Manuscript notes on Richard Henry Major's The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator (1868), including an integral sketch map of lakes Victoria and Albert.

BURTON, Richard Francis.

Edité par London: [c.1869]

A propos de cet article

Working notes in Burton's typically minute hand, made while studying an important biography of Henry the Navigator, including a detailed sketch map in which Burton identifies lakes Albert, Victoria, and Tanganyika. Burton had a particular interest in Portuguese exploration. His first book, Goa and the Blue Mountains (1851), reflected firsthand experience of that declining Portuguese colony, his analysis of their experience focusing on lessons which could be learned by the British in India. Major's book includes "new facts" on "Portuguese knowledge (subsequently lost) of the Nile Lakes". Burton's Lake Regions of Central Africa (1860) was an account of his expedition with John Hanning Speke and their location, in February 1858, of Lake Tanganyika (Speke located Lake Victoria while Burton recuperated at an Arab slaving station). Of particular interest is Burton's sketch map. It is based on that reproduced opposite page 334 of Major's book, a chart of 1578-87 that accompanied the report on the kingdom of Congo by the Portuguese merchant Duarte Lopez (first edited by Filippo Pigafetta and published in Rome in 1591). Burton adds detail, notably the presumed locations of Victoria Nyanza and Albert Nyanza. Major notes that the "positive existence" of lakes Victoria, Albert, and Tanganyika "has only been made known to us in recent years by our noble explorers, Burton and Speke" (p. 334). Burton mentions Henry the Navigator in the preface of To the Gold Coast for Gold (1888), as being among the "leading men" in the exploration of West Africa. In this manuscript he notes that Prince Henry "declared that his object was to 'acquire wealth, knowledge of the world and, if possible, fame'". He also records references to Santiago, Cape Verde (namely, that it was discovered not by Antonio de Nolle but by the Portuguese Diogo Gomes), Sierra Leone, the Cape of Good Hope, Venezuela, China, and Ceylon, mentioning hippopotamus (described by Cadamosto as Horse Fish), the Pillars of Hercules, and other explorers, including Christopher Columbus (who had endured "twelve years hardship and fatigue") and Martin Behaim, the cartographer. Dating these notes precisely is not straightforward: Burton was in South America in 1868, the year of the book's publication and in April was dangerously ill. He arrived back in England on 1 June 1869 and obtained some additional months sick leave before taking up his post as consul in Damascus. He may have studied Major's book at this time. The geographer Richard Henry Major (1818-1891) had a long and distinguished career at the British Museum. He was "the leading figure of his day in Britain in the history of cartography and discoveries … [and] a pioneer in his field" (ODNB). He edited eight volumes of travellers' accounts for the Hakluyt society. Major would have known Burton through the Royal Geographical Society, of which both were fellows, and through the Hakluyt Society: Burton supplied annotations to The Captivity of Hans Stade, published by the society in 1874. 2 bifolia of blind-embossed stationery of the Athenaeum Club (177 x 113 mm), written across 7 pp. in ink. Light vertical median crease, neat old paper repairs at folds. In excellent condition.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Manuscript notes on Richard Henry Major's The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator (1868), including an integral sketch map of lakes Victoria and Albert.
• Éditeur: London: [c.1869]
• Signé: Signé par l'auteur