ABSTRACT
The news of the discovery of the Niger was received with the utmost enthusiasm, not only by the African Association who, after long years of failure, had begun to doubt whether their endeavours would ever bear fruit, but by the whole country. While Mungo Park had been discovering the Niger the African Association had sent out a young German, named Frederic Hornemann, to penetrate the interior by way of the caravan routes of the Sahara starting from Egypt. Through the good offices of Napoleon, Hornemann's account of his journey as far as Fezzan, which contained the considerable amount of information he had collected about the interior, was safely delivered to the African Association. It is certain that Park and his companions perished there, but some have thought that the wild gesticulations of the armed natives who thronged the banks were only intended to warn the white men of the perils ahead of them.
