372 



MEMOIR OF CAPTAIN SPEKE, 



In beginning this short memoir, I can now 

 repeat the words published six years ago/ ' Be 

 it distinctly understood that, whilst differing from 

 Captain Speke upon almost every geographical 

 subject supposed to be settled " by his explora- 

 tion of 1860 to 1863, I do not stand forth as the 

 enemy of the departed. No man can better ap- 

 preciate the noble qualities of energy, courage, 

 and perseverance which he so eminently pos- 

 sessed, than do I, who knew him for so many 

 years, and who travelled with him as a brother, 

 before the unfortunate rivalry respecting the 

 Nile Sources arose like the ghost of discord 

 between us, and was fanned to a flame by the 

 jealousy and the ambition of " friends." ' I claim 

 only the right of telling the truth and the whole 

 truth, and of speaking as freely of another as I 

 would be spoken of myself in my own biography. 

 In this chapter I shall be careful to borrow 

 whatever he chose to publish concerning his own 

 career, and to supplement it with recollections 

 and observations of my own.^ 



Capt. Speke (John Ilanning) was born on 

 May 4th, 1827, at Orleigh Court, near Bideford, 



^ The Nile Basin. Tinsleys, 1864. 



^ Introduction to ' "What led to the Discovery of the 

 Sources of the Nile.' Blackwoods, 1864. 



