From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
British explorer
James Richardson
(3 November 1809 in
Boston, Lincolnshire
? 4 March 1851 in
Ngurutua
near
Kukawa
,
Bornu
) was a
British
explorer
known for his expeditions into the Sahel region of the Saharan desert.
Richardson was educated for the evangelical ministry. His early training and enterprising temper produced in adult life an ambition to propagate
Christianity
and suppress the
slave trade in Africa
. He attached himself to the British
Anti-Slavery Society
, and under its auspices he went out to
Malta
, where he took part in the editing of a newspaper and also engaged in the study of the
Arabic language
and of
geography
, with a view to systematic exploration.
[1]
Richardson made an expedition in 1845 from Tunis and Tripoli in Libya to Ghadames and
Ghat in Libya
in the middle of the Sahara. Here he collected information about the Tuareg and arrived after nine months back again in Tripoli. After he had published
Travels into the great desert of Sahara
(2 Books. London 1849), he succeeded to convince the British government to equip an expedition into Sudan and to
Lake Chad
. In March 1850, Richardson went for the second time to Ghat accompanied by
Heinrich Barth
and
Adolf Overweg
.
[2]
His party were the first Europeans to cross the stony elevated plain of the Hammada. James Richardson died of unknown illness on this journey on 4 March 1851 in Ngurutua, a six-day journey away from
Kukawa
near Lake Chad.
[2]
His travel notes and diaries were published by Bayle Saint John as
Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa
(1853)
[3]
and
Travels in Morocco
(1859).
[4]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Beazley, Raymond (1896).
"Richardson, James"
. In
Lee, Sidney
(ed.).
Dictionary of National Biography
. Vol. 48. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^
a
b
Steve Kemper (2012).
Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles Through Islamic Africa
. W. W. Norton.
ISBN
978-0393079661
.
- ^
Bayle Saint John (editor).
Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa
. 2 Books. London (1853)
- ^
Bayle Saint John (editor).
Travels in Morocco
. 2 Books. London (1859)
External links
[
edit
]
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