Publisher's Synopsis
Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS (1821-1890) was a British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer, and diplomat. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa and America, as well as for his extraordinary knowledge of languages (purportedly he spoke 29 European, Asian and African languages) and cultures. His best known achievements include: a well-documented journey to Mecca in disguise at a time when Europeans were forbidden access on pain of death; an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (commonly called The Arabian Nights); the publication of the Kama Sutra in English; a translation of The Perfumed Garden (the Arab Kama Sutra); and his journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. In his Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, first published in two volumes in 1876, Burton describes two expeditions undertaken during his consulship in Equatorial Guinea in the 1860s. Volume I records his arrival at the Gaboon River, and includes geographical details, information on local tribes, a chapter on gorillas, and reports of journeys to Sanga Tanga and up the Gaboon River to its source. Volume II records his journey to Loango Bay and up the Congo River to the Yellala Falls and beyond.
