Diario del Descubrimiento de las Fuentes del Nilo

by John Hanning Speke

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from CHAPTER IV. Ugogo; And The Wilderness Of Mgunda Mkhall, The Lie of the Country. -- Rhinoceros-stalking. -- Scuffle of Villagers over a Carcass. -- Chief "Short-legs" and his Successor. -- Buffalo-shooting. -- Getting Lost. -- A Troublesome Sultan. -- Desertions from the Camp. -- Getting Plundered. -- Wilderness March. -- Diplomatic Relations with the Local Powers. -- ManGa Se'ra's Story. -- Christmas. -- The Belief from Kaze'. This day's work led us from the hilly Usagara range into the to cunp to the more level lands of the interior. Making a double Buh, 21

Genres: Nonfiction, Africa, Adventure, Travel, History, Travelogue, Uganda

736 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1863

About the author

Captain John Hanning Speke

Reviews

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did you enjoy Leviticus? If so, you'll like this book. It gets three stars for the historical authenticity and occasional dry English with. Downside: tedious, repetitive, not much for character profiles, not much development of a storyline. Simply not what I would call a "good read."

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book as part of an effort to read all 100 "Top Adventure Books" as named by National Geographic. This read was like eating my broccoli at dinner. It was good for me (I learned a lot), but the slog through the book reminded me of the slog through the pile of cold, limp broccoli. It wasn't fun, and there was still a lot more to go.

The achievements of Speke and his team was incredible, but the writing was dull. The characters all ran together, and they seemed to encounter the same problems over and over. There are some really good maps in the back to track Speke's progress, but otherwise I was lost in the book several times. Can't recommend it.

[Jean-Baptiste · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an exploration journal by Speke, the man who tried to discover the sources of the Nile in lake Victoria. The book is really detailed and I found it a great source of inspiration.

[Tahina Ray]

48: 26 They were sure to it and much more entitled to it.

[Nigella Blunt]

21:52—“What are these images you are so devoted to?”

[FiveBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writer Philip Gourevitch has chosen to discuss John Hanning Speke’s The Discovery of the Source of the Nile on FiveBooks as one of the top five on his subject - Rwanda, saying that:

Speke, a 19th century Victorian explorer, talks about the flat-nosed, flat-lipped negro, on the one hand, and then waxes euphoric about the kind of superior, Aryan-looking Ethiopic types. It’s almost like a zoology about human beings – and it became incredibly influential. It became, in many ways, the underpinning of all the theories that were used by the Belgians to divide Rwanda, when they ruled it as a colony in the 20th century. And it came to influence these Rwandan peasants in the hills as they killed their neighbours in 1994.

The full interview is available here:http://five-books.com/interviews/philip-gourevitch

[Amerynth · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile" is an exhaustive account of John Hanning Speke's exploration of central Africa during the late 1850's. His account of his actual visit to Lake Victoria-- the whole point of the journey's effort to prove that the Nile originates from the lake-- makes up only about 10 pages of the tome. The rest is filled his incredible efforts to get there and away as he crisscrossed Uganda visiting with kings who had never seen a white man before. There is a ton of interesting ethnographic information about the people he met on his journey -- though some parts get a bit repetitive as Speke was essentially "trapped" by king after king and spends much of his time getting robbed, giving away his goods and sending his men to argue with the King for better living quarters and food. Nonetheless, the book is really interesting overall and a great look at how society functioned in central Africa during this time period.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

The English explorer John Speke wrote this account of his excursion into the interior of Africa in order to discover the source of the Nile (spoiler alert: it's Lake Victoria). He sets out from Zanzibar off the coast and marches west, passing through various native tribes before turning north into Uganda where the lake is located. Eventually he finds the headwaters of the Nile and follows the river north back to Cairo. Although it has its interesting moments, after awhile it seems like the same story over and over again. First, he loses porters (via desertion) and this slows progress. Second, he has to negotiate a "hongo" or traveler tax with every tribe he comes in contact with. Some of these people detain him for weeks as they attempt to fleece him out of his goods. Lastly, keep in mind this was written in the 19th century and attitudes towards primitive peoples and Africans in particular are much different than they are today.

[Darinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

On National Geographic's list of 100 Greatest Adventure Books. Interesting history. Dry writing.

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tedious, at times confusing but still interesting. The actual discovery of the source of the Nile seemed anti-climactic.