James Richardson (3 November 1809 in

Boston, Lincolnshire Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Boston is north of London, north-east of Peterborough, east of Nottingham, south-east of Lincoln, south-southeast of Hull ...

– 4 March 1851 in Ngurutua near

Kukawa Kukawa (previously Kuka) is a town and Local Government Area in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, close to Lake Chad. The town was founded in 1814 as capital of the Kanem-Bornu Empire by the Muslim scholar and warlord Muhammad al-Amin al ...

, Bornu) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

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 Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and suppress the

slave trade in Africa Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa in ancient times, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Indian Ocean sl ...

. He attached himself to the British Anti-Slavery Society, and under its auspices he went out to

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

, where he took part in the editing of a newspaper and also engaged in the study of the

Arabic language Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

and of

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

, with a view to systematic exploration. 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 Lake Chad (french: Lac Tchad) is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Central Africa, which has varied in size over the centuries. According to the ''Global Resource Information Database'' of the United Nations Environment Programme, ...

. In March 1850, Richardson went for the second time to Ghat accompanied by

Heinrich Barth Johann Heinrich Barth (; ; 16 February 1821 – 25 November 1865) was a German explorer of Africa and scholar. Barth is thought to be one of the greatest of the European explorers of Africa, as his scholarly preparation, ability to speak and wri ...

and

Adolf Overweg Adolf Overweg (24 July 1822 – 27 September 1852) was a German astronomer, geologist, and explorer of Africa. As a member of a mission to fix trade routes in Central Africa he became the first person of European origin to circumnavigate Lake ...

. 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

near Lake Chad. His travel notes and diaries were published by Bayle Saint John as ''Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa'' (1853) and ''Travels in Morocco'' (1859).Bayle Saint John (editor). ''Travels in Morocco''. 2 Books. London (1859)

References

External links

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Travels in Morocco
1809 births 1851 deaths Explorers of Africa British travel writers People from Boston, Lincolnshire History of the Sahara Tuareg {{UK-explorer-stub