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Narrative of the travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824, by Major Denham, Captain Clapperton, and the late Doctor Oudney

Voyages et découvertes dans le nord et dans les parties centrales de l'Afrique [...] exécutés pendant les années 1822, 1823 et 1824, par le major Denham, le capitaine Clapperton, et feu le docteur Oudney ; trad. De l'anglais par MM. Eyriès et de Larenaudière (Paris: Arthus Bertrand, Mongie aîné, 1826). French. Beschreibung der Reisen und Entdeckungen im nördlichen und mittlern Africa in den Jahren 1822 bis 1824 (Weimar: Verlage des Gr. H. S. Priv. Landes-Industries-Comptoirs, 1827). German.

Rhodes House, Oxford. British Library. Kongelige Bibliotek, Danmark. Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Travel Narrative Northern Central Africa Park Discoveries Exploration Map Skeletons

Inspired by the discoveries of Mungo Park in the late eighteenth century, this expedition aimed to gain access to central Africa (this was known as the Bornu mission) and the Niger river by crossing the Sahara desert from Tripoli. Denham and Clapperton's Travels are cited in Thomas Fowell Buxton's The Slave Trade and its Remedy (1840), as evidence that slave trading was still having a damaging effect on the African population. The hundreds of skeletons of slaves who died en route across the Sahara to North Africa, which were counted by Denham and Clapperton's expedition, subsequently re-appear in a number of abolitionist texts. Denham and Clapperton's narrative also describes their trade negociation with the Sheikh of Bornu, in which an end to slave trading was one of the negotiating points.

Additional authors: Captain Hugh Clapperton. Doctor Walter Oudney. Published in two volumes. Volume two of the second edition is also available online: http://www.archive.org/stream/narrativetravel01salagoog#page/n10/mode/2up Subsequent editions published in 1826, 1828, 1831 etc. Contains illustrations and maps, a botanical appendix, and translations of a number of letters and documents written in Arabic, from the Soudan.