BAKER

Florence was a Transylvanian-born ethnic Hungarian British explorer. Born in Transylvania, she became an orphan when her parents and brother were murdered by the Romanian marauders led by Ioan Axente Sever. She fled with the remnants of the Hungarian army to the Ottoman Empire, settling in Vidin. There, she was sold as a slave in 1859. Years later, Samuel Baker encountered her during a visit to the Vidin white slave auction. Florence, a white slave girl destined for the Ottoman Pasha of Vidin, caught Baker's eye. Although outbid by the Pasha, Baker bribed her guards, and the two escaped together. Florence became Baker's companion and later his wife.She is referring to the The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition (1887–1889) which was a British-led mission commanded by explorer Henry Morton Stanley to rescue Emin Pasha, the besieged governor of Equatoria in Sudan. It was one of the last major 19th-century African expeditions, involving a dangerous journey through the Ituri rainforest, resulting in heavy casualties but successfully reaching Pasha.Edmund Musgrave BARTTELOT (1859-1888) was an officer who became notorious after his allegedly brutal and deranged behaviour during his disastrous command of the rear column in the Congo during this Expedition. The Rear Column only got as far as Banalya when the Major threatened a woman with his revolver because she was beating a drum during a ceremony in the early hours of the morning. He was shot dead by the woman's husband, a man named Sanga or Samba. He has often been identified as one of the sources for the character of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's 1899 novel Heart of Darkness.Ethel and Agnes are two of Baker's daughters by his first wife Henrietta Martin. They had seven children together.