author
Dixon Denham
1786–1828
A British army officer turned explorer, he helped lead one of the earliest European overland journeys across the Sahara to Lake Chad. His travels opened a new chapter in British knowledge of Central Africa and later led to high office in Sierra Leone.
1 Audiobook
Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824
by Dixon Denham, Hugh Clapperton, Walter Oudney
About the author
Born in London on January 1, 1786, he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and was originally set on a legal career before joining the army in 1811. He served in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo, then later taught at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
His lasting reputation comes from the government-backed expedition he joined in 1821 with Walter Oudney and Hugh Clapperton. Traveling south from Tripoli across the Sahara into the Bornu Empire, he became one of the first Europeans to reach Lake Chad overland from the north, and he later published a widely read account of the journey, Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa.
After his exploring years, he was appointed governor of Sierra Leone. He died at Freetown in 1828, still only in his early forties, but his name remains tied to one of the landmark British expeditions into Central Africa in the 1820s.