Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/167

 by the bestowal of the imperial order of the Osmanie 2nd class. His period of government in the Soudan was too short to be successful; he, however, established the skeleton of an administration, and struck the first blow against a trade which he found to be legalised by the very authority under which he was commissioned to destroy it. On his return to England he was much feted, and accorded an enthusiastic reception by the Geographical Society (8 Dec. 1873). He published in September 1874 an account of his journey and administration under the title 'Ismailia;' this account in two volumes was somewhat hastily written in sixty-four days (letter from Baker to Gordon, 8 July 1875, in Sir S. Baker: a Memoir, p. 227).

Baker's interest in the future of the Soudan never slackened; he corresponded constantly with Gordon, who succeeded him in April 1874. To the abandonment of the Soudan he was altogether opposed, and in the years following that event (1885) he never tired, by means of correspondence in the press and of communications to the ministers of the day, of advocating its resumption (ib. pp. 343-60), and with considerable foresight regarded Colonel (now Lord) Kitchener as the instrument most likely to bring this about (letter of Sir S. Baker to Kitchener, 29 April 1892, quoted in Sir S. Baker: a Memoir, p. 432).

In November 1874 he purchased the small estate of Sandford Orleigh in South Devon, where he resided for a portion of each year during the remainder of his life. His passionate love of travel he, however, maintained; the greater part of the year 1879 he spent in Cyprus, and his impressions were recorded in his book 'Cyprus as I saw it in 1879.' He was constantly in Egypt, and between 1879 and 1892 visited India seven times, and almost to the end of life bis vigorous health enabled him to maintain his reputation as the greatest living hunter of big game. In whatever quarter of the globe he chanced to be, whether in pursuit of elephants in Africa and Ceylon, tiger-hunting in the central provinces in India, deer-stalking in Japan, bear-shooting in the Eocky Mountains, this iron-nerved sportsman ever proved his ability to excel all others. He himself regarded the pursuit of dangerous game as the best training for either an explorer or a soldier {True Tales for my Grandsons, p. 176), and to his own experiences in the jungle and on the plain the development of his remarkable tenacity and resource as an explorer was doubtless in great part due.

Baker died on 30 Dec. 1893 at Sandford Orleigh, near Newton Abbot; his body was cremated and his ashes buried at Grimley, near Worcester, on 5 Jan. 1894. By his first marriage there were seven children, of whom only three daughters survived their father. A portrait of Baker from a photograph is prefixed to the 'Memoir' by Douglas Murray, and medallion portraits of both the explorer and Lady Baker, engraved by C. H. Jeens, appear in his book the 'Albert Nyanza;' a reproduction of a photograph also appears in the 'Geographical Journal' (iii. 152). In appearance he was described by Lord Wharncliffe, who had been his companion in big game hunting, as a man of very powerful build, of medium height, but with very broad shoulders and deep chest, and possessing an extraordinary capacity for enduring fatigue.

He wrote with rapidity and fluency, and the popularity of his various works is attested by the number of reprints and editions which have been issued. The following is a list of his chief writings: 1. 'The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon,' 8vo, 1853; reprinted 1857, 1874, 1882, 1884, 1890, 1892. 2. 'Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon,' 8vo, 1855, and 1874, 1880, 1883, 1884, 1890, 1891, 1894. 3. 'The Albert Nyanza, Great Basin of the Nile, and Explorations of the Nile Sources,' 1866, 2 vols. 8vo; numerous subsequent editions and reprints. 4. 'The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia and the Sword Hunters of the Hamran Arabs,' 1867, 8vo; four subsequent editions and numerous reprints. 5. 'Ismailia,' 1874, 2 vols. 8vo; 2nd ed. 1874; 3rd ed. 1878. 6. 'Cyprus as I saw it in 1879,' 1879, 8vo. 7. 'Wild Beasts and their Ways,' 1890. He also wrote two story books: 'Cast up by the Sea,' 1868, many times reprinted, and 'True Tales for my Grandsons,' 1883. In addition to the above Baker published numerous pamphlets and articles in reviews, in particular in the 'Nineteenth Century,' 1884; 'Fortnightly,' 1886, 1888; 'National Review,' 1888.  BAKER, THOMAS (1771?–1845), vice-admiral, of an old Kentish family, and a descendant, direct or collateral, of Vice-admiral John Baker (1661–1716) [q. v.], was born about 1771. He entered the navy in 1781 on board the Dromedary storeship, and was borne on her books till 1785. He was then for three years in the service of the East India Company, but in 1788 returned 