Without official support he undertook exploration of the Nile in the hope of extending the discoveries of Richard Francis Burton, John Hanning Speke, and Capt. James Grant. Later, with government sanction, Baker accepted the task of eliminating slavery in large portions of Egypt. His energy and tenacity were nearly boundless.
Baker saw himself as a participant in a grand British movement, a natural outward thrust dictated by the national character. In the preface to Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon (1855) he explains the British need to explore, discover, and conquer:
Englishmen ... are naturally endowed with a spirit of adventure. There is in the hearts of all a germ of freedom which longs to break through the barriers that confine us to our own shores....
This innate spirit of action is the mainspring of the power of England. Go where you will, from north to south and from east to west, you meet an Englishman. Sail around the globe, and upon every point of strength the Union Jack gladdens your eye, and you think with wonder of the vast possessions which have been conquered, and the immense tracts of country that have been peopled by the overflow of our little island.
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