travel, his ‘Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia,’ published in 1865 (2 vols. London, 8vo. A French translation by E. Jonveaux appeared at Paris in 1866, and an abridgment of the same translation in 1869). For a time the obscurity which hung over the objects of his mission excited a certain amount of hostile criticism respecting his motives in undertaking this daring and adventurous exploration; but its merit and the address with which it was carried out never were in question. Shortly before his return to England, finding mission work in Arabia impracticable, he, with the consent of his superiors, severed his connection with the Society of Jesus, and engaged in diplomatic work for the English government.
In July 1865 he was despatched to Abyssinia on a special mission to obtain from King Theodore the release of Consul Cameron and his fellow captives. He was directed to remain in Egypt till June 1866, when he returned home, and was at once appointed British consul at Soukhoum Kalé. Next year he was transferred to Trebizond. While stationed there he made extensive journeys in the north of Asia Minor, and his observations were embodied in a ‘Report on the Anatolian Provinces of Trebizond, Sivas, Kastemouni, and Part of Angora,’ in 1868 (Catalogue of Foreign Office Library). It is clear that he was keenly alive to the corruptness and inefficiency of Ottoman rule as he observed it in Trebizond, in Turkish Georgia (1870), and on the Upper Euphrates (1872). In 1873 he was appointed consul at St. Thomas in the West Indies; in 1876 he was transferred to Manila; two years later he was appointed for a short time consul-general in Bulgaria, and in 1879 he was sent to Bangkok. His health, never strong after the hardships to which he was exposed during his return journey after quitting Arabia, suffered severely by the Siamese climate, and his appointment to be minister-resident in Uruguay in 1884 was welcomed as likely to lead to his restoration to health. In this, however, he was disappointed. He died of bronchitis at Monte Video on 30 Sept. 1888, and his body was brought to England and buried in St. Thomas's cemetery, Fulham.
In spite of his brilliance, his official career was less distinguished than might have been anticipated. He was a great linguist, and acquired languages with extreme ease—Japanese, for example, he learnt colloquially in two months—but his interest in them was not that of a philologist; he learnt them only for practical use, and when he no longer required them he ceased to speak them. He was a learned student of Dante, a good Latin scholar, and something of a botanist, and wherever he went, as his writings show, he was a keen observer. Some years after quitting the Society of Jesus, he came under the influence of various eastern religious systems, especially the Shintoism of Japan. This form of religious belief had attracted him during a trip to Japan, which he had visited while temporarily on leave from his duty at Bangkok. During the last three years of his life he became reconciled to the Roman catholic church, and died in that faith. In 1878 the Royal Geographical Society, to which in February 1864 he had communicated the geographical results of his Arabian journey, elected him a fellow, and he was also a medallist of the French Geographical Society and a member of the Royal Asiatic Society. He married, in 1868, Katherine, daughter of G. E. Simpson of Norwich, by whom he had three sons. There is an engraved medallion-portrait of him, from a very lifelike relief by T. Woolner, R.A., prefixed to his ‘Arabia,’ and a photograph in the memoir in ‘Men of Mark.’
His published writings were, in addition to those mentioned: 1. ‘Hermann Agha,’ a fascinating romance of Eastern life (2nd edit. 2 vols. 1872, London, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1878). 2. ‘Essays on Eastern Questions,’ 1872. 3. ‘Dutch Guiana,’ 1876. 4. ‘Ulysses: or Scenes and Studies in many Lands.’ Twelve essays reprinted from ‘Fraser's,’ ‘Cornhill,’ and other periodicals, London, 1887, 8vo. 5. ‘A Vision of Life: Semblance and Reality,’ a long and mystical religious poem, published posthumously in 1891, with which he had been occupied almost till the time of his death.
[Preface to A Vision of Life; Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, November 1888; Thompson Cooper's Men of Mark, vol. iv.; Times, 2 Oct. 1888; Athenæum, 6 Oct. 1888; Saturday Review, 6 Oct. 1888; information from Sir Reginald Palgrave, K.C.B., and Mr. F. T. Palgrave.]
PALIN, WILLIAM (1803–1882), divine, youngest son of Richard Palin, who married Sarah Durden, was born at Mortlake, Surrey, on 10 Nov. 1803. While a private tutor he published in June 1829, when living at Southampton, ‘The Persians of Æschylus, translated on a new plan, with copious English Critical and Explanatory Notes.’ On 17 Dec. 1829 he matriculated from St. Alban Hall, Oxford, but he soon migrated to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1833, and M.A. 1851. He was admitted ad
