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Journal of the Discovery of The Source of the Nile. By John Hanning Speke, Captain H.M. Indian Army, Fellow and Gold-Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society, Hon. Corr. Member and Gold-Medalist of the French Geographical Society, Etc., With Map and Portraits, and Numerous Illustrations Chiefly from Drawings by Captain Grant. Edinburgh & London, William Blackwood and Sons, 1863, first edition, modern fine binding - leather spine & marbled boards w/ custom made map envelope, 658 pp, dimensions of map: 22 x 17", dimensions of book: 9 x 5.5", 8vo. In fair condition. Modern binding presents very well - marbling bright and clean. Tan leather spine very clean. All edges marbled. Modern end-papers clean. Both front and rear gutters split where modern end-papers meet original text - cording exposed. Water dampness stain exhibited to frontispiece & title page. Title page also exhibits a tear at tail of gutter. Toning throughout text-block, with some instances of finger-soiling or age-staining. Fold-out map of East Africa exhibits toning along creases - and is no longer attached to binding, however, modern binder installed custom envelope on rear paste-down to hold map. Modern binding intact. Please see photos and ask questions, if any, before purchasing. Captain John Hanning Speke (1827-1864) was an English explorer and officer in the British Indian Army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa. He is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile and was the first European to reach Lake Victoria (known to locals as Nam Lolwe in Dholuo and Nnalubaale or Ukerewe in Luganda). Speke is also known for propounding the Hamitic hypothesis in 1863, in which he supposed that the Tutsi ethnic group were descendants of the biblical figure Ham, and had lighter skin and more Hamitic features than the Bantu Hutu over whom they ruled. Much of this work is a description of the physical features of Africa's races, in whose condition he found "a strikingly existing proof of the Holy Scriptures." Living alongside the locals, Speke claimed to have found a "superior race" of "men who were as unlike as they could be from the common order of the natives" due to their "fine oval faces, round eyes, and high noses, denoting the best blood of Abyssinia" (that is - Ethiopia). This "race" comprised many tribes, including the Watusi (Tutsi). It was also proven in 1874-77, by Henry Stanley, that Speke had been right about the source of the Nile all along - and that the Nile flowed from Lake Victoria via Ripon Falls and Murchison Falls to Lake Albert and from there to Gondokoro. First Edition work - with plates and modern binding, a reading copy. RAREB1863KSTB - 12/23 - HK1021 RAREB1863KTSB - 10/24 - HKREV183. Seller Inventory # RAREB1863KTSB
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