Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lucas, William?
LUCAS, WILLIAM? (fl. 1789), African explorer, is stated to have been born about 1750. He is believed to have been the William Lucas, son of a vintner in Greyfriars, London, who was admitted to St. Paul's School, 11 Feb. 1760, aged 10 (Gardiner, St. Paul's School Register, pp. 116, 120). While still a boy he was sent to Cadiz, to be trained to mercantile pursuits, but was captured on his return voyage shortly after by a Sallee rover, and carried into slavery at Morocco. According to ‘Reports of the African Association’ (i. 19), after three years' captivity he went to Gibraltar, and was sent as vice-consul at Morocco by General Edward Cornwallis, governor of Gibraltar from 1763 to 1770. In 1785 he returned to England, and was appointed oriental interpreter of the British court apparently at Gibraltar. Soon afterwards he received official permission to undertake a journey in Africa in the service of the newly formed Association for Promoting African Exploration, and was paid his salary in spite of his absence from Gibraltar. He left England in August 1788 with the intention of crossing the desert from Tripoli to Fezzan, collecting information from the people of Fezzan and traders respecting the interior, and returning home by way of the Gambia or the Guinea coast. He landed at Tripoli at the end of October, and was well received by the bashaw. When on the point of starting for Fezzan, he was delayed by the revolt of the principal tributary tribe of Arabs. Meanwhile two shereefs arrived at Tripoli, and offered to be responsible with their lives for his safe conduct. Lucas accepted the offer, and started on a mule, given by the bashaw, in company with eighteen other persons all armed, in February 1789. On the fourth day of the journey he reached the ruins of Lebida, and found remains of a great Roman colony. On the seventh day he reached Menrata, but the war with the Arabs rendered it impossible that Fezzan could be reached before the winter. By promising the copy of a map of Africa to one of the shereefs who had travelled as factor in the slave-trade for the king of Fezzan, he obtained much information about Fezzan, Bornou, and Nigritia, which ‘diminished his disappointment at not completing his journey.’ He left Memoon on 20 March 1789, reached Tripoli on 6 April, and England on 26 July. His account of Africa was published in the ‘Reports’ of the African Association, in the service of which he was succeeded by Major Daniel Houghton [q. v.] The date of his death has not been discovered.
[Reports of the African Association, vol. i. 1790; Georgian Era, iii. 467 et seq.]