Doctor Joseph Ritchie (c. 1788 – 20 November 1819) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

surgeon,

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 ...

and naturalist. His primary interest lay in the natural sciences, though he is best known for playing a minor role in the British exploration of Africa.

Life

In 1818, Ritchie was directed by Sir John Barrow to find the course of the

River Niger The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, ...

and the location of

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

. Ritchie chose subordinate

George Francis Lyon George Francis Lyon (23 January 1796 – 8 October 1832) was an English naval officer and explorer of Africa and the Arctic. While not having a particularly distinguished career, he is remembered for the entertaining journals he kept and ...

to accompany him. The expedition was underfunded and lacked necessary support. Based on the recommendation of Barrow, they left from

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

and thus had to cross the entire Sahara, an arduous journey no modern European had ever done before. A year later, due to many delays, they had only reached as far as

Murzuk Murzuk, Murzuq, Murzug or Merzug ( ar, مرزق) is an oasis town and the capital of the Murzuq District in the Fezzan region of southwest Libya.Robinson, Harry (1960) "Murzuq" ''The Mediterranean Lands'' University Tutorial Press, London, p. 414 ...

, the capital of

Fezzan Fezzan ( , ; ber, ⴼⵣⵣⴰⵏ, Fezzan; ar, فزان, Fizzān; la, Phazania) is the southwestern region of modern Libya. It is largely desert, but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys (wadis) in the north, where oases enable ...

, where they both fell ill with fever. They ran out of funds, and food, subsisting on dates and handouts from the local villagers who were little better off. Ritchie never recovered and died there, having made no new discoveries. Richie was distinctly unsuited to exploration. He was "deeply self-centered, morose and uncommunicative". After arriving in Murzuk, he cut himself off from locals and even his own people. He was reserved, took little interest in the people and places he saw, took few notes, and generally spent much of his time indoors studying mathematics. Instead of stocking food and trade goods before departing Tripoli, Richie squandered the limited expedition funds on profligate items. After Ritchie died, George Lyon opened the crates they hauled through the desert and found things like 600 pounds of lead, a camel-load of cork for preserving insects, and two camel-loads of brown paper for pressing plants. Lyon sold what he could and was able to make it back to Tripoli, alive. In 1831, R.Br. ex G.Don published '' Ritchiea'', a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s from Tropical Africa, belonging to the family

Capparaceae The Capparaceae (or Capparidaceae), commonly known as the caper family, are a family of plants in the order Brassicales. As currently circumscribed, the family contains 33 genera and about 700 species. The largest genera are ''Capparis'' (about ...

and named in Joseph Ritchie's honour.

References

* 1788 births 1819 deaths English explorers English naturalists English surgeons Explorers of Africa 19th-century British scientists {{UK-explorer-stub