Sir Richard Burton

I

Introduction

Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890), British explorer, linguist, and student of Asian cultures, one of the most famous mid-19th century European explorers of Africa. He is also known for his definitive translation of stories known under the title Arabian Nights and for his valuable travel literature on western Asia, Africa, and South America.

Richard Francis Burton was born in Torquay, England, to an English army officer and his wealthy wife, the latter rumored to be descended from the French Bourbon kings. He was reared in France, England, and Italy and educated haphazardly along the way by tutors until he entered Trinity College, University of Oxford, in 1840. A headstrong young man, Burton preferred to study subjects that interested him—such as Arabic, philosophy, and mysticism—rather than the subjects in the standard curriculum. He was expelled from Oxford in 1842.

II

Travels in Asia and Arabia

Deeply interested in Asian life and languages, Burton joined the army of the English East India Company in 1842 and served in Sind (what is now southern Pakistan) for seven years. During this time he traveled in Pakistan and western India, mixed with local people (sometimes passing as Asian in bazaars), and became increasingly familiar with local customs and proficient in several local languages as well as Persian and Arabic. These experiences set the stage for Burton’s pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in 1853, which he made in the disguise of an Afghan physician. Burton became one of the first non-Muslims to enter Mecca. He sketched the central shrine, the Kaaba, and participated in all the rituals associated with the pilgrimage without being detected. These travels—which Burton described vividly in Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah (1855)—brought him fame throughout Europe.

III

Travels in Africa

Filled with the urge to travel and explore further, Burton traveled to the northern coast of present-day Somalia in 1854 and boldly journeyed to the Islamic city-state of Hārer (now in Ethiopia), a destination forbidden to non-Muslims. Burton is believed to have been the first European to enter the ancient walled city and survive. In the company of John Hanning Speke, another Englishman seeking African adventures, Burton attempted to travel into the Somali interior. Having barely begun this journey, the party was attacked by Somalis and both Englishmen were wounded, Burton in the face with a spear through both cheeks. He wrote of these experiences in First Footsteps in East Africa (1856).

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Following noncombatant service in the Crimean War (1853-1856), Burton returned to East Africa, this time with a commission from the British Royal Geographical Society to identify the sources of the Nile. Again accompanied by Speke, Burton led an expedition west from Zanzibar in 1857. In 1858, after traveling hundreds of arduous miles, they became the first Europeans to sight Lake Tanganyika. A sailing expedition to the lake’s north end disproved Burton’s belief that Lake Tanganyika was the Nile’s source. Burton was seriously ill through much of the journey. At Tabora on their return, Burton became too ill to travel, and Speke set off on his own, following local directions north and sighting Lake Victoria. Speke declared Lake Victoria to be the source of the Nile, but Burton disputed Speke’s claim. After Speke reached London ahead of the still-recovering Burton and announced his startling findings to the Royal Geographical Society, Burton grew angry with Speke. Despite Speke’s return to East Africa between 1862 and 1864 that proved his claim, public animosity between Burton and Speke remained until Speke’s untimely death in 1864. Burton’s The Lake Regions of Central Africa (1860) describes his harrowing trip to Lake Tanganyika and back.

IV

Later Travels

Burton’s later travels seem almost incidental to his dramatic, earlier journeys. He visited the United States in 1860, writing about the Mormon center of Salt Lake City in The City of the Saints (1861). Then in 1861, following his marriage to Isabel Arundel, Burton entered the service of the British Foreign Office and occupied a succession of consular posts. His first post was on the island of Fernando Póo (now Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea), and Burton’s subsequent travels in West Africa resulted in his publication of nine volumes, including Wanderings in West Africa (1863). His position in Santos, Brazil, led to travels in Paraguay, Argentina, and Peru, partly described in The Highlands of Brazil (1869). He served at Damascus in Syria, from which he wrote Unexplored Syria (1872), and finally at Trieste (now in Italy), where he served from 1872 until his death in 1890. Burton was knighted in 1886.