1 volume. First edition 1863.
New cloth binding with original spine laid down.
New endpapers.
Pocket [new] on inside cover for original map.
xxxi, 658 pages.
34 page original publishers catalogue.
Portrait frontispiece.
Portrait plate on page 420.
24 full-page plates.
1 fold-out map in front pocket.
1 full-page colour map.
In-text illustrations.
Sporadic foxing.
John Hanning Speke, 1827-1864. He accompanied Richard Francis Burton
on his 1854-5 Somali Expedition, then again on the 1857-9 East Africa
expedition, which aimed to find the sources of the Nile. The expedition
discovered Lake Tanganyika in 1858, and explored part of its extent.
Speke supposed that Lake Victoria, which he discovered and named,
while off on a foray of his own to the North of the chief route of
the expedition, was the source of the Nile.
Speke later returned to lead his own expedition, 1860-3, accompanied
by James Augustus Grant. They confirmed that Lake Victoria is the
chief reservoir of the Nile, though controversy over the question
was kept alive for another decade, largely because of Burton's vigorous
opposition. Burton supposed the Tanganyika was the Nile reservoir,
and that Victoria was a seasonal collection of lakes or lagoons with
no outlet. Speke died in a hunting accident in 1864.
[http://www.burtoniana.org/speke/]
- Binding Condition: Good
- Overall Condition: Good
- Size: 23 x 16 cm
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