Caille, Réné Auguste (1799–1839)

French traveller, who in 1828 won a prize from the Paris Geographical Society for being the first European to reach Timbuktu (in present-day Mali).

He was born in Mauze, France, the son of a baker, and visited Senegal while still a youth. In 1826 he learned that the Paris Geographical Society had offered 10,000 francs to the first traveller to reach Timbuktu. In Arab dress, he set out from Kakondy, Sierra Leone on 18 April 1827, and reached Timbuktu on 20 April 1828, to win the prize. He then continued across the Sahara desert to Tangier, which he reached only after great hardship. He published an account of the journey, edited by E F Jomard.