112 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
Denham was born in London on the 31st December, 
1783, and began life as an articled pupil to a country 
lawyer. As an attorney’s clerk he found his duties so 
irksome and so little suited to his daring spirit that his 
longing for adventure soon led him to enlist in a regi¬ 
ment bound for Spain. Until 1815 he remained with 
the army, but after the peace he employed his leisure in 
visiting France and Italy. 
Denham, eager to obtain distinction, had chosen the 
AN ARAB VILLAGE. 
career which would best enable him to achieve it, even 
at the risk of his life, and he now resolved to become an 
explorer. With him to think was to act. He had asked 
the minister to commission him to go to Timbuctoo by 
the route Laing afterwards took when he heard of the 
expedition under Clapperton and Oudney ; and he now 
begged to be allowed to join them. 
Without any delay Denham obtained the necessary 
equipment, and accompanied by a carpenter named 
William Hillman he embarked for Malta, joining his 
