BAKER, Sir SAMUEL WHITE, K.C.B., an African traveler, was b. in 1821. He is the son of Mr. Samuel Baker, of Thorngrove, in Worcestershire. B. was educated as an engineer, and at an early age went to Ceylon. There, led by the love of field-sports into the recesses of the island, he gave evidence of that love of adventure which was to make him ,famous as an explorer. In 1854, he published a work entitled The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon; and in 1855, Eight Years' Wandering in Ceylon. B. afterwards • superintended the construction of the railway which connects the Danube across the Dobrudscha with the Black sea. In 1860, B. married Florence, the daughter of F. von Sass, a young Hungarian lady of great talent and enterprise; and in company with her, he undertook a journey of exploration on the upper Nile. They set out from Cairo in April, 1861; and B. devoted his attention first to the Atbara and Blue Nile, the chief affluents of the Nile, which descend from the highlands of Abyssinia. In June, he arrived at the course of the Atbara, which was-at that season dry, or marked only by a few stag nant pools. On the 23d, when the Abyssinian rainy season had set in, a noise like distant thunder was heard, and in a few seconds' the river-bed had been converted into a torrent 20 ft. deep. Eight days later, it become azreat river, charged with mud, from the hills, which it carried down - to the bile; to 'cause the inundations and mud deposits of Egypt. B. reached Khartoum iu June, 1862, and there lie had an opportu nity of contrasting the Blue' and White Nile. He tonnd the former, like the Atbara, to be a mountain torrent, rising- and 'falling with the 'Abyssinian rains, but always free from deposits of mud. The -White Nile not thus rise fall, and its water,
never pure,• had a disagreeable vegetation, showing tharit proceeded from lakes and marshes. • When B., with quitted Khartonm lb:ascend the White Nile, he had in his pay an escort of 90 large bbalS. After passing through a wonderful region Of ;foreSts and InarSliek, the- travelers readied Gon dokoro, a rendezvous of the traders Of the.. interior: Theyt had only been 'there a night, when they were joined by Speke and Grant, whaliad.penetratedinto those regions . from the south. ,Speke and, Grant told 13. of tlie.Vietoria.N'yanza,..which they had just discovered and explored, and that the natives' had described to them" another great lake, , named Luta Nzige, which they had been unable to visit.. B; resolved to reach this lake; and after a series of adventures, he -and his wife arriied; 'on 'the 14th' Mar., 1864, on. the top of lofty•cliffs, from which they beheld the vast inland' sea, to which B. gave the, name of the Albert N'yauza. In 1869;-an 'expedition forthe 'Suppression of slavery in the interior of•Africa was organized bythe pasha- of 'Egypt; under Bis•command. B. returned in 1873, and reported flip success The resignation of his ? successor, col. Gordon, howeVer, and the deposition of the Khedivel.in 1879, again led to a suspension of government controlin the valley, of the.Nile._ B.. was knighted in 1866. In 1866, liepublished the Albert'N'yariza; in 1871• 1 Tiihutaries of Abyssinia; in 1874, Ismailia, an account- of his expedition of •1869-73;, and in' 1879, Cyprus as I sato it in 1879. •