388:, Chapter 30: 'My dear fellow, we are now upon the very track of Major Denham. It was at this very city of Mosfeia that he was received by the Sultan of Mandara; he had quitted the Bornou country; he accompanied the sheik in an expedition against the Fellatahs; he assisted in the attack on the city, which, with its arrows alone, bravely resisted the bullets of the Arabs, and put the sheik's troops to flight. All this was but a pretext for murders, raids, and pillage. The major was completely plundered and stripped, and had it not been for his horse, under whose stomach he clung with the skill of an Indian rider, and was borne with a headlong gallop from his barbarous pursuers, he never could have made his way back to Kouka, the capital of Bornou.' 'Who was this Major Denham?' 'A fearless Englishman, who, between 1822 and 1824, commanded an expedition into the Bornou country, in company with Captain Clapperton and Dr. Oudney. They set out from Tripoli in the month of March, reached Mourzouk, the capital of Fez, and, following the route which at a later period Dr. Barth was to pursue on his way back to Europe, they arrived, on 16 February 1823, at Kouka, near Lake Tchad. Denham made several explorations in Bornou, in Mandara, and to the eastern shores of the lake.'
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lieutenants of his government's displeasure when it learned of the bashaw's 'duplicity'. Duly alarmed, the bashaw wrote to him, proposing that the 300 – man escort of a wealthy merchant about to depart for Bornu could, for a fee of 10,000 dollars to be shared with him, be persuaded to protect the mission as well. Denham received the letter while in quarantine in
Marseilles. Still very angry, he sent an ill-judged letter to Bathurst complaining of Oudney's incompetence. The missal was not well received in London, and Denham found a letter awaiting him on his return to Tripoli, rebuking him for his lack of diplomacy, although acknowledging the frustrations he had endured. News of Denham's conduct left his compatriots at Murzuk dumbfounded. Oudney wrote a bitter letter of complaint about Denham to
285:, as had been widely believed. Denham was briefly aided in his surveys by a 21-year-old ensign, Ernest Toole, sent from Malta to assist him. However Toole, already weakened by the arduous desert crossing from Tripoli, soon died of fever, and was buried by Denham on the shores of the lake. Denham returned to Kuka, where he met Warrington's protégé, John Tyrwhitt, sent to act as vice-consul there. Denham took Tyrwhitt with him on an excursion to the southern tip of the Lake Chad. When the pair returned to Kuka, Denham found Clapperton there, all but unrecognizable. Oudney had died at Murmur in January 1824, but Clapperton had continued to
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Oudney's aide, not Denham's. The mission, now comprising four
Britons (including Hillman, the carpenter), five servants, and four camel drivers, eventually left Murzuk for Bornu on 19 November 1822. Clapperton and Oudney were in poor health, having succumbed to fevers, and all were overwrought as they made their way due south across the
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Denham brought with him instructions from the
Colonial Office indicating that Oudney should remain at Bornu as Vice-Consul, while Denham and Clapperton were to 'explore the Country to the Southward and Eastward of Bornu, principally with a view to tracing the course of the Niger and ascertaining its
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On 14 September 1824, their antipathy unabated, the pair, with carpenter
Hillman, left Kuka for Tripoli not speaking a word to each other during the 133-day journey. Tyrwhitt elected to remain at Kuka and do his duty, a decision that cost him his life only several months later after he succumbed to
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relations with one of the Arab servants. The accusation, based on a rumour spread by a disgruntled servant dismissed by
Clapperton for theft, was almost certainly unfounded, and Denham later withdrew it but without telling Clapperton he had done so, leading the historian Bovill to observe that 'it
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Within three months of their return, Clapperton had left on another expedition to west Africa, this time travelling by sea, leaving Denham to write of their exploits in which he exaggerated his own role and minimized the contributions of
Clapperton and Oudney without fear of contradiction. Denham
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on the latter's return to London from Africa, and became determined to join the
British government's second mission to establish trade links with the west African states. Perhaps because of his influential acquaintances, Denham's wish was granted and, now promoted to Major, he was despatched by
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By the end of
September 1822, Denham was on his way back to Murzuk with the merchant and the promised escort. Recognizing that matters had been aggravated by the absence of any official instruction regarding leadership of the expedition, the Colonial Office wrote that Clapperton should become
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Denham was to find the bashaw as obdurate as Murzuk's bey. Outraged, he decided to return to London to report the situation to Lord
Bathurst and also seek promotion, so that he could return as commanding officer of the expedition. Boarding a ship bound for Marseilles, he warned the bashaw's
354:) at Freetown on 9 June 1828, aged 42. The fourth governor of the colony to perish in as many years in that 'pestilential climate', he died owing several thousand pounds to his brother, John Charles. Denham was buried at the city's Circular Road cemetery on 15 June.
201:, to provide the essential escort to protect the mission on its journey south to Bornu. He arrived back in Tripoli on 13 June 1822, his departure from the mission unlamented. He had already made himself unpopular, leading Clapperton to write to
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had forbidden their departure from the Fezzan while he was absent on a slave-raiding expedition, a restriction enforced by the removal of the mission's camels. Denham soon returned to
Tripoli, to seek further funds, and to persuade the
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south of Bornu. The raiders were defeated, and Denham barely escaped with his life. By this time, a deep antipathy had developed between Clapperton and Denham, Denham secretly sending home malicious reports about Clapperton having
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the news of Clapperton's death at Sokoto, which he duly relayed to London. In May 1828 Denham returned to Freetown, where he received the royal warrant appointing him lieutenant-governor of the colony of Sierra Leone, succeeding
213:, the British Consul in Tripoli, comparing Denham to a snake hidden in the grass. In an unfortunate breach of confidence, Warrington showed the letter to Denham, thereby souring relations within the mission party still further.
184:, without him on 23 February 1822. Denham eventually left Tripoli on 5 March with an escort of 210 mounted Arab tribesmen, reaching Murzuk only to find his two compatriots in a wretched condition, Clapperton ill of an
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139:, but became very bored; 'he was the kind of man who must have adventure or he rots', wrote a friend. Alas, he was also domineering, insecure, jealous, and possessed of a mean streak.
135:, as a student, intending to become a staff officer in the Senior Department of the Royal Military College. He attracted the favourable attention of the Commandant of the College, Sir
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281:. He was unable to survey the eastern shore owing to the warring tribes there, but nevertheless proved beyond doubt that Lake Chad was not the source of the
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and with the occupation of Paris. Placed on half pay in 1818, he travelled for a time in France and Italy. In 1819, Denham entered the
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remains difficult to recall in all the checkered (sic) history of geographic discovery.... a more odious man than Dixon Denham'.
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on 4 February 1823, the Britons becoming the first white men to see the lake; the party continued westward, reaching Kuka in the
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as Superintendent of Liberated Africans, charged with resettling the slaves rescued by the British naval squadron and landed at
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states in December 1823, while Denham remained behind to explore the western, southern and south-eastern shores of
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Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa: in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824 (2 Volumes)
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After administering Sierra Leone for only five weeks, Denham died of 'African Fever' (probably
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Embouchure'. For reasons unknown, Denham was detained in Tripoli, and the mission proceeded to
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
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After quarrelling again over leadership of the party, Oudney and Clapperton set out for the
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took up residence in London, at 18 George Street, Hanover Square. He was elected a
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on 20 February 1815, but no further record of his wife or any issue survives.
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in the autumn of 1821 to join the other members of the mission, Dr
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Denham and Clapperton received by Sheikh al-Kaneimi at Kuka
542:. Vol. 14, Denham, Dixon. Smith, Elder & Co., London.
524:, vol. i. chap. xiii. (London, 1892), by Dr Robert Brown
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Fyfe, C.: Denham, Dixon, in Harrison, B. (ed.) (2004).
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People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
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538:Chichester, H. M. (1885), in Leslie Stephen, ed.
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540:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900
464:Lives of eminent and illustrious Englishmen
451:The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
378:Denham's exploits are briefly mentioned in
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301:fever, alcoholism, and loneliness.
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714:International Plant Names Index
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785:People from the City of London
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635:The Wellington Papers, 1825.
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765:British explorers of Africa
594:Cambridge University Press.
592:The Bornu Mission, 1822-25.
315:Fellow of the Royal Society
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462:Cunningham, G. G. (1837).
780:Governors of Sierra Leone
670:Shadows across the Sahara
701:The Gentleman's Magazine
672:. I. B. Tauris, London.
368:St Paul's, Covent Garden
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506:Encyclopædia Britannica
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385:Five Weeks in a Balloon
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567:The Race for Timbuktu
565:Kryza, F. T. (2007).
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125:Lieutenant
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308:Aftermath
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620:Volume 1
612:(1826).
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170:Express
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275:Logone
231:Kukawa
219:Sahara
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178:Murzuk
107:, and
105:France
45:Africa
346:Death
283:Niger
279:Shari
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682:ISBN
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