C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890)
Burton, Sir Richard Francis. An English Orientalist and explorer; born at Trieste, March 19, 1821; died on Oct. 20, 1890. He was an officer of the Indian army, for several years engaged in surveys for public works; in this pursuit he learned the languages, habits, beliefs of many races. Obtaining leave of absence, he went to Mecca and Medina in the guise of a Mohammedan devotee; afterward he made extensive explorations in Africa, Brazil, Syria, Iceland; visited the United States twice and traversed the country from Atlantic to Pacific. Of his books of travel, the following may be particularized; ‘Pilgrimage to El Medinah’; ‘Highlands of Brazil’; ‘Gold Coast’; ‘City of the Saints’; ‘Unexplored Palestine.’ He translated into English from the Arabic: ‘The Thousand Nights and a Night’; and ‘The Scented Garden,’ a collection of stories left in MS. and never published. He wrote, a ‘Life of Camões,’ with translation of the ‘Lusiads.’ (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).