CAPTAIN RICHARD F. BURTON,

F.R.G.S., F.E.S., F.A.S.L., F.R.A.S., F.A.S. BOMBAY, F. BERLIN A. OF S.

IN the foremost rank of the noble band of explorers of which England is so justly proud, stands Captain Richard Francis Burton, late of Her Majesty's Bombay Army (18th Native Infantry), Chief of the Staff of Irregular Cavalry in the Crimea, the celebrated Eastern traveller, author, linguist, and gold medallist of the English and French Royal Geographical Societies. He is descended on the father's side from the Burtons of Barker Hill, near Shap, in Westmoreland, a family which owns a common ancestor with the Burtons of Carlow and Northamptonshire, and on the maternal side with the Montmorencis, Lejeunes, and Drelincourts, French Hugenots of the age of Louis XIV. His grandfather was the Rev. Edward Burton, Rector of Tuam, in Galway (who, with his brother, Archbishop Burton, of Tuam, was the first of this branch to settle in Ireland); he married Maria Margaretta Campbell, daughter of Dr. John Campbell, LL.D., VicarGeneral of Tuam. Their son was Richard Burton's father, Lieut.Colonel Joseph Netterville Burton, of the 36th Regiment, who married one of the Beckwith Bakers, of Nottinghamshire, a descendant, on her mother's side, of the Scotch Macleans and Macgregors.

Richard Francis Burton was born on the 19th of March, 1821, at Barham House, Herts. His education as traveller and linguist commenced in his fifth year, when he was taken to the Continent, where, with the exception of a few months passed at a school at Richmond, in Surrey, he continued until the age of nineteen, tra

velling through France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, thus acquiring a practical knowledge of modern European languages. In 1840 he entered as a commoner at Trinity College, Oxford, where he remained until 1842. His studies hitherto, whether abroad or at home, had been directed towards his entering the Church. A commission in the Indian Army, however, having been offered him, he accepted it, and found himself, upon reaching Bombay, posted to the 18th Bombay Native Infantry, then at Baroda, in Guzerat. This was during the Affghan War. Within the first year of his Indian sojourn, he passed examinations in Hindostanee and Guzeratee. At a somewhat later period, he passed his examination in four other Oriental languages and dialects-Persian, Maharattee, Sindhee, and Punjaubee.

In 1844, Lieutenant Burton proceeded to Sindh with the 18th Native Infantry, and was soon placed upon the Staff of Sir Charles Napier, under Colonel Walter Scott. With the exception of a visit to Goa and the Neilgherries-the visit which gave rise to Lieutenant Burton's work entitled 'Goa and the Blue Mountains,' published in 1851-the five following years were spent by him in the Sindh Canal Survey, and in collecting materials for his works, "The History of Sindh, or the Races which inhabit the Valley of the Indus,' 'Sindh, or the Unhappy Valley,' and 'Falconry in the Valley of the Indus.'

With a view to employment on active service in Mooltan, he published in 1849, in the 'Journal of the Bombay Asiatic Society,' "A Grammar of the Moultanee Language,' together with other valuable philological contributions. He joined his regiment when marching upon Mooltan to attack the Sikhs, with whom he had been affiliated; but the "hot season" and the march up the valley of the Indus were causes of fearful suffering to him. He was attacked by severe ophthalmia, the result of mental and physical over-fatigue, and thus was compelled by sickness, in 1849, to return to Europe via the Cape.

Residing in France principally upon his return, he there was awarded the Brevet de pointe for the excellence of his swordsmanship. It has been observed of Captain Burton, that as horseman, swordsman, and marksman, no soldier can surpass, and few can equal him. In 1853 he published a system of bayonet exercise, which, although but little valued at the time, has since been made use of by the Horse-Guards.

In April, 1853, generously supported by the Royal Geographical Society, Richard Burton prepared to penetrate into Arabia, under circumstances unusually strange, and peculiarly well adapted to facilitate his object in view-the study of "the inner life of the Moslem." With this expedition opens the most romantic chapter in the history of this remarkable man.

He had long felt within himself the qualifications, mental and physical, which are needed for the exploration of dangerous regions, difficult of access. Not only had his previous education and career specially prepared him for such enterprises, but his mind, at once practical and imaginative, grasping every contingency likely to arise, he had sought to accomplish himself thoroughly for his mission in the most trifling details as well as the most important matters. Thus it is related that he took lessons from a blacksmith in order to be prepared not only to shoe his horse, in case of need, but also to make its shoes.

In order to penetrate with safety into Arabia, it was necessary that our traveller should be skilfully disguised; indeed, he appears to have assumed and sustained various Oriental characters. He left London as a Persian, and travelled to Southampton with Captain Grindlay as his interpreter. as his interpreter. Landing at Alexandria, he was received in the house of Mr. John Larking, the only person, throughout Richard Burton's perilous expedition, who was acquainted with his secret. To Cairo he went as a Dervish, living there as a native until the time of the departure of the Pilgrims. Unable, as he had intended, to cross Arabia, on account of the disturbances caused by the Russian war, he performed the pilgri mage described in his work, published in 1855, entitled 'A Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medinah.' The peculiarity of this pilgrimage consists in the Holy City having been visited by this bold and subtle Englishman as one of "the Faithful." He was thus the first European who had beheld the inner and religious life of the Moslem without having abjured his hereditary faith.

We have said that various were the Oriental characters assumed by this traveller of versatile genius. The one most easily sustained appears to have been that of half-Arab half-Iranian, a race who throng the northern shores of the Persian Gulf. With hair falling on his shoulders, long beard, face, hands, arms, and legs stained with a thin coat of henna, an Oriental dress, spear in hand and pistols in belt, such was Richard Burton, alias Mira

D

Abdullah the Bushiri, as he commenced his adventurous life, and who went from north to south, from east to west, and mixed with all nations and tribes, without betraying himself in manners, customs, or speech, often when death must have followed on discovery of his true character.

Returning to Egypt for a few months, he proceeded to Bombay, and, assisted by the late Lord Elphinstone, organized an expedition into Somali-Land, East Africa, taking his friend Captain Speke as second in command. The object was to visit Harar, the Timbuctoo of East Africa, the exploration of which had in vain been attempted by thirty travellers. Disguised as an Arab, he was successful, and returned to Aden with the first authentic notices of this mysterious city. The Somali Expedition terminated disastrously. They were attacked by the natives: one of the party was killed; Burton and Speke were dangerously wounded, and forced to endure terrible sufferings in the desert from want of water and food.

The severe nature of Burton's wounds compelled his return to England. Having read an account of his explorations before the Royal Geographical Society, he again left his native land, this time bound for the Crimea, and landed at Balaklava on the day following Lord Raglan's death. Here he was employed as Chief of the Staff of the much-calumniated body of Irregular Cavalry, which indeed he assisted in organizing. He also, by order of General Beatson, volunteered to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to convoy any amount of provision for the relief of Kars. But Kars was already doomed: General Beatson and his Staff were compelled, by a complication of small intrigues, to resign, and the subject of this memoir returned to England.

At the instance of the Royal Geographical Society, Lord Clarendon, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, supplied Captain Burton with funds for an exploration of the Lake Region of Central Africa. In October, 1856, he set out for Bombay, accompanied, as second in command, by his former companion, Captain Speke, and landed at Zanzibar on December 19th, 1856. Energetically assisted by the late Lieut.-Colonel Hammerton, Her Majesty's Consul at Zanzibar, in January, 1857, the explorers made a tentative expedition to the regions about Mombas. Struck down, however, by dangerous fever, they were forced to return to their head-quarters in the following March.

After a prolonged organization, Captains Burton and Speke set forth once more, bound for the regions of the far interior, into which only one European, M. Maizan, a French naval officer, had attempted to penetrate, and he, too, was cruelly murdered at the very commencement of his journey. The result of this memorable expedition, which occupied the years from 1856 to 1859, is well known to the world through Captain Burton's work, 'The Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa,' published in 1860, and through the volume of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society for 1860.

During these African explorations Captain Burton felt severely the effects of the climate, being attacked by fever no less than twenty-one times, and having suffered temporarily from paralysis and stone blindness.

In May, 1859, this brave traveller returned to England, where he immediately proposed another expedition to the sources of the Nile: the Royal Geographical Society did not, however, encourage the proposal.

In April, 1860, Captain Burton started for the United States, and passing through the country of the Mormons, visited California. He returned to England in December, 1860, having spent six weeks with Brigham Yonng, the Mormon prophet, at the Great Salt Lake City, and travelled during his American expedition 25,000 miles. The experiences of this journey were given to the public in 1861, in a work entitled The City of the Saints.'

In 1861, Captain Burton received from Earl Russell an offer of the Consulship for Fernando Po, in the Bight of Biafra, on the west coast of Africa. The Bight, six hundred miles in extent, was under Captain Burton's jurisdiction, and much trouble was caused the Consul by the lawless conduct of rough, unruly traders, and of rum-corrupted natives. Nevertheless, in spite of the pressure of his Consular business, and of the dangerous character of the climate, our enthusiastic traveller still pursued his explorations with ardour. He visited the coast from Bathurst, on the Gambia, to St. Paul de Loanda, in Angola, and the Congo River. He marched up to Abeokuta in December, 1861. He ascended the Cameroon Mountain, the wonderful extinct volcano, described two thousand years ago by Hanno the Carthaginian. He advised the English Government to establish there a sanatorium for the West Coast, and a convict station for felons, who