The Scottish explorer William Balfour Baikie (1825-1864) proved in an expedition up the Niger and Benue rivers that Europeans could penetrate the interior of tropical Africa and survive.

William Baikie was born on Aug. 27, 1825, at Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, the son of John Baikie, a Royal Navy captain. Young Baikie attended medical school in Edinburgh and in 1848 entered the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon. During 1850-1851 he saw service with the fleet in the Mediterranean. He was a man of wide interests, which included literature, natural history, and foreign languages.

The third McGregor Laird trading expedition to the Niger River was formed in 1854. Its purpose was to explore the Benue River to the limit of navigation, open up trade with peoples on the banks of the river, collect objects of natural history, and inquire about the slave trade. Laird built a special vessel, the Pleiad, for this...