The Portland daily press., 1893-08-03
SIR RICHARD BURTON.
a Life of Thrilling Adventures in Many
Landslide Famous Journey to Mecca.
How He Learned the Ways of Indian
Kaces.-His Devoted Wife.


Kaces.-His Devoted Wife.
A more devoted wife than Isabel, spous
of Sir Richard Burton, has rarely been
known i'll our period. Determined to be
married to him, in spite of firm opposi-
tion from her family, she had been his
constant companion after marriage for
more than thirty years, going with him
into wild regions, living with him out Of
England for practically the whole OF that
period when she was his faithful house
wife, amanuensis, treasurer, and Jealous
supporter in all his consular difficulties
and am billions. When Burton died, she
leaped into the arena of PUBLIC print IN
defense of his memory, which had been
assailed; she devoted her energies to
bringing his body to England, and to the
erection of striking mausoleum over
it, and now that he sleeps within his
marble tent at Mortlake, she has written
his life and has undertaken to prepare a
collected edition of his voluminous
writings both published and unpub-
lished., says writer in the New York
Times.
Lady Burton was the daughter of a
Catholic house, and remained devoted
believer all her life. Her husband never
accepted the faith, but he was buried by
an italian priest. She declares that he
always maintained that if all Catholics
were like Newamn nearly every thinking
person would join the Roman Church.
On leaving college, Burton was asked
what he intended to do, and replied that
he wished to enter the army. He pre-
ferred the Indian service, because it would
show him the world and give better
chance for active service. 1t was while
serving in India that he accomplished
his first remarkable feat The Province
of Sind had recently been annexed, and he
was employed by Sir Charles Napier to
visit the wild tribes of the hills in order
to collect information about the land and
the people. He did not go out as a COM
missioner, since he knew that in that ca
pacity he could see only what the natives
chose to show him. but " let down cur
tain between himself and civilization,
and, as a tattered, dirty-looking dervish,
would wander on foot, lodge in mosques,
where he was venerated as sanity man,
mix with the strangest company, and join
the Beloch and Brahui tribes, about
whom there was nothing then known"
Burton sometimes appeared in towns
as a merchant just opening new shop;
sometimes he sold stuffs and sWeetmeats
in bazaars, and again he worked IN
native dress taking care of camels. His
hair was allowed to grow down upon his
shoulders, his beard became long, and
his exposed face, arms, and feet were
stained with thin coat of henna, his
chosen name being Nina Abdullah OF
Bushire. He often dwelt In the mud
houses of natives, and once found him
self conversing with a respectable old
matron whose peculiar vanity it was to
lend helping hand in all manner OF
affairs du occur"
Growing tired of living with men, Bur
ton thought he would like to learn the
manners of monkeys, and so while in
Sind made collection of about forty OF
various ages and species. He gave each
a.different name and office, and thus had
a doctor, chaplain, secretary, and agent,
while tiny one, described as - very
pretty, small, silly-looking monkey" he
adorned with pearls in her ears and
called his wife, With this collection Bur
ton lived, his great amusement being to
maintain kind of refectory for them,
where they all sat down on chairs at
meals, each having his bowl and plate,
with food and drink, servants 90 wall
on them, with Burton at the head OF
the table and the small monkey with
pearls in it's ears at his side in baby
high chair. With small whip he kept
them in order when disputes arose, the
subject of which frequently was jealousy
of the favorite monkey at his side.
Lady Burton says her husbands pur-
pose was to study the language OF monk
eys, as Mr. Garner more recently has
done with the help of the monograph.
Burton used to talk regularly to his
monkeys, pronouncing the sounds as they
made them. He and they at last We're
quite able to understand each other. He
obtained some sixty leading words, which
he wrote down and thus formed vocab-
ulary. Lady Burton believes this list
would be of help to Mr.. Garner now, but
it was unfortunately burned. Returning
from:his long sojourn, Burton was able
to give Sir Charles rich budget OF infor-
nation, for he knew all that the natives
knew and had had many odd experiences
He frequently had found himself con-
versing with the colonel of his regiment,
the colonel never suspecting that he was
talking to one of his own men.
Burton first met the lady whom he
married at Boulogne, where she was at
tending school. They passed each other
on the ramparts, and she declares that
he looked at her as though he read her
through and through" and she was
completely magnetized. When he had
gone she turned to her sister and whls-
pered: That man will marry me-"
There was opposition from the young
girls family, but after few years con-
sent was obtained The parents had pro
tested that they did not know who he
was and had never met him anywhere,
to which she had replied that this con-
fession showed them to be illiterate,
which they were not, and that in the
society which they frequented they were
sure never to meet him, for it was out
of his line and always bored him.
Before the marriage, Burton had made
HIS FAMOUS JOURNEY TO MECCA.
He had long felt that he had the
qualifications necessary for the explora-
ton of that dangerous region, here
tofore impossible of access, and
for entering it his career in Sind
had well prepared him. But ne knew
how difficult it would be to sus-
tain his disguise, and SO set about a
course of study in which he imagined
and noted down every contingency that
might arise and prepared to become mas
ter of it. Among other things he did
was to become an apprentice to a black
smith and learn how to shoe horses and
make horseshoes. 1t was of the utmost
Importance that his disguise should be
,LOIr ~. 4