Henri Lambert (explorer)
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Henri Lambert | |
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 Henri Lambert, engraving published in Le Tour du monde in 1862. | |
| Born | June 16, 1828 |
| Died | June 4, 1859 (aged 30) |
| Parents |
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| Relatives | Joseph-François Lambert (brother) |
Henri Lambert (born Henri Marie César Lambert; June 16, 1828 – June 4, 1859), was a French explorer, diplomat and trader. He was the brother of adventurer Joseph Lambert.
Early life
[edit]Lambert's family, originally from Nantes, claimed descent from the monarchy and from the prosecutors at the Presidential Court. Amable Joseph Lambert, Henri Lambert's father, was a customs auditor. He belonged to the “provincial petty bourgeoisie” having no properties in the Nantes region. Amable Joseph Lambert married quite lately with Rosalie Marie Joseph Dubois. The couple resided for a long time in Redon, where Amable Joseph was employed. It was there that Joseph François Lambert was born on February 14, 1824, and Henri Marie César was born on June 16, 1828. The couple also had three other children, Louis, Pierre and Sophie. Joseph Lambert, had received a satisfactory education for the time while Henri Lambert, had to leave school at 14.[1]
Henri embarked on September 1, 1842, at the age of fourteen, as a cabin boy on the three-masted Quos-Ego of Nantes, then as a pilot on the Brig Saphir and the three-masted Courrier de St Pierre, Marie and again Quos-Ego. As a registered sailor, he had a total of 28 months of navigation on November 26, 1846, including a voyage to La Réunion. He had good reviews from his Captains due to his zeal, regularity of conduct, great activity for his service.[2] He entered the Imperial Navy in early 1847, at the age of 18. He was on board the Descartes on January 9, 1847, until his arrival in Port Louis in 1850.[3][4]
Mercantile career
[edit]After a trade voyage to Australia, Henri Lambert settled in Mauritius, where his brother was a planter. Together, they established a shipping company, which went bankrupt in 1858.
He arrived in Aden in October 1855 and visited Zeilah and Tadjourah in 1856 before returning to Mauritius. The British authorities in Aden suspected him of being an agent of the French government seeking a suitable port in the region for French expansion, which accelerated the British government's decision to occupy Perim in December 1856.
In September 1857, he was appointed as an unpaid French consular agent in Aden. Abu Bekr, a prominent figure in Tadjourah, offered to cede Ras Ali and the Bay of Ouano to France. Henri Lambert resigned from his consular post in April 1859 and closed the Aden agency. He then traveled to Mocha and al-Hodeida. On June 4, 1859, he was assassinated near Moucha Island, likely on the orders of Ali Shermake, then the customs chief of Zeilah.
Following his death, a French naval mission from Réunion, commanded by Alphonse Fleuriot de Langle, conducted an investigation in 1860. The mission arrested Shermake, who died in 1861.
As a result of this mission, a delegation of local dignitaries traveled to Paris, where they ceded the Territory of Obock—stretching from Ras Bir to Douméra—to France in March 1862 for 10,000 thalers. This agreement later became the legal foundation for the creation of the French Somali Coast two decades later.
References
[edit]- ^ Daguenet, Roger Joint (1992-01-01). Aux origines de l'implantation française en Mer Rouge: Vie et mort d'Henry Lambert, consul de France à Aden. 1859 (in French). Editions L'Harmattan. p. 23. ISBN 978-2-296-27042-8.
- ^ Archives de la Marine, Fort de Vincennes, Paris, dossier personnel H. Lambert, Ne 836
- ^ Le Tour du monde (in French). Librairie de L. Hachette. 1862. p. 80.
- ^ Daguenet, Roger Joint (1992-01-01). Aux origines de l'implantation française en Mer Rouge: Vie et mort d'Henry Lambert, consul de France à Aden. 1859 (in French). Editions L'Harmattan. p. 25. ISBN 978-2-296-27042-8.
Further reading
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]- Henri Lambert (Journal) et Louis Simonin (Récit du crime), publiés ensemble sous le titre Voyages de M. Henri Lambert, agent consulaire de France à Aden, assassiné près des îles Moussah (Afrique), le 4 juin 1859, dans l'hebdomadaire Le Tour du monde, 1862, t. VI, p. 65-80.
- Jules Borelli, Éthiopie méridionale, 1890, p. 36-37
- Roger Joint Daguenet, Aux origines de l'implantation française en mer Rouge. Vie et mort d'Henri Lambert, consul de France à Aden - 1859, L'Harmattan, 1992, p. 347
- Marc Fontrier, Abou-Bakr Ibrahim, pacha de Zeyla - Marchand d’esclaves, Paris, Aresae, L’Harmattan, 2003, p. 275
- François Angelier, Dictionnaire des voyageurs et explorateurs occidentaux, Pygmalion, 2011, p. 414
- Yves Boulvert, Henri Lambert (1828-1859) : aventurier voyageur en mer Rouge, in J. Serre (dir.), Hommes et destins, tome 11, «Afrique noire», Académie des sciences d'outre-mer/L'Harmattan, 2011, p. 423-424
- Jehanne-Emmanuelle Monnier, Les Frères Lambert, deux aventuriers dans la mer des Indes, Orphie, Saint-Denis (La Réunion), 2011 ISBN 978-2-87763-646-9