Tour Scotland short 4K travel video clip, with Scottish fiddle music, of Yarrow Water on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to the Scottish Borders. The name Yarrow may derive from the Celtic word garw meaning rough or possibly share a derivation with the English name Jarrow. Mungo Park was born on 11 September 1771 in Selkirkshire, at Foulshiels on the Yarrow Water, near Selkirk, on a tenant farm which his father rented from the Duke of Buccleuch. He was the seventh in a family of thirteen. He was educated at home before attending Selkirk grammar school. At the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to Thomas Anderson, a surgeon in Selkirk. During his apprenticeship, Park became friends with Anderson's son Alexander and was introduced to Anderson's daughter Allison, who would later become his wife. In October 1788, Park enrolled at the University of Edinburgh, attending for four sessions studying medicine and botany. Notably, during his time at university, he spent a year in the natural history course taught by Professor John Walker. After completing his studies, he spent a summer in the Scottish Highlands, engaged in botanical fieldwork with his brother-in-law, James Dickson, a gardener and seed merchant in Covent Garden. In 1788 Dickson along with Sir James Edward Smith and six other fellows founded the Linnean Society of London. In 1792 Park completed his medical studies at University of Edinburgh. Through a recommendation by Joseph Banks he obtained the post of assistant surgeon on board the East India Company's ship Worcester. In February 1793 the Worcester sailed to Benkulen in Sumatra. On 26 September 1794 Mungo Park offered his services to the African Association, then looking for a successor to Major Daniel Houghton, who had been sent in 1790 to discover the course of the Niger River and had died in the Sahara. On 22 May 1795, Park left Portsmouth, England, on the brig Endeavour, a vessel travelling to Gambia to trade for beeswax and ivory. On 21 June 1795, he reached the Gambia River and ascended it 200 miles to a British trading station named Pisania. On 2 December, accompanied by two local guides, he started for the unknown interior. He chose the route crossing the upper Senegal basin and through the semi-desert region of Kaarta. The journey was full of difficulties, and at Ludamar he was imprisoned by a Moorish chief for four months. On 1 July 1796, he escaped, alone and with nothing but his horse and a pocket compass, and on the 21st reached the long-sought Niger River at Ségou, being the first European to do so. He followed the river downstream 80 miles to Silla, where he was obliged to turn back, lacking the resources to go further. In May 1804 Walter Scott came upon Park throwing stones into a deep pool in the river and remarked that " This appears but an idle amusement for one who has seen so much adventure". Park replied that this was " Not so idle perhaps, as you suppose. This was the way I used to ascertain the depth of a river in Africa". Although he had not yet told anyone, Park was considering his second and fateful expedition at the time. At about the same time, James Hogg had come to the attention of Scott whilst the former was working at Blackhouse Farm in the Yarrow valley. On his second great African journey to explore the River Niger. Mungo Park never returned, as in 1806 the party was drowned after boating 1,000 miles downstream, when they capsized in rapids with hostile natives attacking from the river bank. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome.
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