Henri Duveyrier

Henri Duveyrier (28 February 1840 – 25 April 1892) was a French explorer and geographer, known for his exploration of the Sahara. Duveyrier was a son of the French playwright Charles Duveyrier, while his mother was English. During his late teens in 1857, he decided to take a five-week trip from Kandouri to Laghouat and back. He took an interest in the Tuaregs which he met in this trip, and later presented an account of Tuareg customs to the Berlin Oriental Society. In December 1861, he returned from a failed expedition to Tuat while being delirious with fever. In 1864, he published a memoir about the exploration of Sahara with an emphasis on the Tuaregs. Following his experiences as a prisoner of war in the Franco-Prussian War, Duveyrier resumed his journeys in the Sahara. He covered regions immediately south of the Atlas Mountains, from the eastern confines of Morocco to Tunisia. He published further books on these areas. Duveyrier was later blamed for the failure of the Flatters Expedition, and for giving false hope to those wishing to transform the Tuaregs into linemen for camel railway crossings. Following the premature death of his fiancée, Duveyrier committed suicide in 1892.