Born March 19, 1821
Torquay, England
Died October 20, 1890
Trieste, Italy
Sir Richard Burton was at the center of one of the greatest geographical controversies of the Victorian age—the search for the source of the Nile, the world’s longest river, which nourished the civilizations of the ancient world and held an allure for Western explorers. A colorful figure, Richard Francis Burton was a soldier, writer, adventurer, and explorer. He was born in the port town of Torquay in southwest England on March 19, 1821, the son of a retired Anglo-Irish colonel in the British army.
During Burton’s childhood his family lived in a castle in the Loire River Valley of France, where he received little formal education. They also spent several years wandering in England, France, and Italy. His father wanted him to become a clergyman in the Anglican church and sent him to Oxford University. Burton hated Oxford and was expelled for going to the local racetrack.
Burton did study Arabic while at Oxford, and over the course of his life he would eventually learn 29 languages—a valuable resource for an explorer. At that time he also started to study Eastern mysticism, a religious practice in which the individual places himself in direct relationship with God.
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