NOTES TAKEN DURING TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 1835-36.

Davidson, John

Numéro d'objet:	41
Date:	1839
Genre:	Livre
Lieu:	Londres
Sujet:	Voyages

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1839. Davidson, John. – Notes taken during Travels in Africa. London : 4to, pp. 218, with a view of Wad Nun, the River Draa. A posthumous work, printed for private circulation only.
Narrative of a journey to Morocco, Sus and the Wad Nun in 1835-36. He was killed near Igidi, « in the district of Haneda, four days' journey from Tatta », on his way to Timbuktu. In the appendix inter alia there is (p.208) the history of Abu Bekr es siddek extracted from the Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc., vol. vi. pp. 100-110. Vide also letter from Mr. Davidson in Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc., vol. vi. p. 429, and Notices of him, Ibid ., vol. vii. p. 144.


Voyage au Maroc, Oued Noun en 1836. Davidson fut tué près d'Iguidi le 18/12/1836 à quatre jours de Tatta.Ses notes furent publiées par son frère. Des indications intéressantes sur son activité médicale au Maroc.

This is an account on an unsuccessful attempt to reach Timbuktu. Davidson was murdered in the desert by an Arab band. The book includes his travel diary, his correspondence to British officials and his family, and an account of his death and other documents relating to his travel.
Davidson “went first to Naples in 1827 and thence through much of central Europe. He went to Egypt at the end of 1829, visited the pyramids, and passed overland to Quseir on the Red Sea coast where he embarked for India on his way to China and Persia. An attack of cholera, however, drove him back to Quseir. He made an excursion through Arabia, and visited Palestine, Syria, the Greek Isles, Athens, and Constantinople, collecting much geographical information, which he afterwards communicated in papers read at the meetings of the Royal Society and the Royal Institution of London. In 1831 he went to America, travelling in the United States, and in Spanish America where he visited and surveyed the pyramids of Choluteca; he then settled down for a time to the study of Egyptology. On 13 July 1833 he delivered an address on embalming at the Royal Institution, when he unrolled a mummy in the presence of a deeply interested audience; he later published a pamphlet describing the occasion. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1835.
His craving for travel was, however, irresistible. He decided to explore in Africa, planning to go by way of Fez and, after examining the southern slopes of the Atlas Mountains, to Nigritia and across the Sahara to Timbuktu. He left England in September 1835, accompanied only by a black companion, Edward Donnelan or Abú Bekr. From Gibraltar he crossed the straits into Morocco, where his medical knowledge was so highly valued by the sultan that he had great difficulty in obtaining permission to depart. He estimated that he treated twelve hundred patients in Morocco, and he also gave instruction to local physicians. When leaving he was obliged to plead that his stock of medicine was exhausted, and at his request a medicine chest was forwarded to the sultan from England. He started for the Sahara at the end of November 1836 after numerous delays, but while stopping at a watering-place called Swekeza he was robbed and murdered on 17 or 18 December 1836 by a party from the tribe El Harib, who are thought to have been bribed by the merchants of Tafilet to seize the traveller and his goods. The findings of his travels were recorded in letters, published later in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (1836 and 1837)” (Oxford DNB).
Davidson “decided that his crowning achievement would be to a visit to Timbuktu, and for the journey he solicited the support of a number of influential friends, including Lord Palmerston, at that time Foreign Secretary.., The merchants of the oases of Tafilet, which rivalled Nun as the terminus for the trans-Saharan caravans, became suspicious of Davidson's intentions, believing that he would open up a European trade route from the coast to Timbuktu. Undeterred, even by a letter from the Royal Geographical Society begging them not to proceed, Davidson and Donellan set out with a caravan heading for Taoudenni to buy salt. In December 1836, six weeks out of Nun, Davidson was attacked and robbed, and a few days later, while in the region of Tindouf, was shot dead and his remaining possessions stolen. Reports of his death received by the various consuls on the coast pointed the finger of guilt at the Tafilet merchants. Edward Donellan continued with the caravan to Timbuktu and was never heard of again. Davidson's letters and most of his journal found their way back to Britain” (Howgego 1800-1850, D4).

Illustration:

1 illustration de Wad Nun.