In a year or two after the return of Mr. Lucas, the African Association, who were indefatigable in endeavouring to obtain information from all sources, learnt some interesting and original circumstances from an Arab.  This person described a large empire on the banks of the Niger, in the capital of which, Housa, he had resided two years:  this city he rather vaguely and inconsistently described as equalling London and Cairo in extent and population.  As it was necessary to scrutinize the truth and consistency of his narrative, what he related was at first received with caution and doubt, but an incidental circumstance seemed to prove him worthy of credit; for in describing the manner in which pottery was manufactured at Housa, which he did by imitating the actions of those who made it, it was remarked that he actually described the ancient Grecian wheel.

In order to learn whether the accounts of this man were true and accurate, the African Institution sent out Major Houghton:  he was instructed to ascertain the course, and, if possible, the rise and termination of the Niger; to visit Tombuctoo and Housa, and to return by the Desert.  Accordingly he sailed up the Gambia to Pisania, and thence he proceeded to Medina, the capital of the Mandingo kingdom.  His course from this city was north-east, which led him beyond the limit of European discovery, to the uninhabited frontier which separates Bondou and Mandingo.  After some time spent in endeavouring to ingratiate himself with the king of the latter country, but in vain, he resolved to proceed into Bambouk.  On arriving at Firbanna, the capital, he was hospitably treated by the king.  Here be formed a plan to go with a merchant to Tombuctoo; but on his way he was robbed, and either perished of hunger, or was murdered:  the exact particulars are not known.  To Major Houghton we are indebted for our first knowledge of the kingdom of Bondou; and for the names of several cities on the Niger, as well as the course of that river.

Mr. Park was next employed by the African Association; and what he learnt, observed, did, and suffered, fully justified them in the choice of such a man.  “His first journey was unquestionably the most important which any European had ever performed in the interior of Africa.  He established a number of geographical positions, in a direct line of eleven hundred miles from Cape de Verde:  by pointing out the positions of the sources of the Senegal, Gambia, and Niger, he has given a new aspect to the physical geography of this continent; he has fixed the boundaries of the Moors and Negroes; unfolded to us the empire of Ludamar; and described, from personal observation, some important towns on the banks of the Niger, or Joliba.  The information which he has communicated concerning this part of Africa, and their manners, is equally new and interesting.  He has traced with accuracy the distinction betwixt the Mahometans and Pagans.”  This journey was accomplished between the 2d of December, 1795, when he left Pisania, a British factory two hundred miles up the Gambia, and the 10th of June, 1797, when he returned to the same place, an interval of eighteen months.