Majestic River
eBook - ePub

Majestic River

Mungo Park and the Exploration of the Niger

  1. 320 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Majestic River

Mungo Park and the Exploration of the Niger

About this book

One of the greatest stories of world exploration ever told.

By the late eighteenth century, the river Niger was a 2,000-year-old two-part geographical problem. Solving it would advance European knowledge of Africa, provide a route to commercial opportunity and help eradicate the evil of slavery.

Mungo Park achieved lasting fame in 1796 by solving the first part of the Niger problem – which way did the river run? Park died in 1806, in circumstances which are still uncertain, in failing to solve the second – where did the Niger end? Numerous expeditions explored the river in the decades following Park's death, but not until 1830 was its final course revealed following in-the-field exploration. By then, however, the Niger problem had been solved by 'armchair geographers' who had never even visited Africa.

Majestic River celebrates Mungo Park's achievements and illuminates his rich afterlife – how and why he was commemorated long after his death. It is also the thrilling story of the many expeditions that sought to determine the Niger's course and the facts of Park's disappearance, as well as a biography of the Niger itself as the river slowly took shape in the European imagination.

Shortlisted for the Saltire Society History Book of the Year Award

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Yes, you can access Majestic River by Charles W. J. Withers in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Historical Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Birlinn
Year
2022
Print ISBN
9781780277998
eBook ISBN
9781788855662

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. List of illustrations
  6. Note on names and spelling
  7. Note on the maps
  8. Preface and acknowledgements
  9. Introduction: ‘Still but a wide extended blank’
  10. 1 ‘Its final destination is still unknown’
  11. 2 ‘The bustle of life’
  12. 3 ‘Geographer enough’
  13. 4 ‘The language of truth’
  14. 5 ‘The enlargement of our geographical knowledge’
  15. 6 ‘Once more saw the Niger rolling’
  16. 7 ‘To do justice to Mr Park’s memory’
  17. 8 ‘Collect all possible information’
  18. 9 ‘Quorra, Quolla, Kowarra, and others similar’
  19. 10 ‘The greatest geographical discovery’
  20. 11 ‘The river is not correctly laid down’
  21. 12 ‘This celebrated African traveller’
  22. 13 ‘Cool, impassioned, cowardly, courageous’
  23. Abbreviations
  24. Notes
  25. Bibliography
  26. Index