Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 1890) was an explorer who began his career in the Bombay army in 1842. While in India he developed his linguistic talent, mastering more than forty different languages and dialects. He turned to writing books in the 1850s and over the remaining forty years of his life published dozens of works and more than 100 articles. In this two-volume work, published in 1860, Burton discusses geographical and ethnological matters, while also giving space to the 'picturesque points of view which the subject offers' in recounting his journey to Zanzibar and around the lakes...

Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 1890) was an explorer who began his career in the Bombay army in 1842. While in India he developed his linguistic talent, mastering more than forty different languages and dialects. He turned to writing books in the 1850s and over the remaining forty years of his life published dozens of works and more than 100 articles. In this two-volume work, published in 1860, Burton discusses geographical and ethnological matters, while also giving space to the 'picturesque points of view which the subject offers' in recounting his journey to Zanzibar and around the lakes...

Sir Richard Burton (1821 90) is well known for his colourful career, recorded in numerous books and articles, as a diplomat, explorer and ethnographer. In 1861 he was appointed consul to Fernando Po (now Bioko) in Equatorial Guinea, remaining there for four years until he was transferred to Brazil. These volumes collate the expeditions and ethnographic observations made during his time there. In his preface, Burton writes that the 'plain truth' about the African has not been told in Britain, declaring that English occupation of West Africa has proved 'a remarkable failure'. First published in...

Sir Richard Burton (1821 90) is well known for his colourful career, recorded in numerous books and articles, as a diplomat, explorer and ethnographer. In 1861 he was appointed consul to Fernando Po (now Bioko) in Equatorial Guinea, remaining there for four years until he was transferred to Brazil. These volumes collate the expeditions and ethnographic observations made during his time there. In his preface, Burton writes that the 'plain truth' about the African has not been told in Britain, declaring that English occupation of West Africa has proved 'a remarkable failure'. First published in...

First published in 1883, this travel memoir describes the journey into West Africa undertaken by explorers Richard Burton (1821 90) and Verney Lovett Cameron (1844 94) in 1881. The mission for the two men was to assess the mining potential of the west coast, first observed by Burton in a publication that had appeared twenty years earlier. The first few chapters of Volume 1 cover Burton's journey from Trieste to Lisbon, Madeira and Tenerife and on to Africa during the winter of 1881, including descriptions of Mount Atlas and the Canary Islands. The volume finishes with their arrival in Sierra...

First published in 1883, this travel memoir chronicles the journey into West Africa undertaken by explorers Richard Burton (1821 90) and Verney Lovett Cameron (1844 94) in 1881. The mission for the two men was to assess the mining potential of the west coast, first observed by Burton in a publication that had appeared twenty years earlier. Volume 2 starts with the men in Sierra Leone and describes the journey to Axim, 'the gold port of the past and the future' in Ghana. The subsequent chapters describe various expeditions made out of Axim and the examination of some mines. The journey was cut...

First published in 1872, this two-volume memoir by explorer, ethnographer and diplomat Sir Richard Burton (1821 90) was written while Burton and John Hanning Speke were making preparations for their expedition to solve one of the major geographical mysteries of the nineteenth century the location of the source of the Nile. The pair arrived in Zanzibar in December 1856, and Burton made detailed notes on his surroundings which were developed into Volume 1, which focuses on 'The City and the Island', including Burton's journey preparations and arrival. He discusses the significance of the 'Nile...

First published in 1872, this two-volume memoir by explorer, ethnographer and diplomat Sir Richard Burton (1821 90) was written while Burton and John Hanning Speke were making preparations for their expedition to solve one of the major geographical mysteries of the nineteenth century the location of the source of the Nile. Volume 2 concerns the two journeys to the interior of West Africa, a 'tentative expedition' in early 1857, and the nineteen-month exploration, which began in June 1857, into the East African highlands. Burton was in poor health, and Speke travelled further north without...

The British explorer Sir Richard F. Burton (1821 90) was a colourful and often controversial character. A talented linguist and keen ethnologist, he first gained celebrity for his adventurous 1853 trip to Mecca, conducted under the disguise of a pilgrim. He remains famous for his translation (with the British orientalist Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot) of The Kama Sutra (1883), a daring enterprise in the context of the Victorian society. First published in 1861, this book is an account of Burton's 1860 trip to Salt Lake City. It offers a geographical and ethnological study of Utah that focuses...

The British explorer Sir Richard F. Burton (1821 90) was a colourful and often controversial character. A talented linguist and keen ethnologist, he worked in India during the 1840s as an interpreter and intelligence officer for General Sir Charles Napier, and published several books about his experiences in 1851 2. He first gained celebrity, however, for his adventurous 1853 trip to Mecca, under the disguise of a pilgrim, which is described in this lively three-volume publication (1855 6). Few Europeans had ever visited the Muslim holy places; one of them was John Lewis Burckhardt, whose...