he's more like a linguistic anthropologist since he is focused on documenting the culture of these people with a focus on how languages stand a nexus between cultures.
Still probably doesn't get paid sh*t. His family had the money to send him there and they have the money to bring him back, where Turkish will be a once-in-a-blue-moon job.
Looking back in history, the only people who seem to be able to afford to travel and do things like what he is doing were either from well-off families or were pirates.
well no one said anything about the pay. back then, explorers were probably most often sponsored by their government if not self support for a "passion project" due to being well off. he's not a legit professional as we call them today. Even today, those who do research may not get paid much if they're doing their research and aren't tied to an institution.
All this while I've wondered about Henry's profession and it turns out that he's a linguist! What a pleasant surprise, seeing as I'm also a bit of a language nerd myself.