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"Among the Sudanese - "James Bruce Bruce reached the source of the Blue Nile in 1771, a century before the search for the source of the White Nile became headline news. His descriptions of the cruelties and orgies at Gondar, the Ethiopian capital, were greeted with disbelief; so was his account of the Sudanese rulers, and their queens, at Sennar. Of independent means and gigantic physique, "Yagoube," as he was called in Africa (or "The Abyssinian" as he became in his native Scotland), was later shown to be an accurate observer as well as the eighteenth century's most intrepid traveler. "Not the Source of the Nile -"" "Richard Francis Burton In Burton a brilliant mind and dauntless physique were matched with a restless spirit and a deeply troubled soul to produce the most complex of characters. Contemptuous of other mortals, including Speke, his companion and rival, he found solace only in the extremities of erudition and adventure. The classic accounts of his journeys to Mecca (1853) and Harar (1854) appeared in a more digestible narrative as Wanderings in Three Continents. Here he also describes his celebrated foray from Dar es Salaam to Lake Tanganyika (1857) in search of the source of the Nile. "A Glimpse of Lake Victoria - "John Hanning Speke In July 1858, while returning from Lake Tanganyika with Burton, Speke made a solo excursion to the north in search of an even larger lake reported by an Arab informant. Although partially blind and unable to ascertain its extent, he named this lake "Victoria" and boldly declared it the long sought source of the White Nile. Burton scoffed at the idea and thus began exploration's bitterest controversy. Speke later substantiated his claim but died unaware of Baker's rival discovery of Lake Albert. "The Reservoir of the Nile - "Samuel White Baker Amongst professional explorers and big game hunters, none was as successful as Baker. A bluff and plausible figure, wealthy and resourceful, he conducted his explorations on the grand scale, invariably reached his goal and invariably reaped the rewards, including a knighthood and the delectable Florence, his young Hungarian wife. In 1864, her golden tresses causing a sensation in darkest Africa, she shared his greatest triumph when together they left M'rooli in Uganda on the last leg of a two-year journey in search of the source of the White Nile. "Last Days" - David Livingstone Livingstone, born in Blantyre near Glasgow, was nurtured in poverty and religious fervour. He reached southern Africa as a missionary doctor but, more suited to solitary exploration, edged north in a series of pioneering journeys into the interior. While exploring the headwaters of the Congo, which he thought must be those of the Nile, a massacre perpetuated by Arab slavers plus his failing health obliged him to return to Ujiji, his Tanganyikan base. The staccato entries of his last journals betray his physical and mental condition; declining to return to Stanley, he died on a subsequent foray from Ujiji. "Encounters on the Upper Congo"" - "Henry Morton Stanley Stanley made his name as an explorer by tracking down Livingstone in 1871. But obscure Welsh origins, plus the adoption of US citizenship and professional journalism, did not endear him to London's geographical establishment. His response was to out travel all contemporaries, beginning with the first ever coast-to-coast crossing of equatorial Africa. Leaving Zanzibar, he had struck the headwaters of what proved to be the Congo (Zaire) by the end of 1876 and with Frank Pocock, his sole surviving companion, had now run a gauntlet of hostility to the Atlantic. "A Novice at Large"" - "Joseph Thomson Barely twenty and just out of Edinburgh University, Thompson was unexpectedly employed on the Royal Geographical Society's 1878 expedition to the Central African lak |