BURTON, Sir RICHARD FRANCIS (1821-90).
A British traveler and author, born in Hert fordshire, England, March 19, 1821. in 1842 he entered the Indian Army, and served many years in Sindh. In 1851 he published his first important work—Sind, and the Races that In habit the Valley of the bolus. full of graphic descripr . and interesting to all readers. Bur ton acquired a very familiar acquaintance with Hindustani. Persian. and INTnItani, and learned to speak Arabic like a native. Thus equipped, he resolved to explore Arabia in the disguise of an Afghan pilgrim. Political commotions prevented him from traversing the whole coun try, as he intended; but his Personal Narratire of a Pilyrimage to El Mcdinah and Meccah, (1855) records an extraordinarily daring feat. His next journey was into the country of the Somalis, in Eastern Africa. His companion, Lieutenant Stroyan, was killed and he himself was wounded. He succeeded, however, in reaching Harrar. a town not before visited by any Euro pean, and in penetrating a vast and populous region scarcely known to geographers. Toward the end of 1856 he set out, in company with Lieutenant Speke, also of the Indian Army, to ascertain the truth of the reports collected by the missionaries that a vast lake existed in the heart of Africa. The journey led to the discov ery in 1858 of the great lake of Tanganyika (followed by the discovery of the Victoria Nyanza by Slick()) and the opening up of the eastern part of the continent. In 1861 Burton was appointed consul at Fernando Po, off the west coast of Africa, and while holding this appointment be visited the Kamerun Mountains, and went on a mission to the King of Dahomey, the incidents of both journeys being recorded in two of his most interesting works. lie was subsequently consul at Santos in Brazil and at Damasens, and on the death of Charles Lever, in 1872, he succeeded to the post of British consul at Triest.
He died October 20, 1890. Among his many works are the following: Sind: or, the Un happy Valley (1851); Goa and the Blue Moun tains (1851); Falconry in the Valley of the Indus (1852); First Footsteps in East Africa (1856) ; The Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa (1860); The City of the Saints (1561); Aheo kuta: or, the Cameroon Mountains (1863): The Nile Basin (1864): A Mission to Gclele, King of Dahomey (1864) ; Explorations in the Highlands of Brazil (1869) ; Vikrani and the Vampire (1870) ; Zanzibar (1872) ; Gorilla Land (1875) ; Uit-int Thaie; or, a. Summer in Iceland (1875) ; Etruscan Bologna (1876); Sind I?crisited (1877); The Gold Mines of Indian and the Ruined Midianite Cities (1878). In 1885-88 he published, with a remarkable in troduction and valuable notes, a literal transla tion of the Arabian Nights under the title of The Thousand Nights and a Night (10 vols., and 6 vols. of supplement), of which his wife issued an expurgated edition in 6 vols. (1887). In 1894 appeared the Library edition, 12 vols., an abridgment of the original publication. He left a manuscript. to his widow, Lady Isabel Burton, consisting of a translation, with origi nal notes, from the Arabic of The Scented gar den, which she destroyed as a moral act, though it was deemed of great importance by scholars, and had been valued at $30,000. A literal trans lation of the Pellitilfle•OlIC by Burton was pub lished posthumously (1893). To Burton we are also indebted for the best English translation of the Lusiads and the lyrics of Camoens (1881 84). For his life, consult: llitehman (London, 1SS7) • Lady Burton (New York, 1393) ; and Stisted (New York, 1897) ; also Lady Burton and W. IT. Wilkins, The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton (New York, 1897).