Famous Explorers of Africa Mungo Park was a Scottish explorer who led one of the first expeditions to investigate the course of the Niger river in Western Africa. Mungo Park was a 23 year-old scottish surgeon surgeon who had just returned from a journey to Sumatra on a ship of the East India Company. There he had discovered 6 species of fish, he had published descriptions in a Scientific Journal. In 1795, Park had gone to Piscina, on an offer to research further into Africa. Park had accepted and a severe fever overcame him during his journey. Park also had been captured by certain muslim leader