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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2014
Late in 1818 Major William Gray (Royal African Corps) and Staff Surgeon (Captain) Duncan Dochard (RAC) launched a mission of discovery along the Gambia River, intending to determine the source of the Niger River and follow its course to the point that it flowed into an inland sea or emptied into an ocean. That expedition consisted of no fewer than 62 military personnel, 31 formally appointed civilians, and likely an equal number of unofficial Africans who had taken advantage from a large and well-armed entourage for security along the path. That expedition, which lasted for more than two years, was moderately successful, but it failed in its larger objectives. It returned to the coast eventually without even reaching Timbuktu. Its leaders produced a monograph, published in 1825, that confirmed many observations made earlier by Mungo Park.
The Gray/Dochard expedition, while admirable in its efforts and intent, was not the first, however, to make this particular attempt. Indeed, planning for this expeditionary cycle began in London during the summer of 1815, and was part of a larger government-sponsored plan to trace the course of the Niger, clarify the circumstances of the death of Mungo Park, and perhaps return his remains and personal property to the coast. The expedition's planners also hoped to resolve suggestions that the Niger might drain into an inland lake, might evaporate in the desert, or might join with the Nile, Congo, or another river before reaching Africa's coast. No less important was a concern in 1815 that the end of warfare on the European continent would bring a resurgence of French commercial and imperial interests.
1 Gray, Major William and Dochard, Staff Surgeon Duncan, Travels in Western Africa, in the Years 1818,19, 20, and 21, from the River Gambia, through Woolli, Bondoo, Galam, Kasson, and Foolidoo, to the River Niger (London, 1825)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Much of introductory material leading to the 1815-17 expedition of discovery is contained in the introduction to The Forgotten Peddie/Campbell Expedition into Fuuta Jaloo, West Africa, 1815-17, ed. Mouser, Bruce L. (Madison, 2007), 5–28Google Scholar.
3 See Brown, William, Account of the Correspondence between Mr. Park and Mr. Maxwell, Respecting the Identity of the Congo and the Niger (Edinburgh, 1820)Google Scholar; Burckhardt, John, Travels in Nubia (London, 1819), 475–81Google Scholar; Tuckey, James Hingston, Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire, Usually Called the Congo in South Africa, in 1816 (London, 1818)Google Scholar; Cranch, John, Zoologiste de l'expédition du Congo (1816), ed. Monod, Théodore (London, 1970)Google Scholar. Christen Smith's journal is printed as a separate part in Tuckey's Narrative.
4 Much of this discussion concerning sites stemmed from minutes attached to PRO, CO2/1, Stevenson to Sullivan, 10 March 1804.
5 Mouser, , Forgotten Peddie/Campbell Expedition, 78Google Scholar.
6 PRO, CO267/45/15, MacCarthy to Bathurst, 20 March 1817.
7 CO267/45/36, MacCarthy to Bathurst, 18 July 1817.
8 The title for CO2/5, in the official record was: “Expedition to Discover the Course of the Niger River, 1815-1817”.
9 Listed as “Major Peddie: Nov. 1815 til his death 1 Jany. 1817,” manuscript pages 7-115.
10 Listed as “Journal of a Mission into the interior of Africa commencing Feby. 1817,” manuscript pages 117-489.
11 Listed as “No. 1 a 21, 21 Memorandums relating to Africa - Tombuctoo &c. collected by the late Capt. Campbell,” manuscript pages 491-533.