The lives, travels, and writings of explorers and others who spent their lives exploring foreign places and cultures often provide us with much more than a glimpse of the individuals themselves. So, too, we are privy to a host of information on distant and exotic lands and cultures in the writings of such explorers. This information allows us to appreciate the differences among other lands and cultures in comparison to our own, as well as giving us insight into the often titanic struggles endured by such explorers, in primitive and dangerous environments, in order to chronicle their experiences. Such men are the European explorers Mungo Park and David Livingstone. Both men often suffered hardships and persecution in an effort to explore unknown-to-Europeans regions of Africa as well as performing missionary work in Livingstone’s case. Park would die on an exploration of the Niger and Livingstone died peacefully in an African village after years of missionary efforts and an attack aimed at diminishing the slave trade. This analysis will highlight some of the exploration and missionary work of Park and Livingstone in order to support the contention that because of their work, the Western world became increasingly aware of and interested in African geography and culture, including increased Christian missionary activity in the region.
Mungo Park was a great explorer who greatly contributed to the knowledge of African geography during his lifetime explorations. Born in Foulshiels in 1771, like Livingstone who would follow him, Park studied medicine and was hired in 1795 to be the assistant surgeon on the Worcester which was bound for Africa (In Search 1). Park’s was one of twelve children of a working-class family and worked hard for his success. He was considered an ideal candidate for African exploration because he was young and strong and the mission would be arduous and difficult, he was Scottish and Celts were better e...