author

William Desborough Cooley

d. 1883

A sharp-minded Irish geographer, he became well known in the early Victorian era for arguing big ideas about African geography and for challenging accepted maps and travel accounts. He also helped found the Hakluyt Society, linking his name to the history of exploration writing.

1 Audiobook

The Negroland of the Arabs examined and explained : or, an inquiry into the early history and geography of Central Africa

The Negroland of the Arabs examined and explained : or, an inquiry into the early history and geography of Central Africa

by William Desborough Cooley

About the author

William Desborough Cooley was an Irish geographer who lived from about 1795 to 1883. He built a reputation as a serious and sometimes combative thinker on exploration and historical geography, especially in debates about Central Africa.

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1830 and later became an honorary free member. He also wrote The History of Maritime and Inland Discovery for Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, a substantial work that was noted in its day and even translated into French.

Cooley is remembered in a mixed but interesting way. Some of his strongly held theories about Africa were later disproved by further European exploration, yet he is still regarded as an important critic of sources and one of the founders of the Hakluyt Society in 1846, an organization devoted to publishing historical records of voyages and travel.