Page 18 - They Also Served

the desert, becoming, in February 1823, the first white men to reach Lake Chad. By now having fallen out with the other Briton, Hugh Clapperton, one contemporary author wrote: ‘It remains difficult to recall in all the chequered history of geographic discovery – a more odious man than Dixon Denham.’
Left alone to explore the lake as the others pressed onwards, Denham proved beyond doubt that it was not the source of the Niger River, as was widely believed. Oudney died of fever in early 1824, and Clapperton and Denham linked up again to return to Tripoli across the desert. Such was their antipathy that they did not say a word to each other during the four-month trip. Both returned to England to heroes’ receptions, but Clapperton was immediately sent on another expedition on which he later died. This left Denham free to write the suitably embellished account of the expedition, which resulted in him being elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
By now promoted to lieutenant-colonel, Denham was sent to Sierra Leone to resettle slaves rescued by the Royal Navy squadron and used the time to explore the countryside around Freetown. Created governor of the colony, he was in post for only five weeks before succumbing to malaria on 9th June 1828. He was the fourth governor to die in as many years in what became known as ‘the white man’s graveyard’. For all his faults, Denham was an intrepid explorer who did much to widen our knowledge of Africa and, in particular, Lake Chad, which is now a fraction of the size it was in the 1820s. His name also lives on in the sub-Saharan bird, Denham’s bustard.
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