HELP REQUESTED : William Gray (African explorer)

Another question. Does one have a valid reason why British explorers in the eighteenth, neighteenth century most of the times were Scottisch or Irish and not English? Did it had something to do with ‘national’ pride?

Wouldn’t dare to call myself an expert on that specific part of history. Just read a lot over the years, I’m not really interested in African history, only did a little bit of hunting with a couple of friends years back.

See amazon for “Spirits of the Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Seventeenth Century”. That is a start, but it depends whether you’re more interested in the economic side of African exploration or more into “adventure stories” from real people to get a feeling about what it was like back then. A lot of books dealing with the subject of slave trading are full of – what shall I call it? – liberal bullsh!t and are more about promoting an agenda and care less about the facts.

Books? Try for example (but you should also search the net):
# “The African Adventure: Four Hundred Years of Exploration in the Dangerous Continent” by Timothy Severin
# “The African adventure – a history of Africa’s explorers” by Timothy Severin
# “The River Congo: The Discovery, Exploration and Exploitation of the World’s Most Dramatic River” by Peter Forbath
# “The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton” by Fawn McKay Brodie
# “The Lake Regions of Central Africa: From Zanzibar to Lake Tanganyika” by Richard Francis Burton
# “Wanderings in West Africa” by Richard Francis Burton
# “Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa” by Mungo Park
# “The Quest for the Secret Nile: Victorian Exploration in Equatorial Africa 1857-1888” by Guy Yeoman
# “Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the Nineteenth-Century Congo” by Pagan Kennedy
# “Through the Dark Continent” by Henry M. Stanley
# “The Life and African Exploration of Dr. David Livingstone” by Christopher Hibbert
# “Angola: 1880 To the Present: Slavery, Exploitation, and Revolt” by Bruce Fisha and Becky Durost Fish

And quite new — was a review in the NY Times couple of weeks ago:
# “To the Heart of the Nile: Lady Florence Baker and the Exploration of Central Africa” by Pat Shipman

And of course there are tens of thousands of books about life, hunting, politics in Africa from the 1920’s to the 1970’s, some from globe trotters, some from journalists, some from hunters, but as I understand you’re not interested in the 20’s century.

Wooow, thank you for this usefull information Distiller. Are you an expert in colonial history?! Do you know any titles of books which cover this subject (in English, French?).

Timeline:

— 1800 “Fraser’s Corps of Infantry”: two companies recruited chiefly from British convicts for service in a deadly West African climate rather than being sent to the gallows; later other Europeans were also recruited
— 1803 increased to seven companies
— 1804 renamed “Royal African Corps” and increased to ten companies
— 1805 blacks began to be enlisted (also slaves), initially from the disbanded York Rangers; later blacks were recruited from Liberated Africans in Sierra Leone; increase to twelve companies
— 1806 eight companies separated to form Royal West India Rangers
— 1807 renamed “Royal York Rangers” and re-increased to ten companies
— 1808 re-re-named “Royal African Corps”, six companies separated to form Royal York Rangers in West Indies
— 1809 increased to eight companies (three at Goree, three in Senegal, one in Sierra Leone, one as depot in Guernsey)
— 1811 increased to eleven companies
— 1817 reduced to ten companies (of which three were black)
— 1819 black companies in West Africa disbanded
— 1821 white companies at Cape Town disbanded
— 1824 participation in the Ashanti campaign
— 1840 disbanded

It was a regular regiment. The mission of that outfit was twofold: (i) protect the British trade interest from African covetousness, (ii) protect British interest from European covetousness. Trade interest were primarily slaves. But those small forts along the coast were also to provide a secure line-of-communication with India (as a safehaven for battered ships).

To overcome the shortage of European soldiers during the French Revolutionary Wars, the British Army establishment sanctioned the use of enslaved Africans as part of regular line infantry establishment. Recruitment to these regiments was achieved through he purchase of slaves and the use of captured slaves from other European colonies in the Caribbean. The officers were still to be European and they continued to suffer the same fate from tropical diseases such as Malaria and Yellow Fever. Slaves were purchased from the West African Coast and transported to the islands of the British Caribbean to fill the ranks of the West India Regiments. From 1795 to 1808 it is estimated that the British Government bought 13,400 slaves for it’s West India Regiments. These purchases cost an estimated £925,000, at an average of £70 per slave. This number represents some 7% of the total slaves imported of 195,000 into the British Caribbean during the same period.

About the slave trade:
1807 — the trading of slaves was abolished within the British Empire (that means non-British traders could still buy slaves from Britains, just not Brits to Brits)
1833 — slavery was abolished in the whole British Empire, except Sierra Leone (Bunce Island), and that is were parts of the Royal African Corps was stationed. (That is a strange story!)

Is/was the Royal African Corps an organisation dependent on the MoD? Is it something like the French foreign-legion?
The missions in the first part in the 19th century had little to do with colonising (much later), but what was the role of the British (and other) military in such missions. I know the Royal Navy tried to scare off Slave-traders and such, but why did they go inland, into the heart of Africa?

I just completed reading his book (thank you Berlin :), Den Hague was too much asked), but I can’t seem to find any information besides the fact that he served in the Royal African Corps.

I’m sure to pass the comments to the Koninglijke Bibliotheek for you 😀 . Sure that will help to speed up the progress of your request.

Yes, but that can be interresting as well. If you know the title of this book, it can help a lot.

Is it perhaps The perfect victorian hero: Samuel White Baker by MICHAEL BRENDOR? At least that’s what I found in the Dutch database PiCarta.

Anyway, the name Samuel White Baker could lead me to new sources, so thank you anyway.

I have requested the book Gray wrote, but all depends on the speed and motivation of the Royal Dutch Bureaucracy, and from what I’ve heard in Brussels, they are among the slowest in Europe :(. Damn you cheese eating, caravan-driving monkees, when will you ever learn :cool:.

I have no real source. Just a footnote in an old book about Sir Samuel White Baker. Sorry!

Thanks man, could ypu also give me the source of this information?

Found out this **** wrote a book :). “Travels in western Africa …”. Unfortunatelly, only available in the Royal Library of Den Hague.

3d Royal Veteran Battalion- Brevet-Major William Gray, from half-pay Royal African Corps promoted to Captain in October 1823