John Hanning Speke

A carte-de-visite portrait of the explorer John Hanning Speke, an officer in the British Indian Army who made three voyages of exploration to Africa.

In 1854, he made his first voyage, joining Burton on an expedition to Somalia. The party was attacked and both men were severely wounded, Burton escaping with a javelin impaling both cheeks. In 1856, the two men made a voyage to East Africa to find the great lakes. When Burton fell sick, Speke continued alone and found the lake that eventually proved to be the source of the Nile, which he named Lake Victoria.

Speke returned to England before Burton and made their voyage famous in a speech to the Royal Geographical Society, where he claimed to have discovered the source of the Nile. Burton was angered by his actions believing that they violated an agreement that the two men would speak to the society together. A further rift was caused when Speke was chosen to lead the subsequent expedition without Burton.

In October 1860, Speke left for Zanzibar with James Augustus Grant. In Uganda, the men separated. Speke reached Lake Victoria on 28 July 1862 and then sailed down the Nile, meeting Samuel Baker and his wife in southern Sudan. This voyage, however, did not resolve the issue of the Nile’s source, since Burton claimed Speke’s discoveries were uncertain. A debate was planned between the two before the Royal Geographical Society to take place on 16 September 1864, but Speke died just one day before from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound. It is not known if the shot was an accident or suicide.

The film Mountains of the Moon (1990) related the story of the Burton-Speke controversy. Based on the William Harrison novel Burton and Speke, the film hinted at a sexual intimacy between the two men.

Photographed by the Southwell Brothers of London.