J.H. Speke | Autograph letter signed, to Murchison, on his Nile expedition and dispute with Burton, 10 May 1860

John Hanning Speke

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Roderick Murchison, President of the Royal Geographical Society, 

written en route to Africa at the outset of the expedition to prove his theory that Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile, discussing his ongoing dispute with Richard Burton and his plans for the expedition, 8 pages, 8vo, Madeira, 10 May 1860, docketed by recipient on second leaf ("Capt Speke 1860"), minor ink smudges, folds

In 1859 Speke had returned from his expedition to the Great Lakes of East Africa announcing that he had identified Lake Victoria (as he named it) as the source of the White Nile. The Royal Geographical Society swiftly raised funds and support for a new expedition to test this claim. Speke had left England the previous month and here writes to Murchison, at this stage his greatest supporter, about key aspects of his plans. He is delighted that the Governor of Cape Colony has agreed that ten Khoisan soldiers can serve in the expedition:   

"...I was defeated in my endeavour (by myself) to travel from Bunder Goree, then, to Benbera, simply from not having any reliable men with me, and afterwards told Burton our success in the conjoint expedition would much depend on our obtaining men from the Aden Police force who would be bound by their tie to our Gov' to serve us faithfully-That we could not get such men and that the expedition failed you are well aware..."

He also gives detailed instructions to be passed on to the ivory trader John Petherick, who had agreed to support the expedition and provide supplies (and who was later to be viciously attacked in print by Speke after he failed to make a key rendezvous):

"...Tell him not to diverge from the main course of the [White] stream until he is satisfied some river is flowing into it from the Nyanza and having seen the Nyanza fairly established let him return-if I do not turn up-to the main stream again and see what the country is to the S.Eastward of Gondokoro. I shall have a better chance of discovering what the country to the North Westward of the Nyanza is, than to the N.Eastward which is my reason for wishing him to go there the opposite way to me-I do not despair of learning something about the head of the Congo if I establish myself at the Northern end of the Nyanza..."

Speke's Nile claims had famously led to the bitter dispute with Richard Burton, his companion on the earlier expedition. He writes about an attack by Burton on his map-making and encloses his own riposte for the RGS Journal:

"...I have been distressed to see in the last Journal of the Society that Burton has gone out of the way to pitch into my map in Blackwood after my giving him a fair opportunity to have any objections to my transposition of the river Kivira-the bone of contention at an open meeting in the Societies' rooms where in fact-and not in Blackwood I first altered the Kivira's course - Burton you will remember stood under the newly formed map on your right-hand when I read my lecture on it - I have written and enclosed to the Society an explanation to Burton's objection on this point and shall feel very much obliged if you will cause it to be published..."

The dispute between Speke and Burton was never to be resolved. They continued to attack each other in print right up to the time of Speke's sudden death in 1864, and his death itself gave rise to speculation that he killed himself as he knew Burton was about to discredit him in public, although this in not now considered likely.

PROVENANCE:

Property of a Gentlemen [Murchison papers]; Sotheby's, London, 24 July 1978, lot 185; Sotheby's, New York, 10 December 1993, lot 170