BAKER, Sir SAMUEL WHITE ( 1821-93 ) An English traveler, explorer, and sportsman, born in London. He studied in England and Ger many, and in 1848 established an agricultural colony at Newara Eliya, Ceylon, where he re mained until 1355, and achieved much reputa tion as a hunter of big game. In 1859-60 he superintended the construction of a railway connecting the Danube with the Black Sea. In 1861 he set out from Cairo for the discovery of the source of the Nile. lie first explored the Atbara, Setit, and other Nile tributaries of northern Abyssinia, added somewhat to geo graphical knowledge of the region, and demon strated that to these tributaries the Nile sedi ment is due. Thence he (in 1862) proceeded up the Nile to Gondokoro, where he awaited the arrival of Speke and Grant, who had left Bago •ayo in 1860, and the former of whom had discovered the Victoria Nyanza to be the true Nile source. Informed by Speke of another lake, said to be crossed by the Nile on the river's course to Gondokoro, he continued his journey amid the defiance of the slave-traders and the mutiny of his troops, and on March 14, 1864, discovered the Albert Nyanza. Thus, notwith
standing the inaccuracy of some of his observa tions, subsequently rectified by Stanley, he had finally cleared away the mystery from the Nile problem which, since Eerodotus, had perplexed the world. In 1S69-73, with the rank of pasha and major-general, lie commanded an expedi tion sent out by the Khedive of Egypt for the suppression of the slave traffic, the establish ment of regular trade, and the opening to com merce of the great equatorial lakes. Subse quently he explored and bunted in Cyprus, Syria, India, Japan, and the United States. Ile wrote: The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon. (1553) ; Eight Icars' Wanderings in Ceylon (1855) ; The Albert Nyanza. (1866) ; Cast Up by the Sea (1868) ; Ismailia (2 vols., 1874) Wild Beasts and Their Ways (1S90) ; and other works. Consult the T. D. Murray and A. S. White Memoir (London, 1395).