Summary

In “Damn Their Souls,” Burton felt he was spinning around aimlessly. Seeking to quell his anxieties, he made a trip to America with his old friend John Steinhaüser and published a book about his cultural observations of native peoples. He continued his attack on mainstream religion. In his absence, Isabel determined to defy her mother’s wishes and marry Burton. To this end, she spent most of her time ‘in training’ to be a better wife to him. The two were formally married upon his return. After losing his most precious documents to a fire, Burton took a new post in Bioko and left Isabel behind in England. Here, he wrote some of his most famous publications. Upon his return, he became interested in the discredited belief of polygenism, and formed a society known as the Cannibal club, meant to oppose traditional...