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Richard Francis Burton

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geographers and explorers

   Richard Burton, portrait by Frederic Leighton, National Portrait
   Gallery, London.
   Richard Burton, portrait by Frederic Leighton, National Portrait
   Gallery, London.

   Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, KCMG, FRGS, ( March 19, 1821 –
   October 20, 1890) was an English explorer, translator, writer, soldier,
   orientalist, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and
   diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia and
   Africa as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and
   cultures. According to one count, he spoke twenty-nine European, Asian,
   and African languages.

   Burton's best-known achievements include travelling in disguise to
   Mecca, making an un-bowdlerised translation of The Book of the Thousand
   Nights and a Night (the collection is more commonly called The Arabian
   Nights in English because of Andrew Lang's abridgement) and the Kama
   Sutra and journeying with John Hanning Speke to discover the Great
   Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. He was a prolific
   author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects
   including travel, fencing and ethnography.

   He was a captain in the army of the East India Company serving in India
   (and later, briefly, in the Crimean War). Following this he was engaged
   by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa
   and led an expedition which discovered Lake Tanganyika. In later life
   he served as British consul in Fernando Po, Damascus and, finally,
   Trieste. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was
   awarded a knighthood ( KCMG) in 1886. Burton was considered a
   controversial figure in his day and, while some considered him a hero,
   others considered him a scoundrel.

Early life and education (1821 – 1841)

   Burton was born in Torquay, Devon at 9:30 p.m. on 19 March 1821 (in his
   autobiography, he erroneously claimed to have been born in the family
   home at Barham House in Hertfordshire). His father, Captain Joseph
   Netterville Burton, was a British army officer of Irish extraction; his
   mother, Martha Baker, was an heiress of a wealthy Hertfordshire squire.
   He had two siblings, Maria Katherine Elizabeth Burton and Edward Joseph
   Burton.

   Burton's family travelled considerably during his childhood. In 1825,
   his family moved to Tours, France; over the next few years, they
   traveled between England, France and Italy. Burton's early education
   was provided by various tutors employed by his parents. He showed an
   early gift for languages and quickly learned French, Italian and Latin.
   During his youth, he was rumored to have carried on an affair with a
   young Romani (Gypsy) woman, even learning the rudiments of her
   language. This may explain why he was able later in life to learn Hindi
   and other Indic languages almost preternaturally quickly, as Romani is
   related to this language family. The peregrinations of his youth may
   have encouraged Burton to regard himself as an outsider for much of his
   life. As he put it, "Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but
   self expect applause..."

   Burton entered Trinity College, Oxford in the autumn of 1840. Despite
   his intelligence and ability, he rapidly fell out with his teachers and
   peers. During his first term, he is said to have challenged another
   student to a duel after the latter mocked Burton's moustache. Burton
   continued to gratify his love of languages by studying Arabic; he also
   spent his time learning falconry and fencing. In 1842, he attended a
   steeplechase in deliberate violation of college rules and subsequently
   dared to tell the college authorities that students should be allowed
   to attend such events. Hoping to be merely " rusticated" - that is,
   suspended with the possibility of reinstatement - like some less
   provocative students who had visited the steeplechase, he was
   permanently expelled from Trinity College. In a final jab at the
   environment he had come to despise, Burton reportedly trampled the
   College's flower beds with his horse and carriage while departing
   Oxford.

Army career (1842 – 1853)

   In his own words "fit for nothing but to be shot at for six pence a
   day", Burton enlisted in the army of the East India Company. He hoped
   to fight in the first Afghan war but the conflict was over before he
   arrived in India. He was posted to the 18th Bombay Native Infantry
   based in Gujarat and under the command of General Sir Charles James
   Napier. While in India he became a proficient speaker of Hindustani,
   Gujarati and Marathi as well as Persian and Arabic. His studies of
   Hindu culture had progressed to such an extent that "my Hindu teacher
   officially allowed me to wear the Janeu ( Brahmanical Thread)" although
   the truth of this has been questioned since it would usually have
   required long study, fasting and a partial shaving of the head.
   Burton's interest (and active participation) in the cultures and
   religions of India was considered peculiar by some of his fellow
   soldiers who accused him of "going native" and called him "the White
   Nigger". Burton had many peculiar habits that set him apart from other
   soldiers. While in the army, he kept a large menagerie of tame monkeys
   in the hopes of learning their language. He also earned the name
   "Ruffian Dick" for his "demonic ferocity as a fighter and because he
   had fought in single combat more enemies than perhaps any other man of
   his time."

   He was appointed to the Sindh survey, where he learned to use the
   measuring equipment that would later be useful in his career as an
   explorer. At this time he began to travel in disguise. He adopted the
   alias of Mirza Abdullah and often fooled local people and fellow
   officers into failing to recognise him. It was at this point that he
   began to work as an agent for Napier and, although details of exactly
   what this work entailed are not known, it is known that he participated
   in an undercover investigation of a brothel said to be frequented by
   English soldiers where the prostitutes were young boys. His life-long
   interest in sexual practices led him to produce a detailed report which
   was later to cause trouble for Burton when subsequent readers of the
   report (which Burton had been assured would be kept secret) came to
   believe that Burton had, himself, participated in some of the practices
   described within his writing.

   In March 1849 he returned to Europe on sick leave. In 1850 he wrote his
   first book Goa and the Blue Mountains a guide to the Goa region. He
   travelled to Boulogne to visit the fencing school there and it was
   there where he first encountered his future wife Isabel Arundell, a
   young Catholic woman from a good family.

First explorations and journey to Mecca (1851 – 1853)

   Burton in Arabic dress.
   Enlarge
   Burton in Arabic dress.

   Motivated by his love of adventure, Burton got the approval of the
   Royal Geographical Society for an exploration of the area and he gained
   permission from the Board of Directors of the British East India
   Company to take leave from the army. His time in the Sindh prepared him
   well for his Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca and, in this case, Medina) and
   his seven years in India gave Burton a familiarity with the customs and
   behaviour of Muslims. It was this journey, undertaken in 1853 which
   first made Burton famous. He had planned it whilst travelling disguised
   among the Muslims of Sindh, and had laboriously prepared for the ordeal
   by study and practice (including being circumcised to further lower the
   risk of being discovered).

   Although Burton was not the first non-Muslim European to make the Hajj
   (that honour belonging to Ludovico di Barthema in 1503), his pilgrimage
   is the most famous and the best documented of the time. He adopted
   various disguises including that of a Pathan (modern Pashtun) to
   account for any oddities in speech, but he still had to demonstrate an
   understanding of intricate Islamic ritual, and a familiarity with the
   minutiae of Eastern manners and etiquette. Burton's trek to Mecca was
   quite dangerous and his caravan was attacked by bandits (a common
   experience at the time). As he put it, although "...neither Koran or
   Sultan enjoin the death of Jew or Christian intruding within the
   columns that note the sanctuary limits, nothing could save a European
   detected by the populace, or one who after pilgrimage declared himself
   an unbeliever.". The pilgrimage entitled him to the title of Hajji and
   to wear a green turban. Burton's own account of his journey is given in
   The Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Meccah (1855).

Early explorations (1854 – 1855)

   In March 1854 he was transferred to the political department of the
   East India Company. His exact work at this time is uncertain although
   it seems likely he was acting as a spy for General Napier. It was in
   September of this year that he first met Captain (then Lieutenant) John
   Hanning Speke who would accompany him on his most famous exploration.
   His next journey was to explore the interior of the Somali Country
   (modern Somalia), as British authorities wanted to protect the Red Sea
   trade. Burton undertook the first part of the trip alone. He made an
   expedition to Harar, the Somali capital, which no European had entered
   (indeed there was a prophecy that the city would decline if a Christian
   was admitted inside). The expedition lasted four months. Burton not
   only travelled to Harar but also was introduced to the Emir and stayed
   in the city for ten days. The journey back was plagued by lack of
   supplies and Burton wrote that he would have died of thirst had he not
   seen desert birds and realised they would be near water.

   Following this adventure he set out again accompanied by Lieutenant
   Speke, Lieutenant G. E. Herne and Lieutenant William Stroyan and a
   number of Africans employed as bearers. However, early on in the
   expedition, his party was attacked by a group of Somali tribesmen (the
   officers estimated the number of attackers as two hundred). In the
   ensuing fight, Stroyan was killed and Speke was captured and wounded in
   eleven places before he managed to escape. Burton was impaled with a
   javelin, the point entering one cheek and exiting the other. This wound
   left a notable scar that can be easily seen on portraits and
   photographs. He was forced to make his escape with the weapon still
   transfixing his head. However, the failure of this expedition was
   viewed harshly by the authorities and a two year investigation was set
   up to determine to what extent Burton was culpable for this disaster.
   While he was largely cleared of any blame this did not help his career.
   He describes the harrowing attack in First Footsteps in East Africa
   (1856).

   In 1855 Burton rejoined the army and travelled to the Crimea hoping to
   see active service in the Crimean War. He served on the staff of
   Beatson's Horse a corps of Bashi-bazouks, local fighters under the
   command of General Beatson, in the Dardanelles. The corps was disbanded
   following a "mutiny" after they refused to obey orders and Burton's
   name was mentioned (to his detriment) in the subsequent inquiry.

Exploring the lakes of central Africa (1856 – 1860)

   Routes taken by the expeditions of Burton and Speke (1857-1858) and
   Speke and Grant (1863).
   Enlarge
   Routes taken by the expeditions of Burton and Speke (1857-1858) and
   Speke and Grant (1863).

   In 1856 the Royal Geographical Society funded another expedition in
   which Burton set off from Zanzibar to explore an "inland sea" which was
   known to exist. His mission was to study local tribes and to find out
   what exports might be possible from the region. It was hoped that the
   expedition might lead to the discovery of the source of the River Nile
   though this was not an explicit aim. Burton had been told that only a
   fool would say his expedition aimed to find the source of the Nile
   because anything short of that would be regarded as a failure.

   Before leaving for Africa, Burton proposed to Isabel Arundell and they
   became secretly engaged. Her family would never accept the marriage
   since Burton was not a Catholic and was not wealthy.

   Speke again accompanied him and on the 27 June 1857 they set out from
   the east coast of Africa heading west in search of the lake or lakes.
   They were helped greatly by their experienced local guide Sidi Mubarak
   (also known as "Bombay") who was familiar with some of the customs and
   languages of the region. From the start the outward journey was beset
   with problems such as recruiting reliable bearers and with equipment
   and supplies being stolen by deserting expedition members. Both men
   were beset by a variety of tropical diseases on the journey. Speke was
   rendered blind for some of the journey and deaf in one ear (due to an
   infection caused by attempts to remove a beetle). Burton was unable to
   walk for some of the journey and had to be carried by the bearers.

   The expedition arrived at Lake Tanganyika in February 1858. Burton was
   awestruck by the sight of the magnificent lake, but Speke, who had been
   temporarily blinded by a disease, was unable to see the body of water.
   By this point much of their surveying equipment was lost, ruined or
   stolen and they were unable to complete surveys of the area as well as
   they wished. Burton was again taken ill on the return journey and Speke
   continued exploring without him, making a journey to the north and
   eventually locating the great Lake Victoria, or Victoria Nyanza.
   Lacking supplies and proper instruments Speke was unable to survey the
   area properly but was privately convinced that it was the long sought
   source of the Nile. Burton's description of the journey is given in
   Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa (1860). Speke gave his own account in
   The Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (1863).

   Both Burton and Speke were in extremely poor health after the journey
   and returned home separately. As usual Burton kept very detailed notes,
   not just on the geography but also on the languages, customs and even
   sexual habits of the people he encountered. Although it was Burton's
   last great expedition his geographical and cultural notes were to prove
   invaluable for subsequent explorations by Speke and James Augustus
   Grant, Sir Samuel Baker, David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley.
   Speke and Grant's (1863) exploration began on the east coast near
   Zanzibar again and went around the west side of Lake Victoria to Lake
   Albert and finally returning in triumph via the Nile River. However,
   crucially, they had lost track of the river's course between Lake
   Victoria and Albert. This left Burton, and others, unsatisfied that the
   source of the Nile was conclusively proven.

Burton and Speke

   Lake Tanganyika photographed from orbit. Burton was the first European
   to see the lake.
   Enlarge
   Lake Tanganyika photographed from orbit. Burton was the first European
   to see the lake.

   Burton and Speke's exploration to Tanganyika and Victoria was,
   arguably, his most celebrated exploration but what followed was a
   bitter and prolonged public quarrel between the two men which damaged
   Burton's reputation severely. From surviving letters it seems that
   Speke already distrusted and disliked Burton before the start of their
   second expedition. There are several reasons why they fell out. It
   seems obvious that the two men were very different in character with
   Speke being more in tune with the prevailing morality of Victorian
   England. There was obviously a great element of professional rivalry.
   Some biographers have suggested that friends of Speke (particularly
   Laurence Oliphant) stirred up trouble between the two. It also seems
   that Speke resented Burton's position as expedition leader and claimed
   that this leadership was nominal only and that Burton was an invalid
   for most of the second expedition. There were problems with debts run
   up by the expedition that were left unpaid when they left Africa. Speke
   claimed that Burton had sole responsibility for these debts. Finally,
   there was the issue of the source of the Nile, perhaps the greatest
   prize of its day to explorers. It is now known that Lake Victoria is a
   source, but at the time the issue was controversial. Speke's expedition
   there was undertaken without Burton (who was incapacitated by several
   illnesses at the time) and his survey of the area was, by necessity,
   rudimentary, leaving the issue unresolved. Burton (and indeed many
   eminent explorers such as Livingstone) were very sceptical that the
   lake was the genuine source.

   After the expedition, the two men travelled home to England separately
   with Speke arriving in London first. Despite an agreement between them
   that they would give their first public speech together, Speke gave a
   lecture at the Royal Geographical Society in which he made the claim
   that his discovery, Lake Victoria, was the source of the Nile. When
   Burton arrived in London he found Speke being lionised as a hero and
   felt his own role had been reduced to that of sickly companion.
   Furthermore, Speke was organising other expeditions to the region and
   clearly had no plans to include Burton.

   In the subsequent months, Speke did much to attempt to harm Burton's
   reputation even going so far as to claim that Burton had tried to
   poison him during the expedition. Meanwhile Burton spoke out against
   Speke's claim to have discovered the source of the Nile, saying that
   the evidence was inconclusive and the measurements made by Speke were
   inaccurate. It is notable that in Speke's expedition with Grant he made
   Grant sign a statement saying, amongst other things, "I renounce all my
   rights to publishing... my own account [of the expedition] until
   approved of by Captain Speke or the R. G. S. (Royal Geographical
   Society)".

   Speke and Grant undertook a second expedition to prove that Lake
   Victoria was the true source of the Nile but again problems with
   surveying and measurement meant not everybody was satisfied the issue
   had been resolved. On 16 September 1864 Burton and Speke were due to
   debate the issue of the source of the Nile in front of the British
   Association for the Advancement of Science at that body's annual
   meeting in Bath. Burton was regarded as the superior public speaker and
   scholar and was likely to get the better of such a debate. However, the
   previous day Speke died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound while
   hunting on a relative's nearby estate. There were no direct witnesses
   to the shooting and it has been widely speculated that he might have
   committed suicide, however, the coroner declared it to be a hunting
   accident. Burton was at the debate hall in Bath waiting to give his
   presentation when the news of Speke's death arrived and, considerably
   shaken, he elected not to give his planned talk.

Diplomatic service and scholarship (1861 – 1890)

   Richard and Isabel Burton's tomb at Mortlake, Surrey.
   Richard and Isabel Burton's tomb at Mortlake, Surrey.
   Close up of inscription on the tomb.
   Close up of inscription on the tomb.

   In January 1861 Richard and Isabel married in a quiet Catholic ceremony
   although he did not adopt the Catholic faith at this time. Shortly
   after this, the couple were forced to spend some time apart when he
   formally entered the Foreign Service as consul at Fernando Po, the
   modern island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea. This was not a prestigious
   appointment and since the climate was considered extremely unhealthy
   for Europeans, Isabel could not accompany him. Burton spent much of
   this time exploring the coast of West Africa. The couple were reunited
   in 1865 when Burton was transferred to Santos in Brazil.

   In 1869 he was made consul in Damascus, an ideal post for someone with
   Burton's knowledge of the region and customs. However, Burton made many
   enemies in his time there. He managed to turn many of the Jewish
   population of the area against him in a dispute over money lending. It
   had been the practice for the British consulate to take action against
   those who defaulted on loans but Burton saw no reason to continue this
   practice and this caused a great deal of hostility. He and Isabel
   greatly enjoyed their time there and befriended Lady Jane Digby, the
   well-known adventurer, and Abd al-Kader al-Jazairi, a prominent leader
   of the Algerian revolution then living in exile.

   However, the area was in some turmoil at the time with considerable
   tensions between the Christian, Jewish and Muslim populations. Burton
   did his best to keep the peace and resolve the situation but this
   sometimes led him into trouble. On one occasion, he claims to have
   escaped an attack by hundreds of armed horsemen and camel riders sent
   by Mohammed Rashid Pasha, the Governor of Syria. He wrote "I have never
   been so flattered in my life than to think it would take three hundred
   men to kill me.".

   In addition to these incidents, there were a number of people who
   disliked Burton and wished him removed from such a sensitive position.
   Eventually, to resolve the situation, Burton was transferred to Trieste
   (then part of Austria-Hungary) in 1871. Burton was never particularly
   content with this post but it required little work and allowed him the
   freedom to write and travel.

   In 1863 Burton co-founded the Anthropological Society of London with
   Dr. James Hunt. In Burton's own words, the main aim of the society
   (through the publication of the periodical Anthropologia) was "to
   supply travellers with an organ that would rescue their observations
   from the outer darkness of manuscript and print their curious
   information on social and sexual matters". On February 5, 1886 he was
   awarded a knighthood ( KCMG) by Queen Victoria.

   He wrote a number of travel books in this period although these were
   not particularly well received. His best-known contributions to
   literature were those considered risqué or even pornographic at the
   time and which were published under the auspices of the Kama Shastra
   society. These books include The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (1883)
   (popularly known as the Kama Sutra), The Book of the Thousand Nights
   and a Night (1885) (popularly known as The Arabian Nights), The
   Perfumed Garden of the Shaykh Nefzawi (1886) and The Supplemental
   Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night (six volumes 1886– 1898).

   Published in this period, but composed on his return journey from
   Mecca, The Kasidah has been cited as evidence of Burton's status as a
   Sufi. The poem (and Burton's notes and commentary on it) contain layers
   of Sufic meaning, and seem to have been designed to project Sufi
   teaching in the West.

   Other works of note include a collection of Hindu tales, Vikram and the
   Vampire (1870); and his uncompleted history of swordsmanship, The Book
   of the Sword (1884). He also translated The Lusiads, the Portuguese
   national epic by Luís de Camões, in 1880 and wrote a sympathetic
   biography of the poet and adventurer the next year. The book The Jew,
   the Gipsy and el Islam was published posthumously in 1898 and was
   controversial since it contained an essay about Jewish human sacrifices
   (Burton's investigations into this had provoked hostility from the
   Jewish population in Damascus).

   Burton died in Trieste early on the morning of 20 October 1890 of a
   heart attack. His wife Isabel convinced a priest to perform the last
   rites, although Burton was not a Catholic and this action later caused
   a rift between Isabel and some of Burton's friends. It has been
   suggested that the death occurred very late on 19 October and that
   Burton was already dead by the time the last rites were administered.

   Isabel never recovered from the loss. After his death she burned many
   of her husband's papers, including extensive journals and a planned new
   translation of The Perfumed Garden to be called The Scented Garden. Her
   actions have been widely condemned, although she believed she was
   acting to protect the reputation of her husband (in fact she claimed
   that she was instructed to burn the manuscript of The Scented Garden by
   his spirit).

   Isabel wrote a biography in praise of her husband. The couple are
   buried in a remarkable tomb in the shape of a Bedouin tent at Mortlake
   in southwest London.

The Kama Shastra Society

   Burton had long had an interest in sexuality and erotic literature.
   However, the Obscene Publications Act of 1857 had resulted in many jail
   sentences for publishers with prosecutions being brought by the Society
   for the Suppression of Vice (Burton referred to the society and those
   who shared its views as Mrs Grundy). A way around this was the private
   circulation of books amongst the members of a society. For this reason
   Burton, together with Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot created the Kama
   Shastra Society to print and circulate books that would be illegal to
   publish in public.

   One of the most celebrated of all his books is his translation of the
   The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (more commonly known in
   English as The Arabian Nights because of Andrew Lang's abridged
   collection) in ten volumes, (1885) with six further volumes being added
   later. The volumes were printed by the Kama Shashtra Society in a
   subscribers-only edition of one thousand with a guarantee that there
   would never be a larger printing of the books in this form. The stories
   collected were often sexual in content and were considered pornography
   at the time of publication. In particular, the Terminal Essay of the
   Nights was one of the first English language texts to dare address the
   practice of pederasty which he postulated was prevalent in an area of
   the southern latitudes named by him the "Sotadic zone." Rumors about
   Burton’s own sexuality were already circulating and were further
   incited by this work.

   Perhaps Burton's best-known book is his translation of The Kama Sutra.
   In fact, it is not really true that he was the translator since the
   original manuscript was in ancient Sanskrit which he could not read.
   However, he collaborated with Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot on the work
   and provided translations from other manuscripts of later translations.
   The Kama Shashtra Society first printed the book in 1883 and numerous
   editions of the Burton translation are in print to this day.

   His English translation from a French edition of the Arabic erotic
   guide The Perfumed Garden was printed as The Perfumed Garden of the
   Cheikh Nefzaoui: A Manual of Arabian Erotology (1886). After Richard's
   death Isabel burnt many of his papers including a manuscript of a
   subsequent translation, The Scented Garden, containing the final
   chapter of the work, on pederasty. It is interesting to note that
   Burton all along intended for this translation to be published after
   his death, to provide a competence for his widow, and also, as a final
   gesture of defiance against Victorian society.

"Ruffian Dick" – scandals in the life of Richard Burton

   Burton pictured later in life.
   Enlarge
   Burton pictured later in life.

   Richard Burton was always a controversial character and there were
   those in Victorian society who would leave a room rather than associate
   with him. In his army career he was sometimes known as "Ruffian Dick"
   and this lack of respect for authority and convention made him many
   enemies and gave him a reputation in some parts as a rogue. There were
   a number of rumours about him that meant that he would not necessarily
   be welcomed in a respectable Victorian household.

   Firstly, in a society where sexual repression was the norm, Burton's
   writing was unusually open and frank about his interest in sex and
   sexuality. His travel writing is often full of details about the sexual
   lives of the inhabitants of areas he travelled through and many of
   these details would have been shocking to the average Victorian.
   Burton's interest in sexuality led him to make measurements of the
   penis lengths of the inhabitants of various regions which he includes
   in his travel books. He also describes sexual techniques common in the
   regions he visited, often hinting that he had participated, hence
   breaking both sexual and racial taboos of his day. Naturally, many
   people at the time considered the Kama Shastra Society and the books it
   published scandalous.

   Allegations of homosexuality dogged Burton throughout most of his life,
   a particularly serious accusation as it was a criminal offence in
   Victorian England. Biographers disagree on whether or not Burton ever
   experienced homosexual sex (he never directly admits to it in his
   writing). These allegations began in his army days when General Sir
   Charles James Napier requested that Burton go undercover to investigate
   a male brothel reputed to be frequented by British soldiers. It has
   been suggested that Burton's detailed report on the workings of the
   brothel may have led some to believe he had been a customer. His later
   writings on the subject of pederasty and the fact that he and Isabel
   remained childless gave further ground for speculation.

   Burton was a heavy drinker at various times in his life and also
   admitted to taking both hemp and opium. Friends of the poet Algernon
   Swinburne blamed Burton for leading him astray, holding Burton
   responsible for Swinburne's alcoholism and interest in the works of the
   Marquis de Sade.

   Burton was also accused of having murdered a man on his trip to Mecca.
   The story was that on the journey he had accidentally revealed himself
   as a European and killed the man (in some versions a boy) to keep his
   secret. While Burton often denied this, he was also given to baiting
   gullible listeners. Famously a doctor once asked him coldly, "How do
   you feel when you have killed a man?" Burton retorted, "Quite jolly,
   what about you?" When asked by a priest about the same incident Burton
   is said to have replied "Sir, I'm proud to say I have committed every
   sin in the Decalogue.".

   These allegations coupled with Burton's often-prickly nature were said
   to have harmed his career and may explain why he was not promoted
   further, either in army life or in the diplomatic service. As an
   obituary described: "...he was ill fitted to run in official harness,
   and he had a Byronic love of shocking people, of telling tales against
   himself that had no foundation in fact." Ouida reported that "Men at
   the FO [Foreign Office]... used to hint dark horrors about Burton, and
   certainly justly or unjustly he was disliked, feared and suspected...
   not for what he had done, but for what he was believed capable of
   doing..." Whatever the truth of the many allegations made against him,
   Burton's interests and outspoken nature ensured that he was always a
   controversial character in his lifetime.

Chronology

   Timeline of Richard Francis Burton's life (1821-1890)

   [USEMAP:45509.png]

Selected writings of Richard Francis Burton

     * Goa and the Blue Mountains (1851)
     * Scinde or the Unhappy Valley (1851)
     * Sindh and the Races That Inhabit the Valley of the Indus (1851)
     * Al-Medina and Meccah (1855)
     * First Footsteps in East Africa (1856)
     * Falconry in the Valley of the Indus (1857)
     * Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa (1860)
     * The City of the Saints, Among the Mormons and Across the Rocky
       Mountains to California (1861)
     * Wanderings in West Africa (1863)
     * Abeokuta and the Cameroons (1863)
     * A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahomé (1864)
     * Wit and Wisdom From West Africa (1865)
     * The Highlands of Brazil (1869)
     * Letters From the Battlefields of Paraguay (1870)
     * Unexplored Syria (1872)
     * Zanzibar (1872)
     * Ultima Thule (1872)
     * Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo (1876)
     * Etruscan Bologna (1876)
     * Sindbar (1877)
     * The Land of Midian (1879)
     * The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi (1880)
     * To the Gold Coast for Gold (1883)
     * The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (with F. F. Arbuthnot 1883)
     * The Book of the Sword (1884)
     * The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (ten volumes 1885)
     * The Perfumed Garden of the Shaykh Nefzawi (1886)
     * The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night (six
       volumes 1886 – 1888)
     * The Gypsy, the Jew and El Islam (1898)
     * The Sentiment of the Sword: A Country-House Dialogue (1911)

Biographies and other books about Burton

   A number of biographies of Burton have been written. The following is a
   list of biographies or books inspired by Burton, concentrating on those
   which are recent or influential.
     * A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard & Isabel Burton by Mary S.
       Lovell (W.W. Norton & Company Inc.: New York 1998).
     * Journey to the Source of the Nile by Christopher Ondaatje
       (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.: Toronto 1998).
     * Sindh Revisited: A Journey in the Footsteps of Captain Sir Richard
       Francis Burton by Christopher Ondaatje (HarperCollins Publishers
       Ltd.: Toronto 1996).
     * Burton: Snow on the Desert by Frank McLynn (John Murray Publishing
       1993).
     * Of No Country: An Anthology of Richard Burton by Frank McLynn
       (Charles Scribner's Sons: New York 1990).
     * Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: The Secret Agent Who Made the
       Pilgrimage to Mecca, Discovered the Kama Sutra, and Brought the
       Arabian Nights to the West by Edward Rice (Charles Scribner's Sons:
       New York 1990).
     * Burton and Speke by William Harrison (St Martins/Marek & W.H. Allen
       1984).
     * The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton by Fawn M. Brodie
       (W.W. Norton & Company Inc.: New York 1967).
     * Burton: A Biography of Sir Richard Francis Burton by Byron Farwell
       (Penguin Books: London 1963).
     * Death Rides a Camel by Allen Edwardes (The Julian Press, Inc.: New
       York 1963).
     * The Life of Sir Richard Burton by Thomas Wright (1905).
     * The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton KCMG, FRGS by Isabel
       Burton (Chapman and Hall 1893).

As a fictional character

   Fiction
     * Philip José Farmer, a science fiction author, featured Burton as
       one of several protagonists in his Riverworld Saga (1966 – 1993).
     * George MacDonald Fraser also featured Burton in his Flashman series
       (1969 – 2005) of historical novels (usually referred to as "that
       rogue Dick Burton").
     * John Dunning includes Burton in his detective fiction The Bookman's
       Promise (Scribner 2004).
     * Ilija Trojanow, Der Weltensammler, a German language novel features
       Richard Burton (Hanser 2006).
     * Robert Doherty's Area 51 novels (1997 – 2004) feature Burton as the
       discoverer of a secret alien race. The books include sections from
       Burton's writings.
     * Wilkie Collins's detective novel The Moonstone (1859) features a
       character, Mr. Murthwaite, apparently based on Burton. He is "the
       celebrated Indian traveller, Mr. Murthwaite, who, at risk of his
       life, had penetrated in disguise where no European had ever set
       foot before" (chapter X).

   Film
     * Mountains of the Moon (1990) (starring Irish actor Patrick Bergin
       as Burton) related the story of the Burton-Speke exploration and
       the subsequent controversy over the source of the Nile. This was
       based on the 1984 novel Burton and Speke by William Harrison.
     * Zero Patience (1993) re-imagines Burton in a contemporary setting
       as a closeted gay man obsessed with researching the Patient Zero
       hypothesis of AIDS transmission.

   Television
     * In The Sentinel (1996-1999) (starring Richard Burgi and Garett
       Maggart) a fictional monograph attributed to Richard Burton ("the
       explorer, not the actor") forms the background of the show's
       mythology.

     * Search for the Nile, 1971 BBC mini-series featured Kenneth Haigh as
       Burton

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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