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BAKER — BAKER,

the valley of Dir that the new road from Malakand and the Punjab runs to Chitral. The drainage of Bajaor flows eastwards, starting from the eastern slopes of the dividing ridge which overlooks the Kunar and terminating in the Panjkora river, so that the district lies on a slope tilting gradually downwards from the Kunar ridge to the Panjkora. Nawagai is the chief town of Bajaor, and the Khan of Nawagai is under British protection for the safeguarding of the Chitral road. Jandul, one of the northern valleys of Bajaor, has ceased to be of political importance since the failure of its chief, Umra Khan, to appropriate to himself Bajaor, Dir, and a great part of the Kunar valley. It was the active hostility between the Amir of Kabul (who claimed sovereignty of the same districts) and Umra Khan that led, firstly to the demarcation agreement of 1893 which fixed the boundary of Afghanistan in Kunar; and secondly to the invasion of Chitral by Umra Khan (who was no party to the boundary settlement) and the siege of the Chitral fort in 1895. An interesting feature in Bajaor topography is a mountain spur from the Kunar range, which curving eastwards culminates in the well-known peak of Koh-i-Mor, which is visible from the Peshawur valley. It was here, at the foot of the mountain, that Alexander found the ancient city of Nysa and the Nyssean colony, traditionally said to have been founded by Dionysos. The Koh-i-Mor has been identified as the Meros of Arrian’s history—the three-peaked mountain from which the God issued. It is also interesting to find that a section of the Kafir community of Kamdesh still claim the same Greek origin as did the Nysseans; still chant hymns to the god who sprang from Gir Nysa (the mountain of Nysa); whilst they maintain that they originally migrated from the Swat country to their present habitat in the lower Bashgol. Long after Buddhism had spread to Chitral, Gilgit, Dir, and Swat; whilst Ningrehar was still full of monasteries and temples, and the Peshawur valley was recognized as the seat of Buddhist learning, the Kafirs or Nysseans held their own in Bajaor and in the lower Kunar valley, where Buddhism apparently never prevailed. It is probable that the invader Babar (who has much to say about Bajaor) fought them there in the early years of the 16th century, when on his way to found the Turk dynasty of India centuries after Buddhism had been crushed in Northern India by the destroyer Mahmud. The Gazetteers and Reports of the Indian Government contain nearly all the modern information available about Bajaor. The Autobiography of Babar (by Leyden and Erskine) gives interesting details about the country in the 16th century. For the connexion between the Kafirs and the ancient Nysseans of Swat, see R.G.S. Journal, vol. vii. 1896. (t. H. H.*) Baker, a city of Oregon, U.S.A., capital of Baker county, in the eastern part of the State, in the valley of the Powder river, at the east base of the Blue Mountains, and on the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Co. Railway. It is a supply-point for the mines in these mountains and those in the Wallowa range, to the north-east. Population (1880), 1258; (1890), 2604; (1900), 6663. Baker, Sir Samuel White (1821-1893), English traveller and author, was born in London, 8th June 1821. He was educated partly in England and partly in Germany. His father destined him for a commercial career, but a short experience of office-work proved him to be entirely unsuited to such a life. On 3rd August 1843 he married Henrietta Biddulph Martin, daughter of the rector of Maisemore, and the two following years were spent, with his wife, in Mauritius, looking

SIR

SAMUEL

after some property held there by his father. The desire for travel took him in 1846 to Ceylon, where, in the following year, he founded an agricultural settlement at Newara Eliya, a mountain health-resort. Aided by his brother, he brought emigrants thither from England, together with choice breeds of cattle, and before long the new settlement was a success. His health necessitated his leaving Ceylon in 1855; and soon after his return to England his wife died (29th December 1855), leaving him with four children. During his residence in Ceylon he published The Rijle and the Hound in Ceylon (1853), and, two years later, Eight Years’ Wanderings in Ceylon (1855). After a journey to Constantinople and the Crimea in 1856, he found an outlet for his restless energy by undertaking the supervision of the construction of a railway across the Dobruja, connecting the Danube with the Black Sea. After its completion he spent some months in a tour in south-eastern Europe and Asia Minor. It was during this time that he met, in Hungary, the lady who (in 1860) became his second wife, Florence, daughter of Herr Finnian von Sass. In 1861 he started upon his first tour of exploration in Central Africa. This, in his own words, was undertaken “ to discover the sources of the Nile, with the hope of meeting the East African expedition under Captains Speke and Grant somewhere about the Victoria Lake.” After a year’s exploration of Abyssinia, as a result of which he fixed the position of the chief Nile tributaries in that region, he started from Khartum, in December 1862, to follow up the course of the White Nile. Two months later he met Speke and Grant, who were returning after their discovery of Victoria Nyanza. Their success made him fear that there was nothing left for his own expedition to accomplish; but the two explorers generously gave him information which enabled birrij after separating from them, to achieve the discovery of Albert Nyanza, of whose existence credible assurance had already been given to Speke and Grant. Baker first sighted the lake on 14th March 1864, after which, having spent some time in the exploration of the neighbourhood, he started upon his return journey, and reached Khartum, after many checks, in May 1865. In the following October he returned to England, with his wife, who had accompanied him throughout the whole of the perilous and arduous journey. In recognition of his achievements the Royal Geographical Society awarded him its gold medal, and a similar distinction was bestowed on him by the Paris Geographical Society. In August 1866 he was knighted. In the same year he published The Albert Eyanza, Great Basin of the Nile, and Explorations of the Nile Sources, and, in 1867, The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, both books quickly going through several editions. In 1868 he published a story called Cast up by the Sea. In 1869, at the request of the Khedive, Baker undertook the command of a military expedition to Central Africa, with the object of suppressing the slave trade there and opening the way to commerce and civilization. Before starting from Cairo with a force of 1700 Egyptian troops he was given the rank of Pacha and Major-General in the Ottoman army. Lady Baker, as before, accompanied him. The Khedive appointed him Governor-General of the new territory for four years, at a salary of <£10,000 a year; and it was not until the expiration of that time that Baker returned to Cairo, leaving his work to be carried on by the new governor, Colonel Gordon. He had at least succeeded in planting in the new territory the foundations upon which others could build up an administration ; had he remained longer there, or had the Khedivial Government supported him with more vigour, the results of his efforts nlight have been more permanent. He returned to England with his wife in 1874, and in the