Volume 3 > Half-Volume 5

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Africa, Persia, Britain, &c. He also produced
several topographical works, one of which, entitled
the Traveller's Guide, describing the roads of Eng-
land from his own actual survey, was long a well-
known and serviceable book. Mr. Ogilvy concluded
an active, and upon the whole useful, life, in 1676.
P.
PANTHER, DAVID (whose name is diversely
spelled Panter and Paniter), a learned diplomatic
character of the sixteenth century, was descended
from an ancient family near Montrose. He succes-
sively held the ecclesiastical offices of vicar of Car-
stairs, prior of St. Mary's Isle, commendator of
Cambuskenneth, and Bishop of Ross, and in the
latter part of the reign of James V., and for some
years later, was principal secretary of state. In this
latter character he wrote many official letters to
foreign courts, which have been highly praised for
the extraordinary elegance of their Latinity. In 1722
Ruddiman published two well-known volumes, en-
titled Epistola Jacobi Quarti, Quinti, et Maries Regi-
nce Scotorum, eorumque Tutorum et Regni Guberna-
torum, ad Imperatores, Reges, Pontifices, Civitates et
Altos, ab Anno 1505 ad Annum 1545 ; of which the
whole of the second is the composition of David
Panther, while the first contains letters written in a
similar official character, by Patrick Panther, his
near relation.
Panther subsequently acted for seven years as am-
bassador of Scotland at the French court. After a
life distinguished by high services, but it appears
by no great purity of morals, he died at Stirling,
October I, 1558.
PARK, MUNGO, the distinguished African tra-
veller, whose name became a household word, was
born at Fowlshiels, in Selkirkshire, September 10,
1771. His father, who rented the farm of Fowl-
shiels from the Duke of Buccleuch, had thirteen
children, of whom Mungo was the seventh. Not-
withstanding his limited resources he kept a private
tutor in his house for the education of his family;
and of the advantage of this arrangement the sub-
ject of the present memoir largely partook. He
was afterwards sent to the grammar-school of Sel-
kirk, where he made astonishing progress, not so
much by his ready talents, as by his remarkable per-
severance and application; and, despite of many dis-
advantages, uniformly kept the place of dux, or head
of his class. This early devotion to study and apti-
tude of acquirement, together with his thoughtful
and reserved disposition, seemed to his father to
point out the church as his future profession, but
upon his son's expressing a decided preference for
that of medicine, he at once agreed, and bound him
apprentice for three years to Mr. Thomas Anderson,
surgeon in Selkirk. At the close of his indenture, in
1789, being then eighteen years of age, he went to
Edinburgh, and attended the classes for three suc-
cessive sessions, continuing to exhibit the same thirst
of knowledge, and unwearied application to all the
studies connected with his profession, particularly
botany. In the latter he is said to have been greatly
assisted and encouraged by a brother-in-law, Mr.
James Dickson, who, from an origin even more
humble and obscure than that of Park himself, sub-
sequently raised himself to fame and fortune, and
became celebrated as one of the first botanists in the
kingdom. He had gone to London in search of em-
ployment as a journeyman gardener, and procured
VOL. III.
an engagement in that humble capacity with a nur-
seryman at Hammersmith, where he had the good
fortune to attract the notice of Sir Joseph Banks, to
whose kind friendship and patronage he was mainly
indebted for his future success and celebrity.
After qualifying himself in his profession at Edin-
burgh, young Park went to London in search of em-
ployment, and was very speedily appointed assistant-
surgeon on board the Worcester, East Indiaman,
through the interest of Sir Joseph Banks, to whom
Mr. Dickson had introduced him. Mr. Park showed
himself everyway worthy of this appointment, and
made an adequate return to his distinguished patron,
by the valuable observations and discoveries he made
in botany and other branches of natural history, in
a voyage to Bencoolen, in the island of Sumatra.
On his return in 1794, being then only twenty-three
years old, he had the honour of reading a paper be-
fore the Linnsean Society in London, giving a de-
scription of eight new species of fishes he had ob-
served in Sumatra, which was afterwards published
in the Transactions of the society.
After leaving the Worcester, Mr. Park appears to
have had no certain or fixed views as to his future
career, but his talents and genius had already dis-
tinguished him too much to allow him to remain
long unemployed. The wealthy and scientific Asso-
ciation for the Promotion of Discovery through the
Interior of Africa were at that time preparing to
send out an expedition, with the view of endeavour-
ing to trace the course of the Niger, and procuring
every information relative to the great central city of
Timbuctoo, of which little more than the name was
then known. Sir Joseph Banks, one of the leading
men of the association, immediately pointed out
Park as one peculiarly eligible for taking the man-
agement of the expedition, and the offer being accord-
ingly made to him, was eagerly accepted. He im-
mediately prepared himself, therefore, for the task,
being liberally supplied, according to his own state-
ment, with the means of furnishing himself with
everything he reckoned necessary, and sailed from
Portsmouth on the 22d of May, 1795, in the brig
Endeavour. His instructions were to proceed to the
Niger by the nearest and most convenient route, and
endeavour to trace its course, from its rise to its ter-
mination; as also to visit, if possible, all the princi-
pal towns and cities on its banks, particularly Tim-
buctoo and Houssa, and afterwards return to Europe
by the river Gambia, or any other way he thought
advisable. He arrived at Jillifica, in the kingdom
of Barra, and lying on the northern bank of the
Gambia, on the 21st of June; and after proceeding
up the river as far as Jonkakonda, he quitted the
Endeavour, and proceeded by land to a small British
factory which had been established at Pisania, in
the King of Yam's territories, where he took up his
residence for a short time with Dr. Laidley. He
immediately applied himself to the study of the
Mandingo tongue, and to collect all the information
possible relative to the various people and countries
in the interior, preparatory to his journey. In con-
sequence, however, of exposure to the night dew
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