This is the author's journal of the extraordinary journey that he set out in 1795 from Gambia to trace the course of the Niger, a river of which Europeans had no first-hand knowledge He travelled on the sufferance of African rulers and soon came to depend for his survival on the charity of African villagers Before he reach the Niger, he endured months of captivity in the camp of a Moorish chief His subsequent misadventures included being robbed and stripped naked by Fulani bandits Yet, throughout his travels, Park maintained a remarkable empathy for African societies and beliefs He recorded what he saw as accurately as he could, and without presuming European superiority