West Africa Explored

Park
1771-1806.
Scots

Mungo Park.
Backed by the Africa Association to determine the true course of the Niger River, Park set off from the mouth of the Gambia river on 21 June 1795, and travelled upriver for 300 km to Pisania, a British trading station.
Hampered by fever and formidable hardships, he crossed into the unexplored territory of the upper Senegal region, reaching Ségou on July 20. From there he followed the Niger River downstream for 130 km, but with supplies and his health exhausted, he was finally forced to return, arriving strickened with fever in Kamalia on 10 June 1797. After seven months there recuperating, he returned to Scotland.

In 1805 he was back with 40 men. Again travelling through Pisania, Park staggered into Bamako with only 11 men on August 19. After he had recovered, he resumed his journey by a dilapidated 15 metre canoe (his party now down to 8). They reached Ségou, then on down the Niger.

Park journeyed down the Niger River as fast as possible, ignoring the places they passed as most were hostile. After many trials, and travelling further than any European explorer had done before, the end came at Bussa on the Niger River, perhaps as an ambush. Their canoes came under attack, Park and the others jumped from their sinking canoes and were either drowned or cut down by spears and arrows.

Echoes of Park's fate lingered for many years, later explorers in the region reported a marked disinclination by the locals to talk about the incident, and Clapperton (see below) was forbidden to visit the spot -as it was 'a bad place'

Hornemann
1772-1801.
German

Frederick Konrad Hornemann.
One of the most accomplished travellers of the first phase of African exploration, Hornemann was selected by the African Association to explore westward from Cairo and to find the source of the Niger River, complementing Mungo Park's travels eastward from the Gambia River.
In September 1798, he joined a merchant caravan in Cairo and crossed the Libyan desert to reach Murzuq, the capital of the Fezzan.

After travelling to Tripoli to send his papers back to the Association, no more was heard from him after he set out in Arab disguise to cross the Sahara to Bornu in January 1800. Some of his progress southward was later learned by Lieutenant Lyons who travelled south of Murzuq, and also by Denham and Clapperton who followed a similar route in 1822.

It is probable that Hornemann travelled through the modern city of Niamey and into the Nupe kingdom, dying in Bokani of a disease in 1801.

Denham
1786-1828
English

Clapperton
1788-1827
Scots

Walter Oudney, Dixon Denham and Hugh Clapperton.
A muddled British government expedition led by Oudney, Denham and Clapperton (it was never clear who was leader) set out from Tripoli in 1822 bound for Kukawa in Bornu. It was intended that Oudney was to become British Consul to the Bornu, and the expedition was to again attempt to map the course of the Niger River.

At Murzuq, Denham returned in a huff to London to try to get sole command of the expedition, meanwhile Oudney and Clapperton made a side journey to Ghat, and received a friendly reception from the warlike Tuareg. Denham got as far as Marseilles when he learned that the Oudeny/Clapperton expedition was readying to cross the Sahara. He dashed back.

The expedition of over 200 persons crossed the Sahara, an arduous journey that took nine weeks. Apart from the excessive heat, cold and sandstorms, they had to contend with hostile desert tribesmen. On 4 February 1823 Denham was able to record the discovery of Lake Chad, then onto Kakawa, where the festering leadership problems erupted.

Oudney and Clapperton split with Denham, who spits the dummy and goes off with an (unsuccessful) Arab raiding party. Oudney and Clapperton go on to discover the Chari River, flowing into Lake Chad from the south, then make their way west towards Hausaland in December 1823. Oudney dies of fever 2 weeks later.

Clapperton, gloomy and feverish continues alone to reach Kano in January, then on to Sakoto. He stayed for 8 weeks learning all he can about the Niger River, then he returned to Kukawa.
From Kukawa Denham and Clapperton -having come to some accommodation, retraced their steps and arrived back in Tripoli on 26 January 1825.

Clapperton's second trip to discover the course of the Niger River started at Badagri in November 1825, assisted by his servant Richard Lander. Once past the unhealthy coast where Clapperton had suffered many severe bouts of fever, they traveled into Yorubaland to Katunga.
Like most European explorers, Clapperton found it was much easier to enter a place than to leave. At Katunga, it took six weeks to extricate themselves. They then marched for a week to Kaiama, then on to Bussa, the scene of Park's violent death.

On 10 April they crossed the Niger River -the river that Clapperton had missed on his first journey, and advanced along the well known route to Kano, Clapperton so ill that he had to be carried for most of it. Clapperton makes his last journey to Sakoto, dying there three months later on 13 April 1827.

Clapperton's death left the young Lander in a tight spot, having to find his way back from the middle of an unknown continent. Against Clapperton's advice of the northern route, Lander turned southward, arriving back in Badagri in November 1827, almost two years after he had left it.

Having survived the return journey -which no one (including himself) thought he would, Lander found himself in a worse situation in Badagri. He was accused of being a spy by a local chief, and was forced to a trial by ordeal that consisted of drinking a litre of liquid that would only kill him if he was guilty. He again survived and was rescued by British ship and sailed back home to Cornwall, England.

Richard Lander.
With another casual, disorganised British expedition, Lander returned to West Africa with his brother John and others in 1830. The object of the mission was to take Clapperton's route to Bussa, then sail down the Niger River to determine its mouth. Moving north on foot and horseback -they were less welcome this time as the novelty of a white skin had passed, they arrived at Katunga ill with fever, John Lander was close to death.

The Niger River at Bussa to them looked unimpressive "not more than a stones throw wide at present" though they had great difficulty in securing any canoes, eventually getting a few from the king of Wawa.

At the end of September, they begun their epic journey down the unexplored lower Niger River, and apart from the occasional skirmish with locals and crocodiles, they arrived at Eggan three weeks later. After resting they pushed on, and discovered the confluence of the Benue on 25 October.

They then approached the delta region of the Niger and were attacked by Ibo river pirates, their possessions taken, and themselves held as prisoners for ransom. Sold to 'King Boy of Brass' and taken downstream to Brass, where they observed the mouth of the Niger. They were then resold to a reluctant British ship captain, and returned to England to tell their story of the discovery of the mouth of the Niger River.

The enigma had been finally solved.

Richard Lander appeared back on the Niger a year later as captain of the steamer 'Alburkha' and he and his benefactor MacGregor Laird travelled great distances up and down the Benue and Niger rivers. Lander, during a fight with locals, was shot in the backside. The wound, although not serious, became infected and Lander died two months later on 6 February 1834 on the Spanish island of Fernando Po.
His younger brother John, never recovering from the effects of his African travels, died in England in 1839, aged 32.

Major Gordon Laing.
After being delayed for some time in Tripoli, Laing at last set off in July 1825 intending to cross the Sahara. He was under the protection of a sheik from Ghadames who was travelling by a much longer route than Laing would have preferred.

The land through which they passed was far wilder and more unhospitable than the more direct route south to Borno, favoured by later explorers.
The early part of the journey went reasonably well, apart from the constant demands for gifts at every camp they stayed. This proved a constant drain on Laing's meagre resources.

While waiting for a caravan at the oasis of Tuat (near In Salah in the country now called Algeria) he was accused by a man who had witnessed Park's ambush at Bussa, of being none other than Mungo Park. As ludicrous as this accusation was, it put a sombre tone to the rest of the journey, Laing being blamed from time to time of putting the others in danger.

In Febuary 1826, a party of Tuareg, allegedly acting as escort to the caravan, attacked Laing in his tent at night, he being seriously wounded and his attendants all killed. A charitable sheik sheltered Laing while he recovered from his appalling wounds, and generously provided a strong escort for the rest of the journey to Timbuctou.

He stayed in Timbuctou, being treated well by the inhabitants, but after a month it was time to move on, Laing decided that towards Senegal was the quickest route to safety. He left Timboctou on 24 September 1826 with an Arab escort, two days later he is murdered by this same escort.
So died Alexander Gordon Laing aged 33, a man of great courage, deprived of the fame that would of been his had he survived to write his story. Laing had made the longest trans-Saharan journey of any European at that time, a feat seldom equalled since. In 1910 his bones were exhumed from the desert by the French authorities and were graciously reburied in Timbuctou. A tribute to a great man.

Caillié
1799-1838.
French

René-Auguste Caillié.
The journey of René Caillié began the same year as Richard Lander's. Caillié's preparations were sporadic as he had to earn a living and save money for his travels. He was one of very few African explorers that had no financial backing or sponsorship.
Caillié with 12 others set off from the coastal village of Rio Nunez on 19 April 1827, Caillié himself disguised as a Muslim.

They reached the Niger at Kouroussa in mid June, and Tiémé at the begining of August with Caillié's health deteriorating fast. The journey was interrupted for 5 months with most of the team suffering scurvy, Caillié notes in his journal '...the roof of my mouth became quite bare, a part of the bones exfoliated and fell away, and my teeth seemed ready to drop from their sockets'.

By January 1828 they had reached d'Jenné, and on 20 April the sick party arrived safely in Timboctou, the main object of the expedition.
Caillié had travelled 2500 kilometres, over two thirds on foot.
Rather than finding the great city of wealth and learning of legend, Timboctou was a disappointment, Caillié being the first to report to Europe that it was in fact, a rather undistinguished place. (He was not the first, the doomed explorer Gordon Laing had been there two years earlier).

He wanted to return home, but beyond Timbuctou lay 1500 kilometres of deadly desert, and it would appear that Caillié seriously under-estimated the difficulty of a trans-Sahara crossing.
Nevertheless, he joined a caravan bound for Fez and set off in May 1828, the first landmark being the spot where Laing had been murdered.
They passed through Taoudeni, Tafilet and on 12 August, Caillié finally limped into Fez. Weak, ill and with little money, he was spurned by the French Consuls of Fez and Rabat, but managed a passage back to France from the Consul of Tangier.

He arrived back in Toulon, France a hero in October 1828, his place in history assured as his being one of 2 or 3 truely outstanding journeys in unexplored Africa.
Although wanting to return on other expeditions to Africa, none of his schemes eventuated. He lived a relatively quiet life with his wife and children on his farm in Mauzé until his death on May 17, 1838.

Heinrich Barth.
Barth, a contemporary of Livingstone, was fit, strong, intelligent and one of the first 'modern' explorers whose written accounts of his travels set a standard of accuracy and observation rarely equalled.

In 1849 Barth, already an experienced traveller and linguist, was invited to join a British government expedition led by religious zealot James Richardson. Barth accepted on condition that geographical exploration be the primary thrust of the expedition (anti-slavery and Christianity was originally to be the first).

Arriving in Tunis in 1849 and accompanied by Adolf Overweg, the three set off for Tripoli and then overland south. On the way south Barth separated from his companions to make a side excursion to the desert town of Agadez, historically a rival city to Timboctou. This was his first important discovery as Agadez was unknown to Europe at the time.

At the begining of 1850, Barth, Richardson and Overweg decide to split up again, arranging to met up in Kukawa. Barth travels solo reaching Kano in February and entered Kukawa in April (Richardson had died before reaching their rendezvous). They based themselves there for the next two and a half years, and explored the area around Lake Chad and south to the Adamwa region. On the journey south, Barth crosses the upper reaches of the Benue river, unknown to Europeans at the time, and entered Yola intending to follow the river downstream. The ruler of Yola refused and Barth was ordered to leave, he returns to Kukawa in ill health.

One of the objects of the mission was to open relations with the states of the western Sudan, yet so far he had only the signatures of Borno and Kano (he later added Sokoto). He decided to go west. After Overweg's death, Barth left Kukawa in November 1852 for the long journey to Timbuctou, arriving there ten months later.

In Timbuctou, Barth's position was perilous, becoming a pawn in the power struggle between the Fulani and the Tuareg and dependant entirely on the protection given by Sheik el Backay, the son of the sheik who had sheltered Laing after his near-fatal attack by the Tuareg 26 years earlier.

He escapes in May 1854 and follows the Niger river downstream to Say, then overland to Sokoto, then to Kano, finally arriving in Kukawa to find his precious supplies gone. He had been presumed dead for months.

With funds exhausted and in poor heath, Barth left Kukawa May 9 and arrived in Tripoli 24 August 1855.
Although well received in London, he understandably resented the failure of the British government to capitalise on his hard-won diplomatic efforts. Also, the reception of his book "Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa" (vols I-V) was met with mediocre reviews, with only two thousand copies sold.

In the words of Anthony Kirk-Greene who wrote "For those of us who have trekked through Barth country, the journal of that indefatigable African traveller remains a delightful companion, a source of priceless knowledge and a humbling testament to his wonderous fortitude and resolution".
Except for the title 'Companion of the Order of the Bath', Barth received no formal recognition of his services from the British. He returned to Germany. In 1858 he undertook another journey in Asia Minor, and in the following year was appointed professor of geography at Berlin University and president of the Geographical Society. He died in Berlin on November 25, 1865.