William Balfour Baikie

William Balfour Baikie (27 August 182512 December 1864) was a Scottish explorer, naturalist and philologist.

Biography Baikie was born at Kirkwall, Orkney, eldest son of Captain John Baikie, R.N. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, and, on obtaining his M.D. degree, joined the Royal Navy in 1848. He early attracted the notice of Sir Roderick Murchison, through whom he was appointed surgeon and naturalist to the Niger expedition sent out in 1854 by Macgregor Laird with government support. The death of the senior officer (Consul Beecroft) occurring at Fernando Po, Baikie succeeded to the command.

Ascending the Benue about 250 miles beyond the point reached by former explorers, the little steamer Pleiad returned and reached the mouth of the Niger, after a voyage of 118 days, without the loss of a single man. The expedition had been instructed to endeavour to afford assistance to Heinrich Barth, who had in 1851 crossed the Benue in its upper course, but Baikie was unable to gain any trustworthy information concerning him. Returning to the UK, Baikie gave an account of his work in his Narrative of an Exploring Voyage up the Rivers Kwora and Binue (1856).

Landing from a small boat, with one or two native followers, at the confluence of the Niger and Benue, he instead chose Lokoja as the base of his future operations, it being the site of the model farm established by the Niger expedition of 1841, and abandoned on the death of most of the white settlers (see Capt. W. Allen, R.N., and T. R. H. Thomson, M.D., A Narrative of the Expedition . . . to the River Niger in 1841, (1848)). but Part 2 was never completed. Baikie's Observations on the Hausa and Fuifuide (i.e. Fula) Languages was privately printed in 1861. His translation of the Psalms into Hausa was published by the Bible Society in 1881. He was also the author of various works concerning Orkney and Shetland.

Legacy The plant genus Baikiaea commemorates his name. Baikie's published descriptions of Africa helped inspire the Scottish missionary and physician Dr. David Livingston to go to Africa.

After Baikie's death, the British government abolished the consulate (1866), but the trading post remained influential. The district where Baikie had worked so successfully was finally secured for the UK through private enterprise some 20 years later. Lokoja became the capital of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate.

A monument to his memory was placed in the nave of the ancient Cathedral of St Magnus, Kirkwall. 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, a 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."