Orcadian explorer embarked on an African voyage of discovery
By Brian Flett
(From The Orcadian dated January 2, 2003)

In December, 1864 Orkney’s forgotten explorer, Dr William Baikie, died in West Africa of a malignant fever, ten years after his first travels into the interior of what was then regarded as the ‘Unknown Continent.’

William Baikie’s reputation is ranked alongside that of Dr David Livingstone, in terms of importance to exploration and the welfare of the local tribespeople he came across.

His achievement is all the more significant because he died at the relatively young age of 39.

So important was he as a pioneer in opening up parts of what is now Nigeria to western trade, that one local dialect, Ibo, still uses the word “beke” – a corruption of the surname, Baikie, as the phrase for a “white man” and an extension of the same derivation “ala Beke” for Baikie’s country, which means Britain.

William Balfour Baikie gained his medical degree from Edinburgh University and decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the navy to see more of the world.

He was the son of Captain John Baikie, who served in the Royal Navy from 1800 until the latter stages of the Napoleonic War in 1814, when he retired to Kirkwall and was appointed as the first agent for the National Bank of Scotland in Orkney in 1825 – a post he held for 50 years until his death in 1875.

William Balfour Baikie was born in Kirkwall on August 27, 1825, and was educated for a time at Kirkwall Grammar School, but most of his early schooling was done privately with his Balfour cousins, David, who later built Balfour Castle in Shapinsay and James William Balfour who also had a distinguished army career before retiring back to Orkney in 1878. Their schooling was conducted by a private tutor called Mr Gardiner.

It is thought that William Balfour Baikie, while studying medicine in Edinburgh, also gained a great interest in natural history, and zoology in particular, from one of his lecturers, Professor Thomas Traill, who also came from Orkney.

A painting of Orkney’s forgotten explorer, Dr William Balfour Baikie, which hangs in the Masonic Lodge, Kirkwall, of which he was a Master “pro tempore.”

During his holidays in Orkney, Baikie explored the islands with a friend, Robert Heddle, who was the son of a former Town Clerk of Kirkwall, John Heddle. They collected specimens and took detailed notes about their sightings and discoveries and in 1848 wrote the first part of a study called Historia Naturalis Orcadensis, which is still a valuable reference work for information on mammals and birds of Orkney.

That same year, Baikie used his medical training to join the Royal Navy and to take up the post of assistant surgeon on a variety of ships, including the Vanguard, Ceylon, Medusa and Hibernia. Following these postings at sea, Baikie was transferred back to the naval hospital at Gosport – again as an assistant surgeon – where he stayed for three years. But it was during his last year at Gosport that he got word about an Admiralty expedition leaving for Africa, sponsored by a Liverpool merchant called Macgregor Laird, to explore the River Niger and its eastern tributary, the Benue, as far as it was possible to go and to assess the chances of trade with the local people.

Baikie was able to sign onto the voyage of exploration as medical officer and naturalist – frequently combined posts in Victorian times. He joined the iron-screw steamer Pleiad at Sierra Leone in June, 1854 for the trip inland. The leader of the expedition was meant to be the British Consul in Fernando Po – a Mr Beecroft – but when the ship got there, it was discovered that he had died, and as William Balfour Baikie was the next in seniority, he decided to take charge.

In his own words: “I resolved to continue the expedition, as I considered that, the preparations being so far advanced, and results of no little importance being expected, it would be wrong not to make the attempt.”

During that first major inland expedition up the Niger and its tributaries, Baikie managed to navigate and record scientific data along 700 miles of river, including constant latitude and longitude readings. Indeed, the Pleiad had gone 250 miles further along the Benue than other explorers had dared to venture before. The ship reached the mouth of the Niger exactly 16 weeks after they had set out and not a single white man aboard had died of malaria or some other fever, which seemed endemic at the time.

As Baikie explored the uncharted territory around the upper reaches of the Benue river, he named places after people he knew and respected, including his university professors. There is a Mount Traill and a Mount Christison in that area of Nigeria called after his Edinburgh lecturers, and there is a Mount Trenabie, named after the Westray estate of his Balfour relatives. But he was self-deprecating enough not to use his own name for any placenames.

Commenting on the success of the 1854 expedition, Baikie himself said: “We have discovered a navigable river, an available highway, conducting us into the very heart of a large continent. We have found these regions to be highly favoured by nature, teeming with animal life, and with fertile soils abounding in valuable vegetable products. We have met on friendly terms with numerous tribes, all endowed by nature with what I might term the ‘commercial faculty,’ ready and anxious to trade with us.”

When he returned to Britain, Baikie spent the next year writing up the notes from his Niger expedition and the following year (1856) he published an account of his travels under the title Narrative of an Exploring Voyage up the Rivers Kwo’ra and Bi’nue (commonly known as the Niger and Tsadda).The book proudly boasts that it is published “with the sanction of Her Majesty’s Government.”

William Balfour Baikie led a second expedition of exploration up the Niger in 1857, with the basic aim of making contact with the native populations and establishing trading posts along the way. Making use of his previous contacts made three years earlier, Baikie’s party was warmly welcomed by the local kings or tribal chiefs. He was travelling in a small steamer called Dayspring, accompanied by a second ship – the George – which remained at the confluence of the river to set up a trading post. As the Dayspring proceeded further up the Niger, it came to grief on October 7 when it struck hidden rocks at the town of Jebba.

For the next year, Baikie and his crew were stranded near Jebba with the barest of food, and it was not until his Royal Navy colleague, Lieutenant Glover managed to travel overland to Lagos and then on to Sierra Leone, that the party were rescued by the ship Sunbeam.

Many of those involved in the Jebba incident accepted Baikie’s invitation to try to establish a British Consular Agency at the town of Rabbah. But the local king did not approve, probably because Baikie was known to be against the slave trade, which was still a main source of income for some tribal leaders at that time.

Instead, he had to change his plans and create a base at the present day town of Lokoja, where the Niger and Benue meet. Work on establishing the settlement began in January 1860, with Baikie, the Dayspring’s zoologist, Mr Dalton and a dozen African followers, clearing the first 100 acres themselves. As word about the development and new trading post spread throughout the area, people came to do business and to settle in Lokoja. It was said that more than 2,000 traders visited the settlement within its first three years.

Not content with staying in a single place, Baikie undertook a number of journeys overland, to see what lay beyond the riverside. He also found time to translate some of the Bible, especially the Psalms, into Arabic and some of the local Nigerian dialects, including Hausa. One particularly arduous trip saw him travel around 600 miles on horseback over three months to reach Kano, the principal market town of northern Nigeria. When he got there he was delighted that there was a hunger from people there to get copies of the Psalms which he had translated into Arabic. They urged him to return with full Bibles at a later date. This response cheered him greatly as a devout Christian and a missionary of sorts.

As the founder of the Lokoja settlement, William Balfour Baikie, was respected as the town’s doctor, minister, school teacher and magistrate. But by the end of 1861, he was the only white man left in the area. His isolation did make him question the point in staying on. But he saw his role as an ambassador for Britain and what would now be called a commercial attaché at an embassy, encouraging trade links.

In his own words: “Already traders come to us from Kabbi, Kano, and other parts of Hausa; and we hope ere long to see regular caravans with ivory and other produce. The step I am taking is not lightly adopted, After a prolonged absence from England, to stay another season here without any Europeans, with only a faint prospect of speedy communication, and after all my experience of hunger and difficulty last year, is by no means an inviting prospect. But what I look to, are the securing for England a commanding position in Central Africa, and the necessity of making a commencement.”

The following year, the British Government acknowledged Baikie’s efforts, sanctioned his stay in Lokoja and sent supplies and trading goods. But after the steamer left, Baikie drove himself even harder for several months to pursue trade links and make further contacts. So much so, that he began to suffer fainting turns and palpitations.

He was aware that he was getting tired from the constant pressure of running the Lokoja trading settlement and so he asked the British Government for someone to relieve him of the duty, so that he could return to England. This came in August 1864, with the arrival of HMS Investigator, which took Baikie to Sierra Leone.

There he stayed with Charles Heddle – the nephew of his Orcadian friend from university days, Robert Heddle – who had become a wealthy merchant, shipowner and trader.

Baikie decided to spend some time there sorting out his manuscripts and natural history collection before returning to Britain. It was at this point that he was struck down by a deadly fever. He took ill on December 10 and died two days later.

He was buried with full military honours in the old cemetery in Sierra Leone, but a stone memorial to William Balfour Baikie was erected in St Magnus Cathedral at the left hand side of the St Rognvald Chapel.

The memorial was paid for by public subscription and is dedicated to Dr Baikie “as a token of their respect for his character, talents and virtues, their admiration of his useful life, and sorrow for their own loss in his early death.”

The memorial erected in St Magnus Cathedral to commemorate the life of African explorer, Dr William Balfour Baikie from Kirkwall, who died in 1864, aged 39.

The full inscription reads: “William Balfour Baikie, MDRN, FRGS, FBS, FSA (Scot). Born at Kirkwall 27th August 1825. The explorer of the Niger and Tchadda, the translator of the Bible into the languages of Central Africa, and the pioneer of education, commerce, and progress, among its many nations. He devoted life, means, and talents, to make the heathen savage and slave, free and Christian man. For Africa, he opened new paths to light, wealth and liberty – for Europe, new fields of science, enterprize and beneficence. He won for Britain new honour and influence, and for himself the respect, affection, and confidence of the chiefs and people. He earned the love of those whom he commanded, and the thanks of those whom he served, and left to all a brave example of humanity, perseverance, and self-sacrifice to duty. But the climate, from which his care, skill, and kindness, shielded so many, was fatal to himself, and when, relieved at last though too late, he sought to restore his failing health by rest and home, he found them both only in the grave. He died at Sierra Leone 12th December 1864.”