John Hanning Speke

English explorer

• Born: May 4, 1827
• Birthplace: Orleigh Court, near Bideford, Devon, England
• Died: September 15, 1864
• Place of death: Neston Park, Corsham, Wiltshire, England

A central figure in the nineteenth century European search for the source of the Nile River, Speke traveled extensively in East Africa and is credited with being the first European to see and report on Lake Victoria.

Early Life

John Hanning Speke (speek) was the son of William Speke, a retired army officer, and Georgiana Hanning Elizabeth Speke, who came from a family of wealthy merchants. Relatively little is known of Speke’s early years. He showed an interest in zoology from a tender age but was a restless boy who cared little for school. Whenever possible, he was out in the fields and woods, and it is from these youthful days that a lifelong interest in natural history and sport dates.

In 1844, the same year his father came into possession of the family estate at Jordans (many sources wrongly suggest that this was Speke’s birthplace), he received assignment as a second lieutenant in the Forty-sixth Bengal Native Infantry Regiment, in the Indian Army. This assignment followed completion of his studies at Blackheath New Preparatory School in London.

April 24, 1844, may be said to be the day when Speke was vested with the responsibilities of manhood. On this day the seventeen-year-old lad was examined and passed as an entering officer cadet for Indian army service. Speke’s preferment was in all likelihood largely a result of his mother’s influence with the duke of Wellington. He had already passed the required medical examinations prior to his final application, so he was able to begin active service almost immediately. On May 3, 1844, he boarded ship and four months later was in India. The Asian subcontinent and its life apparently suited him well. He demonstrated some facility with languages, and by the end of his second year of service, he had passed an examination in Hindustani. He also had ample opportunity to indulge his love of hunting and made many forays into the plains and the HimalayaMountains in search of sport.

Speke saw active service in the Second Sikh War when he served as a subaltern officer in the “fighting brigade” of General Colin Campbell’s division, and on October 8, 1850, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. It was also at this point that he first began to think of African exploration, although at the time collecting specimens of the continent’s animal life weighed more heavily in his mind than geographical discovery. For the time, though, any such journey was only a dream. He still had five years’ service remaining before he would become eligible for an extended furlough.

Meanwhile, he scrupulously saved his money and underwent conscious training in preparation for African exploration. Each year he made excursions into the mountains of Tibet, he developed his skills as a surveyor and cartographer, and he became an excellent hunter and marksman. Speke actually cared little for the dull routine of army life, as he later confessed, and he clearly was a man in search of adventure. This obsession would drive him all of his life, as he constantly sought to conquer that which was mysterious or unknown. This trait, coupled with his interest in nature, was vital in his choosing the arduous life of an explorer.

Thanks to the favor of his superiors, he was able to obtain regular extended leaves, and late in 1854, he had the opportunity for which he had so long waited. He was to join a fellow Indian army officer, Richard Francis Burton, in exploring Somaliland. He and Burton had met on shooting outings in India, and their common interest in Africa had drawn them together. From this juncture onward, for the remaining ten years of his life, Speke would be almost completely preoccupied with African discovery.

Life’s Work

The Somaliland undertaking proved an abortive one. While camped on the coast, the party was attacked, with Speke being badly wounded and briefly held captive. The attack also planted the seeds of discord between Burton and Speke, for in the confusion Burton believed that his companion had not responded to the native attack as readily or bravely as he should. However, realizing that Speke had “suffered in person and purse,” Burton invited him to join another expedition. This journey began in December, 1856, with its primary objective being the discovery of the mysterious sources of the Nile River .

The pair, rather than taking the standard approach of moving upriver along the Nile, traveled overland from the East African coast opposite Zanzibar. Together they discovered Lake Tanganyika, which would ultimately prove to be the source of the Congo River, although Burton thought it might be their objective. On the return journey, while Burton remained in camp at Kazeh (modern Tabora, Tanzania) investigating some of the social and sexual customs that so fascinated him, Speke made a flying march to the north.

Speke’s objective was a lake that local reports said stretched to the ends of the earth, and on July 30, 1858, he first sighted the vast body of water that he instinctively knew was the Nile’s source. He named it Lake Victoria, after his sovereign, but because of time considerations and the fact that he was nearly blind from ophthalmia, Speke had no opportunity for a proper reconnaissance of the lake. Nevertheless, he returned to Kazeh proclaiming that he had discovered the Nile’s source, a conclusion that Burton ridiculed. Henceforth there would be bitter discord between the two, although they had little choice but to retain at least the vestiges of friendship during the perilous return journey to Zanzibar.

After returning to England, Speke immediately claimed credit as the discoverer of the Nile’s source, and his theories attracted widespread attention. He had preceded Burton back to England, and when the leader of the East African expedition returned a few weeks later, he found, to his regret, that Speke was the “lion of the day.” The Royal Geographical Society, with the encouragement of Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, had decided to finance a new expedition for the purpose of obtaining proof of Speke’s claims. Accompanied by James Augustus Grant, another acquaintance from his Indian army days, Speke returned to East Africa in 1860.

Despite facing an incredible variety of obstacles, ranging from incipient warfare among tribes living along the route to recurrent demands for hongo (passage fees), the expedition made its way to the important lake kingdoms of Buganda and Karagwe. While Grant stayed behind at the latter location (ostensibly because of a leg injury but probably owing to Speke’s egotistical reluctance to share any fame that might come from his discoveries), Speke marched eastward to the Nile. On July 21, 1862, he reached the river and followed it upstream until he reached the falls at the north end of Lake Victoria. This massive outflow of water he named the Ripon Falls, in honor of the president of the Royal Geographical Society, Lord Ripon.

At this juncture, his task seemed simple enough. All that remained was to collect Grant and proceed downriver until the expedition reached a known point on the Nile. This proved impossible, though, thanks to objections raised by tribes living along the river. The necessity of taking a detour away from the Nile as he moved downriver left Speke’s claims open to dispute, and it would not be until 1890, long after his death, that his contentions would be proved completely correct. Nevertheless, after overcoming a series of vexing impediments placed in their way by African chieftains, Speke and Grant managed to resume their travels downriver. Falling in with a company of Arab slave and ivory traders, they reached Gondokoro, the last outpost of European civilization, on February 15, 1863.

There they met Samuel White Baker and his mistress (later to become his wife), Florence von Sass. After a few days with this extraordinary couple, they proceeded onward in their journey back to England. After returning home, Speke and Grant were welcomed in tumultuous fashion, although challenges from Burton and others regarding the accuracy of Speke’s geography produced considerable controversy. The matter occasioned widespread debate in newspapers, learned circles, and among the general public. Eventually, it was agreed that Burton and Speke would debate on the subject before a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, with the noted missionary/explorer Dr. David Livingstone acting as moderator.

The debate was scheduled for September 16, 1864, but it never took place. As a packed house listened in shocked silence, it was announced that Speke had shot himself while out hunting partridges the previous afternoon. The dramatic nature of his death added to the controversy surrounding the entire matter of the Nile’s source, and the subject would be one of contention and uncertainty in Africanist and geographical circles for another generation. The nature of Speke’s death, which was officially ruled accidental but which many believed, with some justice, was suicide, simply added a further element of poignancy. Only in 1890, after the travels of Baker, Henry Morton Stanley, and others had added to knowledge of the Nile’s headwaters, was the problem completely solved. In the end, Speke’s claim to precedence as discoverer of the Nile’s source was fully vindicated.

Significance

John Hanning Speke’s fame rests entirely on his African travels, and his discovery of Lake Victoria was, as another African explorer, Sir Harry H. Johnston, has said, the greatest geographical discovery since North America. His work, along with that of Livingstone, Burton, Stanley, and other African explorers, excited great public interest in Africa and thereby eventually fueled the flames of imperialism. In a sense, African discovery provided the foundation upon which the scramble for colonial possessions on the continent was built, and Speke did much to create the widespread interest in all things African that characterized the mid-Victorian era.

There can be no doubt that Speke was a contentious individual, but his single-minded mania for discovery loomed large in his success as an explorer. His legacy is one of having solved an age-old mystery and in so doing directing European attention to Africa in an unprecedented fashion. He remains in many ways an elusive figure, thanks to a paucity of surviving personal papers and a rather secretive nature, but recent research suggests that his was a complex personality, as was indeed generally the case with African explorers.

Bibliography

Bridges, Roy C. “Negotiating a Way to the Nile.” In Africa and Its Explorers, edited by Robert I. Rotberg. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970. A useful overview of Speke’s explorations set against the wider scope of nineteenth century African discovery.

Maitland, Alexander. Speke. London: Constable, 1971. The only full-length biography of Speke yet written, this work is flawed by inadequate research and an overemphasis on psychoanalysis. Nevertheless, it is the best available account of Speke’s life.

Moorehead, Alan. The White Nile. New York: Perennial, 1960. Reprint. 2000. Covers Speke’s and Burton’s exploration of Zanzibar, Speke’s subsequent exploration of other parts of Africa, and his discovery of the Nile’s source.

Speke, John Hanning. Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1863. Speke’s personal account of his final African journey.