[NILE] SPEKE, John Hanning

Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile

Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1863. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (23cm). Reddish brown publisher's cloth, stamped in gilt; blue-green coated endpapers, front free endpaper reinforced in expert repair; [xxxii],658,[34]pp; 34pp publisher's ads at rear; large folding map in pocket on rear pastedown, 2 engraved portraits, one two-color map, 24 black and white plates, in-text wood engravings. Armorial bookplate of Welbeck Abbey to front pastedown, binder's ticket of Edmonds & Remnants to rear pastedown. New front flyleaf and reinforcement to front free endpaper expertly inserted to support the binding. Firm but rubbed and bumped, with dark spotting to cloth over spine, endleaves lightly rubbed, internally clean: around Very Good.

"One of the cornerstone books of African exploration," in the original cloth (Czech). John Hanning Speke (1827-1864) was the first European to visit Lake Victoria, and he identified it as the source of the White Nile. He led an 1860-61 expedition with James Augustus Grant (1827-1892) which traced the progress of the river from the lake. However, due to difficult terrain and ill health, the pair did not succeed in mapping the full length of the river, which led to their discovery being contesting by the famous explorer Richard Burton. Speke died unexpectedly one day before a planned public debate on the subject, and he was not vindicated until the Stanley expedition of the 1870s. Speke's account of his travels was heavily edited and bowdlerized by John Hill Burton (ODNB). CZECH p.151. HOWGEGO S54.

Price: $1,500.00

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