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BURTON, SIR RICHARD FRANCIS (1821-1890)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 865 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BURTON, See also:SIR See also:RICHARD See also:FRANCIS (1821-1890) , See also:British See also:consul, explorer and Orientalist, was See also:born at See also:Barham See also:House, See also:Hertfordshire, on the 19th of See also:March 1821. He came of the See also:Westmorland Burtons of Shap, but his grandfather, the Rev. See also:Edward Burton, settled in See also:Ireland as See also:rector of See also:Tuam, and his See also:father, See also:Lieutenant-See also:Colonel See also:Joseph Netterville Burton, of the 36th See also:Regiment, was an Irishman by See also:birth and See also:character. His See also:mother was descended from the MacGregors, and he was proud of a remote drop of See also:Bourbon See also:blood piously believed to be derived from a morganatic See also:union of the See also:Grand Monarque. There were even those, including some of the Romany themselves, who saw gipsy written in his See also:peculiar eyes as in his character, See also:wild and resentful, essentially vagabond, intolerant of See also:convention and See also:restraint. His irregular See also:education strengthened the inherited See also:bias. A childhood spent in See also:France and 'See also:Italy, under scarcely any See also:control, fostered the love of untrammelled wandering and a marvellous fluency in See also:continental vernaculars. Such an education so little prepared him for See also:academic proprieties, that when he entered Trinity See also:College, See also:Oxford, in See also:October 184o, a See also:criticism of his military See also:moustache by a See also:fellow-undergraduate was resented by a See also:challenge to a See also:duel, and Burton in various ways distinguished himself by such See also:eccentric behaviour that See also:rustication inevitably ensued. Nor was he much more in his See also:element as a subaltern in the 18th Regiment of Bombay Native See also:Infantry, which hejoined at See also:Baroda in October 1842. Discipline of any sort he abhorred, and the one recommendation of the See also:East See also:India See also:Company's service in his eyes was that it offered opportunities for studying See also:Oriental See also:life and See also:languages. He had begun Arabic without a"See also:master at Oxford, and worked in See also:London at Hindustani under See also:Forbes before he went out; in India he laboured indefatigably at the vernaculars, and his See also:reward was an astonishingly rapid proficiency in See also:Gujarati, See also:Marathi, Hindustani, as well as See also:Persian and Arabic. His See also:appointment as an assistant in the See also:Sind survey enabled him to mix with the See also:people, and he frequently passed as a native in the bazaars and deceived his own See also:munshi, to say nothing of his colonel and messmates.

His wanderings in Sind were the See also:

apprenticeship for the See also:pilgrimage to See also:Mecca, and his seven years in India laid the See also:foundations of his unparalleled familiarity with Eastern life and customs, especially among the See also:lower classes. Besides See also:government reports and contributions to the See also:Asiatic Society, his See also:Indian See also:period produced four books, published after his return See also:home: Scinde, or the Unhappy Valley (1851), Sindh and the Races that Inhabit the Valley of the See also:Indus (1851), See also:Goa and the See also:Blue Mountains (1851), and See also:Falconry in the Valley of the Indus (1852). None of these achieved popularity, but the See also:account of Sind is remarkably vivid and faithful. The pilgrimage to Mecca in 1853 made Burton famous. He had planned it whilst mixing disguised among the Muslims of Sind, and had laboriously prepared for the See also:ordeal by study and practice. No doubt the See also:primary See also:motive was the love of See also:adventure, which was his strongest See also:passion; but along with the wanderer's restlessness marched the zest of exploration, and whilst wandering was in any See also:case a See also:necessity of his existence, he preferred to roam in untrodden ways where See also:mere adventure might be dignified by See also:geographical service. There was a " huge See also:white blot " on the maps of central See also:Arabia where no See also:European had ever been, and Burton's See also:scheme, approved by the Royal Geographical Society, was to extend his pilgrimage to this " empty See also:abode," and remove a discreditable See also:blank from the See also:map. See also:War among the tribes cur-tailed the See also:design, and his See also:journey went no farther than See also:Medina and Mecca. The exploit of accompanying the Muslim See also:hajj to the See also:holy cities was not unique, nor so dangerous as has been imagined. Several Europeans have accomplished it before and since Burton's visit without serious mishap. Passing himself off as an Indian See also:Pathan covered any peculiarities or defects of speech. The pilgrimage, however, demands an intimate proficiency in a complicated See also:ritual, and a familiarity with the minutiae of Eastern See also:manners and See also:etiquette; and in the case of a stumble, presence of mind and cool courage may be called into See also:request.

There are legends that Burton had to defend his life by taking others'; but he carried no arms, and confessed, rather shamefastly, that he had never killed anybody at any See also:

time. The actual journey was less remarkable than the See also:book in which it was recorded, The Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Meccah (1855). Its vivid descriptions, pungent See also:style, and intensely See also:personal " See also:note " distinguish it from books of its class; its insight into Semitic modes of thought and its picture of Arab manners give it the value of an See also:historical document; its grim See also:humour, keen observation and reckless insobriety of See also:opinion, expressed in peculiar, uncouth but vigorous See also:language make it a curiosity of literature. Burton's next journey was more hazardous than the pilgrimage, but created no parallel sensation. In 1854 the Indian government accepted his proposal to explore the interior of the Somali See also:country, which formed a subject of See also:official anxiety in its relation to the Red See also:Sea See also:trade. He was assisted by Capt. J. H. See also:Speke and two other See also:young See also:officers, but accomplished the most difficult See also:part of the enterprise alone. This was the journey to See also:Harrar, the Somali See also:capital, which no white See also:man had entered. Burton vanished into the See also:desert, and was not heard of for four months. When he reappeared he had not only been to Harrar, but had talked with the See also:king, stayed ten days there in deadly peril, and ridden back across the desert, almost without See also:food and See also:water, See also:running the See also:gauntlet of the Somali spears all the way.

Undeterred by this experience he set out again, but was checked by a skirmish with the tribes, in which one of his young officers was killed, See also:

Captain Speke was wounded in eleven places, and Burton himself had a See also:javelin thrust through his jaws. His First Footsteps in East See also:Africa (1856), describing these adventures, is one of his most exciting and most characteristic books, full of learning, observation and humour. After serving on the See also:staff of Beatson's Bashi-bazouks at the See also:Dardanelles, but never getting to the front in the See also:Crimea, Burton returned to Africa in 1856. The See also:foreign See also:office, moved by the Royal Geographical Society, commissioned him to See also:search for the See also:sources of the See also:Nile, and, again accompanied by Speke, he explored the See also:lake regions of See also:equatorial Africa. They discovered Lake See also:Tanganyika in See also:February 1858, and Speke, pushing on during Burton's illness and acting on indications supplied by him, lighted upon See also:Victoria See also:Nyanza. The See also:separate See also:discovery led to a See also:bitter dispute, but Burton's expedition, with its discovery of the two lakes, was the incentive to the later explorations of Speke and See also:Grant, See also:Baker, See also:Livingstone and See also:Stanley; and his See also:report in See also:volume xxxiii. of the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, and his Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa(186o), are the true parents of the multitudinous literature of " darkest Africa." Burton was the first Englishman to enter Mecca, the first to explore See also:Somaliland, the first to discover the See also:great lakes of Central Africa. His East See also:African pioneering coincides with areas which have since become peculiarly interesting to the British See also:Empire; and three years later he was exploring on the opposite See also:side of Africa, at See also:Dahomey, See also:Benin and the See also:Gold See also:Coast, regions which have also entered among the imperial " questions " of the See also:day. Before See also:middle See also:age Burton had compressed into his life, as See also:Lord See also:Derby said, " more of study, more of hardship, and more of successful enterprise and adventure, than would have sufficed to fill up the existence of See also:half a dozen See also:ordinary men." The See also:City of the See also:Saints (1861) was the See also:fruit of a flying visit to the See also:United States in r86o. Since 1849 his connexion with the Indian See also:army had been practically severed; in 1861 he definitely entered the service of the foreign office as consul at Fernando Po, whence he was shifted successively to See also:Santos in See also:Brazil (1865), See also:Damascus (1869), and See also:Trieste (1871), holding the last See also:post till his See also:death on the 20th of October 1890. Each of these posts produced its corresponding books: Fernando Po led to the See also:publishing of Wanderings in See also:West Africa (1863), See also:Abeokuta and the Cameroons (1863),A See also:Mission to Gelele, king of Dahome (1864), and Wit and See also:Wisdom from West Africa (1865). The See also:Highlands of the Brazil (1869) was the result of four years' See also:residence and travelling; and Letters from the Battlefields of See also:Paraguay (187o) relate to a journey across See also:South See also:America to See also:Peru. Damascus suggested Unexplored See also:Syria (1872), and might have led to much better See also:work, since no consulate in either hemisphere was more congenial to Burton's See also:taste and linguistic studies; but he mismanaged his opportunities, got into trouble with the foreign office, and was removed to Trieste, where his Oriental prepossessions and prejudices could do no harm, but where, unfortunately, his Oriental learning was thrown away.

He did not, however, abandon his Eastern studies or his Eastern travels. Various fresh journeys or revisitings of See also:

familiar scenes are recorded in his later books, such as See also:Zanzibar (1872), Ultima See also:Thule (1875), See also:Etruscan See also:Bologna (1876), Sind Revisited (1877), The See also:Land of See also:Midian (1879) and To the Gold Coast for Gold (1883). None of these had more than a passing See also:interest. Burton had not the See also:charm of style or See also:imagination which gives See also:immortality to a book of travel. He wrote too fast, and took too little pains about the See also:form. His See also:blunt, disconnected sentences and See also:ill-constructed chapters were full of See also:information and learning, and contained not a few thrusts for the benefit of government or other people, but they were not " readable." There was some-thing ponderous about his very humour, and his criticism was personal and See also:savage. By far the most celebrated of all his books is the See also:translation of the " Arabian Nights " (The Thousand Nights and a See also:Night, 16 vols., privately printed, 1885-1888), which occupied the greater part of his leisure at Trieste. As a See also:monument of his Arabic learning and his encyclopaedic knowledge of Eastern life this translation was his greatest achievement. It IV. 2.8 .is open to criticism in many ways; it is not so exact in See also:scholar-See also:ship, nor so faithful to its avowed See also:text, as might be expected from his reputation; but it reveals a profound acquaintance with the vocabulary and customs of the Muslims, with their classical See also:idiom as well as their vulgarest " Billingsgate," with their See also:philosophy and modes of thought as well as their most See also:secret and most disgusting habits. Burton's " anthropological notes," embracing a wide See also:field of pornography, apart from questions of taste, abound in valuable observations based upon See also:long study of the manners and the writings of the See also:Arabs. The translation itself is often marked by extraordinary resource and felicity in the exact See also:reproduction of the sense of the See also:original; Burton's vocabulary was marvellously extensive, and he had a See also:genius for hitting upon the right word; but his See also:fancy for archaic words and phrases, his See also:habit of coining words, and the harsh and rugged style he affected, detract from the See also:literary quality of the work without in any degree enhancing its fidelity.

With See also:

grave defects, but sometimes brilliant merits, the translation holds a See also:mirror to its author. He was, as has been well said, an Elizabethan born out of time; in the days of See also:Drake his very faults might have counted to his See also:credit. Of his other See also:works, Vikram and the See also:Vampire, See also:Hindu Tales (187o), and a See also:history of his favourite See also:arm, The Book of the See also:Sword, vol. i. (1884), unfinished, may be mentioned. His translation of The Lusiads of See also:Camoens (188o) was followed (1881) by a See also:sketch of the poet's life. Burton had a fellow-feeling for the poet adventurer, and his translation is an extraordinarily happy reproduction of its original. A See also:manuscript translation of the " Scented See also:Garden," from the Arabic, was burnt by his widow, acting in what she believed to be the interests of her See also:husband's reputation. Burton married See also:Isabel Arundell in 1861, and owed much to her courage, sympathy and passionate devotion. Her romantic and exaggerated See also:biography of her husband, with all its faults, is one of the most pathetic monuments which the unselfish love of a woman has ever raised to the memory of her See also:hero. Another monument is the Arab See also:tent of See also:stone and See also:marble which she built for his See also:tomb at See also:Mortlake. Besides See also:Lady Burton's Life of Sir Richard F. Burton (2 vols., 1893, 2nd edition, condensed, edited, with a See also:preface. by W.

H. See also:

Wilkins, 1898), there are A Sketch of the Career of R. F. Burton, by A. B. See also:Richards, See also:Andrew See also:Wilson, and St Clair See also:Baddeley (1886); The True Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, by his niece, G. M. Stisted (1896); and a brief sketch by the See also:present writer prefixed to See also:Bohn's edition of the Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Meccah (1898), from which some sentences have here been by permission reproduced. In 1906 appeared the Life of Sir Richard Burton, by See also:Thomas See also:Wright of See also:Olney, in two volumes, an industrious and rather See also:critical work, interesting in particular for the doubts it casts on Burton's originality as an Arabic translator, and emphasizing his indebtedness to See also:Payne's translation (1881) of the Arabian Nights. (S.

End of Article: BURTON, SIR RICHARD FRANCIS (1821-1890)

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