Africa Scots Who Found the Modern World

For over two centuries, a remarkable collection of Scots

blazed a trail into unknown corners of the world.

Their epic journeys in the harshest of conditions helped forge nations

and draw the maps of three continents.

From the frozen wastes of Canada,

to the unseen heart of Africa,

and across the rolling oceans to the parched deserts of Australia,

Scottish explorers have been at the forefront

of expanding the frontiers of the world in which we live.

This is the story of the Scottish discovery of our world.

In the 18th century, Europeans knew more about the surface of the moon

than the interior of Africa.

In the summer of 1788,

an elite group of curious men met and formed an association.

Meeting in a pub on London's Pall Mall,

they pledged to uncover the mysteries of Africa forever.

The members of the African Association were painfully aware

that Roman and Greek geographers and historians knew more about Africa

than these men of the Enlightenment did,

so it was kind of a scientific puzzle to be solved.

It was thought of as somewhere very exotic, very wild,

certainly very uncivilised, certainly very primitive,

but there was almost no knowledge of its geography or culture at all.

But these Enlightenment men were driven by more than questions of geography.

Two twin drives for them -

on the one hand, the desire to discover scientific knowledge,

and on the other hand, how that scientific knowledge

can produce commercial benefits to Britain.

Science and commerce intimately connected.

Led by eminent botanist and explorer Joseph Banks,

the new association set about trying to find men

brave enough to journey into the heart of Africa.

If you look at the people behind the African Association,

they do seem very aristocratic

and they do appear very moneyed and very gentrified.

But then you look at the persons that they initially roped in as explorers

and they're really a bunch of ne'er-do-well's and adventurers.

It's an Association that ends up dabbling with some quite dubious characters.

The Association's first recruit was a penniless American adventurer

who poisoned himself in Cairo.

Next, they sent an Englishman who'd done time in a Moroccan prison

and who had hardly left the African coast before he turned back.

Their third man was a penniless Irish soldier

who was robbed in the desert and left for dead.

After little success with discharged soldiers and shady mercenaries,

Banks turned to a young Calvinist doctor from Selkirk

with whom he'd recently collaborated on some botanical work.

His name was Mungo Park,

and he was about to change the face of African exploration forever.

The African association are looking for a young man of potential

who they can send out as one of their explorers, and Park fits the bill.

He was tall and strong.

He was a loner, and therefore someone who could put up with

the isolation that being an African explorer would inevitably bring with it.

Joseph Banks had spotted in Park a promising combination

of courage, ambition and scientific curiosity

which the Association's previous explorers had lacked.

Park was quite a determined and driven character.

He looked for fame, if not fortune.

He wanted to be lauded, he wanted to be successful

and to be acknowledged by his peers.

He's looking for adventure, he's looking for connections to a wider world,

and he sure as hell found it in West Africa.

Mungo Park arrived in West Africa in June 1795 aged just 23.

Nothing could have prepared him for the African interior.

'A boundless forest, and a country, the inhabitants of which were strangers to civilised life,

'and to most of whom a white man was the object of curiosity or plunder.

'I reflected that I had parted from the last European I might probably behold,

'and perhaps quitted forever the comforts of Christian society.'

Park planned to enter West Africa from the coast of Guinea

and then strike inland and find the River Niger.

Once he had discovered the river, he hoped to chart its course back to the sea.

Rivers are so critical for the exploration of Africa

for three reasons. Firstly, at this time in most of the world

the quickest way to move around is by river or by coast,

so that's how the explorers can move rapidly.

Secondly, because rivers provide a way of moving rapidly

it's also a potential trade route.

But the third reason why rivers are important

is because they were bound up with riddles.

Where did the Niger start? Where did it go?

Which way did it flow? Where did it end?

Park headed inland, where no modern European had been before.

He travelled through a patchwork of kingdoms,

meticulously observing and noting their customs and ways of life.

He was exhilarated by the strange landscape

and fascinated by the people he met.

The feeling was mutual.

The Africans were not used to seeing people who are just wandering,

and that's why they called them the bazungu.

Even up to now, people like you and others are called bazungu.

Bazungu means a person who has lost his senses

and who is just wandering around in the community,

so that is a mad person.

What is he looking for?

He is searching for each and everything around,

animals, plants, people, children, asking the age of the child,

he measures the child, measures the woman.

These are mad people, they are just looking for everything, anything.

But while many indigenous Africans welcomed Park,

others viewed this young, white Christian with deep suspicion.

I think that the Christianity of Mungo Park was a problem

with all these people who were becoming Muslim, strongly Muslim.

Culturally, people don't know them

and sometimes people do ask, "What are they doing here?

"Maybe they are looking for our land to know more about our culture

"and even to destroy our religion."

As Park travelled deeper into the heart of Africa,

he was never sure of the welcome he would receive.

'I was a stranger, I was unprotected, and I was a Christian.

'A suspicion prevailed with all that I'd come as a spy.

'I had everything to fear.'

Park smoothed his passage by offering gifts of pistols,

gold dust, and even the brass buttons from his jacket.

But none of this was enough to satisfy King Ali of Ludamar in present day Mali.

When he encountered King Ali, he had all his remaining goods confiscated

and essentially, Park was cast into a prison.

When Park's in captivity, he's kept in the same place as a tethered pig

and Ali's courtiers and people will come and torment Park.

He reaches his lowest ebb. He's not sure if he's ever going to get home.

He is prodded and poked at by the local population.

He is really like a zoo exhibit.

It's an astonishing experience.

'My distress was a matter of sport to them.

'This studied and degrading insolence

'to which I was constantly exposed was one of the bitterest ingredients in the cup of captivity,

'and often made life itself a burden to me.'

Park was kept in captivity for four months.

Only when a neighbouring tribe attacked Ali's kingdom

was he able to escape in the confusion.

'It is impossible to describe the joy when I was out of danger.

'I felt like one recovered from sickness, I breathed freer,

'I found unusual lightness in my limbs -

'even the desert looked pleasant.'

Park's traumatic experience made him more determined to reach the Niger.

To survive as an explorer, you have to have tremendous discipline.

You have to harden yourself and think about your destination.

If you didn't do that, you would return home.

Park battled on, and in July 1796,

exhausted, penniless and sick, he laid eyes on his glittering prize.

He had been trekking through Africa for eight months.

'I saw with infinite pleasure the great object of my mission -

'the long sought for majestic Niger,

'glittering in the morning sun as broad as the Thames at Westminster.

'I hastened to the brink and, having drank of the water,

'lifted up my fervent thanks in prayer.'

But Park was unable to complete his mission and chart the course of the river.

Attacked by bandits, stripped of his clothes and money, he turned for home.

He'd been through hell and back again on that first journey.

He'd found the Niger, but he'd not really solved any of the mystery.

Yet I think he really did expect a heroic welcome.

But in Mungo Park's eyes, his triumph was not fully appreciated.

His problem on returning was that his expectations were so high

that they could hardly ever have been gratified.

He was, I think, held in high regard,

but he didn't get the notification and the adulation that he expected,

and I think for the rest of his life he held a bit of a grievance about this.

I think most explorers are thinking of returning to give a triumphant lecture tour,

so this is about glory and illusions.

Despite his disappointment, Park was the first European explorer

to travel to West Africa and make it back alive.

To the leaders of the African Association, this was progress

and Park's adventure attracted new and influential supporters,

politicians and industrialists intrigued by the potential for trade.

The Association redoubled its efforts to unlock the heart of this mysterious continent

and to discover where Africa's mighty rivers might lead.

Rivers were central to everything in Africa, especially trade.

They were the main routes for transportation of goods and people.

When the Scottish explorers came into Africa,

they knew that people were trading in salt, indigo, cotton, ivory,

and all these were things that explorers were looking for.

And they knew to discover these things you have to follow the river.

But Mungo Park was haunted by his unfinished work.

When he was offered the chance to return to Africa

and complete his mission, he did not hesitate.

Leaving his pregnant wife and three children at home,

he began the long journey from the Borders back to the African interior.

Park's second expedition is government-backed.

It's larger, it's better financed, they take soldiers, it's armed.

Park himself is given the title of Captain

so that he has authority over the soldiers.

This is an armed convoy, not a single man travelling with a couple of servants.

But almost immediately the expedition hit problems.

West Africa was known as the white man's grave

where hundreds of unfortunate European soldiers,

traders and explorers had all perished.

There was no clean water for his men,

and few local porters wanted to join the expedition.

All this led to severe delays,

and the fast-approaching rain season meant one thing -

malaria.

They travel too late, they travel in the middle of the rains.

Soldiers suffered terribly - malaria, dysentery, men were soaked.

By the time they reached the Niger, three quarters of the expedition had died.

A single man could make it -

a large expedition like this was another undertaking.

Park employed local craftsmen to build him a canoe.

He filled it with muskets and ammunition

and began the long trip downriver.

But doubts and paranoia were setting in.

Paranoia is quite frequent

amongst isolated travellers, explorers and sailors.

It's really a sense of a fear of failure -

this may all go wrong, people are trying to stop me from succeeding -

and that often leads to aggression.

An agitated Park led what was left of his team down the Niger.

Exactly what happened next is disputed.

By the most charitable accounts of that expedition,

Park managed to get quite a long way down the river

before his canoe party was ambushed.

But other reports put the blame on Park himself.

Seeing threats everywhere, he fired indiscriminately

into the heavily populated riverbanks.

Park saw them as the obstacle

and not, in fact, the people he was coming to find out about.

And once he'd done that, then his attitude changed

from explorer to someone who wanted to blast his way out.

Park killed scores of people before finally being cornered and killed himself.

He had travelled nearly 1,500 miles of the Niger's 2,600 mile course.

For this, Park is remembered as one of the greatest explorers of Africa,

but the violence which accompanied him to his death

left a difficult legacy for those who were to follow.

Mungo Park's death confirmed the British people's suspicions

about the dangers of Africa,

and his accounts of a horror unique to the continent appalled them -

the slave trade.

Each year thousands of men, women and children were kidnapped,

shackled and transported like animals across the world.

Ending this misery became the mission of the explorers who followed in Park's footsteps.

Most of the explorers who went to West Africa in the late 18th, early 19th century

were influenced by the anti-slavery and abolition movements,

and they would, I think, have been fairly appalled.

The next major British expedition to Africa would be managed,

not by the enthusiastic amateurs of the Africa Association,

but by the British government.

The Admiralty was instructed to send two men for the purpose

of gaining knowledge of the kingdoms of the interior

and of tracing the elusive course of the Niger.

Two Scots were chosen -

Hugh Clapperton, from Dumfriesshire, was only 17 years old

when he'd been press-ganged into the Royal Navy,

and had risen to the rank of lieutenant, despite his humble background.

By the time he joined Oudney, he'd already travelled the world in the service of the crown.

He was described by a contemporary as being

possessed of resources of a superior kind.

Oudney possessed none of Clapperton's physical strength,

but his work as a naval surgeon had won him friends in the Admiralty.

He left the safety of his Edinburgh practice for a journey into the unknown.

Clapperton and Oudney had learnt of the terrors of 'the white man's grave'

from Park's ill-fated second expedition.

So, instead, they followed a different route

from the north of the continent down through the Sahara

to the vast slave-trading kingdoms of Africa's interior.

Just as they were about to embark,

the Scots received an order from London.

They would be joined by a third explorer,

a Major Dixon Denham.

Two Scots - Oudney and Clapperton - and Denham, an English military officer.

The problem was not mixed nationalities.

It was the fact that no-one knew who was in charge, and that was a recipe for disaster.

The trio were escorted across the Sahara to the interior kingdoms,

travelling with camel caravans of traders.

From the start, the squabbles between Denham and the two Scots

threatened to tear the expedition apart.

'In the choice of my companions, I do not think

'His Majesty's government have shown their usual sagacity.

'They are both Scotchmen and friends,

'and to push me off the stage altogether would be exactly what they wish.'

Dr Oudney was a reserved academic who avoided conflict.

Clapperton and Denham clashed.

The feud between Clapperton and Denham is quite intriguing.

Clapperton - big, robust, a hearty Scot and a naval man.

Denham - a rather slighter, smaller, English army man.

But Clapperton's measured attempt to keep a grip and a control

on the expedition was all the time being challenged

by Denham's gung-ho attitude to taking on every challenge.

Every slight that occurred, Denham wanted to do something about it.

The sniping turned serious when Denham accused Clapperton

of homosexual relations with his Arab servant -

an accusation which could see Clapperton imprisoned.

I think that Denham's accusation of a homosexual relationship

must have been explosive - it was.

But of course, there's an underlying tension

about a whole lot of men together without any womenfolk,

spending days and days in each others' company.

So, you could say there's a hidden homosexual tension there

which would, probably, surface as an accusation of actual homosexual behaviour.

Although the authorities at home dismissed the allegations,

Clapperton and Denham's relationship entered a deep freeze crossing the desert.

Soon they were communicating with one another only by letter.

Around them the slave trade wrought a terrible toll.

They were uncomfortably often walking through slave-trading routes

and seeing a continent which, managed by other people often from Arabia,

was actually using slavery as one of its economic engines.

Clapperton described the horror in his journal.

'Their skin looked like parchment.

'Their bodies remained as life had left them.

'The body of one poor child had their hand stretched out as

'if in supplication not to be left to die in such a place.'

In fact, some of these explorers were even using

their material goods to free slaves,

to show that for them their mission was everybody to be free.

This was the first form of union between the African communities

and the Europeans.

The slave trade was managed by a collection of

European and Arab merchants.

But for the explorers, there was one cultural factor which

they believed encouraged and fostered the evil trade.

They mostly seem to have associated the slave trade

in the Niger bend area with the presence of Islam.

CALL TO PRAYER

And it's characteristic of the writings of these explorers

that they demonise the Muslims in the area

as being the cause of these upheavals.

The focus of the mission was to reach two of the most powerful

slave-trading states in the interior of Africa.

After nearly a year in the desert,

the explorers arrived at the first, the kingdom of Bornu.

They expect to find a kind of uncivilized interior of savages,

and what they find is a sophisticated, advanced,

highly organised state.

They were the first Europeans ever to enter the kingdom

and the powerful sultan and his courtiers were immediately suspicious.

They believed that the British anti-slavery campaign was cover

for an attempt to exert control over Africa and its kingdoms.

So the suspicion of many African rulers was that the explorers were

the vanguard, perhaps, of an effort to colonise Africa, or perhaps

looking for ways of establishing new trade routes that would cut them out.

So they didn't believe it could just be about science and curiosity.

And of course, African rulers were absolutely right.

It was about science, but it was about how science

and commerce came together.

These people were the vanguard, ultimately,

for the colonisation of Africa.

The mission in Bornu was a failure, and as the three explorers

pushed further into the interior, their problems multiplied.

Oudney was struck by malaria and Clapperton

and Denham were still at war with one another.

The two Scots decided to push ahead alone.

But Clapperton could only watch as Oudney's health deteriorated.

'I saw that he had not an hour or two to live.

'I sat down by his side

'and with unspeakable grief witnessed his last breath.'

Clapperton continued alone to the kingdom of Sokotu.

He was met by its leader Sultan Bello, who was suspicious

of the Scot's pleas to abolish the slave trade, and with good reason.

Sultan Bello had just intercepted a slave raid on his own people.

Leading the attack was Dixon Denham, who had decided to

alleviate his boredom with a spot of slave-raiding.

It's certainly within Denham's character to imagine

that he would have thought that was a spiffing adventure.

Dixon Denham's involvement in a slave-raiding exercise not only

caused terrible problems within the group of explorers, but seemed

to show to the Sultan, Sultan Bello, that the Europeans were duplicitous,

that they would say one thing but were doing something else,

and of course, that just added to their suspicions.

Clapperton was in a perilous position.

He immediately distanced himself from Denham's activities

and continued to push his anti-slavery trade agreement.

After days of discussion, Sultan Bello finally conceded and agreed

that he would cease trading in slaves

in return for military hardware.

Clapperton had been in Africa's interior for three years.

He had shown that slavery could be ended by determined negotiation.

By any measure, his mission had been a resounding success.

But Clapperton was eager for a new challenge,

one that would forever secure his reputation in the annals

of African exploration.

He planned to discover the whereabouts

of the fabled city of Timbuktu.

Timbuktu was Africa's El Dorado.

The legends and the myths surrounding this place describe it as this

city full of palaces of gold, gold streets, roofs paved with gold.

Europeans knew that there had been gold in Africa,

and those who continued to believe in the lure of gold

believed that it must be, it could be found in Timbuktu.

Timbuktu in the early 19th century was

the image of mysterious Africa.

A link to the gold trade, to the slave trade, to the salt trade.

It was known about from ancient writings,

but had not then been visited by a European.

For the imperial superpowers of Britain and France,

Timbuktu was the key to West Africa.

But every explorer they had sent to locate the city had either

returned disappointed or not returned at all.

For Clapperton, Timbuktu would be his crowning glory.

But a fellow Scot had other ideas.

Alexander Gordon Laing was ambitious, self-important, full of energy.

Some people thought he was mad.

It's hard to know whether he was the perfect explorer.

Whereas Park had been a stoic, Laing was a ball of energy

and maybe the perfect man for the times.

He is a trained classicist, he's an erudite, intelligent man,

but he's also a ruthless army officer.

Alexander Gordon Laing, from Edinburgh,

was the epitome of the gentleman explorer.

Handsome, well connected and supremely confident,

he had been instructed by the colonial office to locate Timbuktu.

He was certain he could find it without too much fuss, and was

only too ready to accept the acclaim that such a triumph would bring.

Standing in his way was Hugh Clapperton,

by now a hardened veteran of the African interior.

Both men were intent on being the first through

the gates of Timbuktu.

Twin expeditions were sent.

Laing was sent to Timbuktu north from Tripoli to cross the Sahara,

whereas Clapperton was sent back to Africa from the south.

And the two were to form a kind of pincer movement that would

resolve this question once and for all.

Clapperton had been instructed to return to the interior

kingdom of Sokotu and nurture his relationship with the Sultan.

Only then could he proceed to Timbuktu.

But Clapperton had no intention of giving Laing a free run.

Scottish explorers in Africa are driven people.

They read about all the earlier failures.

So there's almost perhaps a mania, a drive, something forcing these

people on. Partly it comes down to fame and fortune.

Partly it comes down to science.

But there's also clearly something about wanting to be the first.

Laing set sail first and docked in Tripoli.

While preparing for the desert crossing, he fell in love

with Emma Warrington, daughter of the British consul.

Marriage soon followed and a mere four days later,

Laing headed into the desert.

Clapperton sailed into the tropics of West Africa,

the feared white man's grave.

It was a quicker but more dangerous route to Timbuktu.

But within days he was so sick he could barely walk.

Laing, meanwhile, was suffering only from heartache for his new wife.

'My heart throbs with sad pulsations on account of my dearest,

'most beloved Emma.'

You could say that Laing was deluded by this notion of romantic love.

Four days with the woman of his dreams

and then 400 days not with her, but supposedly dreaming about her.

Any normal person would have stayed with their wife

and let somebody else go to Timbuktu or forgotten about it totally.

But Laing's heartache was soon the least of his worries.

He was entering the territory of the feared Tuareg tribes.

Laing was reliant on these nomadic warriors to guide him

through the Sahara desert.

For four months, Laing and 20 heavily armed Tuareg guides

ventured deeper into the Sahara.

Laing was laden with merchandise and gifts.

The Tuareg knew how vulnerable he was.

In the dead of night, they surrounded his tent and attacked.

After looting his belongings, they left Laing for dead.

'I shall acquaint you with the number

'and nature of my wounds, in all amounting to 24.

'I have five sabre cuts to the crown of my head and three to my temple.

'A dreadful gash on the back of my neck,

'a musketball to the hip which has made its way through my...'

Barely alive, Laing struggled across the desert.

His mental condition deteriorated, but he remained as confident as ever

that he would reach Timbuktu.

Many people who go through dreadful traumas believe they've been

divinely spared,

that there's some special reason they didn't die of their injuries.

And that in a sense is particularly helpful to an explorer,

because it keeps them going.

It's the ultimate motivation.

Meanwhile, Clapperton had made it through the white man's grave

and into the desert.

As instructed, he'd returned to the kingdom of Sokotu.

He hoped to be welcomed by Sultan Bello,

the man who'd agreed to abolish slavery on Clapperton's last visit.

When Clapperton went back, Bello was at war

and he accused Clapperton of either being a spy for his enemies or

trying to smuggle arms to his enemies.

This is important because it just shows you how vulnerable

European explorers were in Africa.

Explorers had to negotiate their way across Africa

providing gifts to one ruler which might antagonise

a neighbouring ruler, and that's exactly what happened.

Hugh Clapperton's dreams of glory died in a mud hut in Sokotu.

For two months, Sultan Bello kept him under house arrest.

He contracted a fearsome fever and died.

His body was placed on a back of a camel, covered in a Union Flag

and marched out of the city.

Clapperton had mapped hundreds of miles of Africa's interior.

He had negotiated treaties with its leaders,

but the great prize of Timbuktu eluded him.

Clapperton did not enjoy the same status after his death as Park.

Why is interesting. He died in Africa, so you might think he might

be a kind of a martyr.

I think that the reason Clapperton did not enjoy the same reputation

is that the expedition did not end with him.

Richard Lander, his servant, made it back with Clapperton's notes.

Clapperton's account was published.

His death was from natural causes.

He did not die a bloody death like Park.

Laing was determined to be the first European to reach Timbuktu

but now another competitor was emerging - the French.

Laing would have been aware of French interest in Timbuktu,

and I'm sure to some extent that would have driven him to try

and make sure he succeeded in his mission.

Despite his wounds and his ordeal in the desert,

Laing reached Timbuktu in August 1826,

12 months after leaving Tripoli.

Still disfigured from his injuries, he marched triumphantly through

the gates of the city in full military uniform.

When Alexander Gordon Laing arrived in Timbuktu,

he'd struggled across the desert to get there,

and he did not find the city of gold of European legends.

It's hard to know whether he would have been disappointed or just

intensely relieved that he got there alive.

Timbuktu was not the El Dorado of European imagination.

Instead it was a shrunken, impoverished place.

Its streets were not paved with gold.

Instead they were clogged with dying animals and rotting waste.

It was at the heart of a region in turmoil.

There was a great deal of war and military campaigning going on

between rival factions and rival groups in the area.

Laing had dreamt of the fame and wealth

he would receive on discovering this mythical trading metropolis.

In his letters home, he put on a brave face.

'In every respect except in size it has completely met my expectations.

'My perseverance has been amply rewarded.'

Laing had beaten the French for the prize of reaching Timbuktu,

but he was not a welcome visitor.

Sensing this, he did not dally long in the city.

But outside the gates his old foes, the Tuareg, watched and waited.

As he began his journey home, he was attacked again.

This time there would be no escape.

He was left dead and unburied beneath a tree.

His beloved Emma never saw him again.

There was a great mystery about why he'd been killed

and also what happened to his papers.

And the reason is because the French were also trying to reach Timbuktu.

Laing, in a sense, was competing for an international prize,

and the suspicion was that the French had instigated his death, perhaps,

or they'd taken his papers.

But the reality is more mundane.

At the time there are various Tuareg bands who are raiding the area.

And it seems quite likely he was caught up in local turmoil.

There's no conspiracy at all.

Laing was long dead in the desert by the time French explorer

Rene Caillie arrived at Timbuktu.

Caillie was a shrewd operator.

He had chosen a very different approach to enter the city

and lived to tell the tale.

If you take in the case of

Rene Caillie, the French explorer,

in order to integrate into the society he even took the name,

he took an Islam name,

called Mohammed Abdullah, and he said that he was a Muslim.

He learned about Arabic before coming. He learned about Arabic

and he knew also about Islam.

So it seems there was an arrogance in Laing,

an unwillingness to disguise who he really was.

However, for the British, Rene Caillie's decision to go in disguise

was just indicative of the fact that he wasn't a gentleman.

Today, Laing stands alongside the greatest African explorers.

His lonely death at the gates of Timbuktu is a testament to

the incredible dangers these men faced and could not always overcome.

Mungo Park, Hugh Clapperton and Alexander Gordon Laing

paved the way for a new era of Scottish explorers.

Better equipped and better resourced, this new wave of

adventurers believed that Africa could be tamed,

its landscape mapped and its people brought into the Western world.

By the mid-19th century, the improvements in technologies

are becoming the crucial determining factors in African exploration.

So medicines, better shipping that can navigate rivers,

the use of gunboats, the use of the telegraph,

better communications - these are becoming crucial elements.

Also improvements in weaponry, in firearms,

that give Europeans a domination.

So technology is becoming the crucial driver of this exploration.

Leading the charge was Greenock shipping magnate Macgregor Laird.

He believed his steam-powered vessels would propel him

into the unexplored reaches of the River Niger.

Once there, he could fill his paddle steamers with

the riches of the interior kingdoms.

This market, as you can see,

was a very busy market in the 19th century.

We had many products brought to this market, like cereals, cotton, gold,

because these were products that were in high demand.

The river was the central point.

It was a vast trade. It wasn't just Segou.

It was Segou, Djenne, Timbuktu, all the way to the Sahara

and across the Sahara.

Laird's ambitious plan was to buy from the interior markets

and bypass established trade routes to the African coast.

But, as Laird recorded in his journal,

many engineers were quick to criticise his new boat design.

'It was gravely asserted that the heat of the tropical sun would

'bake alive our crew as if they were in an oven, and the first tornado

'she might encounter would hurl its lightning upon her.'

Laird's unshakeable faith in metal and steam

was matched by another powerful faith,

one that had regulated the lives

and beliefs of communities in West Africa for centuries -

Islam.

Laird's desire to control trade clashed with

existing commercial routes of Islamic merchants.

As he travelled up the river from the coast, he was refused food,

his boats were attacked and most kingdoms simply refused

to have anything to do with this strange Christian and his noisy convoy.

On top of this, his men were dying.

'A very extensive trade in palm oil, red wood and ivory might,

'with proper management, be carried on in the interior.

'The only and, I fear, the greatest objection being

'the great mortality and unhealthiness of the climate.'

Malaria was ravaging his crew.

The link between the mosquito and the disease was not yet understood

and the heat of the metal boats brought the men above deck

where they fell prey to the insects.

Their drinking did not help.

'It is difficult to account for the infatuation of some men,

'Drinking to intoxication

'and exposing themselves to the heavy dews by sleeping on the deck.

'They are seized by fever

'and terminate their existence in suffering.'

These people were really totally ill-suited to

the climates in which they were operating.

They had no proper preventative medicine.

I think that, to modernise, the death rate is astounding.

Not only amongst Europeans, who can't deal with African diseases,

but amongst the Africans themselves.

Life was cheap and was dealt with cheaply.

After 12 months, just nine members of Laird's crew of 48 had survived.

Laird's boats could certainly navigate the river,

but only at an appalling cost in human life.

Laird returned home but was not ready to give up.

He called on the help of another Scot.

William Balfour Baikie was an eccentric

and brilliant navy surgeon with a novel idea.

He believed that

extract from a South American tree

would save hundreds of lives in Africa.

The resin is today better known as quinine.

Well, William Balfour Baikie is a fascinating character,

an Orcadian adventurer

and he's perhaps most well remembered for being the man who pioneered

the use of quinine as a prophylactic drug against malaria, so he's got

a great credit for a scientific advance

as well as for his role as an explorer.

In 1854, Laird and Baikie teamed up for a new trading mission to Africa.

Baikie imposed a strict daily dose of quinine

and not a single member of the party died from malaria.

The image of West Africa as the white man's grave was changing forever.

Shielded from malaria, Baikie soon realised

he could spend long periods of time in the African interior -

a luxury no European had enjoyed before -

and the longer he stayed alive, the more he could concentrate

on laying down the foundations of a permanent trading network.

Baikie's a bit of a rough diamond, I think, would be the best way

to describe him.

He's reasonably well educated but very self-willed, self-opinionated

and, in fact, his last seven or eight years he spends back in Nigeria,

where he sets up his own little trading base in Lukoja

in what becomes Nigeria.

On the banks of the Niger, Baikie established a permanent population

of 200, many of them freed from the slave trade by Baikie himself.

In his new market town, he became the doctor, the Christian minister

and the magistrate.

In the strict moral climate of Victorian Britain, there were some

who questioned his dominion in Africa, but many Africans welcomed his role.

They came with this background knowledge.

Therefore, they found a lot of lead in Africa.

It's like me when I go to the village.

I have to be a counsellor, a teacher, a pastor, all that kind of thing.

So I think when they came, they wanted to try each and everything.

Baikie's influence was so great, that some African dialects

still use the word "Baikie" as the phrase for "white man".

But there was another side to this Orcadian adventurer.

It could be that one of the attractions of going to

the dark continent of Africa was boundless numbers of women

with whom you could start families and be the absolute king

of the castle and no-one in Victorian England need know about that.

He really rules like his own little potentate

and has a harem of girlfriends and sets himself up as a local ruler.

It's sometimes been joked by historians that there's

a small clan of Scots in Nigeria, owing to his activities.

Set against the vast size of Africa, Baikie's trading post

was tiny, but its significance was huge.

It established peaceful and profitable

relations between two different worlds.

Baikie's success caught the eye of another Scottish explorer -

one who saw commerce and trade

as the weapons to rescue Africa from the slave trade

and who believed explorers could really change the world for the better.

David Livingstone became incredibly famous

because he walked across Africa.

He went from Angola to Mozambique

and this was a part of the world that, in Europe, was completely unknown.

This was very similar to a man going to the moon.

He came back with maps of this area and it made him

an absolute international superstar.

For this particular Christian missionary,

exploration had a moral purpose.

Livingstone was consumed with the idea of driving commerce

and Christianity into Africa.

He was like a pioneer in this region.

I think there was something...

I don't know whether to call it strange or unique about Livingstone.

As a medical doctor, you could have lived a comfortable life in Europe...

..but to CHOOSE to come and live in Africa for 30 years,

not bothered by language barrier,

not bothered by tropical disease,

not bothered by the living conditions in Africa, walking on foot.

I think it's an amazing achievement that he did.

Livingstone had a vision for the whole of Africa

that new commerce would destroy the slave trade

and Christianity would save African souls.

Livingstone saw himself in a long line of explorers who had gone

to Africa and to a large degree had exposed the evils of

the slave trade, as he saw them, and saw himself as one who could

take this project into Central Africa and reveal to the world more

that slavery was a problem and needed to be solved.

Livingstone planned to use the Zambezi River as a highway

for commerce and Christianity.

With him was a young botanist from Barry in Angus.

Like so many, he was in awe of the great man

but John Kirk would soon play a key role in the history of Africa -

perhaps even greater than Livingstone himself.

I would have loved to have met John Kirk.

I've read many of his letters and his diary entries

and he seems like a really solid man.

He was very physically fit, as well, had a great sense of adventure

and he obviously really enjoyed living and working in Africa.

John Kirk joined an expedition which was beset by problems from the start.

It soon became clear the Zambezi River was not the hoped-for highway of trade and freedom.

In fact, ferocious rapids made it un-navigable

and nearly cost Kirk his life.

This failure was compounded by Livingstone's abrasive character.

One of Livingstone's great weaknesses is maybe

that he was too confident that he could do what he said he was going to do.

He would often proceed against insurmountable difficulties

to achieve his ends and by dragging people along

into very difficult situations, he caused a lot of friction

amongst the members of his expedition.

Livingstone accused crewmembers of theft, and fired the ship's captain.

Before long, the diplomatic Kirk was the only man Livingstone could trust,

but Kirk, by now, was less sure of Livingstone.

'I can come to no other conclusion than that Dr Livingstone

'is out of his mind and a most unsafe leader.'

Livingstone's failure deeply damaged his reputation in Britain.

His dream of ending the East African slave trade seemed to have

been dashed, but he refused to admit defeat.

'I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward.'

He was someone who had good rhetorical and fantastical powers

and I think when that didn't work, he simply became very depressed.

He lost his confidence in himself.

He realised that his dream had faded.

So, rather than a specific depressive disorder,

I think he was simply a profoundly disappointed man.

Despite the failure, Kirk decided to remain in Africa.

If the slave trade could not be ended by an ambitious expedition

into the interior, perhaps it could be ended by negotiation...or force.

You might say it's interesting why we know some explorers' names

and not others, and although some people love to

lead from the front, they often can't manage the shop.

So there is a place for someone to do good work

and to have the quiet appreciation of those who really know,

whilst not making it into the headlines.

I think Kirk comes into that category.

Kirk decamped to the island of Zanzibar - one of the most

important centres of slavery in East Africa.

He was appointed British Consul,

giving him huge influence over the politics of the island,

and forged a close relationship with the island's ruler.

The Sultan of Zanzibar trusted John Kirk's opinions

and looked to him for advice on how to deal with the many European powers

who were trying to extend their influence over him and his territories.

At one point, the Sultan of Zanzibar wrote in his will that,

should he die suddenly and his sons were not of age, that he wanted Kirk

to be the regent of Zanzibar until his sons could assume the throne.

Slavery was entrenched in the Zanzibar economy.

The Sultan came under immense pressure from traders

not to give way to Kirk, but Kirk had a powerful negotiating tool -

the full might of the British navy.

He threatened a naval blockade of Zanzibar

if the Sultan did not abolish slavery

and he must abolish slavery in 24 hours

and close the Zanzibar markets in the next 24 hours.

So, really, Kirk's contribution is more as a lobbyist

for abolition of slave trade

and for the critical role he played in the final moments

of abolishing slave trade in East African coast.

Kirk's success marked the beginning of the end of slavery

in East Africa and the completion of the dreams of David Livingstone.

Kirk was more influential than Livingstone in the history

of East Africa, if we think of it in terms of the official influence.

Livingstone was certainly a popular and influential figure about how people thought about Africa,

but Kirk actually got things done on the ground,

in terms of ending the slave trade,

negotiating new trade routes and access

and opening up East Africa to contact with the rest of the world.

But despite Kirk's success, a new kind of slavery was stalking Africa.

Kirk was just doing a good job,

according to his conscience.

He was following his conscience

and I doubt that, in his mind,

he knew he was paving the way for British colonisation.

By the late 19th century, interest in Africa was intense.

Europeans began to annex and colonise the continent.

By the turn of the 20th century, Africa had been carved

into a myriad of states, almost all ruled by Europeans.

Kirk himself was a victim of this process,

and was removed from his post after objecting to

the British Government's decision to hand Zanzibar to the Germans.

Kirk returned to Britain.

He was knighted, a fellow of the Royal Society and many other accolades.

By the time he died in 1922, his memory was starting to fade,

and I think now we've forgotten a man who was one of the great Victorian heroes.

Over the course of a century,

Scottish explorers had opened Africa to the world.

From Mungo Park and Hugh Clapperton, through to David Livingstone and John Kirk.

They had observed, mapped and changed the continent forever.

You could say that Scottish explorers were the first astronauts.

They were coming back from somewhere where no white person had ever been before.

Certainly the legacy of Scottish explorers in Africa

is complicated, because on one hand they helped to introduce

new forms of government, medicine and other technologies to Africa

that certainly benefited people on the continent.

But on the other hand, they did contribute in many ways

to the onset of colonialism and all the injustices that came with that.

I think Scots can look back on their role in Africa

in the late 18th and 19th century with some degree of pride.

There was a lot of pioneering exploration done.

But we've also got to recognise that the kind of men who did this

were edgy characters. They were often social misfits,

people who perhaps were driven by their inner demons,

and I think not all of them would have been very nice to know.

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