Baker was born in London, June 8th, 1821, and died December 30th, 1893.  With his brother he established, in 1847, a settlement in the mountains of Ceylon, where he spent several years.  His experiences in the far East appear in books entitled ‘The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon’ and ’Eight Years Wandering in Ceylon.’  In 1861, accompanied by his young wife and an escort, he started up the Nile, and three years later, on the 14th of March, 1864, at length reached the cliffs overlooking the Albert Nyanza, being the first European to behold its waters.  Like most Englishmen, he was an enthusiastic sportsman, and his manner of life afforded him a great variety of unusual experiences.  He visited Cyprus in 1879, after the execution of the convention between England and Turkey, and subsequently he traveled to Syria, India, Japan, and America.  He kept voluminous notes of his various journeys, which he utilized in the preparation of numerous volumes:—­’The Albert Nyanza’; ’The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia’; ‘Ismaeilia,’ a narrative of the expedition under the auspices of the Khedive; ‘Cyprus as I Saw It in 1879’; together with ‘Wild Beasts and Their Ways,’ ’True Tales for My Grandsons,’ and a story entitled ‘Cast Up by the Sea,’ which was for many years a great favorite with the boys of England and America.  They are all full of life and incident.  One of the most delightful memories of them which readers retain is the figure of his lovely wife, so full of courage, loyalty, buoyancy, and charm.  He had that rarest of possibilities, spirit-stirring adventure and home companionship at once.

HUNTING IN ABYSSINIA

From ‘The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia’

On arrival at the camp, I resolved to fire the entire country on the following day, and to push still farther up the course of the Settite to the foot of the mountains, and to return to this camp in about a fortnight, by which time the animals that had been scared away by the fire would have returned.  Accordingly, on the following morning, accompanied by a few of the aggageers, I started upon the south bank of the river, and rode for some distance into the interior, to the ground that was entirely covered with high withered grass.  We were passing through a mass of kittar thorn bush, almost hidden by the immensely high grass, when, as I was ahead of the party, I came suddenly upon the tracks of rhinoceros; these were so unmistakably recent that I felt sure we were not far from the animals themselves.  As I had wished to fire the grass, I was accompanied by my Tokrooris, and my horse-keeper, Mahomet No. 2.  It was difficult ground for the men, and still more unfavorable for the horses, as large disjointed masses of stone were concealed in the high grass.