The Source of the Nile
SPEKE, John Hanning.
What led to the discovery of the source of the Nile ... Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood and Sons, 1864.
8vo, pp. x, [2], 372; with engraved frontispiece and 2 folding maps; a very few light marginal marks, two short closed tears to first map (one repaired); very good in contemporary half calf and purple moiré cloth, spine gilt in compartments with red morocco lettering-piece, marbled edges and endpapers; spine slightly sunned, one corner bumped; ink inscription of ‘Thos G. Holt’ to front free endpaper.
First edition of this work on Speke’s momentous explorations of Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria, collecting his ‘Journal of adventures in Somali land’ and ‘Journal of a cruise on the Tanganyika lake’.
‘In offering this short connected history of my first two explorations in Africa, I must state that I have been urged to do so by friends desirous of knowing what led to the discovery of the source of the Nile. The greater part of it was originally published in Blackwood’s Magazine; but that lacked the connection which I have now given to the conclusion of my independent journey to and from the Victoria N’yanza, which is the great source or reservoir of the Nile. The manner in which I traced the Nile down from Victoria N’yanza to Egypt is explained in my Journal of the discovery of the Source of the Nile’ (Advertisement).
The frontispiece depicts Speke’s ‘escape from the Somali’, and the maps show the Somali coast and East Africa, with expedition routes marked in red.
Czech, African p. 151; Hosken p. 188; Ibrahim-Hilmy II, p. 255.