author
John Hanning Speke
1827–1864
Remembered as one of the great Victorian explorers, he became famous for reaching Lake Victoria and arguing that it was the long-sought source of the Nile. His journeys through East Africa made him a celebrated and controversial figure in Britain.
2 Audiobooks
What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile
by John Hanning Speke
The Discovery of the Source of the Nile
by John Hanning Speke
About the author
Born on 4 May 1827, John Hanning Speke was an English army officer and explorer who served in India before turning to African exploration. He is best known for his expeditions in East Africa during the 1850s and early 1860s, when European interest in finding the source of the Nile was at its height.
Speke traveled with Richard Francis Burton on a difficult expedition into the interior of East Africa, and in 1858 he became the first European known to reach Lake Victoria. He later returned to the region with James Augustus Grant and identified the lake as the main source of the White Nile, a conclusion that brought him fame but also sparked a bitter public dispute, especially with Burton.
He published accounts of his travels, including Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile, and helped shape how Victorian readers imagined central and eastern Africa. Speke died on 15 September 1864, just before he was due to debate Burton publicly, after a shooting accident while hunting in England.