The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-01-11
THE END OF A ROMANTIC AD.
VENTURER.
DEATH 0fHeary Bmgesine, the aHerO
Of ChiRa.'s
A Sketch OF His Lie.
How a North Carolina Boy Became
Mandarin OF she Red Button.
''A strange EsentfaI Hl.tory.,,
Lhs wa.nae'oa 80 -.

Ace-cAoA7 cAc44caf heavily uO4eu
and subjected 70 uncomfortable hard
ships, death by drowning murder, any
means, must have been q welcome re
Iet But what q sad termination TO
the wild and favored dreams Of his boy
hood wherein he loved TO picture hiEa-
self az the Arbiter Of Nations, the Ar
chitect of Empires
The career of Henry Burgevine is
more than romantie, stranger than fic-
ti0n" and deserves q better record than
the meagre and often incorrect para
graphs which have from time 10 time ap-
peared in the columns of European and
American papers. He was born in
Newbern, North Carolina, in the year
1856 His father was 8 Frenchman-
an officer in the grand army Of Napo~
leon. Subsequently he was in the ser
vice of Spain, and came To America in
the capacity Of Surveyor General Of
FlOrids, married an American lady, and
died in lo43, leaving q family, consist
ing Of his widow, two sons and a dsugh-
ter. The eldest son was, if We mistake
not a Brigsdier General in the Confed-
crate service, and is at present a citizen
of Arkansas, where the daughter also
resides, being the wife of Mr.. Thomas
p. Watson, late of Washington city.
, Henry An6ua B~urgevine. the young
est of the family, came to Washington
city with mis- mother and sister IN 1876.
Mrs B having been left in very
Strengthened circumstances, had in view
the prosecution OF certain claims against
the Government growing ont of the
purchase of Florida from Spain. Being
unsuccessful in this, she, through the
aid Of the Hon. Willie P. Mapgum. OBJ
tanned q situation as page in the U. S.
Senate for Henry, and or this pittance,
increased by the products OF teaching q
small school, the widow and her two
children lived for many years in quiet
~obscurity, (on the west side Of 18th
street, near Cd
From his earliest years, Henry dis
played a great love for books, and left
no opportunity unimproved to store his
mind with useful knowledge. At IL
be understood the Greek, Latin and
French languages; was proficient / q
the higher branches of mathematics,
an accomplished draughtsmsn, and
studying civil engineering and naval
architecture. During the interim be-
tween the sessions Of Congress, he was
among the students at the Washington
Seminary, (Catholic,) but he accom-
plished more by night study and a sys
tematic course of reading, having &C
cess 70 the Congress library.
In these days of his early youth the
writer ofthis sketch has often heard
him speak Of his plans for the future,
in such terms As would lead a stranger
to suspect his sanity. Now it was to
build up an Empire in Egypt; to unite
the nations of the Orient TO regenerate
China and found an enlightened ma
ton of 400, 100000 of people; TO found
a new Assyria, with a Nineveh for its
capital. and SO on through a long train
Of schemes, all Of which were sublime,
If not practicable.
In the spring of 1853, Burgeyine,
whose settled purpose it had been TO
seek his fortune in foreign lands, bsde
farewell to mother, sister and friends,
and arrived in New York with q lew
dollers in his pocket NO one knew
exactly where he was going, or Tor
what purpose, and il is likely his own
plans were somewhat d~isarranged by
the fact Of his being without apenny IN
a Few davs. and compelled either TO re
turn To Washington or take passage in
some shin and work his way He did
tba latter. and six months afser wrote
from San Francisco, then from the
Sandwich Islands, next from China,
then from Australia, where he worked
- ,ba gold mines for q few weeks
with saecess
a next we hear OF him he had been
avrecked on the coast, forty miles
from bombay" After this he was SIX
months In Calcutta, learning the Hin
dostanee language, and regretting ne
did not understand the Arabic, that ne
might take command OF a small vessel
htrsdiug to Judia, on the Red Sea
Next he was on a British man-ofwar as
sailor. Then for a few months, weary
enouph TO be sure, with his head shay
ed In the hospital at Naples And
next fe,sDora mulaRfuT, leading the hie
ola quiet gentleman in London And
, finally. nfter more than four years oil
wandering, he appears like an appari-
tion 10 his friends at Washington,
bropzed. and bearded ike a pard- Re
manning a few months at the capital,
he removes TO Detroit, Michigan &C
/ cents a position as clerk in the post
! Office. and edits the Nindicatcr, q Dem
! ocratie paper in that city. And here
. itmay be as well to state that IN mat
tiers of literature Burgevine possessed a
most excellent taste. Had he adopted
that as a pursuit his success would have
been certain. he wrote much, and
published enough in prose and verse to
, exhibit his talent in that line. But he
. preferred a life Of action, and was fire.
auently heard 10 say be would rather
make history than write il"
B-ureeyines mannerlof life at Detroit
WAS too tame for him. He groaned
upder the common-plsoes of every day
. life, and longed TO be yet again chasing
the phantoms OF ambstien, which had
already led him so far out Of the beaten
: maths of life As yet he had accom-.
plished nothing. lie must be up and
5 doing If A name were 70 BE- achieved for
himself.
In 1859, Henry Burgeyine again LEI;
the shores OF America, alas never q
return. This time has chemes g
more tangible Historyeould give him
potable examples OF men who had risen
2 above their kind as if by magic in the
: great political commissions OF the world
/, Sbipa should be the field Of his glory,
/ for here a gigantic war had ragged FOR
) wears. and here, il anywhere, was the
n place 10 win distinction, power, empire
E 10 China he went and the rest of hi;
= story is the history of China for the las
; five wears Whether Burgevine wenI
with Ward from this country, or met
him first in China, the writer csnnoi
/ say. At all events, they were friends
Ward being first in command and Bur
4 revine second. In a great aud success
!, fal battle Ward was Eilled, and Henry
nj B~urrsviue became commAnder-in chic
ir of Al army Of co. 900 disciplined men
'e mostly Europeans and Americans. IL
the eve OF our hero il was the first steI
I to q throne. After setting forth thes,
facts in a letter addressed 10 Thomas
- Young. Esq Of this city, he says; al
ter wears OF patient labor, watching
e, waiting and suffering, my day he's a
= last come - mo Years ] Fhad rae Chs
(, nal
The dream was never realized, tn,
Is lie when was al acIon, All nope, anc
all ambition, has gone oDs IN wretched
p ness almost unparalleled The mother
3, 20 whom in his palmiess days Buzgeyin,
o. transmitted 3 sufficient sum 70 max,
comfortable in her last hours, wa
spared the misery Of OUTLYING him, and
Of knowing how he died She expired
d, peacefully IN this city about n yea
since, and lies in Greenwood Cemetery
It is almost impossible to estimat,
Is the advantages n the world which have
p been lost by BurEevines failure il
Il China Had he achieved All his ambi
& ton hoped for, civilization and The
; highest enlightenment would have fol
lowed him, aud an empire, such as Ma
poleon might have dreamed Of, would
have dazEied the world and the nam,
Of Burgevine, which in 8 few year
will be lost 10 all, save a few that knew
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