After serving in the Napoleonic Wars, Denham volunteered in 1821 to join Walter Oudney and Lieutenant Hugh Clapperton on an official expedition across the Sahara to Bornu (now in northeastern Nigeria), in the Lake Chad basin. After enduring danger and privation, they arrived at Kuka, the capital of Bornu, on Feb. 17, 1823. In December 1823, while Clapperton and Oudney set out on a journey westward, Denham explored the shores of Lake Chad and the lower courses of the Waubé, Chari, and Logone rivers. Returning to England in 1825, Denham became a celebrity. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed superintendent of liberated slaves in West Africa in 1827. The next year he was made governor of Sierra Leone, where he died of fever.