River of the Gods, Candice Millard. Doubleday. (ISBN: 9780385543101) 2022.

Summary: The story of the explorers who sought the Nile’s source, the clash between them, and their unsung African guide.

OK. I will admit that I am a fan of Candice Millard’s writing. I was hooked reading Destiny of the Republic, and with River of the Gods I have read all of her subsequent books. She has a capacity to help us encounter the personalities of historical figures while rendering a fascinating historical narrative. (I also have a friend, who as a history student, worked at the James A. Garfield National Historic site. She spoke glowingly of her interactions with Millard when she was researching Destiny of the Republic, on the assassination of James A. Garfield.)

With that tribute, what can be said of River of the Gods? Millard’s subject is the expeditions of two explorers and their African guide in search of the source of the Nile. Richard Burton conceived the idea. He was already a seasoned soldier and adventurer who spoke twenty-nine languages. Among his adventures, he managed to enter incognito into the Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam. He made a fateful choice of an assistant, John Hanning Speke was also an accomplished soldier, an aristocrat, and ambitious.

Having secured Royal Geographic Society support (though not enough) and the support of the head of the mission on Zanzibar, they set off in 1856 with their company. Their differences quickly emerged and it became apparent that Speke thought he should lead. The tale is one of porters who abandoned them, struggles to secure adequate supplies, and debilitating tropical illnesses that laid up both men, and left Burton paralyzed below the waist for a time. But they made it to Lake Tanganyika and learned of a river at its northern end, which seemed a good candidate for the Nile. They could not reach it however (later explorations confirmed that the river flowed into, not out of, the lake).

It was time to turn back. When they reached Kazeh, Speke argued for making a brief side exploration to Nyanza, which he suspected to be the true source of the Nile. He was able to reach the Lake and gather reports of a river flowing from its north end. He was convinced the lake was the Nile’s source. When the explorers returned, they published rival and differing accounts of the journey, with Speke writing critically of Burton.

Despite his great accomplishments, Burton was overshadowed by Speke, sowing enmity. Speke, at the zenith of his fame, secured permission for a second mission in 1860, assisted by James Augustus Grant. Grant was content to be second in command. They found the outflow from Nyanza, which they renamed Lake Victoria in honor of the Queen. They were not able to follow the river the whole way, but rendezvoused with John Petherick, who had been delayed. Speke, in his anger, found other help and denounced Petherick, hampering his subsequent career.

But Speke and his expedition made it to the mouth of the Nile and back to England, to great acclaim. At the same time, Burton continued to argue for Lake Tanganyika. Finally, they agreed to a debate. But when Speke encountered Burton the day before, he fled the scene and went hunting at the family estate, dying when his gun discharged when he was attempting to climb over a crumbling wall.

Millard also recounts a third man on both expeditions, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, a former slave. Bombay turned out to be a tireless guide and a rarity–an honest man with the supplies. He managed the other helpers on the expedition, cared for Speke and Burton when they were sick, and negotiated with the various tribal leaders enroute. It’s very likely the expeditions would have failed without him. He as much as any deserved credit for the “discoveries.” Subsequently, he guided Henry Morton Stanley in his search for missionary David Livingstone and another explorer, Vernon Lovett Cameron on an east to west crossing of Africa. Stanley would later confirm that Speke had indeed found the Nile’s source.

Isabel Arundell’s love affair with and marriage to Burton makes for an interesting side story. It was love at first sight for her and she dreamed of joining in his adventures. They later met and fell in love, but her family would not approve the marriage. She was an aristocrat, Burton relatively poor. She was religious; he was an atheist. Finally they married. And she got to join him on diplomatic postings while seeking all his life to save his soul. A fascinating side story!

But the story’s center is the great ambitions and tragic conflict between Burton and Speke that overshadowed their accomplishments and ended in Speke’s death. Marginalized in life, Burton’s accomplishments, not only as an explorer, but as an anthropologist, scholar, translator, and poet came to light only after his death. Speke, despite his overweening ambition, was properly credited with the discovery of the Nile’s source. In 2009, the Royal Geographic Society finally recognized Bombay’s crucial role in the expeditions. Candace Millard, in River of the Gods, further adds luster to the careers of these three great men.

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Reviews of Candice Millard’s other books:

Destiny of the Republic

The River of Doubt

Hero of the Empire