The Nile Quest

London: Lawrence and Bullen, Ltd., 1903. [Travel] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 17cm), pp.xvi;341; [1]. Publisher's green cloth blocked in gilt to spine and upper, edges untrimmed. Illustrated with 74 plates and a large folding map in colour to rear. Spine darkened with a little ear to the top and bottom edges. A solid copy.

In the mid-nineteenth century, European explorers and geographers were obsessed with the question: where does the Nile River begin? Many considered it to be the greatest geographic mystery of their day, and those who sought it became household names. Their actions and the debates that surrounded them intensified public interest in Africa and contributed to the colonization of the continent.

The quest for conclusive proof continued for the next 13 years after Burton and Speke first discovered Lake Tanganyika in 1857. Dr. David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley searched Lake Tanganyika together, disproving Burton’s theory, but it was not until the mid-1870s that Stanly finally circumnavigated Lake Victoria and explored the surrounding lakes, confirming Speke’s theory and solving the mystery, for a few generations at least.