Property from the Estate of
ALAN L. WEINER
BURTON, Sir RICHARD FRANCIS. Autograph letter signed ("Richard F. Burton") to the British assistant political resident at Aden, written from Camp Aden, 21 February 1855. 1 page, folio, written in gray-black ink on laid grayish-blue paper, docketed at upper left corner, slightly browned.
細節
BURTON, Sir RICHARD FRANCIS. Autograph letter signed ("Richard F. Burton") to the British assistant political resident at Aden, written from Camp Aden, 21 February 1855. 1 page, folio, written in gray-black ink on laid grayish-blue paper, docketed at upper left corner, slightly browned.
SPEKE'S TROUBLES IN SOMALILAND
Burton reports on his assistant surveyor's difficulties during a preliminary expedition: "...Lt. [John Hanning] Speke...a member of the Somali Expedition has reported to me in the strongest terms the bad conduct of Mohammed Samattar [sic] his Abban [guide]...Lt. Speke has been plundered, threatened, detained & impeded from entering the country which he was directed to explore. If such conduct be allowed to pass unnoticed, or rather I should say if it be not visited with severe chastizement I apprehend that it will be more prejudical to the future proceedings of the Expedition...I have directed Lt. Speke to call at your office to day & supported by his 2 witnesses...to profer a special complaint."
The guide, Mohammed Sumunter, was fined, imprisoned for two months, and then banished from Aden. Speke's troubles with his native guides were chronic, however, and were mostly due to his ignorance of their languages and his arrogance. "Burton learned later, to his sorrow, that the imprisonment of Sumunter [had] caused intense resentment among the native Somali chiefs. What he could not know was that Speke in the future would always return from a major expedition with charges of cheating and fraud against someone connected with the expedition. Burton himself would be severely burned in this manner"--Fawn M. Brodie, The Devil Drives. A Life of Sir Richard Burton (New York, 1984), p. 117.
Provenance: Unnamed consignor (sale, Sotheby's, 20 July 1981, lot 310) -- Unnamed consignor (sale, Sotheby's New York, 10 December 1993, lot 162).
SPEKE'S TROUBLES IN SOMALILAND
Burton reports on his assistant surveyor's difficulties during a preliminary expedition: "...Lt. [John Hanning] Speke...a member of the Somali Expedition has reported to me in the strongest terms the bad conduct of Mohammed Samattar [sic] his Abban [guide]...Lt. Speke has been plundered, threatened, detained & impeded from entering the country which he was directed to explore. If such conduct be allowed to pass unnoticed, or rather I should say if it be not visited with severe chastizement I apprehend that it will be more prejudical to the future proceedings of the Expedition...I have directed Lt. Speke to call at your office to day & supported by his 2 witnesses...to profer a special complaint."
The guide, Mohammed Sumunter, was fined, imprisoned for two months, and then banished from Aden. Speke's troubles with his native guides were chronic, however, and were mostly due to his ignorance of their languages and his arrogance. "Burton learned later, to his sorrow, that the imprisonment of Sumunter [had] caused intense resentment among the native Somali chiefs. What he could not know was that Speke in the future would always return from a major expedition with charges of cheating and fraud against someone connected with the expedition. Burton himself would be severely burned in this manner"--Fawn M. Brodie, The Devil Drives. A Life of Sir Richard Burton (New York, 1984), p. 117.
Provenance: Unnamed consignor (sale, Sotheby's, 20 July 1981, lot 310) -- Unnamed consignor (sale, Sotheby's New York, 10 December 1993, lot 162).