William Balfour Baikie

Background

William Balfour Baikie was born at Kirkwall, Orkney, on the 21st of August 1824; eldest son of Captain John Baikie, R. N.

Education

William studied medicine at Edinburgh, and obtained his M. D. degree.

Career

In 1848 Baikie joined the royal navy. He early attracted the notice of Sir Roderick Murchison, through whom he was appointed surgeon and naturalist to the Niger expedition sent out in 1854 by Macgregor Laird with government support. The death of the senior officer (Consul Beecroft) occurring at Fernando Po, Baikie succeeded to the command. Ascending the Benue about 250 m. beyond the point reached by former explorers, the little steamer "Pleiad" returned and reached the mouth of the Niger, after a voyage of 118 days, without the loss of a single man. The expedition had been instructed to endeavour to afford assistance to Heinrich Barth, who had in 1851 crossed the Benue in its upper course, but Baikie was unable to gain any trustworthy information concerning him. Returning to England, Baikie gave an account of his work in his Narrative of an Exploring Voyage up the Rivers Kworaand Binue. (London, 1856). In March 1837 Baikie - with the rank of British consul - started on another expedition in the "Pleiad. " After two years spent in exploring the Niger, the navigating vessel was wrecked in passing through some of the rapids of the river, and Baikie was unable longer to keep his party together. All returned home but himself; in no way daunted, he determined single-handed to carry out the purposes of the expedition. Landing from a small boat, with one or two native followers, at the confluence of the Niger and Benue, he chose Lokoja as the base of his future operations, it being the site of the model farm established by the expedition sent by the British government in 1841, and abandoned within a twelvemonth on the death of most of the white settlers (see Capt. W. Allen, R. N. , and T. R. H. Thomson, M. D. , A Narrative of the Expedition to the River Niger in 1841, London, 1848). After purchasing the site, and concluding a treaty with the Fula emir of Nupe, he proceeded to clear the ground, build houses, form enclosures and pave the way for a future city. Numbers flocked to him from all neighbouring districts, and in his settlement were representatives of almost all the tribes of West-Central Africa. To the motley commonwealth thus formed he acted not merely as ruler, but also as physician, teacher and priest. In less than five years he had opened up the navigation of the Niger, made roads, and established a market to which the native produce was brought for sale and barter. He had also collected vocabularies of nearly fifty African dialects, and translated portions of the Bible and prayer-book into Hausa. Once only during his residence had he to employ armed force against the surrounding tribes. While on his way home, on leave of absence, he died at Sierra Leone on the 30th of November 1864.

Achievements

• Baikie had done much to establish British influence on the Niger, but after his death the British government abolished the consulate (1866), and it was through private enterprise that some twenty years later the district where Baikie had worked so successfully was finally secured for Great Britain. Baikie's Observations on the Hausa and Fulfulde (i. e. Fula) Languages was privately printed in 1861, and his translation of the Psalms into Hausa was published by the Bible Society in 1881. He was also the author of various works concerning Orkney and Shetland. A monument to Baikie's memory was placed in the nave of the ancient cathedral of St Magnus, Kirkwall.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A manual of natural history, for the use of travellers : being a description of the families of the animal and vegetable kindgoms: with remarkable on ... appended directions for collecting and prese

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • List of Books and Manuscripts relating to Orkney and Zetland; or in which these islands are mentioned. The preface signed: W. B. B., i.e. William Balfour Baikie.

    ( Title: List of Books and Manuscripts relating to Orkney...)

  • Observations On The Hausa And Fulfulde Languages (1861)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Grammar Of The Fulde Language

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Historia naturalis Orcadensis: Zoology

Connections

Father:

John Baikie