Gaetano Casati

Gaetano Casati (1838-1902) was an Italian and an explorer of Africa, born in Lesmo in upper Italy. After studying at the Academy in Pavia he entered the Italian army in 1859 and served there until 1879. On December 24, 1879, he sailed for Africa under commission of the Società d'Explorazione Commerciale d'Africa. He followed the course of the Welle river and explored the basin of the Bahr-el-Ghazal. In 1882 he was held prisoner for some time by a native chief. In 1883 he joined Emin Pasha and was shut in with him by the Mahdi insurrection, subsequently lived in the Kingdom of Kabba Rega, was condemned to death by the monarch, but escaped to Lake Albert Nyanza, where Emin Pasha rescued him in 1888. In December. 1889, Casati reached the coast with Emin Pasha and Stanley. Besides reports, he published "Dieci anni in Equatoria" (two volumes, 1891); English, "Ten Years in Equatoria", 1891), especially valuable for its account of the Niam-Niam, whom he visited in 1883.