Friederich Konrad Hornemann

Friederich Konrad Hornemann (born September 1772, Hildesheim, Hanover [Germany]—died February 1801, Bokane, Nupe [Nigeria]) was the first modern European to make the dangerous crossing of the northeastern Sahara. His journal, later published, contained a substantial amount of information on the then-unknown terrain and inhabitants of the central Sudan. In London (1796) he offered to serve as an explorer for the African Association. Disguised as a Muslim, on Sept. 5, 1798, at Cairo, he joined a...