Parallel to the employment of the African seamen in India and the development of the Bombay African settlements was a series of nineteenthcentury European expeditions in Central and East Africa. One of the first references to a Bombay African comes in the form of Sidi Mubarak Bombay (circa 1820 to 1885), who was known as 'Seedi Bombay'. Seedi Bombay was of Yao origin and was chosen to accompany, as a gun bearer, John H. Speke and Sir Richard F. Burton on their quest for the source of the Nile River between 1856 and 1860 (Burton, 1855, p. 103). Seedi Bombay proved to be more than just a gun bearer; he served as a translator, a guide, a diplomat and a leader. He was with Speke when the explorer sighted Lake Victoria Nyanza at Speke Gulf, and accompanied Speke and James A. Grant to Uganda. These experiences and his qualities earned him a silver medal from the Royal Geographical Society (Simpson, 1975, p. 38). This remarkable man was leader of the expedition to find Livingstone in 1871. In his lifetime, Seedi Bombay travelled the entire length of the Nile from Uganda to Cairo (1860-1863), crossed Africa from Zanzibar to Benguela (1873-1875), and travelled by sea the entire length of the east coast from Suez to Cape Town. If we include his travels to India and back to Africa, Seedi Bombay stands out as one of the most well-travelled Africans of his time; the distances he covered easily exceed those covered by any European explorer within Africa.