Vittorio Bottego

Who was Vittorio Bottego?

Vittorio Bottego was an Italian army officer and one of the first Western explorers of Jubaland in the Horn of Africa, where he led two expeditions. Bottego was born in Parma. He was an Artillery captain in the Italian Army.

In his first expedition he concentrated on tracing the channels of the tributaries of the Ganale Doria. With Captain Grixoni, Bottego left Bardera on 30 September 1892, with one hundred and twenty-four men. On November 7 they reached the Shebeli River at Imi on 7 November. After eight days they crossed the river, entering the country of the Arsi Oromo, who proved hostile to Bottego. He passed through Arkebla and reached the Ganale Guracha on 11 December, along whose banks he led his men upstream for 20 days.

Concluding that this was not the main stream of the Ganale, Bottego left the river in a west-south-western direction until he reached the Ganale Doria, or the main fork of the Ganale, on 16 January 1893. Sick with fever, here Bottego was left by Grixoni who marched for the coast on 15 February with 30 men. Four days after Grixoni left, Bottego pushed inland as far as Mount Fakes, but unwilling to encounter raiding parties of the Ethiopians, he returned to the camp where Grixoni had left him. Bottego then crossed the tract separating him from the Dawa, and ascended that river until lack of provisions compelled him retrace his steps. His party reached the Ganale once more after six forced marches, in the course of which eleven men died of hunger. Two more died in camp from exhaustion, and two were drowned while hunting hippopotamuses.