Into the Unknown

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19983, 28 October 1927, Page 6

Into the Unknown

ADVENTUROUS JOURNEYS 4.—SPEKE AT THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. John Hanning Speke, the discoverer of the source of the River Nile, was only thirty-seven years of age at the time of bis tragic death, and his remarkable career as an explorer only covered a part of the last ten years of his life . At the age of 17 he went out to India to take up his duties ag an officer in the army of the East India Company, and it was during his furloughs, which he spent travelling through unknown sections of the Himalayas and Tibet, that he decided to devote his life to African exploration immediately his ten years of military service came to an end. He left the army in 1854 and at once joined Sir Richard Burton on a trip through Somaliland, which finished abruptly owing to the hostile attitude of the natives, and Spoke, who was badly wounded, was compelled to return to England, where he volunteered for service in the Crimean campaign. At the conclusion of the war, he accepted Burton’s invitation to join him in an expedition to seek the great lakes j which were believed to exist in East Central Africa. After exploring Lake j Tanganyika, Burton was stricken down with a fever, and Speke proceeded alone to find a great inland sea in the north, of which he had heard from an Arab trader, and which he thought might prove to be the source of the Nile. After a rapid march of twenty-nine days, Speke arrived at Lake. Victoria Nyanza on August 3, 1858, and then immediately hastened to rejoin Burton, who ridiculed the idea that there was any connection between the Jake and the Nile. Speke returned to England, where he reported his theory to the Royal Geographical Society, which arranged to place him in charge of an expedition to explore the lake, with the object of ascertaining whether it was the source of the river and, if so, of following the course of the Nile to the

Speke, who was accompanied by Capt. J. A. Grant, left Zanzibar in October 1860 with a force of 200 natives. His progress was delayed by the hostility and extortions of the native chiefs through whose territories he had to pass but finally, in October, 1861, he reached the south-west corner of the Victoria Nyanza. He proceeded along the western shore of the lake to the capital of Uganda, where he was detained for .some time by the king, whom he eventually persuaded to supply him with guides to lead him to his goal. On July 28, 1862, Speke had the gratification of reaching a spot where he was able to watch the water of the Nile start on their long northward passage to the sea, and thus solved the problem which had baffled man for ages. The explorer learned of the existence of another large lake to the north-west, which he thought might also have some connection with the Nile, but the King of Unyoro would not permit him to visit it, and Speke and Grant started on their march back to civilisation. As far as possible. Speke followed the course of the Nile, and at Gondoroko he was met by Sir Samuel Baker, who was travelling up the river with the intention of aiding him in his quest. Baker at once decided to seek the second great lake, which Speke had been unable to reach, and started on the famous journey which resulted in the discovery of Albert Nyanza. The whole of Speke’s observations and theories have long since been proved correct, but on his return to England the accuracy of his statements was challenged by Burton and other travellers. The British Association arranged a public meeting at which the two famous explorers were to have settled the controversy by a debate, but, on the afternoon previous to the day fixed for the meeting, Speke, while engaged in partridge-shooting, was killed instantly by the accidental discharge of the gun he was carrying.—(Copyright) .