Eduard Vogel

In 1851, he was engaged as assistant astronomer to director John Russel Hind at George Bishop's private observatory in London.

In 1853 Petermann arranged for Vogel to be chosen by the British government to join the Richardson, Overweg and Barth expedition with supplies.

Vogel was to be a replacement for Richardson who had died two years earlier and was tasked to make geographical and meteorological observations and to collect botanical specimens.

Instead of waiting for Barth to return, on 19 July, Vogel joined a steamboat expedition heading up the Niger and Benue Rivers to the Mandara Mountains where he was imprisoned by the king of Mora who had received a message about the suspicious stranger from Bornu.

By some accounts Vogel was disliked by the other members of the expedition due to his poor attitude, difficult personality and unwillingness to learn Arabic, the lingua franca of north Africa.

He then became the first European to cross the Muri Mountains angering the Tangale people in the process as he desecrated their shrines by sleeping in them during the journey.

Vogel left Kuka for the Nile Valley, leaving his engineer, MacGuire, with his notes and specimen collections.