Sir Richard Francis Burton was born in 1821 in the UK and studied Arabic at Oxford University. He joined the British Indian Army where he mastered many more languages. He has been described variously as “brilliant and eccentric” but also as “one of those men who could never do wrong”. His major claim to fame lay in the controversy surrounding his involvement with the quest for the source of the Nile and also translating the 16 volumes of “The Tales of the Arabian Nights” and the Kama Sutra.

He was an explorer, an excellent linguist – said to speak over 29 languages, a writer, soldier and an excellent swordsman. He also loved travelling in disguise and in 1853 he entered the forbidden cities of Medina and Mecca, disguised as an Arab pilgrim. No account of Burton would be complete without a quick discussion of John Hanning Speke. In contrast to Burton, Speke was not very good at languages, and by all accounts, not terribly bright. Speke’s great passion was big game hunting and this was one of his motivating reasons for joining an expedition to seek the source of the Nile and also open up hitherto unexplored parts of Africa.

In 1856 the British Royal Geographical Society invited Burton to lead an expedition in search of the source of the Nile. Speke was part of the expedition. The two found Lake Tanganyika but both were too ill to explore the lake. Burton’s legs were paralysed through malaria and Speke was almost blind as a result of a beetle getting into his ear. They both returned to Tabora and whilst Burton was recovering, Speke made a trip north to Lake Victoria and guessed that this was the source of the White Nile – an inspired guess that was not confirmed by Livingstone and Stanley many years later. This started the disagreement between Burton and Speke. Burton was too ill to travel back to England, so Speke arrived back in London first. When Burton returned, he discovered that Speke had taken most of the credit for the discovery of Lake Tanganyika and that Speke had upstaged him.

Burton and Speke remained bitter public rivals. Mysteriously, Speke died after meeting with Burton the night before Speke was going to give a public talk about finding the source of the White Nile. About 14 years later, Burton was appointed British Consul to Trieste where he wrote around 43 books and translated many other texts. Queen Victoria knighted Burton in February 1886 and he died on Oct. 20, 1890, in Trieste.

Meeting news from our branches around the world.

True to her word, Christina in Texas held a slide show on a weird and wacky take on Americana over the ages at the New Braunfels Public Library. Thanks to Jon and Beth for sharing their great slides and stories. A magnificent 12 people attended and to start the theme, Christina organized a door prize of a “classic” US Travel Atlas. Trish has loved Globetrotters for 9 years, and won, so congratulations to Trish! The show was thoroughly enjoyed by all – and all that was missing was the popcorn!

Susan and Christina met at the first Globetrotters TX Branch meeting in July 2001. They have become good friends and will be travelling together to the Grand Canyon in November. Christina visits a National Park every year and Susan is ready to start the same tradition. They are doing budget travel together – exploring their options and having a trip to talk about. They’ll report on their trip at the December meeting.

The next Globetrotter meeting will be held at the New Braunfels Public Library, 700 E. Common Street in New Braunfels, Texas. From 3 – 5 p.m. on Saturday, November 10th, 2001.

Christina’s advice is to come early so you won’t be late! The Beetle’s is – come early and eat all the cookies! Handouts and refreshments will be available. Anybody want to help Christina or enquire about meetings, please contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk