Bowdich, THOMAS EDWARD

Bowdich, THOMAS EDWARD, African traveller, was born at Bristol 20th June 1791, for a year was a hatter in his native city, but in 1814 received a writership in the service of the African Company. Selected in 1816 to conduct a mission to the king of Ashanti, he succeeded in his difficult negotiation, and thus paved the way for commerce and the exploration of the interior. On his return to Europe (1818) he resided for some time in Paris, where he studied mathematics and other subjects to such purpose as to gain a valuable Cambridge prize. Aggrieved at his treatment by the African Company, he exposed their management in a volume which led the government to take over their possessions. In 1822 he sailed for Africa, and began a trigonometrical survey of the Gambia, where he died of fever, 16th January 1824. See his Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashanti (1819), and the narrative of his last voyage, edited by his wife (1825).