material occurred during this voyage: but he availed himself of all the
opportunities which it afforded to obtain information in his favourite
scientific pursuits, and appears to have made many observations, and
collected many specimens, in Botany and Natural History. Several of
these were the subjects of a communication made by him to the Linnaean
Society, which was afterwards published in their printed Transactions.
[Footnote: In the Third Volume of the Linnaean Transactions, p. 83, is a
paper by Park, read Nov. 4,1794, containing descriptions of eight new
fishes from Sumatra; which he represents to be the fruit of his leisure
hours during his stay on that coast.]

It does not sufficiently appear, whether Mr. Park, after his return from
the East Indies, came to any final resolution with regard to his
continuing as a surgeon in the Company's service. But whatever might be
his intention in this respect, new prospects now opened upon him, and a
scene of action far more congenial to his taste and feelings, was
presented to his ambition.

Some years prior to this period, a few distinguished individuals,
induced by a very liberal spirit of curiosity, had formed themselves
into an Association for promoting discoveries in the Interior of Africa,
and were now prosecuting their researches with great activity and
success. In the course of a few years they had investigated, and placed
in a clearer point of view than had hitherto been done by geographers,
some of the leading facts relative to the Northern part of that
Continent; the characteristic differences of the principal tribes, their
commercial relations, the routes of the great caravans, the general
diffusion of the Mahomedan religion, and the consequent prevalence of
the Arabic language throughout a considerable part of that vast
continent. [Footnote: See Vol. I. of the Proceedings of African