#orkneys

The Scottish explorer, William Balfour Baikie was born on August 21st 1825 in Kirkwall, Orkney.

Baikie studied medicine at Edinburgh University, and after graduating he was an assistant surgeon on a number of Royal Navy ships. He was then moved to a naval hospital in Gosport, where he learnt of an exploration being funded by the merchant Macgregor Laird. The aim was to explore the River Niger and one of its’ tributaries, the Benue, for as far as possible.

He joined an expedition in Sierra Leone in 1854 but upon arrival, it was discovered that the man in charge of the expedition, had died. As the second most senior member of there he took charge, feeling that it would be wasteful to discontinue the trip.

The expedition journeyed 250 miles further along the Benue than any other Europeans had done before. Baikie managed to navigate and record data for over 700 miles of river. Following the success for the first trip, Baikie led a second expedition in 1857, aiming to make further contact with the native people, and to establish trading posts. Unfortunately, the boat on which Baikie travelled, the “Dayspring”, hit hidden rocks. Baikie and his crew were stranded for a year before being rescued.

He also undertook many journeys over land, to see and learn of the land beyond the river banks. Once, he travelled over 600 miles on horseback to the Kano, one of the main towns of northern Nigeria. He was greatly respected, not only as a doctor, but as a priest, teacher and magistrate.

After deciding to return home in 1864, the HMS Investigator took Baikie back to Sierra Leone. He decided to stay there for a short while before continuing his homeward journey, so that he could properly sort out his manuscripts and specimen collections.

Sadly, he was struck by a deadly fever and died on the 12th of December, 1864. He was not only greatly respected among the British, for whom he did much, but also among the tribes he encountered. One local dialect of Nigeria uses the word “beke”, a corruption of Baikie, as the word for “white man”.

Agravain you're so insane

Don't ask me what happened with the design here, I was just sad that it came out not how I wanted

the cousins just defeated an entire coalition on their own

holyfck

arthur needs merlin magic powers meanwhile his cousins are just. cutting and hacking away entire armies of saxons

not how much i like them, just how morally good of people they are

1. gareth

this ones not a shocker. hes a nice little man his only crime is premarital sex and thinking being french is okay

2. agravaine

i know its wierd to place him so high but lets consider the facts of his crimes:

-- said a shitty thing when he was 13. yeah he said a bad thing about women but also he was a tween trying to get a rise out of gawain for attention. he was punished so harshly for this that i cant recount the rest of the scene without bringing down the tone of this post

--killed a few french people. this is fine they were french

--snitched on lancelot. look i dont like narcs either but thatsliterally all he did. his crime is being a tattle tale.

3. mordred

-- i mean he did kill a lot of people huh. like a literal defenseless old man. or lamorak (thats okay because it was funny) or dinadan (not okay but still funny) 

--doesnt respect women

--caused the fall of camelot i guess but who cares about that one. a middle of the road orkney. a solid c minus for morality.

4. gaheris

--matricide

--i dont think i have to say anything else he literally beheaded his mother

5. gawain

--look i love him too but he is a war criminal and a serial killer and supports french people and morally hes honestly just the absolute pits hes so awful