River of the Gods by Candice Millard

February 1, 2023

River of the Gods by Candice Millard

Since Roman times, explorers searched for the source of the River Nile. In Victorian England, two explorers - Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke - join together to mount an expedition to discover the source of the "White Nile." Companions at first, they disagreed about which of them deserved the credit for the discovery and eventually became bitter enemies.

Speke was a British aristocrat who was largely ignorant of Africa's people, languages, and customs, and his main interest was hunting and killing as many animals as possible. Burton was an Anglo-Indian who grew up outside of England and spent much of his early life in India, a brilliant but odd man who spoke more than 20 languages. While Speke claimed to have found the source of the Nile, it was actually their guide, an African named Sidi Mubarak Bombay, who was the real hero of their exploits.

While maybe not as gripping as the author's other works, there is still excellent research and loads of gripping historical detail. The narrative was successful in that I learned about something that I had formerly known little about. I had heard of Sir Richard Burton, but it was for his translations of works including The 1,001 Arabian Nights rather than his explorations. I had never heard of John Hanning Speke, or suspected there was so much controversy about the source of the Nile. Interesting narrative nonfiction.

Sir Richard Burton

John Hanning Speke