The British take a perverse pleasure in glorious defeat, as Heroic Failure and the British by Stephanie Barczewski examines.
In 1799 the Scottish explorer Mungo Park published Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, which described his voyage across Senegal and along the River Niger in Mali, in search of the city of Timbuktu. In 1805 he returned, determined to complete his navigation of the Niger, only for his canoe to strike a rock in hostile territory. As he swam towards the bank, he was surrounded by members of a local tribe who shot arrows and threw spears at …read more
Source: New Statesman
