BEKE, Charles Tilstone, a distinguished English traveller, geographer, and Biblical critic, was born in London, October 10, 1800. Educated for the pursuits of commerce, he afterwards studied law for a short time at Lincoln’s Inn, but finally devoted himself to the study of historical, geographical, and ethnographical subjects. The first-fruits of his researches appeared in his work entitled Origines Biblicoe, or Researches in Primeval History, which was published in 1834. As an attempt to reconstruct the early history of the human race from geological dates, it naturally raised a storm of opposition on the part of those who felt it their duty to defend the traditional readings of the book of Genesis. For about two years (1836 to 1838) Dr Bekeheld the post of British Consul in Saxony. From that time till his death his attention was devoted to geographical studies, chiefly of Africa and the Nile Valley. Aided by private friends, he visited Abyssinia in connection with the political mission under Major Harris, and explored districts which up to that time had remained unknown to Europeans. The valuable results of this journey, which occupied him from 1840 to 1843, he gave to the world in 1845 in the work entitled Abyssinia, a Statement of Facts, Ac. Once again, after an interval of more than twenty years, he went to Abyssinia, for the purpose of obtaining from King Theodore the release of Mr Rassam and other British captives. In this he succeeded, but the king afterwards changed his mind and continued to detain the prisoners. In 1848 he made an unsuccessful attempt to explore the Upper Nile; his labour was repaid, however, by a large amount of information about the countries which he traversed. The ardour with which he pursued his chosen path was shown by his undertaking ...in his seventy-fourth year a journey to Palestine, for the purpose of determining the real position of Mount Sinai. He conceived that it was on the eastern side of the Gulf of Akabah; and his exploration convinced him that his view was right. It has not, however, commended itself to general acceptance. Dr Beke died at Bromley, in Kent, July 31, 1874.
Dr Beke’s writings are very numerous. Among the more important, besides those already named, are— An Essay on the Nile and its Tributaries, 1847; On the Sources of the Nile, 1849; and The British Captives in Abyssinia, 1865. He contributed a large number of Memoirs and Papers to the Royal Geographical Society, the British Association, the Philological Society, the Athcnoeum, the Archoeologia, the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, &c., &c. He was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and for his contributions to our knowledge of Abyssinia received its gold medal, and also that of the Geographical Society of France. For his Origines Biblicoe the degree of Ph.D. was conferred on him by the University of Tiibingen. He was also a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In 1870 he received the grant of a pension on the civil list.
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