Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile

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An exploration classic. First edition, 1863, VG in modern half morocco over red cloth. Spine, gilt tooling, raised bands, gilt titles to red calf labels. Internally, frontis, [5], (vi-xxxi), [1], [1], 2-658 pp, 75 illustrations, 2 maps (both coloured,1 folding in pocket at rear), printed by William Blackwood and Sons, new endpapers, some faint edge browning, marbled text block edges & endpages, faint unobtrusive embossed library stamp to TP & plates, frontis & plates, oval Rusi oval stamp to frontis verso. (213*136 mm). After an expedition into eastern Africa in the company of Sir Richard Burton, Speke returned to England to announce his hypothesis that the Nile issued from Lake Victoria Nyanza. His fellow geographers, however, including Burton, were doubtful of his claim. Under the sponsorship of Sir Roderick Murchison, Speke returned to Africa and Lake Victoria Nyanza, this time finding conclusively that the lake was the source of the great river; this work is his published account of that expedition. His claims, however, were still controversial--indeed, he and Burton were to meet and debate the issue, but the day prior to the meeting Speke was killed in a hunting accident.