and described eight new fishes for the Linnean Society.
In 1805 he led a larger government expedition back to the Niger; disease had killed most of the Europeans before the river, and he and a few companions are reported, on an African guide's account, to have sailed about 1,000 miles down it before dying at the Bussa rapids, adding little new geographical knowledge.
Moments That Reveal Them
Held prisoner by a Moorish chief at Ludamar for about four months, he escaped alone in July 1796 with only his horse and a pocket compass, and went on to reach the Niger at Segu instead of turning back.
This is consistent with an explorer who improvised under severe shortage and kept to his objective. Resourcefulness
At Sansanding in late 1805, with his brother-in-law and most of the party dead and only a few men left, he did not turn back; he bought two canoes, joined them into a single boat and set off down the unexplored river, an episode a recent scholar says logic would have advised against.
This is consistent with a determination to finish the task that was both his strength and, on this occasion, a costly liability. Persistence
Turning Points
After settling as a country doctor at Peebles, where a biographer says he chafed at the monotony, he accepted the government's 1803 invitation to lead a new Niger expedition, and sailed for the Gambia in January 1805.
This is consistent with someone who left a settled medical practice for a more ambitious undertaking rather than stay in routine work. Achievement Drive
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Sources
- Mungo Park (Q219086), verified live via the Wikidata API (2026-11-05): English label 'Mungo Park', description 'Scottish naturalist and explorer of the African continent', Korean label 뭉고 파크, born 1771 (day given variously as 10 or 11 September), died 1806, citizenship Kingdom of Great Britain. Orientation only; not used as support for any row.
- Linda Hall Library (science and technology research library), 'Scientist of the Day: Mungo Park' by historian of science William B. Ashworth Jr., read in full. CANONICAL SIGNIFICANCE SOURCE: surgeon chosen in 1795 by the African Association to reach the Niger from the coast of West Africa; reached and explored along the upper Niger, survived the return and came back in 1797 as the first European to see the upper Niger; his book; the disastrous second expedition (of a party of 45, 38 died of fever before reaching the Niger) and his drowning at Bussa on the testimony of a single surviving African witness. It remarks that his 'sole qualification seems to have been that he applied for the post'. Short institutional biography.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh edition (1911), article 'Park, Mungo', read in full via Wikisource: education and Sumatra voyage (a paper on eight new Sumatran fishes for the Linnean Society); the 1795-97 journey (Ludamar imprisonment of four months, escape alone with his horse and a pocket compass on 1 July 1796, the Niger at Segu on 21 July, 80 miles downstream to Silla, seven months at Kamalia after falling ill, return); the 1799 Travels 'an acknowledged classic'; country medical practice at Peebles and his restlessness there; the 1805 government expedition (11 Europeans alive on reaching the Niger in mid-August), the schooner Joliba built from two canoes with one soldier's help, his letter of resolve 'to discover the termination of the Niger or perish', the Bussa rapids; names J. Thomson's 1890 'Mungo Park and the Niger' as the best critical estimate. Dated encyclopedia article, admiring in tone but circumstantial.
- EBSCO Research Starters, 'Mungo Park' (reference biography derived from Salem Press Great Lives, read in full): medical and botanical distinction at Edinburgh, collecting plants in Sumatra, five months at Pisania learning Mandingo, trading off goods to win the friendship of petty chiefs, Ludamar imprisonment and escape, Kamalia, the 1799 book that 'rapidly sold out several editions', his refusal of an Australian post because the salary was too small, the government expedition and the original plan to make treaties and trading stations; and a critical assessment that his death 'was basically a result of two tragic errors in judgment': entering the bush in the rainy season 'against all advice' and avoiding and firing on local people; it also calls him driven by a 'driving desire for eminence' and notes he left Sansanding sick and possibly lacking clarity of judgment. Reference writing with a critical conclusion; the 'against all advice' and 'eminence' phrases are the writer's judgments.
- Cambridge University Press (2024), 'In the Shadow of the Slave Trade' (chapter 1 of 'Mungo Park's Ghost: The Haunted Hubris of British Explorers in Nineteenth-Century Africa'), read in full from the open chapter page: scholarly reassessment that frames the 1805-06 expedition in the slave trade and Anglo-French rivalry; recruitment of 35 men from the Gorée garrison; the rains from early June and 31 deaths by mid-August; at Sansanding 'logic suggests he should have conceded defeat' but he bought two canoes, bound them and set off; that the descent was told by African informants (Isaaco, Amadi Fatouma) whom British contemporaries distrusted; that he 'lashed out' at people along the river; his possibly impaired mental and physical state; and the author's argument that neither 'hostile locals' nor 'overweening ambition' alone explains the failure. Independent, critical academic voice; opens with the myth of the doomed explorer.
- Undiscovered Scotland, biography 'Mungo Park' (heritage-travel website), read in full: Selkirkshire background and training, the 1795 expedition up the Gambia and east, four months' imprisonment and escape, the second expedition's 40-odd Europeans and the 19 November 1805 departure downriver, his policy of avoiding contact with local people and the attacks that followed, the Bussa rapids, and the 1827 death of his son Thomas. Popular biographical summary used only for cross-checking dates and the shape of the story.
- Princeton University Library, digital exhibit 'Mungo Park, 1771-1806' (Maps of Africa collection, read in full): reproduces Park's own account from the 1799 Travels of why he volunteered ('a passionate desire to examine into the productions of a country so little known'; willing to perish; made no stipulation for future reward). SELF-REPORT: Park's own words, used only as context for curiosity and motivation, never as sole support.
- Mungo Park, 'Travels in the Interior of Africa', vol. 1 (Cassell's National Library, 1893 reprint of the 1799 narrative), Project Gutenberg text, searched and read in the passages on his decision to set out without the caravan, the Kaarta king's warning about the Ludamar route, his decision to go forward rather than return, and his arrival at the Niger at Segu. SELF-REPORT: his own narrative written for the African Association; used only where corroborated by an independent source or labelled as his own account. Volume 2 and the 1815 journal of the second expedition were not opened.