Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Exploration, Physical Geography, Discovery, Language

    Praising a recent petition, in The Times, for the recognition of Richard F Burton as the discoverer of Lake Tanganyika (a petition signed by Isabel Burton), the letter-writer complains that the 'barbarous names given by savages' to geographical locations are beyond his spelling ability, and he calls for a new system of nomenclature (for example, calling 'Lake Nyanza Lake Speke-Grant', and the Nile-source, Lake Livingstone) that would make spelling easier and would stop the 'injustice' done to Burton.