2. Letter to Miss Bishop from Trieste, December 5, 1881.
3. This refers to _Camoens: the Commentary, Life, and Lusiads_.
Englished by R. F. Burton. Two vols. Containing a Glossary,
and Reviewers Reviewed, by Isabel Burton. 1880.
4. From her devotional book _Lamed_, pp. 28, 29.
5. _Life of Sir Richard Burton_, by Isabel his wife, vol.ii., p. 248.
CHAPTER XXV. GORDON AND THE BURTONS.
Oh! bring us back once more
When the world with faith was filled;
Bring back the fervid zeal,
The hearts of fire and steel,
The hands that believe and build.
The mention of Gordon's death suggests that this would be the fittest
place to bring to notice the relations which existed between him and
the Burtons. Their acquaintance, which ripened into a strong liking
and friendship, may be said to have existed over a period of ten
years (from 1875 to 1885), from the time when Gordon wrote to ask Burton
for information concerning Victoria Nyanza and the regions round about,
to the day when he went to his death at Kartoum. Long before they met
in the flesh, Gordon and Burton knew each other in the spirit, and
Gordon thought he saw in Burton a man after his own heart. In many
respects he was right. The two men were curiously alike in their
independence of thought and action, in their chivalrous devotion to
honour and duty, in their absolute contempt for the world's opinion,
in their love of adventure, in their indifference to danger, in
their curious mysticism and fatalism, and in the neglect which each
suffered from the Government until it was too late.
Pages:
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288