Burton describes Brigham Young

Dad and maybe Mom are the only people reading this blog who know much about this guy. Richard francis Burton is one of my favorite exlorers. I don't know why more people don't know about him. I've written a little about him meeting Brigham Young before but this is his full account from his book "City of the saints" Here is a little Bit about Burton followed by his description of Brigham Young.

He committed assassinations and other nasty crimes, calming himself with cannabis and opium and coining the term “extrasensory perception” to describe his new sensibilities.Burton proceeded to Arabia and stole into the holy city of Mecca. He went to Europe. He married. In 1857, he set off to find the source of the Nile. He came close, but battles with the African peoples he encountered and a growing rivalry with a fellow explorer botched the mission. He interviewed Brigham Young in Utah. He returned to Africa, paddling his way up and down the Congo and Niger rivers, mapping the inland waterways. He accepted a posting to Brazil and there fell into chronic drunkenness. He moved to Damascus. Finally, in 1890, he died, in Trieste.Through all this, Burton found the time to write a staggering quantity of books—51 of them in all, most of them in several volumes. Fluent in 29 languages, he translated many more books that are now regarded as classics of world literature, including The Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra. For his troubles, he was awarded another epithet, that of pornographer in an outraged but receptive Victorian England. Immediately after his death, his wife burned his “dirty” manuscripts—and there were mountains of them. It is the one act for which she is now remembered.Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton’s fame as explorer, soldier and man of letters will endure for as long as there are stories to tell and listeners to hear them. In a time of failed empire, endless intrigue and clashing civilizations, his life seems oddly timely—and well worth learning more about.




The conversation, which lasted about an hour, ended by the Prophet asking me the line of my last African exploration, and whether it was the same country traversed by Dr. Livingstone. I replied that it was about ten degrees north of the Zambezi. Mr. A. Carrington rose to point out the place upon a map which hung against the wall, and placed his finger too near the equator, when Mr. Brigham Young said, " A little lower down." There are many educated men in England who could not have corrected the mistake as well: witness the "London Eeview,"in which the gentleman who " does the geography" not having the fear of a certain society in Whitehall Place before his eyes confounds, in all the pomp of criticism upon the said exploration, lakes which are not less than 200 miles apart. When 'conversation began to flag, we rose up, shook hands, as is the custom here, all round, and took leave. The first impres- ; sion left upon my mind by this short seance, and it was subse- } quently confirmed, was, that tJjeJProphet is no common man, and that he has none of the weakness and vanity which characterize the common uncommon man. A desultory conversation can not ' be expected to draw out a master spirit, but a truly distinguished character exercises most often an instinctive some would call it a mesmeric effect upon those who come in contact with it ; and as we hate or despise at first sight, and love or like at first sight, so Nature teaches us at first sight what to respect. It is observable that, although every Gentile writer has represented Mr. Joseph Smith as a heartless impostor, few have ventured to apply the term to Mr. Brigham Young. I also remarked an instance of the veneration shown by his followers, whose affection for him is equaled only by the confidence with which they intrust to him their dearest interests in this world and in the next. After my visit many congratulated me, as would the followers of the Tien Wong, or heavenly King, upon having at last seen what they consider " a per se the most remarkable man in the world.