Major Serpa Pinto

A cabinet card portrait of the Portuguese explorer and colonial administrator Alexandre de Serpa Pinto (1846-1900), seen here with the survivors of his expedition from São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda (Luanda in modern-day Angola) to Natal.

Born on 20 April 1846, Serpa Pinto was educated at the Colégio Militar and on joining the Portuguese army was sent to Portuguese Mozambique. In 1869 he took part in an expedition to explore the Zambezi River. He later led an expedition into the basins of the Congo and Zambezi Rivers.

In 1877 he was sent to explore the southern African interior. He departed Benguela in November 1877, initially travelling east. He followed the Zambezi to the Victoria Falls, where he turned south, eventually reaching Pretoria in northern South Africa on 12 February 1879. He was the fourth explorer to cross Africa from west to east. In 1881 the Royal Geographical Society awarded him their Founder's Medal ‘for his journey across Africa [,,,] during which he explored five hundred miles of new country.’

He was later the governor general of Cabo Verde from 1894 to 1898. He died in Lisbon on 28 December 1899 at the age of 54.

Photographer unidentified.

An inked inscription verso in a period hand reads: ‘Major Pinto FRGS of the Portuguese Army – arrived in Pretoria 12 Feb.y 1879 having crossed Africa from the mouth of the Congo River whence he started on 25 October 1877 with 400 followers (natives) of whom only eight men ever reached Pretoria.’