Home > René Caillé

Caillé is also remarkable for his approach to exploration. In a period more given to large scale expeditions supported by soldiers and employing black porters, Caillé spent years learning Arabic, studying the customs and Islamic religion before setting off with a companion, and later on his own.

Caillé was born at Mauz, Poitou, the son of a baker. The reading of Robinson Crusoe kindled in him a love of travel and adventure, and at the age of sixteen he made a voyage to Senegal whence he went to Guadeloupe. Returning to Senegal in 1818 he made a journey to Bondu to carry supplies to a British expedition. then in that country. Ill with fever he was obliged to go back to France, but in 1824 was again in Senegal with the fixed idea of penetrating to Timbuktu. He spent eight months with the Brakna Moors living north of Senegal river, learning Arabic and being taught, as a convert, the laws and customs of Islam. He laid his project of reaching Timbuktu before the governor of Senegal, but receiving no encouragement went to Sierra LeoneThe Republic of Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The country is bordered by Guinea in the north and Liberia in the southeast. Republic of Sierra Leone ( In Detail) (Full size) National motto: Unity Freedom Just where the British authorities made him superintendent of an indigoThis article is about the color. For other meanings, see indigo (disambiguation). Indigo is the color of light between 440 to 420 nanometers in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet. Indigo is neither an additive primary color nor a subtractive p plantation. Having saved £80 he joined a MandingoMandingo is a 1975 film that is often used as a reference in describing interracial relationships. For example, "Personally, I think the whole "Terrell Owens as Mandingo" debacle from Monday night ends up being a distraction for the Eagles. But that's jus caravan going inland. He was dressed as a Mussulman , and gave out that he was an Arab from EgyptJumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah ( In Detail) Official language Arabic Capital Cairo Largest City Cairo President Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Area Total % water Ranked 29th 1,001,450 km² 0. 6% Population Total (2003) Density Ranked 15th 74,718,797 who had been carried off by the French to Senegal and was desirous of regaining his own country.

Starting from Kakundi near Bok on the Rio Nunez on 19th of April 1827, he travelled east along the hills of Futa Jallon , passing the head streams of the Senegal and crossing the Upper Niger at Kurussa . Still going east he came to the Kong highlands , where at a place called Time he was detained five months by illness. Resuming his journey in January 1828 he went north-east and gained the city of Jenn , whence he continued his journey to Timbuktu by water. After spending a fortnight (20th April-4th May) in Timbuktu he joined a caravan crossing the SaharaThe Sahara is the world's largest desert, over 3,500,000 sq mi (9,065,000 sq km), located in northern Africa and is 2. 5 million years old. The whole land area of United States of America would fit inside it. Its name Sahara is the Arabic translation of t to MoroccoAl Mamlakah al-Maghribiyah In Detail( Full size) Official language Arabic Capital Rabat Largest City Casablanca King Mohammed VI Prime Minister Driss Jettou Area Total Ranked 56th 446,550 km² Population Total (2003) Density31,689,267 70/km² Ranked 36th In, reaching FezThe word Fez can refer to: Fez, a type of hat. Fez, the name of a city in Morocco. on the 12th of August. From Tangier he returned to France.

He had been preceded at Timbuktu by a British officer, Major Gordon Laing, but Laing had been murdered (1826) on leaving the city and Caillé was the first to accomplish the journey in safety. He was awarded the prize of £400 offered by the Geographical Society of Paris to the first traveller who should gain exact information of Timbuktu, to be compared with that given by Mungo Park. He also received the order of the Legion of Honor, a pension, and other distinctions, and it was at the public expense that his Journal d'un voyage a Tembocicu et Jenno dans l'Afrique Centrale, etc. (edited by E. F. Jomard) was published in three volumes in 1830.

Caillé died at Badre in 1838 of a malady contracted during his African travels. For the greater part of his life he spelt his name Caillié, afterwards omitting the second i.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica