Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890)

The party arrived at Gwato, the port at the head of Gwato creek nineteen miles downriver from Benin, on 17 August. The site of Belzoni's grave at Gwato was a worthy place of pilgrimage for Burton. His attempts to track down Belzoni's lost books and papers, which were thought to have been given to one of the King of Benin's traders, came to nothing. Giovanni Battista Belzoni, the Italian Egyptologist who first excavated in the Valley of Kings, had left Europe for Timbuktu in 1823. He contracted dysentery at Benin and died soon after at the end of 1823 in Gwato. An article by Burton concerning Belzoni was published in the Cornhill Magazine in July, 1880

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Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890)

Belzoni's Grave, Augt 1862

inscribed as title, inscribed 'Ogea tall and yellow died about/1850 - Governor' and further inscribed with notes on Gwato and Belzoni which continue on the reverse, pencil, pen and brown ink on blue paper
6¼ x 8 1/8in. (15.8 x 20.5cm.)

Lot Essay

'Ogea' refers to the Chief at Gwato at the time of Belzoni's visit. 'After a delicious bath in a clear spring of fresh water ... we repaired to the lion of the place, Belzoni's grave ... The grave was pointed out to us near the present Governor's house, to the south-east of the town, under a fine spreading tree, which bears a poison apple, and whose bough droops almost to the ground. A little plantation of koko clothes the sides of the mound from which the tree springs, and a few cottages stand between it and the bush. It is a pretty and romantic spot, but there is no sign of a tomb; we gathered, however, some flowers from it, and sent them home.' (My Wanderings in West Africa, pp. 279-80)

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