Brazil and Damascus

This is part of a local history note on Sir Richard and Lady Isabel Burton. See the start of this local history note.

In August 1865, Richard was transferred to the Consulate of Santos in Brazil where Isabel was able to join him a month later. Isabel’s family wanted her to come home, but she refused, saying “I should not feel justified, I think, in coming home for anything else, but serious illness.” By 1867 the Burtons wanted to explore Brazil and were granted 3 months leave which they spent wandering around Brazil seeing the goldmines, the new Dom Pedro Segunda Railway and other sights. But a year later, during which Richard had been very ill with pneumonia and hepatitis, they both wanted to come home. Isabel persuaded the Foreign Office to give Richard another posting and this time he was offered the one that he had always wanted – British Consul in Damascus at a salary of £950 per annum plus expenses – and they moved there in January 1870.

Isabel recalled their time in Damascus:

“Our house was in the suburb of Salahiyyeh, and I should like to describe it. First came the courtyard, boldly painted in broad stripes of red, white and blue…Here too splashed the fountain, and all around were the orange, lemon and jessamine trees. Two steps took one to the liwan, a raised room open one side to the court, and spread with carpets, divans and Eastern stuffs. It was here, in the summer, I was wont to receive. As soon as I had arranged our house at Damascus, the first thing I did was to indulge in my hobby of collecting menagerie. First of all we bought some horses. Then I bought a camel and a snow-white donkey, which latter is the most honourable mount for grand visiting. I also picked up a splendid Persian cat in the bazaars, and I had brought over with me a young pet St. Bernard dog, two brindle bull-terriers and two of the Yarborough breed, and I added later a Kurdish pup. I bought three milk goats for the house, and I had presents of a pet lamb and a leopard. I added to my family also from time to time half-famished dogs which I had also rescued from the streets, or ill-treated and broken-down donkeys… It became a truly wonderful gathering. I think I ought to touch on the bazaars. There was a shoemakers’ bazaar. The stalls were gorgeous with lemon-coloured slippers, stiff red shoes, scarlet boots with tops and tassels and hangings. There was another bazaar where they sold attar and sandalwood oil; and yet another where one could buy rich Eastern stuffs and silks, which would make a fine smoking-suit for one’s husband.”

The time that the Burtons spent in Damascus was the happiest of the marriage. They travelled together to Palmyra, in the desert, as Richard wanted to open up the country which was infested by Bedouin. They went without a Bedouin escort to show that it could be done, although they discovered on their return to Damascus that they had been watched throughout the journey! But Richard had offended too many people  and was too irregular and original in both his attitude and behaviour for their happiness to last. In August 1871, when Isabel was in Anti-Lebanon, she received a message from Richard “Do not be frightened. I am recalled. Pay, pack and follow at convenience.”

On their return to London, Isabel once again pestered the Foreign Office and Richard was given another posting as British Consul in Trieste following the death of the previous Consul, considered by the Burtons to be a demotion as it was a small commercial consulate, but one in which the Foreign Office thought he could not get into trouble. The salary was less than Damascus - £600 per annum plus £100 expenses and an ex gratia payment of £100 for a new Consular uniform. Meanwhile Richard left for Iceland in June 1872 and he spent 7 weeks travelling and exploring the country. His usual 2-volume book Ultima Thule or A Summer in Iceland was published in 1875.