The Discovery of The Source of the Nile

by John Hanning Speke




John Hanning Speke, born 1827. Served in the Punjab but left
in 1854 to explore Somaliland. Discovered Lake Tanganyika with
Burton, and Lake Victoria independently. Was, with Grant,
the first European to cross equatorial africa. Died 1864.




Editor's Note



John Hanning Speke was a man of thirty-six, when his Nile Journal
appeared. He had entered the army in 1844, and completed ten
years of service in India, serving through the Punjab Campaign.
Already he had conceived the idea of exploring Africa, before his
ten years were up, and on their conclusion he was appointed a
member of the expedition preparing to start under Sir Richard
(then Lieutenant Burton) for the Somali country. He was wounded
by the Somalis, and returned to England on sick leave; the
Crimean War then breaking out, be served through it, and later,
December 1856, joined another expedition under Burton. Then it
was that the possibility of the source of the Nile being traced