Italian African explorer, born at Lesmo in 1838; educated there and at Milan and Pavia. In his twenty-first year he joined the army in Piedmont, and in 1867 reached the rank of captain. He resigned in 1879, determined to become an African explorer, sailing thither from Genoa, in December of that year. He arrived at Khartoum, May 1880, and succeeded in meeting his countryman, Gessi Pasha, governor of the region around Bahr-el-Gazelle. In the middle of October of this year he was able to proceed to Rumbeck, after which he was not heard of until a letter reached his patrons, the Societa d’Explorazione Commerciale d’Africa, who had fitted out his expedition, dated December 29, 1881, stating that he had been a prisoner, and had only succeeded in making his escape on the 7th of that month. Two years later he met Emin Pasha at Lado, and also Junker, a Russian explorer. This was at the time the Mahdī was making a stir, and the three adventurers were cornered in Egypt. The expeditions sent to rescue them, conducted by Dr. Fischer and Dr. Lenz, both failed; but Henry M. Stanley was successful in reaching Emin. Casati then went to live as a “resident” in King Kabba Rega’s territory, where he acted as postmaster to Emin in finding means of transmitting the latter’s correspondence to Europe. Kabba detained him in semi-captivity. Stanley’s arrival in 1889 set him free. His Ten Years in Equatoria was published in 1891.
