Portuguese explorer Serpa Pinto crosses Africa to the Zambezi

Alexandre de Serpa Pinto was born at the Quinta das Poldras in Cinfães, a Portuguese village on the river Douro. At age 10, he joined Colégio Militar and became the first student Battalion Commander in 1864. He then joined the Portuguese army and was sent to Portuguese Mozambique, where in 1869 he took part in suppressing tribes in revolt around the lower Zambezi.

In 1869, Serpa Pinto went to eastern Africa on an exploration of the Zambezi River. Eight years later, he led an expedition from Benguela, Portuguese Angola, into the basins of the Congo and Zambezi rivers. He was the fourth explorer to cross Africa from west to east, and he was the first to lay down a reasonably accurate route between Bié, in present-day Angola, and Lealui.

For his journey across Africa, during which he explored five hundred miles of new country, Serpa Pinto was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Medal in 1881. That same year, he published a two-volume account of his journey translated into English as 'How I Crossed Africa'.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons