His contemporaries and comrades in India did not
understand him, and what people do not understand they often dislike.
In his regiment he soon incurred odium, and a cloud of prejudice
enveloped him. Unfortunately, too, he was not overwise; and he had
a habit of telling tales against himself, partly out of bravado, which
of course did not tend to improve matters. People are very apt to be
taken at their own valuation, especially if their valuation be a bad
one. It must not be supposed that I am giving countenance, colour, or
belief to these rumours against Burton for a moment: on the contrary,
I believe them to be false and unjust; but false and unjust though
they were, they were undoubtedly believed by many, and herein was
the gathering of the cloud which hung over Burton's head through the
earlier part of his official career. To prove that I am not drawing
on my own imagination with regard to this theory, I quote the following,
told in Burton's own words:--
"In 1845, when Sir Charles Napier had conquered and annexed Sind, . . .
it was reported to me that Karachi, a townlet of some two thousand souls,
and distant not more than a mile from camp. . . . Being then the only
British officer who could speak Sindi, I was asked indirectly to make
inquiries, and to report upon the subject; and I undertook the task on
the express condition that my report should not be forwarded to the
Bombay Government, from whom supporters of the conqueror's policy could
expect scant favour, mercy, or justice.
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