by Tim Jeal
Explorers of the Nile
by the same author
NON-FICTION
Livingstone
Baden-Powell
Stanley
Swimming with my Father
FICTION
Somewhere Beyond Reproach
Cushing’s Crusade
The Missionary’s Wife
Deep Water
Explorers of the Nile
The Triumph and Tragedy of a
Great Victorian Adventure
TIM JEAL
Yale
UNIVERSITY PRESS
New Haven & London
First published 2011 in the United States by Yale University Press and in Great Britain by Faber and Faber Limited.
Copyright © 2011 by Tim Jeal.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
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Typeset by Donald Sommerville.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011933872 ISBN 978-0-300-14935-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my daughters,
Jessica, Lucy and Emily
Contents
Illustrations
Plates
Maps
Introduction
PART I Solving the Mystery
1 Blood in God’s River
2 A Great Misalliance
3 A Rush of Men Like a Stormy Wind
4 About a Rotten Person
5 Everything Was to be Risked for This Prize
6 Promises and Lies
7 A Blackguard Business
8 Our Adventurous Friend
9 As Refulgent as the Sun
10 An Arrow into the Heart
11 Nothing Could Surpass It!
12 The Nile is Settled
13 A Hero’s Aberrations
14 Death in the Afternoon
15 The Doctor’s Dilemma
16 The Glory of Our Prize
17 A Trumpet Blown Loudly
18 Almost in Sight of the End
19 Never to Give Up the Search Until I Find Livingstone
20 The Doctor’s Obedient and Devoted Servitor
21 Threshing Out the Beaten Straw
22 Nothing Earthly Will Make Me Give Up My Work
23 Where Will You Be? Dead or Still Seeking the Nile?
24 The Unknown Half of Africa Lies Before Me
PART 2 The Consequences
25 Shepherds of the World?
26 Creating Equatoria
27 An Unheard of Deed of Blood
28 Pretensions on the Congo
29 An Arabian Princess and a German Battle Squadron
30 ‘Saving’ Emin Pasha and Uganda
31 The Prime Minister’s Protectorate
32 To Die for the Mahdi’s Cause
33 Equatoria and the Tragedy of Southern Sudan
34 A Sin not Theirs: The Tragedy of Northern Uganda
CODA Lacking the Wand of an Enchanter
APPENDIX Fifty Years of Books on the Search for the Nile’s Source
Acknowledgements
Sources
Notes
Index
List of Illustrations
An Arab-Swahili slave trader murders a sick slave, an engraving in The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa edited by Horace Waller
Massacre of the Manyema women in Nyangwe, an engraving in The Last Journals
‘A large spear . . . stuck firmly into the soil’, an engraving in The Last Journals
Speke’s escape from his captors, the frontispiece of Speke’s What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile
Naval vessels at Zanzibar, an engraving in Stanley’s How I Found Livingstone in Central Africa [HIFL]
Sidi Mubarak Bombay, a photograph at the Royal Geographical Society
Burton’s drawings of the heads of Africans, in his The Lake Regions of Central Africa
The Ladies’ Smoking Party, an engraving in Lake Regions
Kazeh, an engraving in Lake Regions
African village scenes, in Speke’s Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile [Journal]
Sir Roderick Murchison. National Portrait Gallery, London
John Blackwood, frontispiece of Annals of a Publishing House (Vol. III John Blackwood), ed. Mrs Gerald Porter (1898)
Captain James Grant, in Harry Johnston’s The Nile Quest (1903)
Speke and Grant present Rumanika with a rhinoceros’ head, an engraving in Speke’s Journal
The road to the kabaka’s palace, an engraving in J. W. Harrison’s The Story of the Life of Mackay of Uganda
Mutesa’s musicians, in Speke’s Journal
Kahala and other young Baganda women, an engraving in Speke’s Journal
Royal wife led to execution, an engraving in Speke’s Journal, based on a drawing by James Grant
The Ripon Falls, an engraving in Speke’s Journal
Grant and Speke at Kamrasi’s court, an engraving in Speke’s Journal
Grant and Speke entertained by Florence and Baker, an engraving in the Baker family collection
John and Katherine Petherick, an engraving used as the frontispiece to the Pethericks’ Travels in Central Africa
Grant and Speke acclaimed at the RGS, illustration in the Illustrated London News 14 July 1863
Murchison Falls, an engraving in Samuel Baker’s The Albert Nyanza
John Shaw and William Farquhar, an engraving in Stanley’s HIFL
The meeting of Stanley and Livingstone, an engraving in HIFL
Livingstone sitting with Stanley outside his tembe in Ujiji, an engraving in HIFL
Stanley and Livingstone at the mouth of the Rusizi, an engraving in HIFL
John Kirk, a photograph in Richard Hall’s Stanley: An Adventurer Explored
Livingstone travelling through marshes, an engraving in The Last Journals
Alice Pike, a photograph in Richard Hall’s Stanley: An Adventurer Explored
The Pocock brothers, an illustration in The Exploration Diaries of H. M. Stanley, ed. Richard Stanley and Alan Neame
Stanley’s reception on Bumbireh, an engraving in Stanley’s Through the Dark Continent
Tippu Tip, an engraving in Stanley’s In Darkest Africa
Death of Kalulu, an engraving in Stanley’s Through the Dark Continent
Livingstone’s remains carried through Southampton, as seen in the Illustrated London News 25 April 1874
Baker Pasha, an engraving of a photograph in the Baker family collection
Raising the flag at Gondokoro, an engraving in Baker’s Ismailia
Kabarega’s return visit to Baker, an engraving in Baker’s Ismailia
The ‘Battle of Masindi’, an engraving in Baker’s Ismailia
The retreat to Fatiko, an engraving in Baker’s Ismailia
Alexander Mackay, frontispiece of J. W. Harrison’s The Story of the Life of Mackay of U
ganda
Muhammad Ahmad, the Mahdi
King Leopold II of Belgium, a photograph in the Royal Museum of Central Africa
De Brazza welcomed at Makoko’s court, from L’Illustration 8 July 1882
SMS Adler in 1889. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, US Naval History and Heritage Command
Emin Pasha, an engraving from a photograph in Stanley’s In Darkest Africa
Steamship on the Upper Congo, an engraving in Stanley’s The Congo and the Founding of its Free State
Lieutenant Stairs hit by an arrow, an engraving in In Darkest Africa
Lord Salisbury
Battle of Omdurman. ‘The opening charge of the Dervishes against the British Division’, in Omdurman by Philip Ziegler
A romantic French view of Marchand and his mission, cover design of a French pamphlet Le Commandant Marchand á Travers l’Afrique by Michel Morphy
Captain Henry Kelly, Royal Engineers, a photograph in Imperial Boundary Making: The Diary of Captain Kelly . . . ,ed. G. H. Blake
Omar al-Bashir
Milton Obote (© Getty Images)
Mutesa II, kabaka of Buganda 413
List of Plates
A medieval reconstruction of Ptolemy’s map of the world, in The Discovery of the Nile by Gianni Guadalupi, from a map in the Vatican Library, Rome
Richard Burton depicted as an Afghan peddler in Isabel
Burton’s The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton (1893).
John Speke and James Grant at Mutesa’s court. From Speke’s Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile.
A naked Mutesa drawn by Speke in one of his sketchbooks, now at the Royal Geographical Society. RGS
Speke portrayed standing at the Ripon Falls source, by the artist James Watney Wilson. RGS
African birds drawn by Speke. RGS
Samuel Baker and Florence von Sass in a storm on Lake Albert, an engraving from Samuel Baker’s The Albert Nyanza (1874).
Obbo warriors perform a war dance, a water colour by Samuel
Baker, in the Baker family collection.
Baker’s sketch of himself in danger of being trampled by an elephant, in the Baker family collection.
James Gordon Bennett Jr., editor of the New York Herald, by ‘Nemo’ (Constantine von Grimm), chromolithograph, Vanity Fair, 15 November 1884.
Stanley and his men crossing the Makata swamp, a magic lantern slide in a private collection.
Hats worn by Livingstone and Stanley at the time of their meeting, now in the RGS.
Stanley watches a phalanx dance by Chief Mazamboni’s warriors, during the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, an illustration in Stanley’s In Darkest Africa (1890).
Livingstone’s remains being carried to the coast by his men, a magic lantern slide from The Life and Work of David Livingstone, published by the London Missionary Society (1900).
David Livingstone in 1866. London Missionary Society Richard Burton posing in Arab clothes, by Ernest Edwards, April 1865, in David Livingstone and the Victorian Encounter with Africa. National Portrait Gallery
Richard Burton in his tent in Somaliland, a photograph in Isabel
Burton’s The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton (1893).
John Hanning Speke as a young officer in India, an oil painting reproduced in Harry Johnston’s The Nile Quest (1903).
Speke before his great journey, a photograph in Mary Lovell’s A Rage to Live (1998).
Speke’s memorial in Kensington Gardens.
Samuel Baker in his African hunting attire, Baker family collection.
Florence von Sass before her marriage to Samuel Baker, from Richard Hall’s Lovers on the Nile.
The Royal Geographical Society outing during the meeting of the British Association in Bath, 1864, a photograph in the David Livingstone Centre.
Henry Stanley aged twenty-eight, two years before he ‘found’ Dr Livingstone, a photograph in the estate of the late Quentin Keynes.
Chuma and Susi, Dr Livingstone’s servants. London Missionary Society
Some of Stanley’s principal Wangwana carriers on his great trans-Africa journey, a photograph in the Royal Museum of Central Africa.
Karl Peters, the German explorer and imperialist. © Getty Images
Princess Salme, sister of the Sultan of Zanzibar. Author’s Collection
Captain T. M. S. Pasley RN. Author’s Collection
James S. Jameson, a photograph in The Story of the Rear-Column of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, ed. Mrs J. S. Jameson (1890).
Major Edmund Barttelot, a photograph in W. G. Barttelot’s The Life of Edmund Musgrave Barttelot (1890).
Stanley (aged forty-six) and Anthony Swinburne, a photograph in the Royal Museum of Central Africa.
Captain Frederick Lugard soon after claiming Uganda for Britain, a photograph in Margery Perham’s Lugard: The Years of Adventure 1858-1898 (1956).
Kabarega of Bunyoro in old age, a photograph in Alan Moorehead’s The White Nile (1960).
Henry Stanley in 1892 with his close friend Sir William Mackinnon of the Imperial British East Africa Company, a photograph in the Royal Museum of Central Africa.
Major-General Sir Horatio Kitchener at the time of the battle of Omdurman, a photograph in Philip Magnus’s Kitchener: Portrait of an Imperialist (1958).
Marchand’s emissaries approach Kitchener’s ship, a photograph in J. O. Udal’s The Nile in Darkness: A Flawed Unity 18631899 (2005).
Commandant Jean-Baptiste Marchand, from an oil painting in the Musée de l’Armée, Paris.
Sir Harold MacMichael, Britain’s top civil servant in Sudan 1926-33.
List of Maps
1. Livingstone’s Last Journeys, first stage, 1866-1871
2. Burton’s Somali Expedition, 1854-1855
3. The Journeys of Burton and Speke, 1856-1859, and of Speke and Grant, 1860-1863
4. The Journey of Samuel Baker and Florence von Sass, 1862-1865
5. The Journeys of Livingstone and Stanley, together and alone, 1866-1873
6. Stanley’s trans-African Journey, 1874-1877
Introduction
In the middle of the nineteenth century the whereabouts of the Nile’s source was still the planet’s most elusive secret, as it had been since the days of the Pharaohs. When Alexander the Great was shown the temple of Ammon in Luxor, the first question he asked is said to have been: ‘What causes the Nile to rise?’ Indeed, a longing to find answers to the twin mysteries of the location of the river’s source, and why it always flooded in summer rather than in winter, had drawn Alexander to Egypt as powerfully as any military, commercial or political reason.1 From 30 BC Egypt was ruled by Rome. A Roman proverb – Facilius sit Nili caput invenire (‘It would be easier to find the source of the Nile’) was still current in nineteenth-century Europe as a handy epithet to hurl at impractical dreamers of all sorts. In AD 66, the Emperor Nero – surprisingly, a keen geographer – had sent an expedition upriver, led by two centurions, with instructions to find the legendary headwaters. Two thousand miles from the Mediterranean (halfway between the river’s mouth and its unknown source), the centurions were defeated by an immense swamp extending for hundreds of miles. This was the mosquito-infested Sudd, where under the blazing sun a maze of shifting channels was blocked by floating islands of papyrus and interlaced aquatic plants.
Over the millennia the Nile mystery remained unsolved. How, people asked, could the river flow unfailingly every day of the year, for 1,200 miles through the largest and driest desert in the known world without being replenished by a single tributary? Small wonder that its annual inundation of the Nile Delta in the hottest month of the year caused awe and no little anxiety in case the mysterious sources might one day fail and Egypt perish. Yet, despite the passionate curiosity of successive generations, 2,000 years would pass without any significant new discovery being made on the White Nile. To the south of Latitude 9.5° North (the position of the Bahr el-Ghazal and the Sudd), mid-nineteenth-century maps would still sho
w the main channel dwindling away into a tracery of ever more hesitant dots.