John Hanning Speke / E. D. Forgues - Les sources du Nil - 1864

The Sources of the Nile, a travel journal of Captain John Hanning Speke

Complete with 3 maps outside the text, 2 of which are double page, and 77 engravings after drawings by Captain J. A. Grant, in or outside the text.

In "The Sources of the Nile," Captain John Hanning Speke recounts the expedition that led him, in the mid-19th century, to identify Lake Victoria as the source of the Nile River. The book delves into the successive stages of his journey through East Africa: crossings of still poorly mapped territories, encounters with local rulers, and meticulous observations of landscapes and societies. Speke also records the logistical challenges, illnesses, and interminable waits that punctuated any exploration of that era. The text oscillates between methodical account and field narrative, revealing both the rigor of the geographical investigation and the element of uncertainty that accompanied each advance. Beyond the discovery itself, the journal unveils how a Victorian explorer perceived the worlds he traversed, with his enthusiasms, his blind spots, and his attempts at understanding. The work as a whole constitutes an essential testimony to the history of great explorations.

1864, 18 x 28 cm, 579 pages. Bound in half dark blue leather, spine with four raised bands, gilt title and author, all edges gilt. Binding rubbed, with some stains, corners bumped. Variable foxing, some pages unaffected, others heavily affected. The book was previously damp-stained along the top edge, leaving a light brown mark on the upper edge of the pages, as well as some warping in that area.