Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon

SIR RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON (1821-1890)

The year 1863 started well for Burton—he was at last able to enjoy a honeymoon with Isabel, a full year after they were married. Unfortunately, he then had to return to his consulate duties on the disease-ridden West African island of Fernando Po. He made various forays onto the mainland but was not much impressed by the slavery-ravaged tribal kingdoms he found there.

In August of 1864, he returned to England. Fourteen months earlier, John Hanning Speke and James Grant had come back in triumph from their expedition to find the source of the Nile. Now Burton and his former partner engaged in an unpleasant duel, and much was done to besmirch Burton's reputation. The conflict reached its climax in September, when, the day before they were scheduled to confront each another at a debate in the city of Bath, Speke died. He had shot himself in the left side of his body while out hunting. There is no clear evidence whether this was suicide or a tragic accident. Biographers generally agree that, preoccupied with the forthcoming debate, Speke was uncharacteristically careless with his weapon and probably discharged it by accident while climbing over a wall.

Burton appears to have gone off the rails for a time after this incident. Given the consulship of Brazil, he went to South America and, unlike all his other excursions, did not keep a journal or account of his travels. Witnesses, such as Wilfred Scawen Blunt, recalled that he was drinking heavily for much of the time. While in Buenos Aires, Burton fell in with a rather unscrupulous character—a fat man named Arthur Orton, who was passing himself off as Sir Roger Tichborne.

“I ask myself ‘Why?’ and the only echo is ‘damned fool!…the Devil drives.’”

—From a letter to Richard Monckton Milnes, 31st May, 1863

“And still the Weaver plies his loom, whose warp and woof is wretched Man. Weaving th’ unpattern'd dark design, so dark we doubt it owns a plan.”

—From The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî, 1870

“Zanzibar city, to become picturesque or pleasing, must be viewed, like Stanbul, from afar.”

—From Zanzibar, City, Island, and Coast, 1872

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE (1837-1909)

Swinburne travelled widely in 1863, visiting Paris, Genoa, and Florence, and enjoyed perhaps his most productive period, writing many of his most celebrated poems.

“Here life has death for neighbour…”

—From “The Garden of Proserpine”

“The dense hard passage is blind and stifled…”

—From “A Forsaken Garden”

“One, who is not, we see; but one, whom we see not, is…”

—“The Higher Pantheism in a Nutshell” (complete poem quoted)

“A wider soul than the world was wide…”

—From “On the Death of Richard Burton”

HERBERT SPENCER (1820-1903)

In 1863, Spencer, having published the year before his First Principles of a New System of Philosophy, was rapidly emerging as one of the greatest ever English philosophers.

An extreme hypochondriac, he also had little patience for the excesses of Victorian attire, and preferred to wear a one-piece brown suit of his own design. Apparently, it made him look like a bear.

He said:

“Time is that which a man is always trying to kill, but which ends in killing him.”

GEORGE HERBERT WELLS (1866-1946)

By 1914, H. G. Wells was an established and popular author, a pioneer of science fiction.

“A time will come when a politician who has wilfully made war and promoted international dissension will be as sure of the dock and much surer of the noose than a private homicide. It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not stake their own.”

“We were making the future, he said, and hardly any of us troubled to think what future we were making. And here it is!”

“Our true nationality is mankind.”

“I hope, or I could not live.”

RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES (1809-1885)

In 1863, Monckton Milnes was raised to the peerage, becoming the 1st Baron Houghton.

HENRY JOHN TEMPLE, 3RD VISCOUNT PALMERSTON (1784-1865)

1863, for Palmerston, marked the middle of his final term as British prime minister. Nicknamed “Lord Cupid” on account of his youthful appearance and rumoured affairs, he was a popular and capable leader.

WILLIAM SAMUEL HENSON (1812-1888)

A very industrious inventor, Henson is best known as an early pioneer in aviation. He created a lightweight steam engine that he hoped would power a passenger-carrying monoplane, the “Henson Aerial Steam Carriage,” but was never able to perfect the design. He also invented the modern safety razor.

FRANCIS HERBERT WENHAM (1824-1908)

A British marine engineer, Wenham came to prominence in 1866 when he introduced the idea of superposed wings at the first meeting of the Royal Aeronautical Society in London. His concept became the basis for the design of the early biplanes, triplanes, and multiplanes that attempted flight, with varying degrees of success. Wenham is possibly the first man to have employed the term “aeroplane.”

OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900)

In 1863, aged nine, Wilde started his formal education at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

“I can believe anything provided it is incredible.”

“Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing.”

“The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.”

“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”

“As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.”

“Popularity is the one insult I have never suffered.”

“Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.”

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

“Do not be afraid of the past. If people tell you that it is irrevocable, do not believe them. The past, the present, and the future are but one moment in the sight of God, in whose sight we should try to live. Time and space, succession and extension, are merely accidental conditions of thought. The imagination can transcend them.”

ISABELLA MAYSON (1836-1865)

Married to Samuel Beeton in 1856, Isabella was made famous by her Book of Household Management, which had been published in 1861. 1863 was the last healthy year of her life. In 1864, she contracted puerperal fever, which caused her death on 6th February 1865.

“A place for everything and everything in its place.”

—From The Book of Household Management

FERDINAND GRAF VON ZEPPELIN (1838-1917)

Count Zeppelin was a German general who later became an aircraft manufacturer. In 1863, he acted as an observer for the Union during the American Civil War, during which time he made his first ascent in a balloon. After serving in the Austrian and Franco-Prussian wars, he became increasingly fascinated by the prospect of steerable balloons and devoted himself to their development. By the turn of the century, his name was synonymous with rigid-framed powered airships.

ALEISTER CROWLEY (1875-1947)

An influential occultist, Crowley challenged the moral and religious values of his time, promoting a libertine philosophy—“Do what thou wilt”—that earned him notoriety and the reputation for being “the wickedest man in the world.”

He said:

“Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people.”

SIDI MUBARAK BOMBAY (1820-1885)

Captured by Arab slave traders when he was a young boy, Bombay was sold in exchange for some cloth, and was taken to India where he lived as a slave for many years. When his owner died, he was emancipated and returned to Africa, where he gained fame as a guide, working with Burton, Speke, Stanley, and Livingstone. In 1873 he traversed the continent from its east coast to its west.

MTYELA KASANDA (AKA MIRAMBO)

A Wanyamwezi warlord, he started out as a slave and ivory trader, travelling between Africa's great lakes and the coast, but later installed himself as king of the Urambo region. He was a sworn enemy of the Arabic traders at Kazeh. He died aged 44, after becoming too ill to rule.

GENERALMAJOR PAUL EMIL VON LETTOW-VORBECK (1870-1964)

The commander of the German East Africa campaign during the First World War.

MAJOR GENERAL ARTHUR EDWARD AITKEN (1861-1924)

Commander of the Indian Expeditionary Force “B” in Africa during the First World War.

JANE DIGBY (LADY ELLENBOROUGH) (1807-1881)

An English aristocrat, Digby was involved in numerous romantic scandals. She had four husbands and countless lovers before eventually settling in Damascus, where she married Sheikh Medjuel el Mezrab, who was twenty years her junior.

BLUT UND EISEN

Otto von Bismarck made his famous speech in support of increased military spending on 29th September 1862. “Blood and iron” was, in fact, “Eisen und Blut.” The words were reversed almost immediately by press reports and have remained that way in most accounts.

HMS ORPHEUS

The Orpheus was a Jason-Class Royal Navy corvette, constructed in Chatham Dockyard, England, in 1861. She was commanded by Captain Robert Burton and served as the flagship of the Australian squadron. On 7th February 1863, while navigating Manukau Harbour, New Zealand, the ship hit a sandbar and sank, with a loss of 189 men, including Captain Burton. Frederick Butler, a convicted deserter, served as quartermaster aboard the vessel.

THE BOMBING OF DAR ES SALAAM

Despite a number of prior skirmishes between British and German troops, the First World War didn't properly begin in East Africa until 8th August 1914, when the British launched an attack against Dar es Salaam. The naval vessels HMS Astraea and HMS Pegasus bombarded the city, the Astraea hitting and destroying the German radio station. The Germans responded by sabotaging the harbour so the British couldn't use it, which also had the effect of preventing their own ship, SMS Königsberg, from returning to port. Just over a month later, the Pegasus was docked at Zanzibar for repairs when the Königsberg launched a surprise attack and sank her. The Königsberg was herself eventually knocked out of action by British ships on 11th July 1915.

THE BATTLE OF THE BEES

Also known as the Battle of Tanga, this was an attempt by the British Indian Expeditionary Force to capture the German port, and became one of the worst defeats for the British in Africa during the First World War. The incident commenced when HMS Fox arrived at the port and gave the authorities an hour to surrender. The hour passed but no action was taken, which gave Generalmajor Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck time to move German reinforcements into position. On 4th November 1914, street-to-street fighting began in the north and jungle skirmishes in the south. The British found themselves hard pressed, and when swarms of bees, disturbed by the conflict, attacked both sides, the British were routed and took to their heels. In retreating, they left behind all their equipment, which the Germans appropriated. In later propaganda, the British suggested that the bees had somehow been a fiendish trap set by the enemy.

L.59 ZEPPELIN

A German dirigible used during the First World War, L.59 Zeppelin was known as Das Afrika-Schiff (“The Africa Ship”). In 1917, it was commissioned to resupply Generalmajor Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck's troops. Its journey to Africa was intended to be a one-way voyage—upon delivering its 50 tons of supplies, the ship would be cannibalised, its outer envelope used for tents, its frame used to build radio towers, etc. Following the course of the Nile, L.59 Zeppelin was halfway along the river when she received an “abort” order transmitted by Lettow-Vorbeck, who, in his battle with British forces, had been unable to secure a safe landing place for her. She returned to Germany. The following year, the dirigible mysteriously exploded over the Strait of Otranto in the Mediterranean, with a loss of all twenty-one crew.

THE SECOND SCHLESWIG WAR

Beginning on 1st February 1864, this was a renewal of hostilities between Prussia, Austria, and Denmark over control of the Duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Saxe-Lauenburg. The conflict continued until the end of October, when the Treaty of Vienna saw the territories ceded to Prussia and Austria. It confirmed Prussia's military might and thus advanced the cause of those who supported German unification.

THE BURNING OF SIR RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON'S JOURNALS AND PAPERS

Of all the controversies concerning Burton during his lifetime, none compared with what happened after his death in 1890. His widow, Isabel, made a bonfire of his personal journals, the vast majority of his papers, and the unpublished book he regarded as his magnum opus, his new translation of The Perfumed Garden, which he'd retitled The Scented Garden. Her act incited such anger and condemnation from those who'd known Burton, including Swinburne, that she lost many friends and badly stained her own reputation.