The Discovery of the Source of the Nile

For centuries the source of the Nile was Europe’s favorite geographic riddle, and John Hanning Speke believed he had solved it. This 1863 book follows his expedition with James Grant from Zanzibar up through what is now Tanzania and Uganda, ending at Ripon Falls, where he watched the river leave Lake Victoria. Speke records the daily grind of the march, the long negotiations with chiefs whose permission he needed to move at all, and a stay at the court of Mutesa in Buganda that remains one of the earliest outside descriptions of the kingdom. His claim was attacked at home, above all by Richard Burton, and he died before the argument was settled. He was right. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.