THE LIFE OF EDMUND MUSGRAVE BARTTELOT

An account of his services for the relief of Kandahar, of Gordon and of Emin, From His Letters and Diary

Third edition: 413 pages, frontispiece portrait of Edmund Barttelot, 3 plates and illustrations, 2 folding maps, recent half calf with red title label on the spine, marbled paper sides, ex-library copy with a small library stamp at the  bottom of the title page and a withdrawn stamp on the back of the frontispiece, edges uncut, contents free of foxing, a very good copy.

Edmund Musgrave Barttelot (28 March 1859 – 19 July 1888) was a British army officer, who became notorious after his allegedly brutal and deranged behaviour during his disastrous command of the rear column in the Congo during Henry Morton Stanley's Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. He has often been identified as one of the sources for the character of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness.

After the return of expedition-members to Europe and America, Barttelot's alleged abusive and incompetent behaviour was widely reported. In response, Barttelot's brother, Walter George Barttelot edited the diaries of his brother, defending his reputation and adding some biting comments on Stanley's behaviour.

Recent historians have generally accepted the negative assessment of Barttelot. Adam Hochschild wrote that after being left in charge of the Rear Column, Major Barttelot promptly lost his mind. He sent Stanley's personal baggage down the river. He dispatched another officer on a bizarre three-thousand-mile three-month round trip to the nearest telegraph station to send a senseless telegram to England. He next decided that he was being poisoned, and saw traitors on all sides. He had one of his porters lashed three-hundred times (which proved fatal). He jabbed at Africans with a steel-tipped cane, ordered several dozen people put in chains, and bit a village woman. After trying to interfere with a native festival, an African shot and killed Barttelot before he could do more. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Musgrave_Barttelot)