TWO ORIGINAL WATERCOLOURS DEPICTING "MZINGA WOMEN" AND A "MZINGA WARRIOR" ENCOUNTERED DURING SPEKE AND GRANT'S EXPEDITION TO THE SOURCE OF THE NILE

Two original watercolours, each measuring 16.2 x 9.1cm and mounted to a backing sheet. The first captioned "Mzinga Warrior, from Life", the second captioned "Mzinga Women from "Speke's Journal", assisted by ***** cloth[?] from the women of the expedition". Both signed with monogram initials "JG". There are a couple of minor spots of faint foxing, otherwise the images are in excellent condition, remaining clean and fresh. A rare pair of watercolours by, or after, the Scottish explorer of eastern Africa, James Augustus Grant (1827-1892), illustrating two scenes of indigenous people encountered whilst travelling with John Hanning Speke (1827-1864) during Speke's second expedition to discover the source of the Nile river in 1860-63. Speke's first East African expedition was undertaken in 1856-59 with the veteran explorer Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890), with the pair setting out to locate the Great Lakes, which were rumoured to exist at the centre of the continent, and to establish the source of the Nile. Despite numerous setbacks and illnesses (at one stage Speke became partially blind and deaf) the pair became the first Europeans to reach and begin mapping Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria. They failed, however, to firmly ascertain the Nile's source, hence necessitating a second expedition, this time to be undertaken with Grant. Beginning once again from Zanzibar in October 1860, this second expedition made slow progress due to the widespread distrust of the native populations towards foreigners entering central Africa, caused by the prevalence of Arab slave traders in the region. Greatly lacking in soldiers and weapons, the only thing the expedition could do was make peace offerings to locals, causing them severe delays and with frequent demands for gifts and passage fees by smaller local chieftains depleting their supplies. Despite this, by the end of July 1862, Speke reached Lake Victoria, subsequently travelling around its west and then north side. It was here that he found the Nile flowing out from the lake, and discovered the Ripon Falls (formerly considered to be the source of the Nile). Speke and Grant subsequently travelled down the Nile together, mapping the flow of the river from Lake Victoria northwards. Although, due to travel restrictions placed by the local chieftains, slave raiding parties, tribal wars and the difficulty of the terrain, they were not able to achieve this in its entirety. By January 1863, Speke and Grant reached Gondokoro in Southern Sudan, where they met Samuel Baker and his wife Florence. They had expected to meet John Petherick and his wife Katherine there, as they had been sent by the Royal Geographical Society south along the Nile to meet Speke and Grant. The couple, however, had embarked on a side expedition to trade ivory, having run out of funds for their expedition, causing a falling out between Speke and Petherick. Once aboard Baker's ship, Speke and Grant subsequently continued to Khartoum, from whence Speke sent a celebrated telegram to London claiming that "The Nile is settled." Speke soon published an edited version of the journal he kept during the expedition, a 'Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile', in 1863, which was illustrated "chiefly from drawings by Captain Grant". Grant also produced his own work, "A Walk Across Africa, or Domestic Scenes from my Nile Journal" in 1864, which was intended as a companion volume to Speke's 'Journal'. Grant's work had a much greater focus on "the ordinary life and pursuits, the habits and feelings of the natives" (p.vii), in addition to detailing his extensive botanical discoveries. In 1864, he was awarded the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and in 1866 given the Companionship of the Bath in recognition of his services in the expedition. The present watercolours were possibly executed by Grant himself, with the portrait of the warrior (of which we have been unable to find a published version) captioned as being dr.…