Nathaniel Pearce

Nathaniel Pearce (14 February 1779 – 12 August 1820) was an English explorer who spent many years in the Ethiopian Empire (then called 'Abyssinia' by Europeans) and wrote a journal of his experiences.

Pearce was born in East Acton near London, and was educated at private schools, but, proving wild and incorrigible, was apprenticed to a carpenter and joiner in Duke Street, Grosvenor Square.

He soon ran away to sea, and on his return was apprenticed to a leather-seller, whom he left suddenly to enlist on the cutter HMS Alert.

Deserting from HMS Antelope in July 1804, Pearce seems to have made his way to Mokha, Yemen and become a Muslim, but managed to reach, on 31 December 1804, the vessel that was conveying Viscount Valentia's mission to Abyssinia.

After he arrived at Massawa on the Red Sea coast, he accompanied, in the summer of next year, Henry Salt as an English servant on his mission to the court of Ras Wolde Selassie of Tigray.