Somaliland, 1855. Gentleman explorer, diplomat, soldier, scholar adventurer Richard Francis Burton leads a geographical expedition to find the source of the Nile river. HIs party is camped near the Somali port of Berbera, along the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden.
He awakens in the dead of night to the sounds of combat. An expert swordsman, he grabs his blade and rushes from his tent into the night. He is greeted by a firelit scene of chaos. Two hundred fierce spear-wielding warriors attack with deadly skill. One of Burton’s subordinates lies dead, impaled, and another is grievously wounded. Burton wades in, blade flashing, calling out to his men to rally.
A warrior hurls a javelin at Burton’s face. He flinches, but not fast enough, as the piercing head of the javelin passes clear through one cheek and lodges in his jaw. He has no time to remove it and fights the remainder of the deadly skirmish with the weapon hanging off the side of his face. Despite that he manages to escape with most of his men alive.
The reason for the attack? Unknown. Perhaps it was Burton’s blasphemy a few months earlier in daring to enter the Muslim holy city of Harar, which was forbidden to unbelievers. Perhaps it was just an opportunistic raid.
Whatever the reason, it didn’t deter him, at least not permanently, and this real life Indiana Jones would return to complete his expedition and many others, in search of hidden secrets.
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For more, listen to the Podcast episode and check out my book, History Stories for Everyone, where I dive deeper into this and some of history’s other most fascinating and relatable human stories:
