e, and a few months later,
after her death, King Edward created him a member of the Distinguished
Service Order, and personally presented him with the South African
medal with five bars, and the cross of the D. S. O. While recovering
his health Burnham, with Mrs. Burnham, was "passed on" by friends he had
made in the army from country house to country house; he was made the
guest of honor at city banquets, with the Duke of Rutland rode after the
Belvoir hounds, and in Scotland made mild excursions after grouse. But
after six months of convalescence he was off again, this time to the
hinterland of Ashanti, on the west coast of Africa, where he went in the
interests of a syndicate to investigate a concession for working gold
mines.

With his brother-in-law, J. C. Blick, he marched and rowed twelve
hundred miles, and explored the Volta River, at that date so little
visited that in one day's journey they counted eleven hippopotamuses. In
July, 1901, he returned from Ashanti, and a few months later an unknown
but enthusiastic admirer asked in the House of Commons if it were
true Major Burnham had applied for the post of Instructor of Scouts at
Aldershot. There is no such post, and Burnham had not applied for
any other post. To the Timer he wrote: "I never have thought myself
competent to teach Britons how to fight, or to act as an instructor
with officers who have fought in every corner of the world. The question
asked in Parliament was entirely without my knowledge, and I deeply
regret that it was asked." A few months later, with Mrs. Burnham and his
younger son, Bruce, he journeyed to East Africa as director of the East
African Syndicate.

During his stay there the _African Review_ said of him: "Should East
Africa ever become a possession for England to be proud of, she will owe
much of her prosperity to the brave little band that has faced hardships
and dangers in discovering her hidden resources. Major Burnham has
chosen men from England, Ireland, the United States, and South Africa
for sterling qualities, and they have justified his choice. Not the
least like a hero is the retiring, diffident little major himself,
though a finer man for a friend or a better man to serve under would not
be found in the five continents."

Burnham explored a tract of land larger than Germany, penetrating a
thousand miles through a country, never before visited by white men,
to the borders of the Congo Basin. With him he had twenty white