First Footsteps in East Africa

Front Cover
BiblioBazaar, 2009 - History - 368 pages
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

About the author (2009)

Sir Richard Burton, the explorer, adventurer, translator, and student of Eastern sexual customs, was born in Torquay, England. He received an irregular education, which included an expulsion from Oxford University. In 1842 Burton joined the East India Company and went to India, where he learned the Persian, Hindustani, Afghan, and Arabic languages. Burton was the first European to reach Harar, the religious capital of Somaliland. He was the discoverer of Lake Tanganyika and explored in the Congo, the Cameroons, Dahomey, and Brazil. He was a pioneer ethnologist and anthropologist. Burton was a linguist of dazzling ability, speaking 29 languages and 11 dialects. He wrote 43 books on his travels and 2 volumes of poetry. In addition to translating the Arabian Nights, he translated) 6 volumes of Portuguese literature, 2 volumes of Latin poetry, and 4 volumes of Neapolitan, African, and Hindu folklore. Following a trip to the United States in 1860, Burton published an account of the Mormon settlement in Utah titled City of the Saints (1861). His wife, Isabel Arundel, frequently traveled with him on such journeys. After Burton died in Trieste in 1890, she burned many of his journals, as well as the manuscript of an uncompleted work called The Scented Garden Men's Hearts to Gladden.

Bibliographic information