TINN, ALEXANDRINE-PIETERNELLA-FRANOISE

born Oct. 17, 1835, The Hague, Neth. died Aug. 1, 1869, near Ghat, Libya Dutch explorer best known for her investigations of the course of the Nile River, made at a time when it was unusual for European women to travel in tropical Africa. Tinn was primarily concerned with mapping the White Nile (in the Sudan) and its western tributaries. In 1861, on her first expedition up the Nile (on which she was accompanied by her mother and aunt), she traveled as far as Gondokoro (in the Sudan) and then turned west along the Bahr al-Ghazal (Gazelle River) and the Sobat River to investigate the extent of the Nile Basin toward Lake Chad. In 1863 she again explored the upper Nile, traveling into the Azande region of the northeastern Congo River basin. She was murdered by Tuareg tribesmen in the Libyan Desert while traveling from Tripoli in an attempt to reach Lake Chad and then journey from it eastward to the Nile.