James Sutherland Cotton

“ He concealed nothing; he boasted of nothing. Such as circumstances had made him, he bore himself to all the world: a man of his hands from his youth, a philosopher in his old age; a good hater, but none the less a staunch friend. ”

“ Meanwhile, Hunter had been selected by Lord Mayo to organise perhaps the most gigantic literary enterprise that has ever been undertaken by any government — a statistical survey of the Indian empire, such as Sir John Sinclair [q. v.] attempted one hundred years ago for Scotland. At this distance of time it is difficult to realise the density of the ignorance that then prevailed with regard to the fundamental facts upon which good administration must be based. No general census had been taken, and the wildest estimates of population found acceptance. ”

“ Burton was but following the example of many classical scholars of high repute, and indulging a taste which is more widespread than modern prudery will allow. In his case something more may be urged. The whole of his life was a protest against social conventions. Much of it was spent in the East, where the intercourse between men and women is more according to nature, and things are called by plain names. Add to this Burton’s insatiable curiosity, which had impelled him to investigate all that concerns humanity in four continents. ”

“ At Trieste one of her chief interests was to manage a local society for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
Lady Burton’s constant efforts to further her husband's career, in the press and through semi-official channels, were not always judicious. She regarded him as the greatest and least appreciated Englishman of his time. He requited her devotion by extending to her absolute confidence, such as no male friend obtained from him, though even to her he did not soften the angularities of his character. During the last years of his life she proved herself a devoted nurse. ”

“ So far back as 1867 the government had resolved that a gazetteer should be prepared for each of the twelve great provinces of India. But there was no guarantee for uniformity in the execution of the work. In July 1869 Lord Mayo placed Hunter on special duty 'to submit a comprehensive scheme for utilising the information already collected, for prescribing the principles according to which all local gazetteers are in future to be prepared, and for the consolidation into one work of the whole of the materials that may be available.' This task occupied the next twelve years of Hunter's life. ”

“ After his return to England Cunningham worked at his favourite studies to the very last. In 1892 he brought out a magnificently illustrated volume on 'Mahabodhi,' the great Buddhist temple near Gaya in Bengal, which is to this day the most sacred goal of Buddhist pilgrimage. But the chief interest of his closing years was in numismatics. While in India he had taken advantage of his exceptional opportunities to form a collection of coins which has never been equalled either in extent or in the rarity of many of its specimens. ”

“ But this second project was frustrated by ill-health, which kept him in Egypt until his period of furlough was exhausted. The manuscript of his ‘Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah’ (1855, 3 vols.) was sent home from India, and seen through the press by a friend in England. It is deservedly the most popular of Burton’s books, having passed through four editions. As a story of bold adventure, and as lifting a veil from the unknown, its interest will never fade. But it cannot be called easy reading. ”

“ From his first residence in Nepal he resolved to take advantage of his opportunities to study the literature, religion, and language of a country then absolutely unknown. The ruling race of Gurkhas are devout Hindus, still retaining many archaic features of the Hindu social system. But a large proportion of the population are Buddhists, and Nepal is in close contact with Tibet. Hodgson's supreme contribution to science is to have discovered the literature of Northern Buddhism, as preserved in both Sanskrit and Tibetan manuscripts. ”

“ It has been doubted whether Burton’s disguise was never penetrated during the pilgrimage, even by his two servants. He himself always denied the widespread story that he had to kill a man who detected him performing an operation of nature in a non-oriental fashion.
Burton now returned to India for a brief period of regimental duty. The middle of 1854, however, found him back again in the Red Sea, with leave from the Bombay government to explore Somaliland. His ambition was to penetrate through the mountains to the upper waters of the Nile. ”

“ But nothing could be done in Egypt by English enterprise until Maspero succeeded Mariette as director of museums and antiquities in 1881. The Egypt Exploration Fund was formally founded in 1882 with Miss Edwards and Poole as joint honorary secretaries ; and in the following year M. Naville was despatched to excavate the store city of Pithom and determine the route of the exodus. In every winter from that time onwards the society has sent at least one expedition to Egypt, usually under the charge of M. Naville or Professor Flinders Petrie, and has published annually a record of the results. ”

“ In the later years of his life Allen found a fresh interest in art, and particularly in Italian art. To art as a handicraft he had always been attracted, as may be seen in his very first contribution to the 'Cornhill' on 'Carving a Coco-nut.' The appreciation of painting and architecture came later, as the result of repeated visits to Italy. To his scientific mind they fell into their place as branches of human evolution. ”

“ It was of great advantage to Hodgson to serve his apprenticeship under such a man, and also in a district adjoining the native state of Nepal, which was destined to be the scene of his own lifework. After he had been less than two years in Kumaon, the post of assistant resident in Nepal fell vacant, and Hodgson was chosen to fill it. Henceforth, for twenty-three years (1820-43) , he remained at Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, secluded from the active life of Indian administration, but in a unique position to devote himself to study. ”

“ With a semi-official mission from the British government, he was on two occasions (1868 and 1869) a witness of the desperate struggle maintained by Lopez, dictator of Paraguay, against the allied armies of Brazil and the Argentine Republic. He crossed the Andes to see Peru and Chile, returning through the Straits of Magellan, At Lima he had heard the welcome news of his appointment to the consulship at Damascus, and he hurried home to England. This South American period was comparatively unimportant in Burton’s life, except for bringing back to him the language of Camoeus. ”

“ In 1876 the college was finally closed, and Allen returned to England with a small sum of money in compensation for the loss of his post. These three years, however, in Jamaica had an important influence on the development of Allen's mind. He had leisure to read and to allow his ideas to clarify. It was during this time that he acquired a fair knowledge of Anglo-Saxon for the benefit of his pupils. He also studied philosophy and physical science, and framed an evolutionary system of his own, based mainly on the works of Herbert Spencer. ”

“ Instead, he took up the biography of Brian Houghton Hodgson, the veteran orientalist, who had first aroused his interest in the races and languages of India. Other publications of this period were 'The Old Missionary' (1895) , an idyll which makes one regret that he did not more often indulge his lighter vein ; and 'The Thackerays in India' (1897) , which is worthy of its subject. He also compiled a bibliography of books about India, which, out of the abundance of his own library, he contributed to James Samuelson's 'India Past and Present' (1890) . ”

“ In the very year of his retirement Cunningham commenced a new career of activity, by which he is better known than as a soldier or administrator. Lord Canning, having resolved to create the new post of archaeological surveyor to the government of India, found Cunningham ready to fill it. In his early days Cunningham had formed the acquaintance of James Prinsep [q. v.] , the founder of the scientific study of Indian coins and inscriptions. ”

“ Straitened means compelled her to look about for a means of livelihood, which— such was her versatility—she might have achieved by her pen, her pencil, or her voice. Accident decided her in favour of literature. ”

“ But when this friend died, and nothing was found of his manuscript, he took the whole task upon his own shoulders. By a fortunate accident the hitherto unknown Arabic original of two of the most familiar tales, ‘Alladin’ and ‘All Baba,’ came to light in time to be incorporated in the ‘Supplemental Nights.’ Of the merit of Burton’s translation no two opinions have been expressed. The quaintnesses of expression that some have found fault with in the ‘Lusiads’ are here not out of place, since they reproduce the topsy-turvy world of the original. ”

“ It is characteristic of the new spirit which seized her that her book on Egypt occupied two years in writing. She found it incumbent to learn the hieroglyphic characters, to form her own collection of antiquities, and to verify her personal experience from libraries and museums. 'A Thousand Miles up the Nile,' with facsimiles of inscriptions, plans, maps, and upwards of eighty illustrations by the author (1877, 2nd ed. 1889) , though superseded as a guide-book, retains its authority as an introduction to the spirit of the ancient civilisation which still dominates the Nile valley. ”

“ Even to the present day Nepal ranks as an independent state, outside the Indian feudatory system, and recognising China in some vague sense as its suzerain. Hodgson's position, therefore, at Kathmandu was not the same as that of an ordinary resident at the court of a native state. His functions were essentially diplomatic, and did not include the right of imposing advice with regard to the internal administration. ”

“ Miss Edwards was educated at home, chiefly by her mother. As a child her strongest bent was towards art. From the time she could hold a pencil she was always drawing illustrations of books and passing events. ”

“ This sympathy breathes through his translation of the Portuguese epic, which, though not a popular success, won the enthusiastic approval of the few competent critics. It represents the result of long labour and revision, having been begun at Goa in 1847 and continued in Brazil. It is, no doubt, the work of a scholar rather than of a poet. Burton’s aim was to present to modern English readers as much as might be of the influence that Camoens has exercised for three centuries upon the Portuguese. ”

“ Burton’s more scientific explorations were conducted in company with Tyrwhitt Drake and Edward Henry Palmer [q. v.] , in the course of which were discovered the first known Hittite antiquities. This idyllic life was suddenly cut short in August 1871 by a letter of recall. The true cause why Burton was superseded remains hidden in the archives of the foreign office. It is easy to conjecture some of the contributory reasons. He had made enemies of the Damascus Jews, who claimed to be British subjects, and had powerful supporters among their co-religionists in England. ”

“ In 1872 followed a yet more important work, in two volumes, on 'Orissa,' a province which will always be interesting for its far-famed temple of Jagannath, and which at that time had drawn special notice as the scene of a disastrous famine. Another publication of these early days was 'A Comparative Dictionary of the Non-Aryan Languages of India and High Asia' (1868) , being a glossary of 139 dialects based mainly upon the collections formed by Brian Houghton Hodgson [q. v. Suppl.] , with a political dissertation on the relations of the Indian government with the aboriginal tribes. ”

“ Twice he returned to the more abstruse science of his earlier days. In 1888 he brought out 'Force and Energy,' which embodies the results of his lonely reading and cogitations in Jamaica, where the first draft of it was privately printed (1876) . Physicists generally declined to discuss his novel theory of dynamics as being that of an amateur. Nevertheless Allen persisted in it, and when the book passed into the remainder market in 1894, he presented a copy to a friend with this inscription: 'It contains my main contribution to human thought. ”

“ His first book was an essay on 'Physiological Æsthetics' (1877) , which he dedicated to Mr. Herbert Spencer and published at his own risk. The book did not sell, but it won for the author some reputation, and introduced his name to the editors of magazines and newspapers. He began to find a ready market for his wares—popular scientific articles, always with an evolutionary moral—in the 'Cornhill,' the 'St. James's Gazette,' and elsewhere. But such stray work did not yield a livelihood; and Allen was glad to accept an engagement of some months to assist Sir William Wilson Hunter [q. v. Suppl.] ”

“ Henry was born at Walwood House, Leytonstone, on 20 May 1821, and educated at Eton, where he won the Newcastle scholarship in 1838. In May of the following year he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was a student until 1852. He graduated B.A. in 1843. In the same year he entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in 1846. He quickly acquired a large practice in the equity courts, and through the influence of his father was appointed standing counsel to the Bank of England. ”

“ When General Beatson was dismissed from his command Burton also resigned and returned to England.
Meanwhile arrangements had been made with the Royal Geographical Society that Burton should lead an exploring expedition into Central Africa, with Speke as second in command. The government gave a grant of 1,000l. towards the expenses, and the East India Company allowed its officers two years’ leave. This was the first serious attempt undertaken to discover the sources of the Nile. Little more was then known about Central Africa than in the days of Ptolemy. ”