Nathaniel Pearce (14 February 1779 – 12 August 1820) was an explorer who spent many years in

Abyssinia The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...

(present-day Ethiopia) and wrote a journal of his experiences.

Early life

Pearce was born in

East Acton East Acton is an area in Acton in London, England, west of Charing Cross. It is partly in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and partly in the London Borough of Ealing. It is served by East Acton Underground station, on the Central ...

near

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and was educated at private schools, but, proving wild and incorrigible, was apprenticed to a carpenter and joiner in Duke Street, Grosvenor Square. He soon ran away to sea, and on his return was apprenticed to a leather-seller, whom he left suddenly to enlist on the cutter ''

HMS Alert Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Alert'' (or the variants ''Alerte'' and ''Alaart''), while another was planned: * , an 8-gun cutter in service from 1753 to 1754. * , a 10-gun cutter launched at Dover in 1777, converted ...

''. In May 1794 he was taken prisoner by the French; but after many attempts succeeded in escaping, and served again in the navy.

In Abyssinia

Many adventures followed. Deserting from in July 1804, Pearce seems to have made his way to

Mocha, Yemen Mokha ( ar, المُخا, al-Mukhā), also spelled Mocha, or Mukha, is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Until Aden and al Hudaydah eclipsed it in the 19th century, Mokha was the principal port for Yemen's capital, Sanaa. Long known fo ...

and become a Muslim, but managed to reach, on 31 December 1804, the vessel that was conveying

Viscount Valentia Viscount Valentia is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It has been created twice. The first creation came in 1621 for Henry Power. A year later, his kinsman Sir Francis Annesley, 1st Baronet, was given a "reversionary grant" of the viscountcy, ...

's mission to Abyssinia. After he arrived at Massawa on the Red Sea coast, he accompanied, in the summer of next year, Henry Salt as an English servant on his mission to the court of ''

Ras Ras or RAS may refer to: Arts and media * RAS Records Real Authentic Sound, a reggae record label * Rundfunk Anstalt Südtirol, a south Tyrolese public broadcasting service * Rás 1, an Icelandic radio station * Rás 2, an Icelandic radio stati ...

Wolde Selassie Wolde Selassie (; c.1736 - 28 May 1816) was Ras of the Tigray province between 1788-1816, and Regent of the Ethiopian Empire between 1797-1800. John J. Halls, in his ''Life and Correspondence of Henry Salt'', preserves a description of this power ...

of Tigray. On Salt's departure in November, Pearce stayed behind in the service of the ''Ras''. On more than one occasion he was compelled by jealous intriguers to quit the court, but by the autumn of 1807 he had made his position there secure. In 1808 he married the daughter of Sidee Paulus, a Greek. In 1810 he met Salt's second expedition, and escorted it from the coast and back. Pearce remained in Abyssinia till 1818, when he set out for

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

on a visit to Salt. He reached Cairo in 1819, and, after a journey up the Nile, returned there and died in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

from the results of exposure on 12 August 1820. His journals, which are one long record of adventures, and contain a detailed account of the habits and customs of the Abyssinians, were edited by John James Halls, and published as ''The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce'' (London, 1831).

References

Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pearce, Nathaniel 1779 births 1820 deaths Explorers of Africa History of Ethiopia Converts to Islam