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5 - The Second Time as Farce

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2023

Dane Kennedy
Affiliation:
George Washington University, Washington DC
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Summary

The Niger expedition was reconstituted and relaunched under the command of Captain William Gray in 1817. Although it took a different route, it adopted the same methods as its predecessor and met with the same results. Reliant on pack animals to transport its supplies and African rulers to grant it passage through their lands, it ground to a halt when the animals died and the rulers failed to cooperate. A suspicious Bundu regime detained the expedition. Some members deserted; others succumbed to disease. The rest fled to the French trading settlement of Bakel. In a desperate final bid to reach the Niger, Gray led a smaller party to Kaarta, but there too he encountered resistance, forcing his retreat to the coast. Gray’s later career as a settler in Tasmania highlights a key contrast to his experience as an explorer in Africa; unlike Aborigines, Africans held the upper hand in dealing with Europeans.

Type
Chapter
Information
Mungo Park's Ghost
The Haunted Hubris of British Explorers in Nineteenth-Century Africa
, pp. 112 - 136
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • The Second Time as Farce
  • Dane Kennedy, George Washington University, Washington DC
  • Book: Mungo Park's Ghost
  • Online publication: 24 December 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009392990.007
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  • The Second Time as Farce
  • Dane Kennedy, George Washington University, Washington DC
  • Book: Mungo Park's Ghost
  • Online publication: 24 December 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009392990.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Second Time as Farce
  • Dane Kennedy, George Washington University, Washington DC
  • Book: Mungo Park's Ghost
  • Online publication: 24 December 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009392990.007
Available formats
×