by Tim Jeal
1. This is certainly true of Fawn M. Brodie (1967), Byron Farwell (1963), Mary S. Lovell (1998), Frank McLynn (1990) and Edward Rice (1990). A far more objective account of the two men’s strengths and failures is to be found in W. B. Carnochan’s book about their falling-out: The Sad Story of Burton, Speke, and the Nile; or, Was John Hanning Speke a Cad? [Carnochan].
2. Zanzibar II 379.
3. Lovell 89.
4. Brodie 1-2.
5. What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile John H. Speke [WLT] 6; Speke to Grant 18 Jun 1854 National Library of Scotland [NLS] 17910.
6. Zanzibar II 379; Life 1 315.
7. Zanzibar II 381.
8. This information about Speke is in James August Grant’s Papers 17931 NLS.
9. Zanzibar II 377.
10. Ibid 376-7.
11. Ibid 378; Maitland 20-i; WLT 1-2 and n.
12. WLT 20.
13. Ibid 23.
14. Maitland 23 ff.
15. WLT 104; Maitland 31.
16. Ibid 112 n.
17. Kennedy 87.
18. Zanzibar II 383.
19. Burton to Shaw 25 Feb 1859 RGS.
20. Carnochan 31; FF II 98.
21. WLT 125.
22. Ibid 127-8.
23. FF II 100, 105.
24. Life 1 219-20; Lt G. E. Herne to Burton April 1855 in The Search for the Source of the Nile: [etc] ed. Donald Young [QK book] 44 ff.
25. In WLT 132 Speke wrote ‘retiring’, rather than ‘running’, the word used by Burton in Zanzibar II 386.
26. WLT 133.
27. Zanzibar II 386; in Life 1 220, Burton has Speke leave the tent last, which Burton contradicts in the more convincing account given by him in Zanzibar II 386.
28. Life 1 221; Lovell 180.
29. Maitland 37; Lovell 180.
30. WLT 138-40.
31. Life 1 221.
32. QK book 35.
33. WLT 145, 148; Maitland 43.
34. Godsall 145; Zanzibar II 385.
35. WLT 116.
36. Ibid 144; Speke to Playfair 24 Oct 1859 quoted in Maitland 49.
FOUR: About a Rotten Person
1. Lovell 182.
2. Brodie 131.
3. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society [PRGS] Vol. 1 26 Nov and 10 Dec 1855.
4. Burton to Shaw 9 April 1856 RGS; Godsall 149.
5. Burton to Shaw 19 Apr 1856 RGS.
6. The Life of Laurence Oliphant Philip Henderson 52; WLT 150.
7. Maitland 53; WLT 151.
8. WLT 157.
9. The Lake Regions of Central Africa Richard F. Burton 2 vols [LR] 1 Preface 2.
10. Zanzibar II 376-7.
11. Maitland 14-15.
12. Georgina Speke to John Blackwood [JB] ii Sept 1860 4154 NLS.
13. Speke to Shaw 20 n.d but either March or May 1857 RGS; Georgina Speke to JB ii Sept 1860 4154 NLS.
14. Speke to JB 5 Nov 1859 4153 NLS.
15. Brodie 26.
16. Proofs of Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile [Journal proofs] 16 April p. 58 4873 NLS.
17. Speke to JB ? Apr 1860 f 112 NLS.
18. Speke to JB 27 March 1860 NLS.
19. Brodie 152. This version of Speke’s sexual nature and character would be echoed by all but one of Burton’s subsequent biographers.
20. Speke to Grant n.d. but 1855 in ‘Nogal Country’ NLS.
21. Burton: Snow upon the Desert Frank McLynn [McLynn] 106; Laurence Oliphant Anne Taylor 67; Brodie 168-9; The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton W. H. Wilkins and Isabel Burton 2 vols 1 144.
22. McLynn 52, 180; Kennedy 214; Lovell 36.
23. Brodie 105.
24. Zanzibar II 381-2.
25. Speke to Shaw 28 Oct 1859 RGS.
26. FF II 107, 143.
27. Maitland 54.
28. McLynn 55 describes ‘Burton’s rococo prose style’ as ‘a serious strike against him’. JB to J. Delane 8 Dec 1863 on the ‘genuineness’ and effectiveness of Speke’s ‘quaint’ style, quoted in Annals of a Publishing House Mrs Gerald Porter 3 vols [Annals] III 97.
29. Lovell 220.
30. Francis Galton quoted in Brodie 42.
31. Quoted in In Search of Sir Richard Burton: Papers from a Huntington Library Symposium Alan Jutzi [Jutzi] 15.
32. Lovell 228.
FIVE: Everything Was to be Risked for This Prize
1. WLT 168.
2. Zanzibar 1 180.
3. WLT 161.
4. Ibid 162, 166; Zanzibar 11 57-8; Godsall 162-3; Rebmann to Burton 21 March 1859 Quentin Keynes Collection BL [QK/BL].
5. WLT 166-7. In fact on his next journey Speke went via Unyanyembe as before; Maitland 60.
6. LR 1 75.
7. Zanzibar I 81.
8. WLT 190.
9. Zanzibar 1 351-2.
10. Ibid 453-63; LR 11 310 ff; Brodie 145.
11. LR 11 308-13; McLynn 214; Speke to Grant 22 Mar 1864 17931 NLS; WLT 218-19; Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Speke [Journal] 42, 45.
12. Zanzibar 1 484; WLT 189; ibid 484-5.
13. Ibid 488-9; 168.
14. Life 1 258.
15. Zanzibar 1 260-1.
16. Zanzibar 11 292.
17. Godsall 155.
18. Zanzibar 1 7; Burton to Shaw 19 Apr 1856 RGS; Burton to Sec Bombay Govt 28 Apr 1854, quoted Godsall 115.
19. WLT 186.
20. Zanzibar 11 179-80, 285; Zanzibar 1 479-82; Life 1 281; WLT 193, 210-12; LR 1 121 f.
21. LR 1 120; Godsall 168; WLT 197.
22. Zanzibar 11 286-8; WLT 195.
23. Lovell 245; the author claims that Frost lied because Burton had offended him in some unspecified way.
24. LR 1 46.
25. Ibid 58-71.
26. Zanzibar 11 222-3.
27. LR 1 78-9, 238; WLT 266.
28. Life 1 110; Brodie 51; ‘Captain Speke’s Discovery of the Victoria Nyanza’ Blackwood’s Magazine Vol. LXXXVI Jul-Dec 1859 Part 3, 577; Zanzibar 11 378; Lovel 254.
29. LR 1 88, 165-6.
30. Ibid 89; Zanzibar 11 269, 96; LR 1 89; Lovell 260; The White Nile Alan Moorehead [Moorehead] 45-6; Kennedy 115.
31. WLT 285, 277; H. M. Stanley to Grant 23 Dec 1878 Royal Museum of Central Africa [RMCA].
32. LR 1 388.
33. LR 1 81; also quoted Jutzi 39-40.
34. LR 1 172-3.
35. Zanzibar 11 388.
36. Speke to Shaw 2 Jul 1858 RGS.
37. Blackwood’s Magazine Vol. LXXXVI Jul-Dec 1859 Part 3, 339; Burton to Norton Shaw 19 Apr 1856 RGS; Zanzibar 11 389.
38. Life 1 283-4.
39. LR 1 175-6; Life 1 285, 284.
40. Ibid 286-7.
41. LR 1 194-7; Life 1 287.
42. WLT 196-7; LR 1 217-18.
43. Ibid 283-4.
44. McLynn 216.
45. Journal 72-8.
46. WLT 198-9.
47. Ibid 199-200.
48. LR 1 284-5; WLT 200; LR 1 336.
49. Lovell 263 and her associated notes 55, 57 and 58; WLT 200.
50. That command did pass to Speke is made clear by the notes which Burton made in the margins of his personal copy of Speke’s What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (now in the Huntington Library). Where he disagreed with a statement, Burton would usually write ‘rot’, as when Speke claimed to have cheered him up in his sickness. On other occasions he disagreed more elaborately, or with a simple ‘no’. But Burton made no comment of any kind against Speke’s claim to have taken command, implying assent.
51. Burton’s copy WLT 200.
52. LR 1 351.
53. LR 11 35-6.
54. Ibid 273.
55. Ibid 117; Brodie 158; Joseph Thomson’s height for Lake Tanganyika is recorded in PRGS Vol. IV Apr 1880; Zanzibar 11 309.
56. LR 11 72; WLT 207-8.
57. LR 11 73; WLT 208.
58. WLT 209; ‘Journal of a cruise on the Tanganyika lake and discovery of the Victoria Nyanza lake’
Blackwood’s Magazine Vol. LXXXVI 1859, Part 2.
59. WLT 224-5.
60. WLT 229-45.
61. LR 11 76; Maitland 73-4.
62. LR 11 76; WLT 246; Burton at RGS, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society [JRGS] Vol. XXIX 23 May 1859.
63. LR 11 78-97, 322.
64. Ibid 98-9.
65. Zanzibar 11 303; WLT 247.
66. ‘Our Great African Travellers’ Henry M. Stanley 3, 10 RMCA.
67. WLT 250-1; LR 11 112; ; Blackwood’s Magazine Vol. LXXXVI Oct 1859 Part 2 ‘Captain Speke’s discovery of the Victoria Nyanza lake’.
68. JRGS Vol. XXIX 23 May 1859.
69. Zanzibar 11 302; Henry M. Stanley’s diary 22 Nov 1871 RMCA; WLT 251.
70. Speke to Shaw 2 Jul 1858 RGS; LR 11 109.
71. WLT 251; Zanzibar 11 317; Burton to Shaw 24 Jun 1858 RGS; Godsall 179.
72. LR 11 142; Life 1 308; Zanzibar 11 314.
73. Speke to Rigby 22 Oct 1860 NLS.
74. Speke to JB 11 Aug 1860 4154 NLS.
75. Speke to Rigby Oct 1860, quoted by Kennedy 113.
SIX: Promises and Lies
1. WLT 251, 261; Zanzibar 11 315; Speke to Rigby 2 Oct 1860 17931 NLS.
2. Burton’s copy of WLT 263 Huntington Library.
3. Speke to Athenaeum Magazine 19 Dec 1863.
4. Blackwood’s Magazine Vol. LXXXVI Oct 1859, Part 2 398.
5. WLT 271, 287; Blackwood’s Magazine Vol. LXXXVI Oct 1859, Part 2 303-507.
6. WLT 269, 275-7; Life 1 300.
7. Blackwood’s Magazine Vol. LXXXVI Oct 1859, Part 2 409-11.
8. WLT 307.
9. Blackwood’s Magazine Vol. LXXXVI Oct 1859, Part 2 414-16; WLT 312.
10. Ibid 319.
11. Ibid 322-3.
12. Ibid 326.
13. Ibid 330, 307, 367-8, 341-2.
14. Ibid 370; LR 11 172-3.
15. WLT 370; Zanzibar 11 315.
16. Godsall 181, 155.
17. WLT 258; Zanzibar 11 318.
18. Speke to Rigby 22 Oct 1860 NLS; JRGS Vol. XXX11I 22 Jun 1863 213-14.
19. LR 11 191-3, 203.
20. Ibid 197-8; Life 1 322-321.
21. The Zambesi Journal and Letters of Dr John Kirk 1858-1863 ed. R. Foskett 1 310; HIFL 160.
22. Zanzibar 11 388; LR 1 326.
23. Life 1 315; Zanzibar 11 389; Speke to JB 30 Apr 1860 41254 NLS; Life 11 425; Life 1 326.
24. LR 11 199, 136, 309.
25. Burton to East India Company 11 Nov 1859, quoted in LR 11 392.
26. Life 1 327; Brodie 165.
27. Burton to Shaw 19 Apr 1859 RGS.
28. Burton: A Biography of Sir Richard Francis Burton Byron Farwell 178.
29. Godsall 184.
30. Zanzibar 11 390; LR 11 322.
31. Life 1 327. Among biographers from Brodie onwards, only Godsall does not repeat these words, presumably because doubting their credibility.
32. Carnochan 70; Zanzibar 11 390.
33. Formerly in the private collection of the late Quentin Keynes.
34. W. B. Carnochan seems to be the first author actually to have read and digested the ‘Tail’. 1 was enabled to do the same, thanks to Dan Cook and to Peter Speke and his son, Geoffrey. The ‘Tail’ is pp. 373-80 appended to a specially printed copy of What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile once owned by John Hanning Speke.
35. The ‘Tail’, in Speke’s copy 380.
36. Disputed dialogue to be found Life 1 327. On this issue, and in general, Godsall is indispensable where there are dubious and untrue statements in both volumes of Life. In the second page of his preface to LR 1 Burton referred to ‘the spontaneous offer, on his [Speke’s] part, of not appearing before the Society’. But Burton quoted no actual speech. A relevant lie is Isabel Burton’s editorial statement in Life 1 258 that Speke had ‘completely and wilfully spoiled the first expedition as far as lay in his power’. She offered no supporting evidence of any kind.
37. Burton to Shaw 18 Apr 1859 RGS.
38. Frank McLynn in his biography of Burton and Anne Taylor in hers of Laurence Oliphant both mentioned the ‘Tail’ but wrongly described its contents. Only Carnochan quoted it accurately.
39. JB to Speke 1 Jul 1864, Speke to JB 2 Jul 1864 30361 NLS.
40. Speke to G. Simpson 18 Aug 1864 Peter and Geoffrey Speke Collection.
41. Speke to JB 18 Jul 1864 30361 NLS.
42. The copy which Carnochan and 1 read was Speke’s own copy and was bought by the family at the Quentin Keynes Christie’s auction in 2004. A few other copies were privately printed by Blackwood for close family members, but whether they still exist is unknown.
43. Zanzibar 11 391.
SEVEN: A Blackguard Business
1. The Nile Basin Richard F. Burton and James M’Queen [Nile Basin] 7-8; only Godsall of Speke’s recent biographers disputes Burton’s statement.
2. Godsall 186.
3. Speke to Shaw 8 May 1859 RGS.
4. Godsall 186; Private History of the Royal Geographical Society Clements Markham.
5. Journal 17.
6. Zanzibar 11 391.
7. Speke to Shaw 19 May 1859 RGS.
8. Zanzibar 11 390; Brodie 167; Life 11 424-5.
9. ‘Tail’ 376.
10. Nile Basin 8.
11. Life 11 425.
12. Only Godsall describes these events accurately.
13. Memories of my Life Francis Galton 199; Godsall 189.
14. PRGS Vol. 11I 23 May 1859; Godsall 188.
15. LR 1 Preface 2.
16. Zanzibar 11 320.
17. Speke to JB 2 Sept 1859 4143 NLS.
18. Ibid.
19. Zanzibar 11 392.
20. Ibid 308-9; see Speke’s comment WLT 370.
21. Speke to Shaw 5 Nov 1859 RGS; Jahresberichte des Marienvereins Ignatius Knoblecher.
22. Speke to Burton ? Nov 1859 QK book 165; Zanzibar 11 316.
23. Speke to Burton 17 June 1859 QK book 154-5.
24. Burton to Shaw 20 March 1860 RGS.
25. Burton to RGS 13 Oct 1859 QK book 160-2. The advance of 20 Maria Theresa dollars was worth about £4 in the money of the day. The average wage for a domestic servant in Britain was £25 per annum.
26. Speke to Rigby 17 Oct 1859 NLS; Rigby to Sec Govt Bombay 15 Jul 1859 LR 11 382 ff.
27. LR 11 391.
28. Speke to Rigby 17 Oct 1859 NLS; Burton to Speke ? Feb 1860 QK book 167-8; Sir Charles Wood to Burton 8 Nov 1859 LR 11 381 f.
29. Speke to Burton 16 Apr 1860 QK book 180.
30. Burton to Speke reply drafted on side of Speke’s letter of 16 Apr 1860 QK book 181.
EIGHT: Our Adventurous Friend
1. Speke to Shaw n.d. but from the period 17-25 Jan 1860 RGS.
2. JB to Speke 8 Aug 1859 30012 NLS; Speke to JB 8 Aug 1859 4143 NLS.
3. JB to Speke 27 Mar 1859 30012 NLS.
4. Speke to JB 3 Nov 1859 30012 NLS.
5. Speke to JB 17 Apr 1860 4154 NLS.
6. Annals 11I 97.
7. Speke to JB 28 Mar 1860 4154 NLS.
8. Maitland 107.
9. Speke to Shaw 28 Oct 1859 RGS.
10. Speke to JB 11 Apr 1860 4143 NLS; Speke to JB 5 Nov 1859 4143 NLS.
