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 Kong mountains, and between the Lagos and Niger rivers. His plans were approved by the Geographical Society, and the lords of the admiralty granted him a free passage in the Prometheus, which left England 17 June 1844, and reached Cape Castle 22 July following. After an attack of fever he commenced his journey from the coast to Whydah, and afterwards made the unexampled feat of a passage through the Dahomey country to Adofidiah, of which he sent particulars to the Geographical Society, dated 19 April and 4 Oct. 1845. He was refused a passage through the Ashantee country, but was favourably received by the king of Dahomey. Another attack of fever was followed by a breaking out of the old wound, and Duncan made preparations to amputate his own leg. He succeeded, however, in returning to Cape Coast. There, early in 1846, he planned a journey to Timbuctoo. Funds to assist him were being forwarded by his friends in England, when his health compelled him to return, and he sailed for home in February 1846.

In 1847 he published ‘Travels in Western Africa in 1845 and 1846, comprising a Journey from Whydah through the Kingdom of Dahomey to Adofidiah in the Interior,’ 2 vols. London, 12mo. The preface is dated ‘Feltham Hill, August 1847.’ The work has a steel portrait of the author by Durham, and a map of the route. The same year he contributed to ‘Bentley's Miscellany’ a paper in two parts, entitled ‘Some Account of the late Expedition to the Niger.’

In 1849 Duncan proposed to continue his explorations, and the government appointed him vice-consul at Whydah. He arrived in the Bight of Benin, but died on board the ship Kingfisher on 3 Nov. 1849. He was married, and his wife survived him.

Duncan's sense and powers of observation make up for deficient education, and his book contains many interesting notices of African superstitions.



DUNCAN, JOHN, LL.D. (1796–1870), theologian, was born at Aberdeen in 1796 of very humble parentage. Receiving a small bursary, he contrived to attend the classes of Marischal College, and showed promise as a linguist and philosopher. While a student of divinity, first in the Anti-burgher Secession and then in the Established Church hall, he was at one time troubled by religious doubts. After temporary employment as a probationer he was ordained on 28 April 1836 to the charge of Milton Church, Glasgow. On the occurrence of a vacancy in the chair of oriental languages in the university of Glasgow, he offered himself as a candidate, stating in his application that he knew Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Sanscrit, Bengali, Hindostani, and Mahratti; while in Hebrew literature he professed everything, including grammarians, commentators, law books, controversial books, and books of ecclesiastical scholastics, and of belles-lettres. His application failed, but his college gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1840.

On 7 Oct. 1840 the committee of the church of Scotland for the conversion of the Jews appointed him their first missionary to Pesth (Budapest). Here his labours, with those of like-minded colleagues, had a remarkable effect. The Archduchess Maria Dorothea, wife of the Prince Palatine, and daughter of the king of Würtemberg, was most friendly, and helped the mission in many ways. Duncan's learning and character attracted great attention; many pastors of the reformed church of Hungary were much influenced by him, and even some Roman catholic priests attended some of his lectures. Among his converts from Judaism were the Rev. Dr. Edersheim, now a well-known clergyman of the church of England, and the Rev. Dr. Adolph Saphir, of the English presbyterian church, London.

From Pesth Duncan was recalled in 1843 to occupy the chair of oriental languages in New College, Edinburgh, the theological institution of the Free church. Here he laboured till his death in 1870. For this office he was very poorly qualified in one sense, but very admirably in another. His habits utterly unfitted him for teaching the elements of Hebrew or other languages, as well as for the general conduct of a class. But ‘his vast learning, his still more remarkable power of exact thought, and, above all, the profound reaches of his spiritual experience, which penetrated and illuminated from within the entire range of his scientific acquirements, admirably qualified him to handle the exegesis of scripture, and especially that of the Old Testament.’ As a professor he was quite unique; his absence of mind, the facility with which he was often carried away by an idea, and the unexhausted fulness of thought he would pour on it, making his class-room a place of most uncertain employment, while his profound originality, his intellectual honesty, his deep piety, and childlike simplicity, humility, and affectionateness, could not but command the respect of every student.