382 



CAPT, SPEKE, 



almost childlike simplicity of manner wliicli at 

 once attracted attention, he united an immense 

 and abnormal fund of self-esteem, so carefully 

 concealed, however, that none but his intimates 

 suspected its existence. He ever held, not only 

 that he had done his best on all occasions, but 

 also that no man living could do better. These 

 were his own words, and they are not quoted 

 in a spirit of blame : evidently such is the temper 

 best suited to the man who would work through 

 the accumulated difficulties of exploration or of 

 any other exceptional career. Before we set out 

 he openly declared that being tired of life he 

 had come to be killed in Africa — not a satis- 

 factory announcement to those who aspired to 

 something better than the crown of martyrdom. 

 But when the opportunity came he behaved with 

 prudence as well as courage. I therefore look 

 upon his earlier confession as a kind of whimsical 

 affectation, like that which made him, when he 

 returned to England in 1859, astonish certain 

 of the Browns by speaking a manner of broken 

 English, as if he had forgotten his vernacular in 

 the presence of strange tongues. 



Einding, even at that early period of acquaint- 

 anceship, that he had a true but uncultivated 

 taste for zoology, and extensive practice in rude 



