DEATH OF COLONEL HILDER 



FRANK FREDERICK HILDER, 

 soldier, geographer, and ethnolo- 

 gist, was born in Hastings, Eng- 

 land, in 1836 ; he died in Washington 

 January 21, igor. Educated at Rugby 

 in the approved manner of the times, he 

 afterward graduated from the British 

 military school at Sandhurst, and entered 

 the arm 3^ as a cornet in early manhood, 

 at a time when the eyes of all England, 

 were turned on India. Sent imme- 

 diately to aid in quelling the Sepoy re- 

 bellion, he soon saw service of such 

 severity — and met it with such intre- 

 pidity — that he was awarded the Indian 

 Mutiny medal, with special-service bars 

 for Delhi and Eucknow. 



It was during this period of his career 

 that Hilder traversed the Indo-Gangetic 

 plain, trod the Himalayan foothills, and 

 visited the provinces and cities of the 

 northwestern empire from Bombay to 

 Kashmir, and from the Punjab to Nepal, 

 laying the foundation for a broad, yet 

 precise, geographic and ethnologic edu- 

 cation ; and some of the lectures of even 

 the latest years of his life drew inspira- 

 tiori and significant detail from the re- 

 searches enlivening these earl}^ cam- 

 paigns. He saw service also in Farther 

 India, Borneo, and the Philippines, 

 and after rising through a lieutenancy 

 to the rank of captain was transferred 

 to Africa. Here he won the Egyptian 

 medal, and his skill as military expert 

 and organizer attracted such attention 

 that after his return to his regiment in 

 India he was recalled and promoted to 

 a colonelcy at the express request of the 

 Khedive. 



In Africa, as in India, Colonel Hilder 

 seized every opportunity for .scientific 

 research ; but his tenure in the Egyptian 

 army was cut 'short by the terrible ex- 

 perience of a sand-storm, which so in- 

 jured his eyesight that he decided to 

 abandon a military career. Coming to 

 America on his recovery, Colonel Hilder 



met again the contagion of military spirit 

 stimulated by our civil war, and did 

 special work of importance in the Engi- 

 neer Corps, but held so firmly to his 

 election of a peaceful life as to decline 

 an American commission. In the later 

 sixties he became the international repre- 

 sentative of a small-arms manufactory, 

 and spent fifteen years chiefly in travel 

 through the several Spanish-American 

 countries; and during this period he 

 acquired an extended and intimate ac- 

 quaintance with languages and peoples, 

 as well as with national leaders and poli- 

 cies. Impressed by the opportunities 

 for international business presented by 

 the actual and prospective republics of 

 Spanish America, he established a house 

 in Chicago, only to be ruined by the fire 

 of 187 1 ; later he combined business en- 

 terprises in St. Louis and Mississippi 

 City with notable researches in the ar- 

 cheology of the Mississippi Valley. Un- 

 happily pursued by conflagrations, he 

 turned to research and publication, mak- 

 ing important contributions to the pro- 

 jectors of the Pan-American Railway and 

 the Bureau of American Republics. 



Colonel Hilder acted as secretary of 

 the National Geographic Society during 

 the year ending June, 1899, afterward 

 becoming Ethnologic Translator in the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology. He 

 continued in this position to the time of 

 his death, though he was detailed as a 

 special agent of the Pan-American Ex- 

 position for work in the Philippines 

 during the earlier half of 19 ;o. 



As indicated by his career, Colonel Hil- 

 der possessed remarkably strong char- 

 acter ; yet he was bj^ instinct a natu- 

 ralist and student, and devoted the best 

 energies of his life to the increase and 

 diffusion of knowledge. His later pub- 

 lications, through the Bureau of Edu- 

 cation and the Bureau of American 

 Republics, as well as through the 

 Nationai, Geographic Magazine, 



