BURTON, Richard Francis.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Manuscript notes on Richard Henry Major's The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator (1868), including an integral sketch map of lakes Victoria and Albert. Working notes in Burton's typically minute hand, made while studying an important biography of Henry the Navigator, including a detailed sketch map in which Burton identifies lakes Albert, Victoria, and Tanganyika.Burton had a particular interest in Portuguese exploration. His first book, Goa and the Blue Mountains (1851), reflected firsthand experience of that declining Portuguese colony, his analysis of their experience focusing on lessons which could be learned by the British in India. Major's book includes "new facts" on "Portuguese knowledge (subsequently lost) of the Nile Lakes". Burton's Lake Regions of Central Africa (1860) was an account of his expedition with John Hanning Speke and their location, in February 1858, of Lake Tanganyika (Speke located Lake Victoria while Burton recuperated at an Arab slaving station). Of particular interest is Burton's sketch map. It is based on that reproduced opposite page 334 of Major's book, a chart of 1578-87 that accompanied the report on the kingdom of Congo by the Portuguese merchant Duarte Lopez (first edited by Filippo Pigafetta and published in Rome in 1591). Burton adds detail, notably the presumed locations of Victoria Nyanza and Albert Nyanza. Major notes that the "positive existence" of lakes Victoria, Albert, and Tanganyika "has only been made known

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