f "His Majesty's schooner the
_Joliba_" (great water), Mungo Park wrote his last letter home.

[Illustration: A NATIVE WOMAN WASHING GOLD IN SENEGAL. From a sketch
by Mungo Park made on his last expedition.]

"I am far from desponding. I have changed a large canoe into a tolerably
good schooner, on board of which I shall set sail to the east with
a fixed resolution to discover the termination of the Niger or perish
in the attempt; and though all the Europeans who are with me should
die, and though I myself were half-dead, I would still persevere; and
if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at least
die on the Niger."

It was in this spirit that the commander of the _Joliba_ and a crew
of nine set forth to glide down a great river toward the heart of savage
Africa, into the darkness of the unexplored.

The rest is silence.

CHAPTER XLIX

VANCOUVER DISCOVERS HIS ISLAND

While Mungo Park was attempting to find the course of the Niger, the
English were busy opening up the great fur-trading country in North
America. Although Captain Cook had taken possession of Nootka Sound,
thinking it was part of the coast of New Albion, men from other nations
had been there to establish with the natives a trade in furs. The
Spaniards were specially vigorous in opening up communications on this
bleak bit of western coast. Great Britain became alarmed, and decided
to send Captain Vancouver with an English ship to enforce her rights
to this valuable port.

Vancouver had already sailed with Cook on his second southern voyage;
he had accompanied him on the _Discovery_ during his last voyage. He
therefore knew something of the coast of North-West America. "On the
15th of December 1790, I had the honour of receiving my commission
as commander of His Majesty's sloop the _Discovery_, then lying at
Deptford, where I joined her," says Vancouver. "Lieutenant Broughton
having been selected as a proper officer to command the _Chatham_,
he was accordingly appointed. At day dawn on Friday the 1st of April
we took a long farewell of our native shores. Having no particular
route to the Pacific Ocean pointed out in my instructions, I did not
hesitate to prefer the passage by way of the Cape of Good Hope."

In boisterous weather Vancouver rounded the Cape, made some
discoveries on the southern coast of New Holland, surveyed part of
the New Zealand coast, discovered Chatham Island, and on 17th April
1792 he fell in with