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Palgrave (WILLIAM GIFFORD an English)
WILLIAM GIFFORD, an English traveler, son of Sir Francis;
born in Westminster, England, Jan. 24, 1826.
He was educated at the Charterhouse School and Oxford, graduating State Legislature, 1842-1843; secretary with great distinction in 1846. Next of State of Massachusetts, 1844-1848; year he obtained a commission in the and member of the Anti-Slavery Con- Bombay Native Infantry, which he regress at Paris, 1867. He published signed to become a priest in the Society "The Relation between Judaism and Christianity" (1854). His enduring work, however, is, "The History of New England" (4 vols. 1858-1864). He died In Cambridge, Mass., April 26, 1881. of Jesus. After studying in France and at Rome he was sent at his own request as a missionary to Syria, where he acquired a wonderfully intimate knowledge of Arabic. Summoned to France in 1860 1 PALI by Napoleon III. to give an account of the senting a sharp point to an advancing Syrian massacres, he went disguised as a physician on a daring expedition at the emperor's expense through central Arabia, traversing the entire Wahabi kingdom, and returning to Europe through Bagdad and Aleppo (1862-1863). His "Narrative of a Year's Journey Through Central and Eastern Arabia" (1865), is one of the best books of travel in the English language. Palgrave quitted the Society of Jesus in 1864. He was nominated consul at Sukhum-Kalé in 1866, at Trebizond in 1867, St. Thomas in 1873, at Manila in 1876, and consul-general in the principality of Bulgaria in 1878, and in Siam in 1880. He was appointed British minister to Uruguay in 1884. His other works are: "Essays on Eastern Questions" (1872); "Hermann Agha: an Eastern Narrative" (1872); "Dutch Guiana" (1876); and "Ulysses, or Scenes and Studies in Many Lands" (1887).
He died in Montevideo, Sept. 30, 1888.