Quarrel That Ended In Tragedy

A row about the source of the Nile may have cost the life of the Victorian explorer John Hanning Speke. He died on the morning of the day when he was to debate the question with his fellow-explorer and latterly, arch-rival, Sir Richard Burton. Burton and Speke and twice gone to east Africa together. On the second expedition, when Burton became to ill to travel, Speke went off on his own in July 1858 and  found the lake he named Victoria. This he believed, correctly, to be the source of the Nile, but Burton disagreed. The controversy rumbled on until 1864 when Speke agreed to the public debate. He is known not to have been looking forward to it, because he was less articulate than Burton. On the morning of the confrontation, Speke went out partridge shooting - and was later found dead from shotgun wounds. Whether it was an accident or suicide is uncertain.