Romolo Gessi

Gessi fought with the British forces in the Crimean War (1854–55), where he first met General Charles George Gordon.

"[2] In 1876, while serving under governor-general Gordon in the Turkish Sudan, he explored the course of the White Nile in the area of Bahr El Jebel and mapped its descent from Lake Albert.

[3] He then ventured in the territory of the Oromo people, later becoming governor of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province, where he struggled against Sebehr and the slave trade and also was active in the deployment of gum arabic.

[citation needed] In 1881, Muhammad Rauf Pasha, Gordon's successor at Khartoum, appointed Frank Lupton governor of the Bahr el Ghazal in place of Gessi.

[4] After his death, his son Felice published his father's memoirs in the book, Sette anni nel Sudan egiziano (Milano, 1891).