No mystery was quite so fascinating for the Victorian explorers of Africa as the riddle of the source of the Nile.
John Hanning Speke 1827-1864
A keen sportsman, Speke visited Africa in 1857 with Burton to search for the source of the Nile. Both men suffered terribly with fever, and Speke once nearly went blind. But on July 30 1858, on a side trip by himself, Speke discovered Lake Victoria which he claimed (correctly) as the Nile’s main source. Burton disagreed, so in 1860 Speke returned to explore the lake more fully. Given a hero’s welcome in England, Speke died in a shooting accident on the day he was to debate against Burton.
Sir Richard Burton 1821-1890
An outstanding Victorian adventurer, Sir Richard Burton was an explorer, daredevil and scholar. He loved travelling in disguise, like CailliĆ© when travelling to Timbuktu, and in 1853 penetrated the forbidden cities of Medina and Mecca, making a sketch of the sacred stone of Islam. The next year he explored Somaliland with Speke. Able to speak at least 29 languages, Burton even tried to discover if there was a “monkey language” by keeping a troupe of monkeys in his house and studying their cries.
Tracing the Source of the River Nile
It was considered impossible to trace the river by going upstream from the Sudan because the river passage was blocked by floating masses of weed known as sudd. So instead, Burton and Speke tried marching inland from Zanzibar on the East coast, and had already discovered Lake Tanganyika when Speke found the main Nile source at Lake Victoria. Speke’s later expedition was to be famous throughout Europe and America for the extraordinary glimpse it gave of life at the negro kingdom of Uganda. There the young king Mtesa ruled with his royal symbols of a white shield, spear, and a dog. His courtiers had to throw themselves face down on the ground before him, shouting his praises, and when Speke gave Mtesa a gun, the king asked a page boy to test it by going out into the compound and shooting a man.