Beschreibung:

Correspondence and papers retained by Christopher Palmer Rigby, British Consul on Zanzibar relating to the Speke/Burton feud, comprising: i) Group of five autograph letters and a note signed ("J.H. Speke") to Christopher Palmer Rigby, the first announcing that he has "...in conjunction with Mr Petherick undertaken to go to Nyanza again and to connect it with the Nile - I going up the west side of the Lake from Unyamyembe whilst he goes down southwards from Gondokoro... This would be a glorious tour!..." and praising Rigby for his success in quashing the Burghash rebellion ("...you are the father of Zanzibar and the Sultan your eldest son..."), the rest taken up with his feud with fellow-explorer Richard Burton writing gleefully that "...Burton has got the dumps and is cutting himself at every turn...", speaking of his reluctance to accompany Burton ("...I had seen enough of his blackguardism at that time to for ever despise him..."), calling him a "cunning ingrate, and double blackguard" and complaining of his conduct ("...I gave him [Burton] every collection, observations and my original diary... and printed my diaries to swell his own book with, and this too without ever asking my consent... It is true Burton touched up some of my diaries on return from the Nyanza as they stood in the original... but by practice in writing I improved my style..."), his resentment at Burton receiving a Gold Medal ("...I alone had brought back all the geographical results of that expedition, and Burton had not shown himself capable of doing anything but making ethnological remarks..."), explaining in detail the confusion with regards to the payment of the porters, returning specimens and "...the last of the tots... send them off as contented as their discontented dispositions will permit...", announcing the publication of his account of the first two expeditions in one volume ("...The Hindu map published by Wilford has turned out a forgery, so in the Second Edition it will be left out..."), asking Rigby to speak with the Sultan about "the unjustifiable interference of the Arabs" in the African interior ("...only perpetrated as a pretext to loot..."), including a list of specimens returned ("...Gun case of Bird & Snake skins... female head of Eland... skins of head are separate from the skulls..."), and much else; with two envelopes, one bearing the remark that the porters have run away, 24 pages, creased with spotting and some small tears along folds, 8vo and 4to, Illminster, Kinanga Ranga, Kazeh, Grand Hotel, Paris, 19 January 1860 to 20 April [postmarked 1864] ii) Autograph letter signed ("M. Grant") to Rigby's widow ("My dear Mrs Rigby"), asking if she has copies of Rigby's letters "reporting the conduct of the late Sir Richard Burton" so that she can "contradict what Lady Burton has written about Speke in the Daily Graphic... her husband could not have told her that he had attempted the life of Captn Speke by asking one of their followers to put poison into his medicine. This is well too well-known to the family of Captn Speke...", 6 pages, on mourning paper, 8vo (177 x 114mm.), Househill, Nairn, 15 January 1891 iii) Draft document signed ("C.P. Rigby") to "H. L. Anderson Esquire/ Chief Secretary to Government/ Bombay", "Reporting the libels and calumnies contained in a Book entitled 'The Lake Regions of Central Africa' recently published by Brevet Captain Burton... & his treatment of his followers during the late Expedition in Central Africa", with various additions and amendments, 25 pages, docketed "no. 73 of 1860", joined at head by green silk thread, folio (335 x 210mm.), British Consulate, Zanzibar, 16 November 1860; with two duplicate letters from H.L. Anderson confirming that it will be forwarded to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, assuring him that "...you have fully vindicated yourself... your reputation has... been in no degree affected by Captain Burton's untrustworthy statements...", one with the subscription "Tran