Joseph Thomson (explorer)

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Joseph Thomson
Born(1858-02-14)14 February 1858
Penpont, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
Died2 August 1895(1895-08-02) (aged 37)
London, England
Occupation(s)Geologist and explorer

Joseph Thomson (14 February 1858 – 2 August 1895) was a Scottish geologist and explorer who played an important part in the Scramble for Africa. Thomson's gazelle and Thomson's Falls, Nyahururu, are named after him. Excelling as an explorer rather than an exact scientist, he avoided confrontations among his porters or with indigenous peoples, neither killing any native nor losing any of his men to violence.[1] His motto is often quoted to be "He who goes gently, goes safely; he who goes safely, goes far."

Early life

Born in Penpont, Dumfriesshire, he was apprenticed into his father's stone-masonry and quarrying business. He developed a keen amateur interest in geology and botany, which eventually led to his formal education at the University of Edinburgh, studying under Archibald Geikie and Thomas Henry Huxley.

Royal Geographical Society

On graduating in 1878, he was appointed geologist and

Lake Nyasa and Lake Tanganyika. Johnston died during the trip and Thomson was left to take the leadership role for the expedition. Thomson successfully led the expedition over 5,000 kilometres (3,000 mi) in 14 months, collecting many specimens and recording many observations. Part of his crew included James Chuma, who also worked closely and assisted the Scottish explorer David Livingstone
.

In 1883, he embarked on another Royal Geographical Society expedition, this time to explore a route from the eastern coast of Africa to the northern shores of

Mt Kenya.[2] He was prevented from making an attempt on the mountain by hostile Maasai.[3] Nevertheless, he is commemorated on that mountain by Point Thomson (4,955 m) and Thomson's Flake.[4]

He recovered in time to give an account of his experiences at a meeting in November 1884 of the

Henry Rider Haggard. His imagination fired by Thomson's expedition, Haggard promptly wrote a book of his own, King Solomon's Mines
. Haggard also wrote other well received novels e.g. She, one of a series succeeding King Solomon's Mines. The novel expands on further adventures of the main characters in King Solomon's Mines. When Thompson read She, he felt it did not represent the lands it was based on, and wrote a novel based on his experiences in the East African region, for example described in his book Through Masai Land. He called this novel Ulu: an African Romance. It was successful enough to demand a sequel which he wrote with Miss E. Harrison Smith as Ulu: an African Romance volume II.

Hiatus

In 1885, Thomson was employed by the

National African Company to forestall and hinder German influence in the vicinity of the Niger River, but he returned the following year to the UK to lecture, disillusioned that no further opportunities existed for large-scale exploration in the continent. He became discontented with his life in the UK and struggled to identify new opportunities for exploration. A modest expedition to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco was marred by trouble with porters and local political difficulties. He spent a month in 1889 travelling in central Europe with budding author J. M. Barrie
.

British South Africa Company

In 1890,

Stairs Expedition led by Captain William Stairs, believing itself to be in a race with another attempt by Thomson to reach Katanga, killed Msiri and took Katanga for King Leopold II of Belgium. Unknown to the Stairs Expedition, by this time Thomson had been instructed by the British government not to go.[5]

Death

Thomson's health had deteriorated because of

cystitis, schistosomiasis and pyelonephritis. In 1892, he contracted pneumonia
and, seeking the right climate in which to recuperate, spent time in England, South Africa, Italy and France. He died in London in 1895, at the age of 37.

Taxa named in honour

Taxa named in honour of Joseph Thomson include:

Bibliography

Non-fiction

  • To the Central African Lakes and Back – the East Central African Expedition 1878–80 (1881)
  • Through Masai Land – a Journey of Exploration among the Snowclad Volcanic Mountains & Strange Tribes of Eastern Equatorial Africa – the Expedition to Mount Kenia & Lake Victoria Nyanza, 1883–84 (1885, Revised 1887)
  • The Travels in the Atlas & Southern Morocco (1889)
  • Mungo Park & the Niger (1890)
  • "‘Niger and Central Sudan Sketches’ (‘Scottish Geographic. Magazine,’ October 1886, vol. ii.).

Novel

  • Ulu: an African Romance (co-authored with Miss Harris-Smith) (1888)

See also

References

  1. ^ "Through Maasailand: In the Footsteps of Africa's Greatest Explorer". Archived from the original on 24 March 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2009.
  2. ^ John Temple and Allan Walker Kirinyaga. A Mount Kenya Anthology (Nairobi : The Mountain Club of Kenya, c. 1975), p. 3.
  3. ^ Charles Millar, Lunatic Express, (Toronto ; MacMillan, 1971) p. 109
  4. ^ Iain Allan (ed.) The Mountain Club of Kenya Guide to Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro, (Nairobi : The Mountain Club of Kenya, 1998) p. 148
  5. ISBN 0955393655
    ).
  6. ^ "Thomson's Gazelle". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  7. ^
    Annals and Magazine of Natural History (5)6: 425
    -430.
  8. ^
    The Conchologists' Newsletter
    84: 67–70.

Further reading

Works by Thomson

Works about Thomson

  • Rotberg, R.I. (1971) Joseph Thomson and the exploration of Africa
  • Thomson, J.B. (1896) Joseph Thomson: African explorer

External links

Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about Joseph Thomson.
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