Thomas Baines

Thomas Baines, is a well-known African traveller and painter of the African scenery. In his younger days Baines worked as an apprentice to a coach builder. He worked in Cape town as a painter and artist, then in 1848 began to travel.
By 1853 he had made his name as an artist. He returned to England to join an expedition to Australia , then in 1858 he joined Livingstone’s Zambezi expedition as an artist and storekeeper. He returned to South Africa in 1860 after being dismissed from this expedition on false charges of theft.

On one of his many journeys in 1862 he visited the Victoria Falls. He led a gold prospecting mission to Mashonaland in 1869. Baines held the first mineral concession to be granted by King Lobengula for Mashonaland , but unfortunately he was never able to exploit it .

Thomas Baines died on the 8th of May 1875 in Durban leaving behind a wealth of pictures and diaries. He was also an accurate cartographer. He was the author of (Explorations in South West Africa and The gold regions of South Eastern Africa.)