River of the Gods; Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile

Candice Millard has done it again in her latest non-fiction bestseller River of the Gods; Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile (#1,075).  She has turned what, for most Americans, would be a ho-hum topic into riveting account of strong personalities, jealousies, dangers and elusive fame.  And it all happened in the not-too-distant past of the nineteenth century.

Ms. Millard has focused on three principal characters here: Sir Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke and Sidi Mubarak Bombay.  They could not be more different even though they traveled together on the same expeditions.  Burton was already famous, or infamous, if you prefer, due to his successfully joining the pilgrimage to Mecca posing as an Arab Muslim.  The quest to find the source of the White Nile appealed to him since explorers had sought it unsuccessfully for centuries.  John Hanning Speke, on the other hand, came from a pampered British background, and yearned to make his mark on the world.  In his own mind, he was the leader of every successful action or discovery, despite being in a subordinate position.  Sidi Mubarak Bombay was the formerly enslaved African who had returned to his own continent and was skilled at negotiating porters, animals, chiefs and potentates (including those of his own expedition!) to achieve the desired goals.  He was considered a gem by both Burton and Speke.

Frankly, after reading this account, it's a miracle any of them survived the rigors of raids, lost and stolen supplies, wounds, illnesses and injuries endured in the field.  Even more astonishing is the fact that they did it without benefit of modern medicine!  What really destroyed them was the infighting between Burton and Speke, each of whom had their own cadre of backers in Britain.

The question comes down to who would you choose to travel with?  I think the clear choice would be Sidi Mubarak Bombay.  Ironically, he goes on to play a key role in Stanley's meeting with Dr. Livingston in Africa.  Ironic because the book I read on David Livingston recently does not even mention him by name.  Why would it, since discovery in the Victorian world was limited to Europeans only?  Ah, the world of personalities and politics...