Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Thomas Edward Bowdich

BOWDICH, Thomas Edward, an English traveller, born at Bristol in 1790, was brought up by his father for com mercial life, and in 1814 obtained an appointment on the western coast of Africa. Two years afterwards, on his return home, he was sent out by the African Company as their agent to the king of the Ashantees. In 1819 he published a quarto volume giving an account of that remarkable people. He then seems to have spent a con siderable time at Paris in the study of the natural sciences. During his stay in Europe he edited several works on Africa, and published an excellent pamphlet on the British settlements on the western coast of Africa. He again visited Africa in 1822, with a firm resolution of devoting himself to the exploration of its interior ; but he was attacked by fever on the Gambia, and died January 10, 1824. His widow, who had accompanied him, edited several productions of his pen after his death.