Dixon Denham
Encyclopedia
Dixon Denham was an English
explorer in West Central Africa
.
Denham was born in London
. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School
, and was articled to a solicitor
, but joined the army
in 1811. Initially in the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers
, and later the 54th Foot, Denham served in the campaigns in Portugal
, Spain
, France
and Belgium
, and received the Waterloo Medal
and ultimately, as a lieutenant
, becoming an instructor at Sandhurst
. In 1822 Denham had been engaged in an attempt to travel from Tripoli
to Timbuctoo
, and was diverted to a British government expedition to establish trade links with the west African states, intending to join Dr Walter Oudney
and Lt. Hugh Clapperton
, at Murzuk
, in Fezzan
, where they had been stranded since early in the year.
Arriving in Tripoli to find the promised escort to Murzuk not forthcoming, Denham, whose energy was boundless, started for England to complain of the duplicity of the pasha
of Tripoli. The pasha, alarmed, sent messengers after him with promises to meet his demands. Denham, who had reached Marseilles, consented to return. The escort of 210 mounted Arab tribesmen forthcoming, Denham reached Murzuk in November 1822, finding his two compatriots in a wretched condition, Clapperton ill of an ague
, and Oudney with a severe cold. Nevertheless, the expedition started on the 29th November, and made its way due south across the Sahara
reaching Kuka in the Bornu Empire
, (now Kokawa, Nigeria
) on 17 February 1823.
It was from Kuka that Denham, against the wish of Oudney and Clapperton, accompanied a slave-raiding expedition into the Mandara Mountains
south of Bornu. The raiders were defeated, and Denham barely escaped with his life. By this time, a deep antipathy had developed between Clapperton and Denham, Denham at one stage openly accusing Clapperton of having homosexual relations with one of the Arab servants. The accusation was almost certainly unfounded, leading the historian Bovill to write that "it remains difficult to recall in all the checkered (sic) history of geographic discovery.... a more odious man than Dixon Denham".
When Oudney and Clapperton set out for the Hausa
states in December 1823, Denham remained behind to explore the western, south and south-eastern shores of Lake Chad
, and the lower courses of the rivers Waube, Logone and Shari
, proving beyond doubt that Lake Chad was not the source of the Niger, as had been widely believed. During this time Oudney died, and Clapperton returned to Kuka barely recognizable after his privations. In August 1824, Denham left Kuka alone for the return journey to Tripoli and England; Clapperton followed in January 1825. Denham's trans-Sahara exploits are briefly mentioned in Jules Verne
's Five Weeks in a Balloon
. In June 1826 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In December 1826 Denham, promoted lieutenant-colonel, sailed for Sierra Leone
as superintendent of liberated Africans. In 1828 he was appointed governor of Sierra Leone, but after administering the colony for five weeks died of fever at Freetown
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
explorer in West Central Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
.
Denham was born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School
Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
Merchant Taylors' School is a British independent day school for boys, originally located in the City of London. Since 1933 it has been located at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire ....
, and was articled to a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
, but joined the army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in 1811. Initially in the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers
Royal Welch Fusiliers
The Royal Welch Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Prince of Wales' Division. It was founded in 1689 to oppose James II and the imminent war with France...
, and later the 54th Foot, Denham served in the campaigns in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and received the Waterloo Medal
Waterloo Medal
The Waterloo Medal was awarded to any soldier of the British Army who took part in one or more of the following battles: Battle of Ligny , Battle of Quatre Bras , and the Battle of Waterloo ....
and ultimately, as a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
, becoming an instructor at Sandhurst
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...
. In 1822 Denham had been engaged in an attempt to travel from Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
to Timbuctoo
Timbuctoo
Timbuctoo is a series of 25 children's books, written and illustrated by Roger Hargreaves, better known for his Mr. Men series. It was published from 1978–1979. The books tell the stories of a group of animals, each of whom is named after the sound that they make...
, and was diverted to a British government expedition to establish trade links with the west African states, intending to join Dr Walter Oudney
Walter Oudney
Walter Oudney was a Scottish physician and African explorer.In 1817 he received his medical doctorate at Edinburgh. A few years afterwards he was appointed by the British government as consul for promotion of trade to the Kingdom of Bornu in sub-Saharan Africa...
and Lt. Hugh Clapperton
Hugh Clapperton
Hugh Clapperton was a Scottish traveller and explorer of West and Central Africa.He was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire, where his father was a surgeon. He gained some knowledge of practical mathematics and navigation, and at thirteen was apprenticed on board a vessel which traded between Liverpool...
, at Murzuk
Murzuk
Murzuk is an oasis town and the capital of the Murzuq District in the Fezzan region of southwest Libya. Murzuk lies on the northern edge of the Murzuq Desert, a desert of ergs or great sand dunes, and section of the Sahara Desert.-History:...
, in Fezzan
Fezzan
Fezzan is a south western region of modern Libya. It is largely desert but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys in the north, where oases enable ancient towns and villages to survive deep in the otherwise inhospitable Sahara.-Name:...
, where they had been stranded since early in the year.
Arriving in Tripoli to find the promised escort to Murzuk not forthcoming, Denham, whose energy was boundless, started for England to complain of the duplicity of the pasha
Pasha
Pasha or pascha, formerly bashaw, was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries. As an honorary title, Pasha, in one of its various ranks, is equivalent to the British title of Lord, and was also one of the highest titles in...
of Tripoli. The pasha, alarmed, sent messengers after him with promises to meet his demands. Denham, who had reached Marseilles, consented to return. The escort of 210 mounted Arab tribesmen forthcoming, Denham reached Murzuk in November 1822, finding his two compatriots in a wretched condition, Clapperton ill of an ague
Ague
Ague may refer to:* Fever* MalariaSee also:* Kan Ague, a residential area of Patikul, Sulu, Philippines...
, and Oudney with a severe cold. Nevertheless, the expedition started on the 29th November, and made its way due south across the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
reaching Kuka in the Bornu Empire
Bornu Empire
The Bornu Empire was an African state of Nigeria from 1396 to 1893. It was a continuation of the great Kanem Empire founded centuries earlier by the Sayfawa Dynasty...
, (now Kokawa, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
) on 17 February 1823.
It was from Kuka that Denham, against the wish of Oudney and Clapperton, accompanied a slave-raiding expedition into the Mandara Mountains
Mandara Mountains
The Mandara Mountains are a volcanic range extending about 200km along the northern part of the Cameroon-Nigeria border, from the Benue River in the south to the north-west of Maroua in the north . The highest elevation is 1,494 m , the summit of Mount Oupay .The region is densely populated,...
south of Bornu. The raiders were defeated, and Denham barely escaped with his life. By this time, a deep antipathy had developed between Clapperton and Denham, Denham at one stage openly accusing Clapperton of having homosexual relations with one of the Arab servants. The accusation was almost certainly unfounded, leading the historian Bovill to write that "it remains difficult to recall in all the checkered (sic) history of geographic discovery.... a more odious man than Dixon Denham".
When Oudney and Clapperton set out for the Hausa
Hausa people
The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. They are a Sahelian people chiefly located in northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger, but having significant numbers living in regions of Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and Sudan...
states in December 1823, Denham remained behind to explore the western, south and south-eastern shores of Lake Chad
Lake Chad
Lake Chad is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Africa, whose size has varied over the centuries. According to the Global Resource Information Database of the United Nations Environment Programme, it shrank as much as 95% from about 1963 to 1998; yet it also states that "the 2007 ...
, and the lower courses of the rivers Waube, Logone and Shari
Chari River
The Chari or Shari River is a 949-kilometer-long river of central Africa. It flows from the Central African Republic through Chad into Lake Chad, following the Cameroon border from N'Djamena, where it joins the Logone River waters....
, proving beyond doubt that Lake Chad was not the source of the Niger, as had been widely believed. During this time Oudney died, and Clapperton returned to Kuka barely recognizable after his privations. In August 1824, Denham left Kuka alone for the return journey to Tripoli and England; Clapperton followed in January 1825. Denham's trans-Sahara exploits are briefly mentioned in Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
's Five Weeks in a Balloon
Five Weeks in a Balloon
Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen is an adventure novel by Jules Verne.It is the first Verne novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his later work, skillfully mixing a plot full of adventure and twists that hold the reader's interest with...
. In June 1826 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In December 1826 Denham, promoted lieutenant-colonel, sailed for Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
as superintendent of liberated Africans. In 1828 he was appointed governor of Sierra Leone, but after administering the colony for five weeks died of fever at Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
.