William Balfour Baikie

British explorer

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Quick Facts

Born:: Aug. 27, 1825, Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scot.

Died:: Dec. 12, 1864, Sierra Leone

See all related content

William Balfour Baikie (born Aug. 27, 1825, Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scot.—died Dec. 12, 1864, Sierra Leone) was an explorer and philologist whose travels into Nigeria helped open up the country to British trade.

Educated in medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Baikie entered the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon in 1848 and served on several ships as well as on land (1851–54). In 1854 he joined an expedition up the Niger River and, on the death of the ship’s captain, took command of the expedition. With a crew made up chiefly of Africans, he explored the Benue River, the main tributary of the Niger, penetrating 250 miles (400 km) farther than any European had before. He published his Narrative of this expedition in 1856.

In 1857, with the rank of consul, Baikie embarked on another Niger expedition, but his steamer was wrecked in rapids. At Lokoja, where the Benue joins the Niger, he founded a trading settlement, where he practiced medicine, compiled African vocabularies, and translated parts of the Bible into the Hausa language. In 1862 he ventured some 250 miles northward to Kano.

Buzz Aldrin. Apollo 11. Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Aldrin, photographed July 20, 1969, during the first manned mission to the Moon's surface. Reflected in Aldrin's faceplate is the Lunar Module and astronaut Neil Armstrong, who took the picture.

Britannica Quiz

Exploration and Discovery

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.