Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/William Balfour Baikie

BAIKIE, William Balfour, M.D., eldest son of Captain John Baikie, R.N., was born at Kirkwall, Orkney, on the 21st August 1824. He studied at Edinburgh, and, on obtaining his degree, 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 of 1854. The death of the senior officer occurring at Fernando Po, Dr Baikie succeeded to the command. The results of the voyage are given in his own and other narratives. Ascending the river about 250 miles beyond the point reached by former explorers, the little steamer Pleiad returned and reached the mouth after a voyage of 118 days without the loss of a single man. The second expedition started in March 1857. After two years passed in exploring, the navigating vessel was wrecked in passing through some of the rapids of the river, and Dr Baikie was unable longer to keep his party together. All returned home but himself; 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 Quorra and Benue, he here chose the old model farm ground as the base of his future opera tions a spot memorable from the disasters of the explor ing party of 1841. After purchasing the site, and con cluding a treaty with the native chief, he proceeded to clear the ground, build houses, form enclosures, and pave the way for a future city. Numbers flocked to him from all parts round, and in his settlement were representatives of almost all the tribes of Central Africa. To the motley commonwealth thus formed he acted not merely as ruler, but also as physician, teacher, and priest. Before 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 Housa. Once only during his residence had he to employ armed force against the surrounding tribes. He died on his way home, at Sierra Leone, in November 1863, aged thirty-nine years. An appropriate monument has been erected to his memory within the nave of the ancient cathedral of St Magnus.