2 May: Boreham on John Speke

The Riddle of the Ages
It is just a hundred years since a young British officer, in his early twenties, whose birthday it happens to be tomorrow, began to dream, not of military exploits in India, but of exploratory triumphs in Africa. John Hanning Speke was only 17 when, serving under Sir Colin Campbell in the Punjab campaign, he earned for himself an enviable reputation both as a sportsman and as a naturalist. When his furloughs fell due, he invariably spent them in climbing about the untrodden slopes of the Himalayas or in invading the mysterious territories of Tibet. It was inevitable that a young fellow of so inquisitive and audacious a temper should fall under the spell of the African continent. Its unread riddles teased his fancy and challenged all his powers.

It is in Africa that his rugged but eloquent monument now stands. It consists of a huge rock, embedded near the Ripon Falls at Uganda, bearing the brief but proud inscription: "Speke discovered the source of the Nile on July 28, 1862." That monument perpetuates the memory of one of the most splendid achievements in our Imperial history, and immortalises on African soil one of the most heroic and moving records in the entire epic of British pioneering. Addressing the Royal Geographical Society in the year in which Speke died at the age of 37, Sir Roderick Murchison declared that this gallant young officer had solved the greatest problem of the ages. It was no mere figure of speech, no mere rhetorical flourish. If we search the records of the centuries away back beyond the time of Herodotus to the hieroglyphics of earth's primitive peoples, we find traces of a restless curiosity as to the remote sources from which the fountains of the Nile were first fed.

A Pageant Of British Valour
It was not until Great Britain applied herself with zest to the ancient problem that the mists began to rise. With the advent of Mungo Park a new day dawned. His descriptions of the wealthy spaciousness of the jungles and plateaus of the new continent fired the fancy of Europe. Shortly afterwards the enthusiasm of Livingstone, and of others who had perused Park's journal, was kindled, and the doors of the great closed land swung open to the pathfinders of the world. From the moment of his landing on African soil, Livingstone was haunted, night and day by the visions and voices that came to him out of the untrodden and unknown. The lure of the wilds fascinated him. And, in the delirium of death, at old Chilambo's village, he was still babbling about the waters of which he had dreamed so fondly but which he had never been able to find. But, by this time, the source of the Nile had been discovered by Speke, although for a long while, the claims of that youthful explorer were treated with suspicion and resentment. In 1854, and again in 1856, Speke had been attached to Burton's African expeditions. Although they failed to satisfy the scientists that they had actually discovered the fountains that formed the cradle of the Nile, they were able to report that, after enduring the most excruciating privations, they had sighted some of those immense inland seas—Tanganyika, Nyanza, and the rest—from among which the head waters of the great river must flow.

There were times in the course of their travels in which Speke became totally blind, and Burton semi-conscious, as a result of the hardships and sufferings to which climate and fever subjected them. On the shores of Tanganyika, Burton was prostrated by illness. Speke seized the opportunity of going off by himself to examine the Victoria Nyanza, a lake with a coastline of 2,000 miles, more carefully. He suddenly came on a torrent issuing from the lake, and now known as the Ripon Falls. He felt in his very bones that he had struck the fountainhead of the Nile. He had. That was his finest hour. Quivering with excitement, he hurried back to tell Burton of his good fortune. Burton scouted the idea and laughed aloud in his young comrade's face. Speke passed from wild excitement to abject misery at a bound.

A Drama That Ended In Tragedy
The two men returned to England divided in opinion as to the success of their venture. The following year, however, Speke revisited Africa with Capt. James Grant, and, by tracing the waters from the spot that he had found 12 months before, it was demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that the world's most antique and most persistent puzzle had been conquered at last. It was arranged that to clear the air, Burton and Speke should submit their conflicting arguments to the arbitrament of the Royal Geographical Society. The case was to have been heard at Bath on the afternoon of September 16, 1864. But, on assembling, the peers and princes of English learning were shocked to hear that Speke had been found shot.

What happened nobody will ever know. It may have been an accident; it may have been that the nervous strain had become intolerable, and that he could not bring himself to face the ordeal awaiting him, aggravated by the derision of his old comrade. The programme on which he had set his heart for his life work was shattered at one tragic blow. He did not even live to see his proud claim officially vindicated. Death cruelly cheated him of the enjoyment of the fame that would have been heaped upon the man who had solved a mystery that had kept a hundred centuries guessing. He has, however, left a name that shines with singular lustre on our scroll of honour, and it is pleasant to reflect that both England and Africa possess monuments to his prowess that will always be contemplated with gratitude and pride. Combining in his own person the knightly audacity of the adventurer with the scientific accuracy of the explorer, the engaging personality of John Hanning Speke has, quite naturally, captured the imagination and secured the admiration of the British peoples.

F W Boreham

Image: John Speke