Richard Francis Burton, An Adventurer in Disguise IN BOMBAY-1842

Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS (19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia and Africa as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian, and African languages.

Burton's best-known achievements include travelling in disguise to Mecca, an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (also commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after Andrew Lang's abridgement), bringing the Kama Sutra to publication in English, and journeying with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans led by Africa's greatest explorer guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, utilizing route information by Indian and Omani merchants who traded in the region, to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. Burton extensively criticized colonial policies (to the detriment of his career) in his works and letters. He was a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel,fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A unique feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and unexpurgated information.

He was a captain in the army of the East India Company serving in India (and later, briefly, in the Crimean War). Following this he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa and led an expedition guided by the locals and was the first European to see Lake Tanganyika. In later life he served as British consul in Fernando Po, Santos, Damascus and, finally,Trieste. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood (KCMG) in 1886.

Richard Burton was fascinated by foreign places, so much so that he risked death to visit Muslim Arabia, where Christian "unbelievers" were banned.

in 1842, when 21-year old Richard Burton arrived in Bombay (Mumbai), he was one of numerous young men, most of whom travelled to what was then the British Raj in India intent on getting rich and then returning home to a life of idle luxury in England.

Exploring the Mysterious East

Burton’s intentions were different. Making a fortune did not interest him. Instead, he wanted to get under the skin of the Oriental world, to learn its languages, observe its customs and probe its many faiths.

In order to do so, Burton would stain his white skin brown with henna, wind a turban round his head, dress in long, loose robes and wander unnoticed through the native bazaars, markets and city back streets absorbing the atmosphere.

During the seven years he spent in India, Burton had more than achieved his aims. He was fluent in five Indian dialects, as well as in Persian and Arabic, and had even learned to think, walk, talk, gesture and even pray like a native of the East.It was this expertise that enabled Burton to remain undetected during the most dangerous expedition a European could undertake in his time.

Arabia, an Arcane World

By the mid-19th century, Arabia had been clandestine territory for hundreds of years, closed to all non-Muslims. Specifically forbidden to infidel “unbelievers” were the two Arabian cities, Mecca and Medina, that were most closely associated with Mohamed, founder of the Islamic religion.

Inevitably, Richard Burton regarded this vast stretch of the unknown an irresistible challenge. On April 3, 1853, a brown-skinned, bearded Afghan - in reality, Burton in his Muslim disguise - hurried on board a steamer bound for Egypt. He soon made friends with the other passengers, identified himself as Mirza Abdullah, and told them that, like them, he was going on a “haj” or pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca.

Encounter with an Englishman

No one doubted that Mirza was telling the truth, particularly after he happened to brush against the arm of a British Indian Army officer while strolling on deck.

The officer turned fiercely on Mirza and in language heavily laced with swear-words cursed him for daring to approach that close to a white man. Mirza backed away, bowing low and apologizing in the servile manner the Englishman - and the onlookers - expected.

Burton was so convincing that no one guessed his true identity on the crowded vessel that took Muslim pilgrims across the Red Sea, nor on the long caravan trail across the Arabian desert.

At the Holiest Muslim Shrine

BURTON IN ARAB DRESS 1853

In September 1853, Burton even managed to penetrate safely into the holiest of all Musllim shrines, the “Kaaba” or sanctuary in Mecca. He prostrated himself in the Muslim manner, intoned the appropriate prayers, then bent down to kiss the Holy Black Stone in the southeast corner of the “Kaaba”.

Once again, Burton’s “performance” remained so flawless that none of the ecstatic pilgrims who hemmed him in on all sides suspected for a moment that an “unbeliever” was in their midst.

By the end of September, Burton was back in Egypt and his most daring adventure was over. When his book on the experience “Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Mecca” was published in 1855, readers were thrilled at the picture he painted of the exotic world of the Muslims.

Burton’s African Adventures

By then, however, Burton had completed yet another exploit: exploring the dangerous deserts of Somalia in northeast Africa. He was so avid for adventure that once an expedition had ended, his only interest lay in the next one.

This was why his life was so full of hectic activity. After Arabia and Somalia, Burton searched for the source of the River Nile and discovered Lake Tanganyika in a three year expedition between 1856 and 1859.

He went on to explore Dahomey, the Gold Coast (Ghana) and Nigeria between 1861 and 1864, served as British consul in Brazil, Syria and Italy, revisited India in 1865-6 and for four years, until, 1880, prospected for gold near the Red Sea.

An Adventurer to the End

By this time, Richard Burton was nearly sixty years old, an advanced age for the time, and an age when most people had settled down to quiet, uneventful lives. Burton never settled down: his wanderlust burned on to the end.

When he died in 1890, he was in Trieste, on the Adriatic Sea in northern Italy and had just returned from a tour of Europe. In addition, he had already planned his next journey, to Greece and Turkey.

Burton's tent tomb, Mortlake, London -

Burton’s wife, Isabel, brought his body back to England and had him buried in the most appropriate tomb this compulsive wanderer could possible have had. It was a marble and copper replica of the tent which wandering nomads used in the deserts of Arabia.

He translated kamasutra into english  IN 1849

THE OTHER BOOKS BY BURTON:-

Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 1 by Burton

 

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1456600http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1456600

Works

Sir Richard Francis Burton,IN BOMBAY 1860

Sir Richard Francis Burton, "Vanity Fair" cartoon, 1885.
After joining the British Foreign Office, Burton was appointed counsel in Fernando Po, Spanish West Africa from 1861-65. There he gathered the material for five books on African customs. Burton married Isabel Arundell (1831-1896) in 1861. She traveled with him and wrote his biography.
Burton served with the British Foreign Service in Damascus from 1869-71 and Trieste in 1872, where he made his family home. He explored the Gold Coast with Captain Cameron, 1881-82.
His skills as a translator are still respected: Burton translated the Kama Sutra in 1883; the Perfumed Garden in 1886. He was knighted in 1886; Burton died in Trieste in 1890.

George Atkinson, "Our Monshee" from "Curry and Rice on Forty Plates," (1859) thought to be a portrait of Sir Richard Francis Burton.




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Sidi Mubarak Bombay

'Sidi Mubarak Bombay', also known as Chuma

Sidi Mubarak Bombay also known as Chuma (1820–1885) was an African guide who participated in numerous expeditions by 19th century British explorers to East Africa.

He was a waYao, born in 1820 on the border of Tanzania and Mozambique and as a young boy was captured by Arab slavers. His captors made him march to the slave market in Kilwa, where he was sold in exchange for some cloth, never again to see his family. Next he was sailed on a dhow to the Gujarat area of India. His owner gave him the slave name of ‘Mubarak’. Bombay lived as a slave in India many years and learned Hindi. He was emancipated after his owner died, and returned to Africa.

In Africa, Bombay met John Hanning Speke,

who asked him to join his expedition to find the source of the Nile River

and Speke communicated with each other in Hindi, as it was the only language both of them understood. Bombay was well-regarded by the British explorers; in the words of Burton, "The gem of the party, however, is one Sidi Mubarak, who has taken to himself the agnomen of 'Bombay.'" Between 1856 and 1876, Bombay participated in expeditions by Speke and other English explorers, including Richard Francis Burton, 

Burton

Henry Morton Stanley

and Verney Lovett Cameron. When Stanley went in search of David Livingstone

when Stanley met Livingstone

 Bombay was appointed chief of the caravan. In 1873 Bombay walked across the continent of Africa from the East coast to the West Coast.

His role in exploration was recognised by the Royal Geographical Society of London, which presented Bombay a silver medal 1876 for his assistance to Speke as they strived to find the source of the Nile River. However, Bombay was never invited to England. He died in Africa at the age of 65.

William Johnson and William Henderson. Bhats, Bombay, ca. 1856.

BOMBAY-The first artificial ice came about 1877.;AND FIRST ICE HOUSE OF BOMBAY (PHOTO-ROUNDED WHITE WASHED STRUCTURE WITH A GLOBULAR TOP) NEXT TO THE COURT HOUSE

Scotch Church, Court-House, and entrance to the Dock-Yard [Bombay].--Photographer: Scott, Charles Medium: Photographic print Date: 1850--THE ICE HOUSE NEXT TO THE CHURCH (DOMED STRUCTURE);WHERE ICE IMPORTED BY SHIP WAS STORED;TILL ICE MAKING WAS DISCOVERED ;NEXT BUILDING IS LAW COURT
Photograph from 'Views in the island of Bombay' by Charles Scott,1850s. This is a view looking north along Apollo Street from the Apollo Gate towards the dockyards entrance on the right. The Scotch Church stands in the left foreground, with Hornby House beyond. The classic Georgian style Saint Andrew's or Scotch Kirk was completed in 1819. Hornby House, which initially began as a residence to the Governor Hornby, served as the Law Court until the late 1870s when it became the Great Western Hotel. Between this building and the church, stands the domed Ice-House, erected by subscription in 1843 for the consignments of ice which were imported regularly and sold to the public. When ice began to be manufactured in Bombay the Ice-House lost its purpose and was used as a godown until it was demolished years later.
A PALKHI WALA (PALANQUIN CARRIER)CAN BE SEEN SITTING NEXT TO THE PALKHI ;NEAR CHURCH STEPS.THE ROAD LEADS TO THE 'APOLLO GATE' OF THE BOMBAY FORT WALL

ICE TOOLS-ICE BARGES

The principal tools are the following:

Scrapers for clearing away the snow; 2 styles.

Ice-plane.

Ice-saw, for opening channels and separating the rafts and sheets from the field; also used by small firms who cut without the aid of a plow.

Grapple, for towing rafts and sheets by horse power along the channels, and also Used for hauling blocks up the inclined plane by horse-power when no endless chain is used.

Jack-grapple, used for the same purposes as the last.

Breaking-off bar, the ice-cutter's handy tool; the broad blade is for detaching large sheets, the small blade for splitting off the smaller blocks.

Calking-bar, for filling the grooves in the ice with snow or chips to prevent the flooding and freezing np of the grooves.

Snow-shovel, for handling sawdust, snow, broken ice, etc.

 ICE HARVESTING FROM PONDS






ICE HARVESTING -1854


 BELOW-AN ICE WAGON









In 1805, an American inventor, Oliver Evans, designed the first refrigeration machine that used vapor instead of liquid.  Evans never constructed his machine, but one similar to it was built by an American physician, John Gorrie.to cool sickrooms in a Florida hospital, designed and built an air-cooling apparatus for treating yellow-fever patients.  His basic principle--that of compressing a gas, cooling it by sending it through radiating coils, and then expanding it to lower the temperature further--is the one most often used in refrigerators today.  Giving up his medical practice to engage in time-consuming experimentation with ice making, he was granted the first U.S. patent for mechanical refrigeration in 1851.

Commercial refrigeration is believed to have been initiated by an American businessperson, Alexander C. Twinning, in 1856.  Shortly afterward, an Australian, James Harrison, examined the refrigerators used by Gorrie and Twinning and introduced vapor-compression refrigeration to the brewing and meatpacking industries.

Ferdinand Carré of France developed a somewhat more complex system in 1859.  Unlike earlier compression-compression machines, which used air as a coolant, Carré's equipment contained rapidly expanding ammonia.  (Ammonia liquefies at a much lower temperature than water and is thus able to absorb more heat.) 

 Carré's refrigerators 

were widely used, and vapor compression refrigeration became, and still is, the most widely used method of cooling. However, the cost, size, and complexity of refrigeration systems of the time, coupled with the toxicity of their ammonia coolants, prevented the general use of mechanical refrigerators in the home.  Most households used iceboxes that were supplied almost daily with blocks of ice from a local refrigeration plant. 

Skinners Horse at Exercise-1800'S AND BOMBAY

Skinner's Horse... the memory lives on

THE BI-CENTENARY of the famous Skinner's Horse was observed in Delhi recently with a special thanksgiving ceremony at St. James's Church. Among those present was Margaret Skinner, great great grand-daughter-in-law of Col. James Skinner. The service was, of course, conducted by CNI priests but the passage from the Bible assigned for the day was read out by Admiral Sushil Kumar, retired Chief of Naval Staff.

Col. Douglas Gray, now over 90-years-old, who commanded Skinner's Horse from 1935 to 1947, was among the former British officers who had come all the way from England for the regimental reunion. Some also brought their wives along, for it was an emotional occasion. Col. Skinner's estate in Hansi (Haryana) was also the venue of the celebrations as it is not far from Delhi. The church was renovated a few years ago with the old stained glass windows restored to their pristine glory, thanks to the efforts of an enterprising artist-cum-building restoration expert of the Capital.

Hansi is the place where the slave emperor Balban had been forced to retire because of court intrigues in the 13th Century. But he came back from retirement and ruled for 33 years. Many centuries later Hansi became the retreat of Col. James Skinner, who raised Skinner's Horse (regiment) and built the beautiful Gothic church in Kashmere Gate, Delhi.

The Skinner story is a well-known one. James Skinner, the son of a Scot father and a Rajput mother, was born in 1778 at Kolkata. His father was in the service of the East India Company. When James was 12 years old his mother committed suicide and at the age of 16 he left home and came all the way to meet Benoit de Boigne, the French commander of the forces of Maharaja Scindia. His ancestry, which could be traced to the Skinners who served William the conqueror, was something that greatly impressed de Boigne and he took James under his protection.

The boy did not betray the trust reposed in him and acquitted himself well in many skirmishes. The turning point came at the battle of Uniara where he was wounded and left for dead. For three days he lay among the dead praying that if God spared his life he would never fight again and build a church to perpetuate his vow. A cobbler's wife looking for valuables among the slain found that one of them was still alive and revived the young man.

Skinner honoured the woman as his mother till she lived and later also built the pledged church, but he never quit fighting. He formed an irregular cavalry known as the Yellow Boys, who were a dreaded lot, and virtually made him the most famous mercenary leader in North India. During Lord Lake's campaign in 1803 Skinner was much sought after by the British and eventually Lake succeeded in winning over the allegiance of the soldier of fortune. In 1815, the Marquess of Hastings watched with admiration the skill of the Yellow Boys in action. Still a commission in the British Army was denied to James and his brother Robert, who was the leader of another band of irregulars, because of their mixed parentage.

Undaunted, the Yellow Boys continued to fight under Sikandar Sahib, as James was known, with their war-cry "Himmat-i-Mardan, Madad-e-Khuda" (courage of man and help of God). In 1828 James was finally given the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and his brother that of Major.

But Robert blew out his brains soon after killing his wife and her paramour. James lived on till 1842, smoking the hookah at his country retreat and generally pleased with his accomplishments. Surrounded by his admirers, among who was William Fraser British Agent at the Moghul Court, he gave the impression of a nawab seated amidst Persian carpets at his palatial house in what is now Nicholson Road, leading to Mori Gate.

His descendants are to be found in London, Glasgow and Sydney, besides India. Skinner's eldest son from a Muslim wife and his descendants lived in Meerut. But the Hansi estate is run by the widow of Brig. Michael Skinner, who retired some years ago as Commander of Scindia's Horse, now a mechanised unit of the Indian Army. Margaret Skinner is also a Skinner descendant, who married her kinsman and now divides her time between Delhi, the Hansi retreat, the family house at Mussoorie and Australia where her daughter lives. There are portraits of her ancestors on the walls, the pride of place being taken by those of James Skinner, to whom her husband Michael bore a close resemblance. His grandmother, Asharfi Begum once lived at Hansi and tended the garden, which is not so well maintained now. But the verandahs, hall and bedrooms still whisper tales of the romantic times when Sikandar Sahib held sway.

Irregular Cavalry Bengal Army(OF ENGLISH) C:1750'S

1847-BOMBAY-THE FIRST EXHIBITION OF ELECTRIC LIGHT WAS DONE BEFORE LORD AND LADY FALKLAND ;GOVERNOR OF BOMBAY ;AT THE TOWN HALL

ARC LIGHT -BEFORE ELECTRIC BULBS WERE INVENTED; LATER BY EDISON IN 1870


Self-regulating arc lamp proposed byWilliam Edwards Staite and William Petrie in 1847

THE TOWN HALL BOMBAY 1847

Governors of Bombay

Names

Assumed Office

Rt. Hon. Viscount Falkland, G.C.H. (Lucius Bentinck Carey, 1803 - 1884)

May 1, 1848

Lucius Bentinck Cary, 10th Viscount Falkland

Lucius Bentinck Cary, 10th Viscount Falkland GCH PC (5 November 1803 – 12 March 1884) was a British colonial administrator and Liberal politician.

Falkland was the son of Charles John Cary, 9th Viscount Falkland, and his wife Christiana. He succeeded as tenth Viscount Falkland in 1808 at the age of five after his father was killed in a duel.LATER 

he was appointed Governor of Bombay, in which post he remained until 1853. He returned to England the same year and later served as a magistrate in Yorkshire.

Lord Falkland married Lady Amelia FitzClarence (21 March 1807 – 2 July 1858 London), the last unmarried illegitimate daughter of King William IV and his mistress, Dorothy Jordan, on 27 December 1830 at the Royal Pavilion. The King gave away the bride and the ceremony was performed by the Bishop of Winchester; they spent their honeymoon at Cumberland Lodge.^[

Falkland, Amelia Fitzclarence, Lady – (1807 – 1858)
British vice-regal figure, traveller and memoirist
Lady Amelia Fitzclarence was born (March 21, 1807) the fifth and youngest illegitimate daughter of King William IV (1830 – 1837), formerly duke of Clarence, and his long-time mistress, the actress Dorothea Jordan (nee Bland). Her eldest brother was George Augustus Frederick Fitzclarence (1794 – 1842), the first Earl of Munster. Amelia was married (1830) to Lucius Bentinck Cary (1803 – 1884), tenth Viscount Falkland, and was the mother of his heir Lucius William Cary (1831 – 1877). Her son was styled master of Falkland, but he predeceased his father. He had married but died childless and the title passed to an uncle.
When her husband was appointed as governor of Bombay in India (1848 – 1853), Lady Falkland accompanied him there. She was intrigued by the life and customs of India, and made several expeditions in the Deccan region. On their return to Britain, the couple visited Egypt and Palestine. Lady Falkland left an account of these travels, which were published in two volumes as, Chow-Chow: Being Selections from a Journal kept in India, Egypt, and Syria (1857). Lady Falkland died (July 2, 1858) aged forty-one.

Women gather at a party in Mumbai (Bombay) in 1910, a sign that women were very much part of the social scene in many respects.

VINTAGE PHOTO-MARWARI TRADERS OF BOMBAY

To India on P&O Steamer Cathay"*, 1883

*"Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Subaltern"*, from The Graphic, 1882